The recent success of Prime Video’s TV adaption has seen Fallout’s cult status expand into a global renaissance. Being the most recent mainline entry, newcomers and veterans have flocked to 2015’s Fallout 4, with Bethesda recently boasting an influx of 5 million players to its post-apocalyptic RPG series. In fact, where Fallout 4 is concerned, physical copies of the game have become gold dust; impossible to find. The long-awaited next-gen update – announced in 2022 but only just released in 2024 – has exacerbated matters further. Hype for Fallout is at fever pitch, and in anticipation for when lust for Fallout 4 dies down eyes are turning towards other games in the series.
We can debate until we’re blue in the face as to whether Fallout 3 is the superior predecessor to Fallout 4, but it’s Fallout 3 – Bethesda’s radical re-reworking of the original isometric turn-based RPG – which is capturing most attention. Rumours of a remastered version have been circulating for almost a year following several leaked Microsoft documents during the trial of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Published by the Federal Trade Commission, these documents indicated a Fallout 3 remaster was in the pipeline, to be released from the vaults in 2024. Now, there’s been no official confirmation from Bethesda, and with these documents originally dating back to 2020 before Microsoft took over Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media the viability of their content comes into scrutiny. It’s as equally likely a Fallout 3 rework has been cancelled as it is still in the works. Bethesda could announce something any day now but, given Fallout 3’s revered status amongst gamers despite its imperfections, something more akin to a remake would be worth the effort by the developer.
The depths to which a remake or remaster should furrow is hard to call. Would Fallout 3 benefit from a vast Shadow of the Colossus style redesign? Probably not. Would a Shenmue I&II refresh – a graphical, quality-of-life overhaul only – be enough given Fallout 3’s aforementioned imperfections? No, it likely needs a bit more. Shenmue wears its warts with pride; it’s somewhat of a charm to the series to feel bemused by its quirks, and whilst this is true of Bethesda titles too there are some aspects to Fallout 3 that feel too subpar for a mere remaster to be substantial enough for today’s gamers.
The openness of its open world design, for one, would benefit from a modern re-work. Now, the Capital Wasteland is amongst the grittiest, realest feeling environments any Fallout game occupies – despite the immersion breaking abundance of unspoiled food and pre-The Great War tech still functioning – but the design of Washington DC’s crumbled streets, with too many a pathway blocked by rubble can lead it to feeling too linear. The dust covered attention to detail is spoiled somewhat by Fallout 3’s lacklustre graphical fidelity too, of which if there’s any aspect of this sixteen-year-old game that hasn’t aged well then it’s this. Principally, the environment possesses a drab, flat quality, with little to no shadow detail amongst the grey. As immersive as Fallout 3’s open world is, a remaster alone isn’t going to fix the penned-in feeling of its ruined city streets, and should Bethesda go to the effort of redesigning its city they’ll likely plough some effort into boosting its shadow detail beyond sharpening up the graphics.
Controls can be finicky and gunplay can be sluggish too, especially for console players using a controller. It’s remarkable, in fact, that despite the precision posed by Fallout 3’s assisted targeting system V.A.T.S. – enabling players to target specific body parts of their enemies – that wielding a weapon still felt like a chore. Precision wasn’t high enough in real-time combat; shooting – especially in close quarters – was a frustrating affair without V.A.T.S.
Thankfully, the modding community – of which Fallout 3 has amongst the most dedicated of any game – stepped in to provide a fix to the game’s unruly weapons. The RH_Ironsights mod allows players to aim down the sight of their gun’s barrel and given Fallout 3 is ostensibly an FPS title this mod is one of the most downloaded. Bethesda overlooked this essential pre-requisite in the original game, so a Fallout 3 remake gives them opportunity to redesign and refine the combat, as for all their efforts in crafting an immersive, detail-rich environment with an innovative, enjoyable assisted targeted system, the act of shooting an enemy dragged the whole experience down a notch.
The modding community fixed a lot of Fallout 3’s other downfalls, so much so it’d be prudent for Bethesda to incorporate some of the most popular improvements mods can provide into a Fallout 3 remake as – with any remake or remaster – mods currently available will cease functioning. A vanilla Fallout 3 remake without the ability to aim down a gun’s barrel won’t go down well.
But quality of life mods are in abundance too. For instance, sprinting is a worthy option for players provided via mod, especially those who are on their second run and beyond. UI fixes to on-screen information’s legibility are another important mod to install. The ability to add or remove elements of the in-game HUD have been welcomed by many. Loot menus – giving ability to scroll through items collected from containers and dead NPCs all automatically compartmentalised is a vital ease-of-use addition.
Mods, of course, aren’t available to console players, and as already mentioned any new version of Fallout 3 will make these improvements inaccessible to PC players too, so it’d be more advantageous in terms of user experience if Fallout 3 was remade, beyond a remaster, with some of these mods included in its design.
What we haven’t stated thus far is why this feature centres on Fallout 3 specifically. It isn’t just that Fallout 3 is rumoured to be remastered, or just that it’s amongst the most loved of any Fallout game. No, Fallout 3 is revered for one major thing: its atmosphere is second to none. This is in no small part to the viability of the Capital Wasteland, with factions and political divide adding depth to proceedings, but also in the game’s opening prologue where we cycle through important milestones of The Lone Wanderer’s life up until the game’s events – being born, learning to shoot, enjoying a birthday party – and it all serves to underpin a deep connection with the character beyond the attribute assignment any other RPG exhibits at a game’s outset.
Stepping out of Vault 101 for the first time, light burning your retinas, a vast emptiness awaiting, there’s a remarkable feeling of isolation. The satirising of 1950s cold war America, it’s blurring of bleakness and humour, is achieved to the best extent here over any other Fallout game too. Humorous moments are offset by glimpses of scorched carcasses, loved ones in a final caress before being annihilated by nuclear explosion. Even though it’s been mentioned in this feature, the sprint mod isn’t at all necessary, as the solitude afforded in walking from point A to point B in a grim wasteland isn’t something you can feel in any other Fallout game. They’re too densely packed in comparison. Despite all its foibles, there really is no other Fallout game like Fallout 3, and its deserving of a remake over a mere remaster as a result.
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