"It sure would be swell to shoot something."
Article by: Taylor Lake (Darklink42)
Pictured from: Fallout 3
Created by: Black Isle Studios
First appearance: 1997
Bio
Based around 1950s science fiction and that era's vision of the future, the Fallout series paints a grim reality where nuclear war has changed the face of the earth and turned the United States into a wasteland. Vault-Tec Industries, only a few years prior to the bombs falling, was created and commissioned to build an unknown number of underground vaults across the U.S., allowing a small percentage of the population to survive the blasts. Each Fallout game typically follows a lone descendant of the original vault dwellers, exploring and discovering what it means to survive in a devastated world. Though in each game the character's personal history and location differs, one trait they all have in common is the wrist-mounted computer unit they carry with them: the Pip-Boy.
The Pip-Boy acts as the in-game menu system for both the player and the character, and it is in these menus that Vault Boy, the mascot of Vault-Tec, is typically seen. As the character levels up through experience gained from missions, the player can choose from a number of perks. Each perk is humorously depicted by Vault Boy's poses and costumes and has an effect ranging from simple character stat bonuses to opening up new dialogue options with other characters. Vault Boy also serves a number of other roles, from acting as the character's health display to modeling what clothes and weapons will look like to being the main character in vault training videos and tests. His constant good humor, knowing wink, and 50s era cartoon style inject a lighter side into the games and continue to give players a reason to smile as they traverse the forbidding, bleak wastelands of Fallout.
Selected game appearances
Windows
- Fallout (1997)
- Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001)
- Fallout 3 (2008)
PlayStation 3
- Fallout 3 (2008)
Xbox 360
- Fallout 3¹ (2008)
¹ no ReMixes in database
References
