Fallout is the kind of franchise that would scare most developers. On one side you’ve got one of the best-loved RPGs this gaming world has ever known and on the other you’ve got the hardcore fans who love it so much they would eat you alive if you did something wrong with it. And by wrong, I mean turn it into a first-person shooter and make it look like it’ll be another Oblivion, only with guns and power armor. Since that’s exactly what Fallout 3 developer Bethesda is doing, the fans have been having a field day enumerating all things wrong with the game. For those hardcore fans, lead designer Emil Pagliarulo had this to say:
“That’s always the toughest question. You listen to the fans and respect their ideas, but once you start designing a game that they want to make specifically, then you can get yourself into trouble … You have to make the game that you’re making and know that it’s a good one and continue with that.”
Destructoid’s Jim Sterling had this to say about the comment:
At the end of the day, Bethesda is responsible for a sequel that was always going to make people unhappy, no matter how well made the game may or may not be. It’s simply impossible to give everybody exactly what they want and the studio clearly knows this. Sometimes what fans want is what’s best for themselves, not the franchise, and sometimes it’s just not worth trying to cater to everybody, because once you start attempting to satisfy everyone, you end up pleasing none. Like Emil said, you just have to make what you’re making. Let the fans answer with their wallets, and the fallout for Fallout be as it may.
Personally, I’m just happy that the franchise is alive, that someone’s actually making Fallout 3. I’ve given up on the series ever since the Van Buren screenshots surfaced almost five years ago. With the closure of Black Isle Studios, I thought back then that the images were the nails on the coffin, that after years of speculation, Fallout was finally dead. Now that Bethesda’s making it, people grieve. Why? Because it’s in first-person, that it’s too much like Oblivion, that it isn’t really Fallout.
If you don’t like Oblivion and Morrowind then I understand your sentiments because I doubt that anything Bethesda does at this point is going to change your mind. But if you liked both titles, then I say give Fallout 3 a chance. If it sucks then you’ve proven your point. If it doesn’t then maybe there’s something in the game that might be worth looking at. The reviews and sales will come in and we’ll get the answers then.