Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
But it was the society that existed before the bombs fell that resulted in the societies we saw
But it wasn't though.

Not at all.

It was the circumstances they found themselves in when they were developing, everything about the societies you visit in Fallout 1 and 2 comes from the circumstances they developed in. What resources they had and what specific challenges they had to overcome (or failed to overcome, in the case of Necropolis), who they were in conflict with, who they could exploit, and how far their influence could grow.

The old world was just not important in Fallout until Bethesda. Even when people found leftovers from it, like Mariposa, the important thing was what they did with them not what they had found.

Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas look forward, Fallout 3 and 4 only look backwards.