Jarring mirror transformations aside, the opening scenes were well done. The idyllic family home establishes the role and cultural context of the character as husband (or wife), father (or mother), soldier, and a somewhat well-off individual. The scene in the bathroom may have gone towards establishing a relationship between these two characters if I hadn’t been so distracted by the near-horrifying shifting face in the mirror. The dialogue encourages movement throughout the home, where various objects reveal the similarities and distinctions between the Fallout world and our own.

A television announcement of nuclear bombs carries weight, though mostly by reference to the opening cutscene that sets the context. The rushing panic of the neighborhood and the invading presence of military figures is well done, giving me a hurried pace and subtly influencing the direction of my movement to avoid invisible walls as much as possible (reminiscent of the opening scenes of The Last of Us).

That sense of urgency slows a bit once past the guards and the gate, leaving just a moment of time, perhaps, to consider those detained back at the gate who will not find sanctuary. The atomic blast just before the elevator starts gives a fresh sense of urgency and makes the calm, sterile environment of the vault below seem comforting. I really did not know at first how it would play out. I assumed some beginning instruction and some time skipping. It seemed to me that this was the beat, the pause after the rising action of many games, where I would learn how the game works (it turns out this would be done entirely through messages on the screen). I did not suspect something off until I saw the decontamination pods, which seemed off to me immediately. But I had gone that far, and of course I knew I would have to enter the pod to advance the story.

The freezing and waking is well done, visually, as well as through the altering of my looking around via the right thumbstick. The slaying of my wife and stealing of my child as I helplessly look on at their pod across the hallway is cliché. It is not poorly done, but had an air of inevitability about it. The trope is too well established. The additional refreezing and thawing, I thought, was a smarter choice. It obscures the passage of time and drops the sense of urgency from the equation. There is no telling how long ago they took my son. Once I confirm my wife is, indeed, dead, there is a pause, heavy like the silent emptiness of the vault. This pause to take stock of the surroundings is crucial to a Fallout game, which communicates through exploration and atmosphere conveyed in the environment.

I check every cryochamber in that first room, check every name and status on the terminal I find, despite the fact that they were each the same as the last. The messages indicate tampering as a possible cause, which I would associate with the man and woman who murdered my wife and took my child. Meanwhile my character is muttering about them all being dead. Why would they do this? The vocalizations would be touching, were they not so repetitive. Regardless, I am already thinking these same things and the direction is not needed. The cold emptiness of the vault speaks to the loss and confusion, and this is nicely reinforced by the subtle shivering sounds coming from my character.

When I am halfway through checking all the pods in the vault I almost give up. But what if I missed something? What if there is someone alive? So despite the tedium I feel compelled to check every last one. The introduction to danger and combat in the form of radroaches is well executed, structured with plenty of space in between to explore, and also occurring in different situations and numbers of enemies from the two at first to the swarm at the end after I have a gun.

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The terminals reveal useful information about the vault and the experiment and set the context, but more interesting are the notes of different perspectives from the security personnel and the overseer. From the personnel, I get a sense of guilt at what is being done to me and the other neighbors, an injustice. This is followed by increasing paranoia that the scientists know more than they are letting on, fueled by the all-clear signal not coming. Finally, the sealing of the entrance and the stocking of food and weapons in the overseers office after the growing unrest paints the picture of a dictator gone mad.

On the overseer’s terminal, I get a different picture. He is genuinely excited for the experiment and imagines the wonders of the cryogenically frozen people waking up to a brighter future, not having to deal with the gritty recovery of the world. He expresses the wish that he could join them. The logs express genuine worry about the right decision in terms of leaving the vault without the all clear, a concern about radiation on the surface initially for the well-being of his charges. The hoarding of resources is a response to a plot he believes will get them all killed.

Exiting the vault is initially not quite as poignant as the same moment in Fallout 3, where we have been in the vault the entire game, as I began outside the vault here. There is the same sense of elation though, followed by marveling at the sheer devastation. The fact that I had been outside previously does offer a somewhat poignant before/after comparison, however, as I move further. The path winds down to a little bridge still standing over a creek, and I pause here. There is something beautiful about the water flowing and plants growing in the midst of all this devastation.

Back in the neighborhood, finding my robot still around is relieving (though I expected it of course from trailer footage). Though initially a bit annoying, there is something touching about the way he cares for me and my family, and for the neighborhood after these 200 years. He also, of course, provides the information to drive the plot along, suggesting I visit Concord. And he proves useful in helping to clear the town of dangerous pests, though a bit too quickly, as it doesn’t give me enough early combat experience.

Exploring the town is engaging, though the crafting benches are intimidating. After thoroughly exploring and tooling around with the benches a bit, I modified my gun. At this point I am exhausted, and I feel my character should be as well. I craft a bed using the workshop bench (perhaps the most complicated in terms of options), position the bed in a nearby house, and go to sleep.