This morning, Bethesda released the Fallout 4 launch trailer, which you can watch below. Aside from letting us know the wait is almost over, and making that wait a bit more difficult, the trailer divulges some information about the game’s main questline.
Starting off showing already-seen footage of the nuclear holocaust, the video shows both the male and female versions of the player character traversing the wasteland. Both male and female voiceovers talk about emerging into the wasteland, including the familiar line that “War, war never changes.”
The video then shifts to new story content. A woman, who seems to be giving a speech, asks: “Would you risk your life for your fellow man? Even if that fellow man is a synth?” She is most likely referring to the androids present in The Commonwealth, hinted at in Fallout 3. Next, a man is shown talking about The Institute, what may be the remnants of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as “a cancer” and “a malignant growth that needs to be cut, before it reaches the surface.” The trailer shows a mixture of already-seen and new gameplay footage, including the player fighting savage deathclaws and shooting down a VertiBird with a rocket launcher. Scenes exemplifying the tension between synths and humans are also shown, including a man pleading others not to shoot him because he is a human and not an android. This implies that there may be witch hunts taking place to root out androids.
“In the end, we will be saving humankind from its worst enemy: itself,” Says the man who describes The Institute as a cancer. Preston Garvey, one of the previously shown companions who can accompany the player on his or her journey, is also seen and heard again. The trailer then shows a robotic humanoid, which could either be a synth without skin, or a new kind of enemy altogether. The trailer ends with the words “You don’t find The Institute. The Institute finds you.”
There’s even more to be unpacked here, so watch the video for yourself once or twice, or a couple dozen times. If this isn’t enough to scratch your Fallout 4 itch, Bethesda recently talked about the graphics technology behind the game and released gorgeous new screenshots.
Fallout 4 releases next Tuesday, November 10, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
