Best Fallout Games, Ranked (2024)

• Developer: Micro Forte
• Release Date: March 15, 2001
• Platforms: PC

The earliest spin-off of the Fallout series took the series in a radically new direction and could have defined the future of the series pre-Fallout 3 if it had been a big hit. Instead, Fallout Tactics was a middling success, despite being a pretty good tactics game. Instead of focusing on a single protagonist, this game centered on squad tactics and various factions and races including humans, Ghouls, and even dogs. Like many tactics games it's built around careful positioning, and while it's notably more linear than most other Fallout games, it borrows heavily from and builds upon the existing Fallout lore. But even as a decent tactics title, it just wasn't a core Fallout game.

• Developer: Zen Studios
• Release Date: December 6, 2016
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

This is a slight cheat, because in this case, Fallout is more of a theme than a core part of the gameplay. But Zen Studios makes excellent virtual pinball games, and its Fallout table is a lovely homage to Fallout 4. From the sealed Vault prominently displayed in the background to the ability to choose a SPECIAL loadout to determine your skills, this is a cool look at how Fallout's unique world can be adapted into other formats.

• Developer: Black Isle Studios
• Release Date: October 29, 1998
• Platforms: PC

Fallout 2 is a quintessential 1990s video game sequel. Before the advent of DLC and live-service games, most sequels were just more of what players already liked about the previous game. That's certainly the case for Fallout 2, which took the core of its predecessor just one year prior and crafted a new story focused on the grandchild of the first game's protagonist. The result was more of the same--a very likable game but one that was justifiably criticized for feeling like a retread.

• Developer: Interplay Productions
• Release Date: October 10, 1997
• Platforms: PC

The very first Fallout game bore very little resemblance to its modern incarnations, but nearly all the pieces were there. The story was an absurdist fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic future, satirizing the idyllic post-war Americana of the 1950s. There were Vault dwellers and Super Mutants and Brotherhood of Steel factionists just like later games. As one of the Vault dwellers, you emerged to find yourself in a changed world, attempting to intervene in the messy conflicts of the survivors outside. But rather than a first-person shooter, the original Fallout was delivered from an overhead, third-person perspective. The systems are more rudimentary so it may be a culture shock for players only familiar with the more recent games, but it was a prototype for everything that would follow.

• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
• Release Date: November 14, 2018
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

One of the most divisive Fallout games, Fallout 76 took the series in a radical new direction as a massively multiplayer game, letting you play alongside other survivors as the first to reemerge into the world after the nuclear apocalypse. Though the game was initially panned for a lack of content, Bethesda has continued to support it and added several features that fans have requested. Chief among these is NPC quest-givers, which were entirely missing from the original release but which give the game a feeling more similar to other major releases in the Fallout series. It's also expanded with new locations like the Pitt, aka the ruins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And while you're expected to go exploring, there's a heavy emphasis on homesteading too, with a flexible crafting system that lets you create a home base with all the furnishings a wastelander could want.

• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
• Release Date: November 10, 2015
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

The latest huge single-player RPG in the Fallout franchise is a good but not great example of what Fallout can be. It wasn't quite as innovative as its predecessors, but it did add a new building and settlement management system that became more fleshed out as a major element in Fallout 76. The story, centered around you as a Sole Survivor looking for your lost child, had propulsive force but also made the wandering off to do side quests seem like a strange distraction. It did feature a number of memorable companion characters, though, particularly the loyal canine Dogmeat and Ghoul gumshoe Nick Valentine. It's not the best the 3D era has to offer, but it is well-made and worth it to scratch the Fallout itch if you've played the others and want something new.

• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios, Behaviour Interactive
• Release Date: June 14, 2015
• Platforms: PC, Mobile, PS4, Nintendo Switch

A free-to-play construction sim that was surprise-released at E3 2016 may seem like odd company next to a list of massive RPGs, but Fallout Shelter is undoubtedly one of the best in the franchise. Instead of a lone protagonist wandering the wastes, you're an administrator trying to keep your population of Vault dwellers safe, fed, and happy. The happy-go-lucky cartoon style belies the franchise's dark sense of humor, as your people can have all manner of horrible things happen to them if you aren't careful. A full game can last only a few hours, making it a much shorter experience than most other Fallout games, but the fun in Fallout Shelter is continuously making new Vaults, trying out new layouts, and prodding at its systems to see how your dwellers react to your decisions, and each other.

• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
• Release Date: October 28, 2008
• Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

It's hard to overestimate the impact Fallout 3 had on the Fallout series and Bethesda more broadly. The 2008 action-RPG reinvented the series in 3D, borrowing elements (and the engine) from its popular Elder Scrolls: Morrowind and Oblivion games. The innovative VATS system gave players an appealing middle ground between shooter action and thoughtful RPG decision-making by letting you slow time and target enemies' individual body parts. And while it's been iterated on by many games since, the morality system was deep and multifaceted for the time, letting you see real consequences for your actions many hours later. Equally important was the SPECIAL system, which let you balance your character across seven different categories--with interesting, bespoke consequences for leaning super hard into just one at the expense of the others.

Fallout 3 would go on to win several Game of the Year awards, and was supported by loads of post-launch DLC that explored other areas of the wasteland. Though this was the third main release in the Fallout series, it was the one that popularized the name beyond anything else, and it was many players' first.

• Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
• Release Date: October 19, 2010
• Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

After the success of Fallout 3, Bethesda partnered with Obsidian for a spin-off, thanks to the new studio's founders having developed the original Fallout. Fallout: New Vegas launched to a fairly sour reception, in part because of its array of bugs, both game-breaking and hysterically funny (and sometimes both). But what was once a middling reception has flourished into the fan-favorite of the series, thanks to a combination of official fixes and robust mod support. The story is one of the best in the series, centering on a mysterious deal-gone-bad that left you, The Courier, to die in a ditch. The game gets a great performance out of its primary cast, including the late Matthew Perry as the antagonist, along with many of its memorable companions. The New Vegas setting creates an excellent balance between the scorched wasteland and the faded glitz and glory of the city.

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