Fallout 5 is a much-anticipated title, with the longstanding franchise being one of Bethesda's most successful acquisitions. With the last mainline entry coming out eight years ago (not counting Fallout 76), it is clear to see why fans are so desperate for any information regarding the upcoming sequel. Nothing is currently known about this next installment, but that has not stopped people from discussing what they want to see next.
While the tried-and-tested formula of the wider franchise would work well with Fallout 5, the release would benefit from going against the expected grain. Perhaps most importantly, Fallout 5 could truly stand out by subverting expectations regarding its featured landscapes and setting, featuring more areas of bustling life and biodiversity as opposed to the usual barren wastelands that fans have become used to.
The Usual Landscapes of the Fallout Franchise
The Fallout franchise is typified by its desolate post-apocalyptic aesthetic, with the series taking place within a world ravaged by nuclear warfare. With many humans living in expansive underground vaults, the surface has been left ravaged by disfigured survivors, looters, and an imposing range of mutated creatures. The fallout of this cataclysmic nuclear warfare gives the franchise its name, so the landscapes of most titles are portrayed as barren, destroyed wastelands.
Many Fallout titles have historically chosen to portray the impact of this devastation on urban spaces such as influential cities, with Fallout 3 exploring Washington DC and the surrounding areas, followed by Fallout 4 portraying Boston, Massachusetts. Other installments have featured memorable takes on the impacts of nuclear desolation, with Fallout: New Vegas famously opting for a more wild west portrayal of the Mojave Desert.
How Fallout 5 Could Change Its Landscapes
If Fallout 5 was to go against the expected nature of the series' usual wastelands, it would have to portray areas that are relatively untouched by the impacts of nuclear war. The franchise has not shied away from showing greener and more fruitful areas in recent years, with Fallout 76 showcasing forests and virile land around Appalachia. Fallout 5 could continue this trend, curating areas of nature that juxtapose the usual withered landscapes. The game could either potentially be set within a location that was relatively untouched by the bombings, or even be set centuries after the war when nature has reclaimed the earth following nuclear devastation.
While offering a perhaps needed change to the usual aesthetics that the Fallout franchise has become known for, a more virile landscape in Fallout 5 could crucially offer changes to core gameplay. A greater level of flora and fauna could completely change things like resource gathering, with players having to rely less on urban scavenging due to the introduction of foraging and hunting.
A later time setting for Fallout 5 could also foster great changes to the narrative and involved conflicts of the title, being an environment in which Fallout's survivors have had much more time to develop their own societies, factions, and even things like religion. While this form of post-apocalyptic life has been explored before in the franchise, a greener, future Fallout 5 could push the narratives and landscape of the title beyond what the IP has ever seen before.
Fallout 5 has been confirmed by Bethesda, but is not yet in active development.