The world of Fallout is a violent one, with hundreds upon thousands of nasty people waiting for innocent wastelanders to make the wrong move. These not-so-savory individuals are simply referred to as “raiders,” and they’re the scum of the post-apocalyptic wasteland. While they certainly do the job of populating the game world with enemies, Fallout 5 should try to break away from implementing generic raiders.
Not all raiders band together under the same group, but players might not know that because of the umbrella term that ties them all together. A “raider” in recent Fallout games refers to any hostile human wandering the wasteland in search of someone to mug or kill. However, to make the game world more interesting and the factions more nuanced, Fallout5 could change up a few things about the usual brand of raiders.
Fallout 5’s Raiders Drawing Inspiration from Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4
Fallout: New Vegas had the right idea in incorporating different raider gangs in its game world. Any raiders that the player ran into wouldn’t simply be called a “raider.” Instead, their character name would reference one of the existing gangs in the Mojave wasteland, and there are quite a few. The more known gangs include the chem-obsessed Fiends, the cannibalistic Jackals, and the ritualistic Vipers. There are also other, smaller raider gangs in Fallout: New Vegas for the player to find.
Simply giving each raider gang a name and some distinguishing characteristics made the next Fallout game world seem more varied. It also established a stronger sense of place for the player as different raider gangs inhabited different areas of the map. It’s certainly more memorable than simply slapping the term “raider” to every hostile bandit and leaving it at that.
Even though Fallout 4 is guilty of this with its raiders, it does have some upsides. For one, the title goes deeper into individual raider stories, even showcasing the lives of a number of raiders that have lost their sanity in Fallout 4. For instance, the bear-headed Bosco of D.B. Technical High School is one of the more memorable raiders even though most of his companions have nothing but generic raider lines to scream at the player.
Additionally, some locations are masterful in their environmental storytelling as they showcase the raiders’ brutal practices – Saugus Ironworks and the East Boston Preparatory School being prime examples of this. Terminals and diaries owned by raiders also improve the characterization of these enemy NPCs, making them seem less like mere enemies and more like real people trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Granted, Fallout 4’s raider gangs aren’t quite as varied as New Vegas’, apart from The Forged and the unique raiders of Nuka-World. But even then, the stories of each individual raider gang leader make the world a little more interesting.
Given all this, Fallout 5 should incorporate a mix of the two approaches. It should take Fallout: New Vegas’ differentiation of raider gangs and Fallout 4’s characterization of notable raiders. With the right blend of both, Fallout 5’s world will be a lot more interesting, with its enemies far more nuanced. It encourages explorations and, overall, makes it more fun for the player to discover new things.
Perhaps the developer could even take things a step further by implementing quests that allow the player to choose one raider gang over the other, much like the main conflict of Fallout 4’s Nuka-World DLC. This not only makes for a richer game world and narrative; it also lets players start an evil playthrough – something the community would have wanted to see in Fallout 4.
Fallout 5 has been announced.