10 Things Fallout 5 Should Learn From 1 & 2

One distinctive feature of the Fallout universe is its retrofuturism. It’s set in the future, but it's a future imagined by people of the past. In this case, 1950s Americans.

On the surface, Fallout 4 captures that pretty well. It bombards you with the relevant aesthetics and even has you play a nice intro sequence to get you in the mood. And then come human-faced cyborgs and teleportation. It’s understandable that some steps have to be taken away from the pure canon of the genre, to avoid slipping into the realm of ridiculous if nothing else. But some of those steps have been taken a bit too far.

Here's a lesson in retrofuturism from Fallout 2. That game gave the player the option to rebuild, upgrade and drive a nuclear-powered muscle car. Styled with signature 1950s tailfins and fuelled by micro fusion cells, it captured both the look and the technological vision of the setting.

Seeing something like that in Fallout 5 would be a huge boost to the game’s retro feel and have the side bonus of appeasing the fans that have been pining for a driving mechanic. Let’s just hope it comes out better than the first-person shooting did in Fallout 3.