The Fallout franchise is on sale at Steam but I only want to purchase one of them; which is the best?
Wow S_B, that’s a loaded question to Fallout Fans. 
I’m going to weasel this, but forgive me. If you want a game played ‘as-is’, meaning no mods, and probably a story most true to the lore prior to the '76 and other Bethesda revisions, I’d go for Steam’s Ultimate Fallout New Vegas bundle at 9.99. It has the game and all the DLC for it.
It definitely shows it’s age, and I would absolutely make a point of making a distinct save at least ever 30 minutes, because it does tend to be buggy, and saves and plays can get corrupted. You will see at least a few spinning roulette wheels of endless stuck loading screens no matter what. You may see the casino take all your gear and forget to give it back. But since you mention Steam, you’ll be playing on a PC and console commands can and will save you. Don’t (unless that’s the way you want to play) use them to cheat, but feel free to use them to fix errors.
If you want something more modern, Fallout 4 can be fun, although the scripted storyline has never grabbed anyone’s attention. I have played it for 1000+ hours, but most of that was with mods - to enable better looking gear, more realistic damage and fights, added storylines, additional customization. You name it. But without mods (I use Nexus), you may find it bland. But - if you’re fresh to the series, you’re also not going to balk at certain lore issues, or other expectations, so just the more modern appearance may be worth it to you. Again, get a DLC bundle - Far harbor is amazing, Nuka World can be fun depending on how tongue in cheek you like it, and the others are very niche (do you want your own murderbots? Are you all about crafting? Belike)
Fallout 3 is actually better than most give credit for, but is less impressive than FNV while being just as archaic visually. Fallout 1 and 2 are great from a lore standpoint, but their play is very Classic CRPG and the pacing by modern standards means they can be quite tedious.
And I hate '76 with the fury of a thousand suns, so, even on a free weekend, not going to recommend. Then again, I don’t like world PvP in the other games I play, and supposedly there is a lot less griefing/exploits than in the past, so YMMV.
I enjoyed Fallout 2 the most, but Fallout: New Vegas actually has the best storylines. I’m not really a fan of FPS games, though, so your tastes may differ; as such, I haven’t played Fallout 4 or the disaster that was Fallout 76.
Stranger
Thanks for the reply, PL; lot of info there.
The thing that really jumped out to me was at the end of your post tho: I thought Fallout games were solo, not online multiplayer.
Thank you as well. I’m not a big fan of FPS shooters either, but I’ve heard so many good things about the franchise in general that I thought I’d take a look myself if it wasn’t going to cost me a fortune (i.e., more than 25-30 bucks).
Plus I like exploring and running around, and it seems like that’s a big part of this franchise.
No problemo S_B. Yeah, prior to '76 (and one of the reasons a huge percentage of Fallout fans HATE 76) Fallout was all single player. While I wouldn’t call the the ‘modern’ (Fallout 3, NV, and 4) iterations traditional FPS, they are absolutely FPS derivatives. Fallout 3/NV use VATS combat for those of us without great aiming skills - you basically pause combat, and can que up a number of targeted [ranged] attacks, then chain complete them during which you also take substantially less damage.
Fallout 4 use a version of this but instead of pausing the game, puts you into something closer to bullet time while you que up and target your attacks. It’s also how you use their critical hit system, rather than just being a Luck/Perk/Weapon based variable of the prior games.
True FPS fans treat people with VATS builds as ‘lessers’, but like you mentioned, I’m more about exploring and getting completion than I am about getting iron-sights headshots from across the plains.
I’ll rank them.
- Fallout New Vegas <—great all around
- Fallout 2 <–older, but what a game
- Fallout 3 <—I love this one as well
- Fallout
- Fallout 4 <–nice game, but with some real issues.
None of these are online. They are fully solo. I should also point out the FPS is not really the genre. They are first-person role playing and you do shoot with guns, but the majority of the game is the role-playing aspect.
I think the consensus is probably going to be New Vegas, but I have enjoyed all of them.*
I don’t think you can go wrong starting at the beginning and working your way through the series. It’ll keep you occupied for a long time, and there are robust modding communities for the later games.
*I haven’t played 76 and don’t intend to.
Another “if I had to pick one, it would be New Vegas with no hesitation” vote from me.
I mostly agree with this list too, only swapping Fallout 1 and 3. Also I put New Vegas and Fallout 2 as a 1a and 1b, they’re quite different in the gameplay and action, but for their ages and styles they are both greats.
Also not listed are Fallout Tactics, Fallout Brotherhood of Steel and Fallout Shelter. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel is a tactical rpg using the same or modified version that runs 1 & 2, while Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is some sort of action game that is basically forgotten and from what it seems for good reason. And shelter is a free mobile game that’s about building a vault (and microtransactions).{also on Steam}
If you insist on only playing one, play New Vegas imo, unless you really dislike FPS games, since VATS won’t cover all of combat, then play Fallout 2.
Just playing one game really cuts out the in-game tropes and memes that are established in the first and second that carry over into the rest.
I feel like the original Fallout should be played first, since it’s a good jumping-off point for understanding the lore of the series and it’s relatively short and linear compared to the other games. It definitely requires an appreciation of old-school PCRPGs to get through it, though. If you’ve played Wasteland 2, Fallout 1 should be a walk in the park in comparison.
I wouldn’t count it. I had hoped it had an entire single-player campaign, but it does not. It’s some kind of fully online MMORPG instead.
Even Fallout 4, the worst one, is still really great in some ways. I would actually recommend all of the main ones. I still think Fallout New Vegas should have been Fallout 4. There is no reason it isn’t a “numbered” one.
I’m the exception to the rule: I don’t get the appeal of Fallout: New Vegas. Maybe it’s because I’m getting less interested in “conversation fetch quests” in my old age (e.g. person A sends you to talk to person B who sends you to talk to person C who sends you to talk to person B who sends you to talk to person A).
If they’ve fixed the crashing issues with Fallout 4, I’d recommend that.
anything after 2 is pretty much a reskinned sci-fi version of the elder scrolls and and they pretty much play the same
Another vote for New Vegas for the best Fallout game overall, and it’s not particularly close.
Fallout 1 and 2 are still great games, but they are very dated. The UI of those games was already bad 20 years ago, and time has not done them any favors. The first Fallout had great atmosphere, but I prefer the 2nd game for overall better story and world building. It has some silly moments that don’t always work, though.
The one thing Fallout 3 does better than New Vegas is environmental story telling. You can stumble on something random and interesting in the environment that tells a story just based on how it’s setup without any actual quest being involved in the location. There’s a lot of subtle story telling in the environment that’s mostly absent from the real quests of Fallout 3 and the later Fallout games like Fallout 4 and 76. The majority of Fallout 3 world building, side-quests and especially the main story line is just terrible, though.
Have you guys played 1 or 2 recently? I loved 2, but they’re super dated and I wouldn’t recommend them.
3 is also dated, but it holds up alright. Haven’t played past that.
I actually just finished replaying Fallout 4 for the first time since its initial release. I somehow got a PS5 and didn’t feel like actually buying any new games for it. It runs butter-smooth on the new hardware and the addition of just a few visual and QoL mods (and the pickings on console are, I’m sure, much slimmer than on PC) really improved the experience.
I still had a few crash issues and one big bug made me revert to an earlier save at the cost of a few hours of playtime, but overall I enjoyed it quite a lot. It does feel railroady, but a lot of the dialogue is very good and the exploration/wandering is top notch.
I was also kind of tickled to find out that the FO4 subreddit is still very active, with people posting all the little stuff they find. The game is positively stuffed with jokes and easter eggs and neat little secrets.
I played it kind of late(2020) and it was solid for me.
I HATED the crafting/building stuff, though. I skipped all of it and used console codes to get past the required parts.
I also felt massively under attack all the time in the early stages of that game. I couldn’t breathe at first for how much “fire” was coming at me from enemies. I didn’t experience it that way in other games. I was dead like 20 times very early.
I found it totally manageable later. A subpar Fallout, but decent.
Far Harbor was better.
I say 1&2 + New Vegas.
I’m getting the sense that New Vegas is going to my choice. 
Really appreciate all the feedback, recommendations and explanations here; y’all totally fucking rock!