Fallout artist Istvan Pely said Bethesda wanted to make it clear Oblivion and Fallout were different things from a style perspective, but thinks they may have taken it a bit far with Fallout 3.
Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 were different in a lot of ways, but perhaps the most striking change between entries was the difference in art direction. Fallout 3 was pure post-apocalypse crossed with the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation's obsession with grey, dull colors, while Fallout 4 went all in on the 1950's retro-futuristic aesthetic and ended up being really colorful. And it turns out that may have been somewhat of a course correction from Bethesda after going too far to differentiate Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Pely explains, "We probably - I won't say 'overcorrected' - but we definitely wanted to make it very clear that this was going to be a stylistically and tonally very different game from what came before." But despite the gloomy atmosphere, Pely admitted creating a devastated version of Washington DC "was actually a lot of fun." He adds, "This tickled some part of the brain where it's just kind of fun to blow things up."
Pely adds, "Oblivion was a very colourful and classic fantasy," saying it is "bright, kind of happy, positive kind of game." So when it came to Fallout 3, "we went hard on the gloomy despair of the post-apocalyptic world," saying that "We just drained the colour out of the world, we grind every asset up to just make this place feel as ruined and as dark as possible." And while he doesn't comment on whether this impacted the more vibrant art direction of Fallout 4, it sure feels like that's the case.
The very first Fallout 3 art was the box art, but the most difficult bit to create was the iconic Vault suit
