Fallout Season 2 and the imminent arrival of Fallout 4‘s Switch 2 port have led to a plethora of news on the past, present, and future of the franchise. Of course, that includes plenty of new insights on the development of the more distant games, such as Fallout 3.
Game Informer’s multi-part Oral History of the enduring RPG series is the gift that keeps on giving (really, give it a full read if you have the time), and now we’re sharing an interesting bit on what actually happened with Fallout 3’s Washington DC area, which we’ve always known was severely cut down in the final release as Bethesda Games Studios readjusted the scope and depth of the ambitious game.
It was lead designer and writer Emil Pagliarulo, a well-known name for Bethesda fans and detractors, who commented again on the problems the team ran into as they bit more than they could chew: “Originally, we had this thought that the Metro would be connected completely underground. And we realized it was just too sprawling. It was too big.”
If you’re familiar with Fallout 3, you know that, at least in your first playthrough, moving through DC’s Metro underground is pretty much unavoidable in order to advance the main questline early on. Of course, it’s not a must once you figure out how things are structured and the absurd number of quests you can straight-up skip, but the ghoul-infested stations are places we’ve all visited at least once or twice. The problem? They’re too samey and quite limited in variety. Plus, they’re simply full of load screens as you transition between cells and into the topside areas of Washington.
Overall, Fallout 3’s Metro map was never very enjoyable to traverse or loot because of its disjointed nature, which ironically happened as a result of having to “cut down sections” because “traversing miles of underground subway stations” is all realism, but the lesson BGS has learned over the years is “that being realistic sometimes isn’t fun.”
Needless to say, there’s a huge crowd for denser experiences like that, as some great mods for Bethesda’s games have proven, but when you’re targeting a mainstream audience, it just makes sense to hold back a bit and put your resources elsewhere. At least that’s what I think as a renowned Bethesda sicko who’d no doubt enjoy an expanded Metro underground.
In any case, thinking about the more casual crowd and empowering other aspects of the RPGs clearly paid off, as Fallout 4 instantly became Bethesda’s biggest Fallout ever and remains many players’ personal favourite over a decade after its launch.
