Fallout is a series that's changed drastically since Interplay Entertainment's original two isometric CRPGs, as Bethesda acquired the franchise and took it down the first-person, open-world route. And, now, we know what Fallout's OG creators think about where the post-apocalypse is at.
Game Informer recently talked with three developers who were pretty instrumental to Fallout's creation - lead programmer Tim Cain, art director Leonard Boyarsky, and executive producer Brian Fargo - about what's happened to the series since it was passed onto another group of game makers, and their opinions are mixed.
The Outer Worlds co-director and current Obsidian Entertainment dev Tim Cain said he likes what Bethesda's done with the series, although it's not what he would've had in mind. "We would have gone in a different direction, but obviously, sales say people love what they did, and I'm looking at my glass cabinet full of Fallout goodies, some of which are from 1 and 2, and some of which are from 3 and 4," Cain said.
Boyarsky chimed in to say he enjoyed both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, although the former had "a little bit of that green overcast thing, and I feel like it wasn't as crisp as I might have wanted it to be, but this is hindsight talking." He also thought Fallout 3 was "closer to what we would have done with it in terms of RPG-ness" since Fallout 4 sanded down a lot of those roleplaying systems.
"I would say it's almost like [Bethesda has] treated the games like they treated the Amazon series, which is, 'Let's focus on the world's sensibilities and feeling. And if we nail that, then the audience who came from before will appreciate it for what it was,'" InXile Entertainment boss Brian Fargo said. "I think that's what you've got to give them credit for, because it was between the music and the aesthetic and everything else, you could tell, they placed that up on the forefront. And then, they did whatever they wanted with it, which, whether it was Fallout 76, Fallout 4, or the Amazon series, it all led with the vibe and aesthetic of what the original games were. I believe that was their focus, and you've got to say, it worked."
Fallout was a "B-tier side project" compared to the D&D "money teams" at Interplay, says series co-creator Tim Cain: "We're off in the corner"
