Do not be fooled by the heightened popularity of its Prime Video show adaptation or Fallout 76 thriving as a multiplayer ARPG—we will not be getting Fallout 5 for a long while. It seems like it would be an incredible opportunity for Bethesda to have all of its eggs in Fallout’s basket, and yet the studio has decided to appeal to the louder corner of its playerbase community by devoting itself to developing and launching The Elder Scrolls 6 first.
There are surely Bethesda fans who would rather see Fallout 5 sooner rather than later, where ‘later’ in this case likely refers to the early-to-mid-2030s, optimistically speaking. Fortunately, there is no shortage of great post-apocalypse games to explore, with some bearing the potential to hold you over until whenever Fallout 5 is eventually released.
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Wasteland 3
Wasteland 3 is an isometric, turn-based RPG where player choice is important. If this doesn’t scream of being inspired by the original Fallout games, then we’re not sure what does.
It may be much more preferable for fans of the old-school Fallout, as a result. Assuming that Fallout 5 wants to stick with the IP’s current branding as the live-action Prime Video show continues to prove successful, the fifth mainline installment will probably steer further away from it.
Nonetheless, Fallout 5 is sure to contain all that series fans adore from the franchise. If Fallout 5 is one of your most anticipated future games, but you have yet to try out the original Fallout and Fallout 2, then Wasteland 3 could turn out to be a fun side quest in the exploration of games like Fallout.
7
Metro Exodus
Nuclear war and its relevant themes are incredibly paramount in Fallout, as they are in the Metro franchise. In particular, radiation is a prominent ‘antagonist’ as it’s clear how brutally it has ravaged the world.
Metro also features hostile factions and creatures, which surely isn’t a far cry from what players will encounter in Fallout.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim delves into fantasy, not sci-fi, and has a wealth of its own lore to digest. Of course, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, much less any of the other classic Elder Scrolls games, is a natural pivot for anyone who wants more of Bethesda’s signature flavor.
It would not be out of the realm of possibility for Fallout 5 to take cues from The Elder Scrolls 6’s open world and RPG mechanics, and thus it is probably beneficial for players who adore Fallout and are looking forward to Fallout 5 to also monitor what future improvements and evolutions Bethesda makes with The Elder Scrolls, as the development of the latter could have an impact on that of the former regarding gameplay mechanics.
Starfield was something of a rough patch for Bethesda, but that has not quelled fans’ interest in Bethesda’s two biggest IPs, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. This is a testament to how much weight is resting on the next Fallout game to do well, and it is unknown how long it will be until this fifth mainline installment sees the light of day.
5
The Last of Us
The Last of Us has perhaps one of the most enduring post-apocalypse narratives in games. The Last of Us’ Cordyceps brain infection is novel—not unlike Fallout’s feral ghouls, deathclaws, and giant hermit crabs—but is also mere set dressing for how phenomenal its character writing is.
Fallout’s retrofuturistic, 1950s-inspired Atompunk aesthetic is heads-and-shoulders more endearing and charming than the relatively uninteresting overgrowth in The Last of Us’ modern-day dystopia. That said, players who love tragic ‘zombie’ stories that serve as a harrowing backdrop for larger emphasis on ‘man vs. man’ storytelling owe it to themselves to experience Joel, Ellie, and Abby’s interconnected journeys in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2.
Fallout is not a ‘zombie’ story, nor is its character writing particularly intimate and linear. This is a boon for Fallout, as its narratives are usually much more complicated and diverse across all games in the Fallout franchise.
4
Mad Max
Mad Max’s post-apocalyptic environment is far less whimsical than Fallout’s, but there is catharsis in roaming Australia’s sandy wastes, ramming Max’s bucket of bolts into War Boys and Buzzards’ buckets of bolts. It isn’t an FPS game, either, but it will scratch an itch for anyone who adores and misses the Batman: Arkham games’ rhythmic, counter-heavy Freeflow combat.
3
Borderlands
Borderlands is defined by its humor, which has come to be a key trait of Fallout, as well, with more than a couple of similarities to bear between their morally dubious sci-fi mega-corporations. Plus, Borderlands has Vault Hunters searching for Vaults of their own.
Borderlands is a lengthy franchise itself now, with Borderlands 4 having recently released and a number of spin-offs and DLCs being important to blanket lore. However, the consensus seems to be that anyone who wants to be introduced to the Borderlands series should skip the first game and begin with the sequel, Borderlands 2, as it succinctly recounts what little narrative the first game has and is considered to be the best Borderlands game by a significant margin.
2
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Death Stranding’s dystopia is remarkably existential and abstract. Sam Porter Bridges’ courier role is simple on paper, yet it has emotional stakes, such as when he is tasked with escorting a corpse to a remote incinerator and cremating it before the corpse can necrotize and turn into a BT (Beached Thing).
As two different interpretations of a dystopian United States of America, Fallout’s is a parody in an alternate timeline that diverges after the second World War, while Death Stranding’s diverges during the eponymous Death Stranding phenomenon.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is also surprisingly humorous, including an alarming cutscene battle against a Pizza Chef. This does not take away from how bleak it is, with plenty of talk of Extinction Entities, Beaches, and a worldwide disconnect that Sam is tasked with repairing.
1
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl
Unlike the Fallout games, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a survival horror FPS. It takes quite a bit of influence from the ‘survival’ half of survival horror, though, with rich mechanics that players must micromanage in order to stay alive.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series takes place within its own alternate version of real-world history. Here, a second Chernobyl disaster had occurred that affected the world and resulted in the horrors that now claim it. It’s a great game to tide you over until Fallout 5 releases.