The Fallout Games & Atomic Cocktails
Game: The Fallout Series
“From where you’re kneeling it must look like an 18-carat run of bad luck. Truth is ... the game was rigged from the start.”
- Benny,
Fallout: New Vegas
The Fallout series has always been an interesting exploration of America’s politics and policies and their—ahem—fallout through the lens of tongue-in-cheek post-apocalyptic gameplay. Brutal and ironic in equal measure, the series has always included, and been impacted by, the vast overreach of corporations and their support by the American government within the game world. The greatest and most wildly overreaching of them all is Vault-Tec, the corporation that built the vaults synonymous with the Fallout universe. Vault-Tec is responsible for so many twisted experiments disguised as tools to save humanity from the nuclear war it had a hand in starting that it’s single-handedly the greatest villain you can never face. Despite that, or because of it, Fallout’s critical look at humanity on both a macro and micro scale through the lens of science fiction and apocalyptic survival-adventure is what makes the Fallout series a successful, and fun, exploration of the most profane state of gameplay.
My personal entry into the series was with Fallout 3, and though that game was a wild departure from the previous two games it was also more adventurous because it had more texture, more focus. Transitioning from a top-down, third-person turn-style play in the first two games to a first-person experience wasn’t only ambitious but immersive because the gameplay and stories — the quests — enveloped you in a more visceral way. What changed in Fallout 3 had less to do with the story being told and more to do with the player, with us; we were brought down to the Wasteland, made to look each villain and bystander in the eye and to suffer the twinge of guilt or anxiety as we wrecked our karma for caps and equipment, or for experience. Gone was the point of view of the chess master looking down on the game, taking their time to think through their play with near total view of the field. The world became limited with the advent of Fallout 3, and in its limitations, it became both interesting and terrifying. What lurked over the next hill or behind the collapsed ruins of civilization was not only exciting but randomly generated, and because of the open world layout, the uncaring randomness of it all, every little thing mattered: three caps on a desk, a wrench and carton of cigarettes, even a handful of bullets. Even when your character did become powerful, stacked with armor and weapons that nearly trivialize further encounters, that survival instinct remained ingrained. How many tin cans does a level 20 wastelander need? The answer might surprise you.
We long for a universe that makes sense, that we can know and understand, that gives us guidance and direction
“Why You Keep Returning To Skyrim – Story Worlds as Sacred Spaces” (16:20)
In one of the videos on his YouTube channel, Like Stories of Old, Tom van der Linden explores game worlds as sacred spaces by looking at Fallout’s sister game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This game is another immersive, open-world experience that I, too, return to time and again (and that I’ll hopefully give the R&D treatment to soon) for the very reasons Linden does as well. Skyrim presents players something different and more akin to a growth-driven, spiritual experience through its unique, and different, gameplay when compared to Fallout. Through it, Linden explores the way immersive games like Skyrim can establish a sacred space where there is an undercurrent of optimism that creates a proactive, outgoing mentality that drives us, the player, towards meaningful engagements within the game. “In a way, it shows precisely what is missing in our world, and what is missing from who we are within it” because “modern society has largely come to be defined by the profane experience of space, which is not so much about our scientific understanding of the world, but more so about our personal, more subjective connection to it, and subsequently about our ability to find a meaningful and rewarding way to navigate through it” (14:00).
And, if you’ve played Skyrim, it’s easy to see how this point of view makes sense: the world is lush and vibrant, full of magic and wonder alongside dragons and other menacing creatures. But not only does the landscape itself hold sacred places like magical wells and monoliths, but the gameplay supports the self-betterment of your character. Unlike Fallout, your skills rise as you use them, and as they rise your level does, too. Skyrim, then, is built on the foundation of self-betterment and it rewards us for seeking out our curiosities within the world. That doesn’t mean you must be a “good” character, it only means that choosing to seek out your own path is rewarded and not only through gameplay but by literal Gods and magical entities as well. Skyrim, infused with the other worldly and metaphysical, provides us with meaning for the world we play within and through it, a more stable, and well-supported, world to play within. Plagues and evil acts, the darkest parts of the world as we understand it, happen because they were created by malevolent beings. Unburdened with blame, men and the other races merely hold the potential for it all, good and bad, and so the act of choice, of choosing a path, is more important than mere survival.
Fallout, on the other hand, is the profane world aggrandized and exaggerated through survival gameplay, with the ambiguous and solipsistic nature of humanity woven into every pre- and post-apocalyptic story event. The individual path matters less than the individual in this case because of the survivalist nature of the game. Who could blame a person for the seemingly evil or cruel acts they’ve performed when, at the base of it, it’s all about survival. Everyone’s just trying to make a life in the Wasteland, however brutal and short it might be. The games, too, seem to slowly move away from this notion of Good & Evil with an objective karma system vanishing after Fallout 3 and a more subjective tribal “affinity” system being introduced in New Vegas and beyond.
Consequently, every living (or robotic) thing in the Fallout series has, at the least, a value to the player in form of experience points, and so clubbing a raider or a thirsty settler to death with a tire iron for a handful of both experience and caps is less about personal growth and more about, well, us, as in the subjective I. When the player levels up, they get to choose how they grow they’re character, leveling their medicine skill even if they hadn’t used anything more than a stimpak or two. Whereas in Skyrim, a character only grow what skills they actively use in the game. These game mechanics for growth are themselves an interpretation of what those individual game worlds revere: one, Aristotelian notion of excellence while the other celebrates a Locke’s Leviathan-esque world of gritty, greedy survivalism.
Here you are, the Lone Wanderer or the Courier or the Sole Survivor, wandering the Wasteland trying to survive by amassing resources and allies and experience, and any veteran player of a Fallout game knows that more is better. More is best. The reason this game differs so wildly from Skyrim is because one is about adventure (the objective I) and the other is about survival (the subjective I). Survival—life and death—is anchored to the profane through our body, through our experience of anxiety and fear; there’s no room for the spiritual until we’re able to transcend that survival state. And though both games are so very similar, the small differences—in mechanics, lore, and setting—make all the difference.
What redeems the survival anxiety of the Fallout series is the ability for the player to use the subjective I’s accumulated power and wealth to change the Wasteland. Whether you want to be a benevolent do-gooder who punishes the wicked, a villain who happily sells others into slavery for a cool perk or tool, or someone who walks the path between the two, you have the power to change the world. This, too, for better or worse, is akin to the power corporations have in our world. Constantly over extending their resources for the risk of growth, for the hope of more, they eventually become so powerful they can quite literally change the landscape of the world and through it the lives of thousands, even millions. And while I doubt Fallout’s developers ever thought of the game as a corporation emulator, the series remains an important (and fun) critique of the changing landscape of America and its policies towards its people and businesses, and though perhaps less direct in that connection it still manages to explore the consequences of exaggerated policies while providing a fun and immersive game with a few extra Rads thrown in for good measure.
Atomic Cocktails
Cocktail: Nuka-Cola Quantum
Twice the calories, twice the carbohydrates, twice the caffeine, and twice the taste! And just look at that amazing, patented blue glow!
Zap that thirst!
With the inclusion of a new isotope of strontium-90, Nuka-Cola Quantum launched an all out nuclear assault on thirst in 2076! Known for its electric blue glow, consumers couldn’t miss it even if they tried. Bitter and sweet and (safely) radioactive, this beverage has a half-shelf-life 4.5 billion years making it a perfect thirst-quencher for Vault Dwellers and Wastelanders alike!
Nuka-Cola Quantum
2oz Gin, Citrus Forward
1oz Falernum
2oz Clarified Pineapple Juice*
4oz Tonic Water**
Add Gin, Falernum, and pineapple juice to a tin with ice and short shake for 4-6 seconds to chill.
Pour into a highball glass, add ice, then add tonic water.
Enjoy that nuclear blue glow bathing your insides with refreshment!
*Clarified Pineapple Juice: The easiest way to acquire this juice without a centrifuge is to purchase (or make) freshly squeezed pineapple juice and let it sit for 4-8 hours undisturbed. The juice will naturally separate with the solid, cloudy parts sinking to the bottom of the container leaving a clarified liquid at the top. Carefully pour the clarified juice off and use it. The cloudy part is the exact same as plain pineapple juice, so don't let it go to waste!
**Tonic Glow: Tonic water (or more specifically, quinine, the bitter element of tonic water) glows blue under a black light. Go on, give it a try!
Cocktail: Big Iron
It was over in a moment and the folks had gathered round
There before them lay the body of the outlaw on the ground
Oh, he might have went on living but he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
Big iron, big iron
When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip- “Big Iron”
By Marty Robins
In the blasted, irradiated world of Fallout as Wastelander only needs two things: a loyal companion and a good weapon. What’s a better weapon than the Big Iron? A rye whiskey riff on the classic Bijou, the Big Iron is exactly the thing to have on hand. Strong. Light. And sure to lay any outlaw on the ground if they make one fatal slip and bring too many Big Irons to their lips.
Big Iron
1.5oz Rye Whiskey
1oz Blanc Vermouth
0.5oz Green Chartreuse
0.5oz Salers Aperitif
2 dashes Orange Bitters
1 dash Cherry Bitters
Add ingredients to the glass over a large piece of ice and stir until chilled.
Slice a coin of lemon and warm both sides with a match; flame the lemon over the drink by expressing the lemon coin towards the match over top of your Big Iron.
Texas Red is about to meet his maker (after this drink’s done).
Cocktail: Atomic Dog
Patrolling the Mojave Almost Makes You Wish For a Nuclear Winter
Where Big Iron is the weapon, Atomic Dog is the companion. With both, a Wastelander is sure to find their way… somewhere. Sure, with a few extra Rads, maybe in need of a Stimpak or four, but there they are with man’s best friend by their side. Atomic Dog is a mutated version of Singapore Sling with a little heat from the atomic fires still burning wild and bright along the broken highways of civilization. And, who knows? When the rest of the smooth skins are dead and gone maybe the ghouls will worship dogs like those tiki idols in the old reels from before the bombs fell.
Atomic Dog
1.5oz Gin
0.5oz Aged Rum
0.5oz Dry Curacao
0.25oz Green Chartreuse
0.5oz Raspberry Syrup
1oz Pineapple Juice
0.25oz Pistachio Orgeat
0.75oz Lime
2 dashes Hellfire Bitters
Place a straw in your tiki mug then pack full of crushed ice.
Short shake all ingredients with ice for 5-7 seconds. then pour into the mug and repack with crushed ice. Garnish with pineapple fronds, citrus wheels, pineapple wedges, a little umbrella — whatever you’ve got on hand.
Make sure to swing by the Red Rocket Truck Stop on your way out of town to get your fill of Atomic Dog, ya hear?
*Pistachio Orgeat: Shell and toast 1/4 cup of pistachios then add them with 5oz hot, but not boiling, water and blend until the pistachios are well chopped; allow to sit for 15 minutes before straining through a nut milk bag. Combine the nut milk with 6oz of white sugar over medium heat until sugar is dissolved — do not boil! Once dissolved, remove from heat and add 1/8tsp Orange Blossom Water and 0.5oz unaged rum (80 proof). Store and refrigerate for up to three months.