Fallout 4 gets an announcement trailer, and we break it down frame by frame

The trailer starts with the Ink Spots playing and the camera pulling back from a mysteriously functional television set – a direct homage to the original Fallout’s opening cinematic. It’s also a cue that it’s about to be pre-war story time.

Cutting back and forth between the same house in suburban bliss and apocalyptic dilapidation, it looks like Fallout 4 may dig into pre-war life (and its sudden, violent end) more than any other game in the series.

Here’s the first appearance of your trusty canine companion, but don’t call it Dogmeat – this pooch looks like a German shepherd instead of an Australian cattle dog, and both of its eyes are the same color. Let’s just say it’s The Dog for now.

The bombs are dropping and all the futuristic suburbanites are loading up their huge, swooping retro-futuristic cars to get the hell out of town. Will we get to tune up a Corvega of our own and take it cruising, Fallout 2 style? We can only hope. You can also spot a Vertibird at the top of the frame – the military’s arriving in plenty of time to keep the have-nots at the back of the Vault line.

Here are those have-nots I was talking about. You don’t give your doormen power armor and miniguns unless you’re a little, ahem, overbooked. At least Vault-Tec and the U.S. government are getting along well.

You know how you always see a bunch of skeletons scattered around the outside of a vault entrance? Yeah, looks like Fallout 4 is finally going to show us exactly how they got there.

Here it is – the door to Vault 111. Vault-Tec’s numbering system roughly ascends from west-to-east, with Vault 13 in California and Vault 101 in the Washington DC area, so this is the furthest east Fallout’s gone yet.

And here you are, emerging from the very same vault a century or two later. Just like Fallout 1 and Fallout 3, it looks like you’ll be playing a fresh-from-the-can Vault Dweller in Fallout 4.

This could be your first view in-game of the post-apocalyptic landscape. It looks relatively untouched since the bombs went off, so hopefully you’ll have a little time to get your bearings before raiders swoop in.

Aw, the USS Constitution’s been grounded after centuries of active/ceremonial service. Wait a minute, though, why does it have jets? Like so many other pre-apocalyptic objects of reverence, the Constitution has been repurposed – now she’s an airship, or at least is becoming one.

And here’s another massive airship in flight, taken from a little later in the trailer. But whose flag is it flying? You can also see its searchlight illuminating the Paul Revere monument in Boston’s historic North End.

Speaking of historic Boston, here we see a Mysterious-Stranger looking fellow striding through Scollay Square. Note that Scollay Square was largely torn down in the ’60s to make way for the new Government Center – but that’s after our real-world timeline splits off from Fallout’s.

This Protectron seems to be guarding the outskirts of a redeveloped downtown area. That patchwork skyline looks remarkably well constructed, given the circumstances – if society has gotten this far in putting itself back together, Fallout 4 likely takes place well after the previous games.

Who are those mysterious figures patrolling the wastes? The one on the left looks bulky enough to be wearing power armor, but the one on the right is a bit too lurch-y to be a regular soldier. My guess would be super mutants, since they’ve shown up in every other Fallout.

This Deathclaw looks to be awfully far from a cave. If the notoriously deadly creatures are ranging far from their subterranean homes, it’s bad news for everybody. Them just existing is bad enough to begin with.

This will be the first Fallout game to let you soak your Vault-Tec jumpsuit in the Atlantic Ocean. As you can tell from the giant enemy crab (a mirelurk cousin?) scuttling along the beach, things have gotten weird out there, too. Looks like there may even be a settlement on top of that rusted-out ship, like an open-air Rivet City.

Here’s another Vertibird, this time a few hundred years in the future. Assuming that the villainous Enclave isn’t flying it, it’s further proof that the post-apocalyptic wastes are on the rebound. That’s a pretty big “if,” though – the Enclave was soundly beaten in both Fallout 2 and 3, but it keeps coming back like a cockroach… if that cockroach had a semi-legitimate claim to the US presidency.

These feral ghouls look beefier than the scraggly walking corpses we gibbed by the dozen in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. The way they brush those rusty old shopping carts aside is further proof that you should definitely be running right now.

Even if the Red Sox haven’t played in a few hundred years, Diamond City is keeping Fenway Park bustling, and very well fortified. What do you think the odds are that the Green Monster isn’t just a really high wall these days…

And here’s an interior shot of Diamond City, complete with the Swatters Custom Baseball Bat Store and a busy noodle stand. Hopefully that Eyebot is playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on loop and not doing reconnaissance for baseball-hating foes.

Check out this Vertibird’s eye view of the city streets. That doesn’t look like the Enclave’s advanced power armor, so are we looking at the Brotherhood of Steel? Has the New California Republic made it all the way out here? Or has the technical know-how necessary to maintain power armor and Vertibirds disseminated enough for other factions to use them regularly?

Here’s another angle on the reconstructed Boston skyline, but the real star is that golden dome in the lower left. The Massachusetts State House is looking good, all things considered. Come to think of it, it was looking pretty good in The Last of Us’ post-apocalyptic future, too – must be that solid New England carpentry.

The Dog is admiring some fine power armor craftsmanship here. Series fans might die of joy if Fallout 4 finally lets you strip down and rebuild your own custom suit. Also be sure to admire the rest of the arsenal – a laser rifle on the wall, a minigun under a dust cloth, and a Vault Boy statue for luck (or strength, or perception, or endurance, or…)

This is our first look at the protagonist as he walks down a lonesome road. Don’t get too accustomed to his appearance, since chances are good that he’ll once again be fully customizable at the start of the game.

A tender moment between dog and master, revealing a familiar Pip Boy strapped to his wrist and the Vault 111 jumpsuit on his back. Then the dude talks. Whoa! That’s a first! Fallout protagonists have always had plenty to say (if their Speech skill is high enough), but their voice work has never gone beyond “pained grunting” before.

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