WithFallout 5seemingly a long time away, there is a lot of time for fans to speculate about what sort of factions could appear from previous titles likeFallout: New Vegas. Factions have played an enormous role in shaping the lore of the post-apocalypse, such as the technology-hoarding Brotherhood of Steel, with the entirety ofFallout: New Vegas’ storyline being determined by which faction the Courier aligns themselves with.
Not every faction gets to be as omni-present in the series as theBrotherhood of Steel, though. Plenty of small factions have populated the wasteland, showing all the ways humanity can persevere in dire circumstances. Some resorted to extreme violence, some became pacifist educators, while one group in particular found itself an enormous cache of weapons that go boom.
The Boomers Were One of New Vegas’ Most Memorable Factions
Fallout: New Vegas’ Boomersare a particularly memorable minor faction from that game, if only for one incredibly simple reason. Obsessed with old world weapons, the Boomers emerged from Vault 34 in 2231 with an already considerable arsenal, settling in Nellis Air Force Base. Considering the rest of the wasteland to be hostile, the Boomers hunkered down and used the supplies available to fortify Nellis to the extreme, greeting any and all visitors with a warm, welcoming artillery salvo.
Players inNew Vegaswill know when they’re in Boomers territory pretty quickly. When approachingNellis Air Force Base, artillery shells rain down all around, and getting through the barrage without having to reload a save constantly requires a test of skill, and a little bit of luck. Players who survive the punishing barrage can meet the surprisingly friendly Boomers, who, despite firing half an army’s worth of munitions at them, can talk things out. Other, less fortunate Couriers end up scattered around the road as a warning to any further trespassers.
This kind of isolationist approach made the Boomers more compelling than might be expected from such a minor part ofNew Vegas’ variety of factions. Often, life or death is a binary choice inFallout, and common raiders typically aren’t going to engage in polite conversation if they can just bomb something.
The Boomers' Isolationism Should Inspire New Factions in Fallout 5
Of the manythingsFallout 5should take from previous games, a group like the Boomers is definitely one. A faction that’s only accessible to whoever can outrun a creeping barrage is just too unique of an idea to pass up in a future title. While it shouldn’t be the exact same, there are ways that a new game could put a twist on things.
Bethesda could make admittance to a group based on agility, or other unusual skills. If a player can’t run past a gauntlet fast enough, then they are locked out of joining that group for the rest of a playthrough. Perhaps a tunnel collapse could trigger on approach, so if a player is too slow, the tunnel will close forever, and be inaccessible. Players should be rewarded for investing in certain stats, and it’s this kind ofchoice and consequence inFalloutthat makes interactions more memorable. Being the leader of every faction at once can be fun the first time, but it starts to feel cheap.
What makes working against the clock so engaging is that there are almost no ways a player can trivialize it. Combat encounters can be overcome with difficulty sliders or over-tuned gear, and picking locks can be done with patience, but running a gauntlet is harder. Bethesda games aren’t too concerned with traversal mechanics, so it creates a unique situation for the player to get through. Unless, of course, that player is aKhajiit downing 30 bottles of Skoomaand sprinting straight at it, but that’s unlikely to be a problem inFallout.
