We talk to Bethesda on the creation of one of the finest RPGs in recent years

The games industry has difficulty with its creative side. Every medium has its crass, commercial projects, but the widespread respect afforded to songwriters, directors and authors is rarely found in games. Here the franchise is king, and we’ve grown accustomed to seeing our favourite series ripped from their creators and thrust inelegantly into the hands of another. Even the most respected names are only a step away from being bled for sequels like Friday The 13th.

Fallout’s devoted fans knew as much, and the moment Bethesda purchased the IP from Black Isle Studios they felt the same thing was happening to them. Fallout 3 would be just another bastard offspring of a once proud institution, sired by an industry with a pathological aversion to originality and a powerful lust for profit. However, impartial observers had reached a different conclusion: Fallout 3 was in the care of Bethesda Softworks, a master of the art of role-play, and failure was not an option.

“We felt obligated by the series, not by the fans in particular, as we’re big fans ourselves,” explains Todd Howard, the game’s producer. “We knew, going into it, that we had huge shoes to fill.” Bethesda is an immensely capable studio, but the Fallout series’ unique personality and rare maturity attracted a jealously protective audience. Very few games took you to the places that Black Isle dared, and it’s natural to be wary of even the most skilful and well-meaning alien influence. Howard could have screamed his sincerity from the highest mountain, but suspicion came with the territory.

To the fans, the series being taken from Black Isle was only exacerbated by the knowledge that Fallout 3 was already in production. The architect of the entire universe would have no say in the new game despite already having one planned, and the myth of Bethesda’s ill intentions grew from there. Some even suggested that the IP was purchased to capitalise on the looming dread engulfing the modern West, but Howard bristles at the idea.

Todd Howard, producer

“It really had nothing to do with current events, or what could happen to us,” he insists. “It was just that this world was great. The Fifties retro future that had been destroyed, that nuclear naivety mixed with a world gone wrong was too cool not to set another game in.” Veterans of the Capital Wasteland are unlikely to argue. The familiar icons and locations allowed gamers a sense of identification that most science-fiction epics set in a post-apocalyptic 2271 can’t command. Even the technology has an endearingly archaic feel to it – the Dalek-voiced security robots march rigidly into mind.

“In Fallout lore, the timeline split after World War II,” explains Emil Pagliarulo, Fallout 3’s lead designer. “Technology kept advancing at a pretty astonishing rate so there were fusion-powered cars, robotic servants, laser weapons, things like that. At the same time, the United States retained very Fifties sensibilities, so the fashions, the hairstyles, the home decor were all more in line with old American TV shows like Leave It To Beaver or Father Knows Best.”

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