While rumours have indicated that Bethesda is working on a brand new Fallout game, the lack of any official confirmation from the studio has led to questions regarding the future of the franchise. In a recent interview with Esports.net, Dean Carter—project lead on the enormous Fallout 4 total conversion mod Fallout: London—has expressed some cynicism about where the studio could take the series.
When asked how Bethesda could potentially freshen the Fallout series up by changing its formula, Carter said that it might just be time for the company to sell the IP to another developer. “With the greatest respect to Bethesda, I feel like they’ve probably gone one game too far, if I’m honest,” he said.
“I feel like it’s time to go off into the sunset and look at selling off your IP because people like the franchise, I’m just honestly not sure it’s in the right hands, and it really hurts me to say that because I love Bethesda.”
Chief among his complaints about Bethesda’s run at the Fallout franchise has been the downward trend of the quality of its writing. He similarly also brings up The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, noting that he doesn’t think it’s the “best game of all time like some people,” and that instead “it’s a very, very good game.”
“I reckon if they could inject in the quality of some good writers, then the next Elder Scrolls game will be great and the next Fallout game will be great but they need better writers, honestly,” said Carter. “Everything has its own pros and cons but the one thing we agreed on with Fallout: London is that we wanted to make it more dark and gritty because that’s what Fallout actually is, and I think Bethesda are taking it in the opposite direction.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Carter also spoke about the Fallout franchise revisiting the settings and atmosphere of the original Fallout. Noting that, while he enjoyed Fallout 4, he prefers the approach that the 1997 classic took to its setting and tone to the more slapstick style that Bethesda has taken since Fallout 4.
“I would love to see the Fallout 1 setting again. I think it would be great because that’s where it all started and to really go back to it would be something,” he said. “I actually like the Fallout TV show. I know a lot of people were saying that the second season isn’t so good or whatever but I feel it’s definitely got a Fallout 4 vibe to it, which is fine.”
“I like Fallout 4 but I would like more of a Fallout 1 vibe and I feel like if you want a Fallout 1 vibe in terms of a show, you should probably watch Silo. I think Silo is a good shout for that. It’s a bit darker and grim,” Carter continued, bringing up comparisons between Prime Video’s adaptation and Apple TV+’s Silo.
“I prefer Fallout to have that sort of tone rather than going all slapstick. It’s a bit more humorous but the humour in the first series was dark humour. The slapstick stuff needs to stop because that’s not what Fallout is.”
