Let's Rank The Fallout Games, Worst To Best

The “worst” pick, and it’s already feeling tricky. Fallout 4 was my most-played game of 2015. I spent hundreds of hours within the Commonwealth, and never got through all of its lengthy DLC, so it feels like I only saw a small percentage of what Fallout 4 has to offer even if that’s not technically true. No matter where I went or what I’m did in the game, there was always something interesting out in the distance, waiting to be discovered. I love companions like Nick Valentine and Curie. I love how Diamond City feels like a real place. Building settlements is also way more addicting than it has any right to be. And let’s not forget, this is the first Fallout game with combat that isn’t garbage.

Fallout 4 is an excellent experience as far as exploration and adventure are concerned. But compared to the other Fallout games there’s something missing. Unlike the others, role-playing and world-building aren’t as important in Fallout 4. Instead, Fallout 4 seems more concerned with keeping you busy shooting stuff and finding loot, which is fun, yes, but not really what Fallout games have traditionally been “about.” I wrote at length about this disappointment here:

While the main game can miss the mark at times, the DLC understands exactly what makes Fallout so good. Far Harbor, the biggest DLC Bethesda has ever created, is a perfect depiction of a post-apocalyptic New England, grouchiness and all. I loved learning more about the synths, even if it made me question everything I thought I knew about Fallout 4. It’s clear that Bethesda designed Far Harbor with choices beyond murder, and it pays off. Some of the most memorable moments in Fallout 4 happen during this self-contained adventure, as you try your best to juggle all the different factions.

Bethesda continued to hone this delicious moral ambiguity with Nuka World, a DLC that, much to Preston Garvey’s horror, lets you become a raider. Nuka World isn’t as philosophically complex as Far Harbor, but it doesn’t have to be. With Nuka World, Bethesda said goodbye to Fallout 4 with a bang, letting you run wild in a chaotic carnival house of attractions. Nuka World is everything fans love from the zanier side of Fallout. It’s a perfect send-off.

Even with these additions, you’ll note that Fallout 4 is still last in my ranking. The thing you have to remember about Fallout is, even when they’re disappointing, Fallout games are still pretty damn good.

I’m guessing that Fallout 76 not being dead last in my ranking will make some of you immediately consider this list divorced from reality. The MMO-lite, known more for its jank than literally any quest or writing, was a game nobody wanted. The second that it leaked, Fallout 76 was controversial. Even now, years later, the game is a weird, buggy mess. Last I saw, players were bemoaning that they had been damned into a perpetual daylight, reverse vampires who missed the nighttime.

Still. Sorry, Ink Spots, setting the world on fire is fun. And I know this because I’ve played Fallout 76. It’s a game in which players roleplay cannibals and horrify other players by hunting them down and eating them. It’s where Fallout fans go to build vicious traps for one another. Fallout 76 is where players will roleplay Raiders, do crimes, and then hold executions from which they’re not allowed to come back. Bethesda isn’t writing memorable stories? That’s fine. The players are the NPCs now, and they’re helping everyone else out.

Fallout 76 doesn’t deserve to be the worst Fallout game. It is instead, perhaps, the most inspirational and most underestimated Fallout game.

Many consider New Vegas to be superior to Fallout 3, mainly because of the writing. And sure, it’s good. Who can forget all-time greats like Mr. House and Fisto. There’s nothing like having the Widowmaker perk and fucking Benny just to kill him in a crush of revenge. At the same time, New Vegas’ entire schtick with the casinos and gambling has been done already! Fallout 2 had New Reno, remember?

I’ll quote PC Gamer’s Richard Cobbett on why New Vegas is disappointing when compared to New Reno, as he puts it well:

While I enjoyed Fallout: New Vegas, the actual town of New Vegas—to be more exact, the Strip—was a bitter disappointment. You spend a good third of the game waiting to get into this fabled gambling utopia, only for the gates to finally open and reveal four deserted casinos squatting amongst post-apocalyptic debris. No texture, no threat, no soul. Not so in New Reno.

Gaining control of the Vegas strip is cool in theory, but it feels inconsequential to the degree of control that you have over Reno in Fallout 2. Yeah, I appreciate that New Vegas is a more refined RPG experience than Fallout 3, and I love how much your character build/skills actually matter in this world. I’m definitely not saying it’s a bad game or anything. But, big picture, New Vegas didn’t manage to wow me to the same degree Fallout 3 did, nor did it explore particularly new territory. I do miss how much the franchise has moved away from the hardcore RPG elements in New Vegas, though. At least now we have The Outer Worlds, an RPG which continues the New Vegas spirit in a different name.

For a hardcore Fallout fan like myself, the fact that Fallout 3 exists at all feels like a miracle—before Bethesda took charge, I assumed my beloved franchise was all but dead. I still remember how quickly I reserved the game’s collector’s edition, complete with a lunch box and bobblehead. I still remember the excitement I felt waiting in line outside of GameStop for the midnight release. All I could think was, “is this really happening?”

While I lament the genre change—there is no shortage of shooters out in the world, and XCOM proved that you can modernize a franchise without turning it into a first-person shooter—Fallout 3 felt, well, right. Experiencing vault life first-hand in the introduction is one of the best openings in a game, ever. The Capital Wasteland is a great setting, especially for a game all about America. And the experience of actually walking through Fallout 3 in its full, open-world glory, is a joy. Many of my favorite characters in the franchise, like Moira Brown, are from Fallout 3. Fallout 3’s Tranquility Lane is the best segment in the entire series. And the quests? Remember The Replicated Man? So good!

When I initially devised my rankings some years back, the first Fallout was dead last. But I actually replayed the game since, and my opinion changed!

Let’s be absolutely clear here: The first Fallout has not aged gracefully. The UI is terrible. There’s no tactical side to the combat—it’s mostly praying to the RNG gods, even when you have the best gear available. And the graphics are so bad, it’s very easy to miss important stuff you need to interact with.

And yet! What the first Fallout nails is the atmosphere. The post-apocalypse is stark. There are no frills here; all the cheeky callbacks to the 1950s, and the various vault experiments, don’t make an appearance. It’s a game that makes the current tone of the series feel like a meme of itself. Fallout accomplishes this by tossing you into a desolate, savage wasteland—and you can feel it the second you leave the vault. And the horrors hiding in that post-apocalypse, well...people have only heard rumors. Fallout built the sort of mystery and intrigue that would only be possible in 1997, back when deathclaws and super mutants were new to everyone. These enemies aren’t just fodder. They’re truly terrifying, and Fallout makes you understand why.

Also, this was the game with The Master—one of the greatest villains in video game history. I will never forget the way Fallout allowed you to convince the big bad that he’s wrong. Superb.

Okay, yes: Fallout 2 altered how I viewed America and its politics, and it was my introduction to the series. But objectively, I see it as the pinnacle of what Fallout has to offer: a zany, post-apocalyptic game with an incredible amount of choice and a smart critique of American ideals, all packaged in a more cerebral game genre than any of the modern titles. (It’s a turn-based RPG.)

This is a game in which you can lose countless hours to exploration...or beeline to the final boss within 30 minutes of starting. It’s a game in which you can become a porn star or a made man, just for funsies. Oh, and the conversations! It’s such a joy to speak to everyone you come across and learn a little more about its world. My favorite moment? Talking to the AI responsible for ending the world in the great war. Fallout 2 offers the sort of freedom and versatility that most modern games that brag about “choice” and “consequences” just can’t touch.

This post originally appeared in 2014, and has been updated.