Lead Fallout: New Vegas dev says Bethesda strayed away from the RPG's origins — "They just don’t fully understand its roots"

While all of the Fallout games that developer Bethesda Game Studios has made after acquiring the RPG series from creator Interplay Entertainment in 2007 — Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter, and Fallout 76 — have proven to be popular with players, they've also always been rather contentious. Many didn't like the more lighthearted, comic tone of Fallout 4 and 76 in particular, and don't like that it carried over into Amazon's ongoing Fallout TV show, now in its second season.

What Fallout's former developers think of the RPG's current direction has always been a bit of a mystery, though a new comment from a designer that worked on 1998's Fallout 2 and served as a senior designer for Obsidian Entertainment's 2010 Fallout: New Vegas and its DLCs reveals his thoughts on The Elder Scrolls studio's work with the franchise.

The designer in question is Chris Avellone, known for his writing and design work on the aforementioned titles as well as other famed RPGs like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and Wasteland 3. When a fan asked what he thought about the speculation that Bethesda hates Fallout (referring to how it used to be), he had this to say:

"I don’t think Bethesda hates Fallout, they just don’t fully understand its roots and arguably, don’t care — they own the franchise, and they just want to do their spin on Fallout and make that the norm," he replied. "This usually translates into a colorful, shallow theme park (with some interesting DLC exceptions, like Far Harbor, Point Lookout — and I was one of the ones who liked The Pitt) — still, theme parks are fun for some folks, so if people enjoy it, that’s fine with me."

"As for me, I don’t hate Bethesda, there are things they do well (open world exploration), and there are things they do badly (telling linear stories in open world games and their inability to understand how to use the Speech skill)," he continued. "But every developer has their pros and cons."

It's interesting to see what one of Fallout's oldest developers thinks about the direction Bethesda has taken the post-apocalyptic RPG in throughout the modern era of gaming, and overall, I find myself agreeing with his opinion on the matter. For me, Fallout is always at its best when its humorous elements accentuate its darker political satire themes, but they've been placed front-and-center in recent entries and the TV show.

I thought Fallout 3 struck a great balance that was reminiscent of the vibe of Interplay's original CRPGs, but Fallout 4 swung hard in the colorful and comedic direction, with Fallout 76 and the TV show largely following suit. I still enjoy it, mind, but I do wish the series took itself a bit more seriously these days.

Avellone also hit the nail on the head in regards to his criticisms about Bethesda's linear narratives and poor dialogue options. The developer's tendency to write tight, mostly on-rails stories with minimal branching paths feels antithetical to the RPG's roots, and it's one of the only things I've truly hated about its Fallout games.

Both tonally and structurally, New Vegas is much closer to the classic Fallout experience than any of Bethesda's titles have ever been, complete with incredible player freedom, a deeply open-ended story, and a more serious approach to world design that ensures comedy takes a backseat to more earnest narrative themes.

It's for that reason that I believe it's widely considered to be the best game in the franchise, and I really hope that Fallout 5 is much closer to it than Fallout 4 when it eventually releases. But hey, even if it's not, at least we're getting a Fallout: New Vegas (and Fallout 3) remaster at some point.

Note that all the Fallout games across Xbox and PC are currently playable through Xbox Game Pass, with the old-school CRPGs limited to PC since they never got console ports.

What do you think of what Bethesda has done with the Fallout IP? Would you prefer if the studio styled their games after the old-school RPGs, or do you prefer its newer direction? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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