Fallout Season 2 is almost here, so now is the perfect time to start a little online nuclear war of our own by ranking all the Fallout games from worst to best. Not even Vault-Tec can save you from this one.
Sure, you could just — and maybe should just — play through all the Fallout games in order, but that’s a tall order given that your average Fallout game takes around 30 hours minimum, and closer to 100 hours if you want to complete everything. So, we’re here to help you prioritize, while also throwing some of our spicy opinions out into the wasteland.
8. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Release date: March 15, 2001 | Platforms: PC | Developer: Micro Forté, 14 Degrees East
As the name implies, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel was a tactical combat game that played more like X-COM than the other Fallout games. While we appreciate them trying something new, developers Micro Forté didn’t quite stick the landing.
Don’t get us wrong, it’s a solid game that reviewed well at the time, but the linearity of the experience and the attempts to mimic the classic Fallout experience with RPG-lite elements left it feeling odd. Honestly, it felt more like a mod for Fallout 2 than a bold new strategy game.
Neither the strategy nor the RPG systems were meaty enough to leave a lasting impression. Add a razor-thin Brotherhood of Steel-centric narrative (that has since been contradicted by mainline entries), and you’re left with a curiosity that only the most eager of diehard Fallout fans should unearth.
7. Fallout Shelter
Release date: June 14, 2015 | Platforms: PC, iOS, Android, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch | Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
It might look like another mobile gaming money-grabber — and that’s not entirely wrong — but Fallout Shelter is also far better than it has any right to be.
Mobile spin-offs of massive console/PC video games are often terrible, but Fallout Shelter gets the satisfying strategy and management sim gameplay loop right from the get-go. Moreover, it never feels overly impaired by the progression limits and microtransactions. It’s not even tied to mobile platforms either, as you can also play it on consoles and PC too.
At first, you’re limited to your underground shelter, but the game soon expands and takes your dwellers topside, shaking things up with tense encounters and shiny loot, slowly turning your naïve vault dwellers into hardened survivors.
Back home, things are cozy most of the time, but keeping everyone in check is harder than it looks, especially when mutant horrors and other menaces come knocking on the door. Even in its more relaxed and bite-sized form, the Fallout universe is rough and unpredictable.
6. Fallout 76
Release date: November 14, 2018 | Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One | Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
After an admittedly weak launch in 2018, it’s hard to stay mad at Bethesda Game Studios for Fallout 76, considering how much the game has improved. How did they fix it? By dropping most of its ‘survival-crafting online game’ pretense and embracing the ‘Fallout online’ angle fans wanted in the first place.
Nowadays, Fallout 76 is still trucking along as a radically different online experience. It’s still an MMO, sure, but it’s casual and even solo-friendly, all while packing a whole lot of endgame content and seasonal challenges for those looking to really get into it.
After a bleak early life devoid of interactable non-player characters, Bethesda added a proper main quest and plenty of side missions built around settlers, bandits, and colorful groups that have been expanded with each content update. Still, Fallout 76’s cracks show the more time you spend with it; the central narrative and traditional RPG systems feel a bit tacked-on (because they were), and the Creation Engine clearly wasn’t built for an ambitious MMO-ish world.
It’s a solid game, but it could have been so much more.
5. Fallout 4
Release date: November 10, 2015 | Platforms: PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S | Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
The most recent mainline Fallout game, Fallout 4, was a big hit when it dropped in 2015, and it’s still receiving support from the devs — and modders — to this day. It also marked Bethesda’s first move towards putting user-friendly creative tools into its games. When we think about Fallout 4, our mind instantly goes to all the NPC-filled settlements you can build and develop into flourishing communities.
But what about the main questline, secondary quests, factions, and the Commonwealth as another giant map to explore and conquer? Well… It’s alright.
Bethesda Game Studios catches some deserved flak for narrative shortcomings of Fallout 4, which really wants its central narrative (Find and save your son!) to be urgent, but that clashes with almost everything else in the game.
In a toybox full of diversions and engaging side systems, the main quest largely falls flat, and the payoffs don’t really live up to all the early promise. The Mass Effect-like wheel for dialogue and RPG choices also felt like a step down, taking away much of the nuance and fun found in earlier games. Fallout 4 is a fine game we love to return to, but it’s a shallow RPG experience overall.
4. Fallout 2
Release date: September 30, 1998 | Platforms: PC, macOS | Developer: Black Isle Studios
OK, things are going to get tense from here on in. Any of our top four Fallout games could top this list — it largely depends on your preference for the new or older style — but we’re putting Fallout 2 at the bottom of the unqualified “good” Fallout games.
There are plenty of reasons to choose 2 over 1; we’ll admit that. It’s bigger and far more refined as an isometric RPG, and the jump in the timeline allowed it to establish a legacy built on top of the first game’s story.
At the same time, it often loses the plot and, even if you stick to the main questline, runs in circles. Since the second game also kicked things off with urgency (like 1 and 4), the loose structure and overcrowded plot end up ruining the pacing for us, which brings the final result down a notch.
3. Fallout
Release date: October 10, 1997 | Platforms: PC, MS-DOS, macOS | Developer: Interplay Productions
The original Fallout made waves when it launched, and even after 28 years, you can see why: Its post-apocalyptic world felt unlike anything else in the market, and it offered innovative character creation and skill systems that weren’t too interested in paying homage to previous RPG classics. Instead, Tim Cain and the Interplay team focused on their own ideas to create a gritty and nuanced world that still had a satirical sense of humor.
What sets it apart from the sequel — and gives it a small advantage in our eyes — is how welcoming to newcomers the setup and narrative hook are. An underground nuclear shelter in the far future is running out of drinkable water, and you’re tasked with finding the part that can fix the water supply system. No more knowledge of the world is needed, and even as the plot develops, Fallout stays on target, while offering side possibilities that don’t take away from the core experience.
Sure, it’s an old ass game, and admittedly obtuse in ways that follow-up fixed, but there’s a magic to Fallout that few other games can match. It’s unforgiving until you do all of your homework, but it’s well worth the effort.
2. Fallout: New Vegas
Release date: October 19, 2010 | Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
On paper, Fallout: New Vegas has it all. New Vegas itself is the series’ most iconic setting (so much so that Fallout Season 2 is going to be set there), it offers tons of freedom to the player, and the actual roleplaying and factions are the best-written in the entire series. So, why isn’t it at the top of our list?
Well, for starters, it was a buggy, unfinished mess when it launched, and even the modern, fully patched-up version of the game shows signs of a game rushed over the finish line. Despite all its strengths, we can’t shake the feeling that New Vegas is an excellent 80% of a game.
A lot of the appeal of the Fallout games is the open world, where you’re free to go anywhere and do anything. While Obsidian made New Vegas, it was built with Fallout 3’s structural bones and technology, and that structure was all about exploring and player freedom. New Vegas still follows that ethos on paper, but stray away from its excellent scripted content, and the open world it presents feels a little lacking compared to our top pick. It’s still an all-timer and one of the best RPGs ever made, but there’s one more game that we prefer (just a little bit).
1. Fallout 3
Release date: November 14, 2018 | Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One | Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
It might not have been for diehard fans of the first two games, but in our humble opinion, Fallout 3 was a masterpiece. It was a near-perfect entry point into the franchise, while also respecting and expanding upon the already-established world. Bethesda could have easily rebooted everything when they took the reins, but instead, they chose to bridge the gap, and it paid off big time.
Built on the technological and game design foundations of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3’s shift to first-person and streamlined mechanics opened the series up to a mainstream crowd, while keeping most of the core RPG elements that the original games were known for. Was it as deep and layered as Fallout 1 or 2? No, but that didn’t matter because of how memorable and fun the Capital Wasteland was — and still is — to explore.
From its irradiated shores to hidden valleys to many underground labyrinths, Fallout 3 showed us how a dense but believable post-apocalyptic open world could be as exciting as Tamriel‘s fantasy lands. Sure, the main quest was short, and most role-played choices were too morally black-and-white, but it was a rip-roaring adventure that blasted the Fallout series into the mainstream.
