Microscop
First time out of the vault

I replayed 1 and 2 last winter and i noticed something.
In F1 the only time we see the american flag is in the intro tv propaganda showing Nate commiting warcrimes during the brutal occupation resulting from full scale unprovoked invasion of Canada by the USA.
In F2 the only time we see the american Flag is on the oil rig.
Borth of those depictions show the flag in a negative context, actually in both cases connected to warcrimes or even genocide.
Aside from the flag itself there are pretty much no mentions of the USA in the games themsleves and pre war times are dismissed as ancient history including even some of the brotherhood members just 80 years after the bombs in F1. People in general are focused on survivial in the present (especially in F1) and building a new future in F2.
From the lore we get a pretty grim picture of the USA as an agressive country torn by internal problems such as energy crisis, riots, plagues etc.
Lastly i want to mention the aesthethic and architecture of the pre war usa, the style seems to be monumental mix of gothic and art deco but also somewhat brutalist and opressive at the same time. The screaming head decorations, the massive skyscrappers even in small cities like Bakersfield etc. paint a picture quite alien compared to the the world we know despite using some familiar stylistic elements.
Compare this with Bethesda's take
Fallout 3 is set in Washington and the capital wasteland (capital of what? the old world is gone), including some american landmarks and even post war american museum and people larping pre war lives.
The architecture while retaining some of the original elements from original games (and integrating them rather poorly imho) seems to be closer to real 1950s including the plywood suburban american houses which were compleatly absent from the 1 and 2.
Fallout 4 is where the biggest change happens, the pre bomb USA is depcited as colorfull 1950s cartoony jettson land. There are still pre war flags hanging from Buildings in Boston as well as larper factions like the minutemen. As Emil said... Fallout is (now) about 1950s Americana, similarly the concept of old world blues was introduced and both of those shift the the tone towards 1950s nostalgia. Pre bomb world which was myserious and alien is now being overly explored and explained, pre war world is sanitized and turned into a epcot themepark lookalike with all the increasingly goofy evil shit blamed not on the USA itself but intentionally detached from it and blamed on few greedy moustache twirling corporate CEOs.
Edit
Fixed the typos
In F1 the only time we see the american flag is in the intro tv propaganda showing Nate commiting warcrimes during the brutal occupation resulting from full scale unprovoked invasion of Canada by the USA.
In F2 the only time we see the american Flag is on the oil rig.
Borth of those depictions show the flag in a negative context, actually in both cases connected to warcrimes or even genocide.
Aside from the flag itself there are pretty much no mentions of the USA in the games themsleves and pre war times are dismissed as ancient history including even some of the brotherhood members just 80 years after the bombs in F1. People in general are focused on survivial in the present (especially in F1) and building a new future in F2.
From the lore we get a pretty grim picture of the USA as an agressive country torn by internal problems such as energy crisis, riots, plagues etc.
Lastly i want to mention the aesthethic and architecture of the pre war usa, the style seems to be monumental mix of gothic and art deco but also somewhat brutalist and opressive at the same time. The screaming head decorations, the massive skyscrappers even in small cities like Bakersfield etc. paint a picture quite alien compared to the the world we know despite using some familiar stylistic elements.
Compare this with Bethesda's take
Fallout 3 is set in Washington and the capital wasteland (capital of what? the old world is gone), including some american landmarks and even post war american museum and people larping pre war lives.
The architecture while retaining some of the original elements from original games (and integrating them rather poorly imho) seems to be closer to real 1950s including the plywood suburban american houses which were compleatly absent from the 1 and 2.
Fallout 4 is where the biggest change happens, the pre bomb USA is depcited as colorfull 1950s cartoony jettson land. There are still pre war flags hanging from Buildings in Boston as well as larper factions like the minutemen. As Emil said... Fallout is (now) about 1950s Americana, similarly the concept of old world blues was introduced and both of those shift the the tone towards 1950s nostalgia. Pre bomb world which was myserious and alien is now being overly explored and explained, pre war world is sanitized and turned into a epcot themepark lookalike with all the increasingly goofy evil shit blamed not on the USA itself but intentionally detached from it and blamed on few greedy moustache twirling corporate CEOs.
Edit
Fixed the typos
Last edited: