They should make a Fallout game that takes place directly after the bombs fall. Like you actually see them fall and you get to see the direct aftermath. It could lean into the franchise’s much darker themes.
You couldn’t afford to get in a vault, and now you’re seeing your friends and neighbors both literally and figuratively turn into monsters.
Radiation is a constant worry. Without a Pip-Boy you have no way of tracking radiation. You just have to count the ticks on the Geiger counter and pray it isn’t enough to push you over the edge. Also, a ghoulification mechanic would be fun. Imagine every time you hit fatal amount of radiation there’s a small chance you ghoulify, and you just have to deal with that for the rest of your playthrough.
As the game progresses, you see the famous wasteland start to take shape. The Brotherhood, super mutants, ghouls.
It could be a return to form for the franchise, embracing the dark beginnings of the original Fallout.
An upside could be that it takes so far back in the past that anything that happens won’t affect the current story.
