Fallout London

 Ol' Blighted Blighty

When we come to the delicate hierarchy of video game mod projects, there is perhaps no tier more celebrated, more revered; and yet more hopelessly feared- than the total conversion mod. But if we had to then pick a close second, I think we could then say that the 'expansion' mod is pretty up there. Tasked with meeting, and in many cases surpassing, that which the main Bethesda team were capable of with their own DLC ambitions; the expansion mod always wears big shoes with lofty heights in mind the whole way. How will you model the lands, voice the characters, fit it into the game, match the tone whilst differentiating it enough to justify your project, throw in new assets; do all the things that Bethesda can do with a wage, but for free? In many ways it is a fools errand, and yet it is one that many seek to challenge themselves as indicated by the stupid amount of said projects we see for Mod-supported games all the time. This today is one such mod which does something I've always hoped Bethesda themselves would get around to one day, it takes Fallout International.

And by 'International', I of course mean they take it to my home of London England, always a recipe for something special bordering on wonderment and disaster, when shown to a local. Are we going to be looking at English accents to the quality of Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs Legion (I.e. I can't believe you paid someone to give an accent this bad) or... anything better than that? But that's just one part, because the key is trying to nail the 2077 retro-futurist future which is indicative of Fallout whilst being acutely cognizant of the fact that all of the reference material from Fallout games over the years you have to draw on is based on Americana; and this ain't America. However, I do acknowledge that Fallout's personal take on the world stage is one more dominated by American values than perhaps makes sense, so I wouldn't be surprised to recognise most of the visuals from past games. And yet even with these self-allocated allowances and grants, I have to say that the Fallout London team did pleasantly surprise me.

Unmistakably using the tool kit used to bring post apocalyptic Boston to life means that this vision of London does share some striking similarities to that place. Such to the point that the hustle and bustle of central London looks a bit too much like the Massachusetts city, but all the little extra accoutrements the team threw in might have tipped my perception a bit closer to giving into the illusion. Most iconic of which- the red double decker busses we love so much over here, still retaining the pill-shaped design indicative of Fallout modern transport. But on the topic of transport, they even managed to include moving subway trains in the trailer at the very least. (I can't imagine they could make that into an actual working subway system what with the creation Engine to work with.) There were also some fun-looking Royal guards looking over a faceless building that bared a vague resemblance to Buckingham palace, and my favourite; a collection of tin-hat Brodie Helmet wearing soldiers having a cup of tea like this is Independence Day.

So yeah, the accent is still woeful, but aside from that the team have done an admirable job emulating the image of what someone might expect when visiting future London; and that's all they really needed to do to get this project rolling. Sell me on the illusion of London and I'll buy whatever cliché-ridden mock clone of The Big Smoke that you can come up with. Because at the end of the day you just need to get the imagination going, and that's exactly how I feel looking at this trailer. I want to know what WWI Armor has been dug out by some weirdo enthusiast, I want to know who's going around pretending to be the mythical Knights of Camelot, I want to see the rule the society of England had to play before the end of the world, and I'm willing to play this mod to see what the team have cooked up explaining that. Even if this, and Watch_Dogs Legion, seems to think that all British people either speak like Football hooligans or Fops. I'm not saying that I don't personally fit into one of those stereotypes, but there are people in this country that don't, I swear. 

Speaking of the team, lets delve into the Avengers squad overseeing this little project and the oodles of experience they bring to the table which is; 'amateur to professional'. Yeah, that's about the extent of the information they're willing to share on their team, which is fine but I prefer to at least know a little bit about the etymology of the people working on this thing. As it just so happens all I know is that the lead of the project studied computer science and history and that's about it, not sure why no one else is willing to brag about their credits in anything more than vague terms. There's no problem with that approach per se, I just don't put much stock in 'professional experience' as a tagline without citation, if it wouldn't fly on a CV, why should it fly anywhere else?

I've seen a few similar huge Bethesda projects that fizzle out into nothing, but I will say that in direct contrast to those, Fallout London seems to have an impressive number of unique assets already made for it. Sure there's a lot of tastefully done NifSkope about the place, but Big Ben seems to be entirely custom (as it should be) the buses are just incredible in design and execution, and some of the semi-detached housing looks right at home in fake London. Oh, and my home town of Croydon is apparently in the mod, and they denigrated it into a hotspot for fracking and gas pits so that it looks like something out of the ash heap from Fallout 76. (Which, if anything, is an improvement over current Croydon) I do slightly bristle at the invention of an 'Eastminster; though. I know it's explained, and they try their damndest to justify it- but Eastminster? Really? I know we aren't the most creative people on the planet but damn- that takes the cake.

Although the project is likely years away from anything resembling a complete release, those involved have been rather diligent in providing details of everything they've been up to. just check out their Youtube page and you can watch a few update videos, a lot of snippets of content such as songs which I presume will populate the airwaves, and on the official website there's even a few releases of guns and outfits that will be used in the full project. It's quite the vehicle of moving parts then, and it's clear to see how those involved are dedicating the height of their passion and talents where possible. And of course, for any project like this, it's by no means at team capacity, thus those with the relevant skillset are encouraged to lend what they can where they can to this new-age art exhibition in the making. (There is certainly something to be said about the community nature of large mod projects like this and their place in the art community; I wonder if any one in those fields has ever bothered having that conversation?)

Once more I'm always happy to see my homeland turned into a virtual shooting gallery by game developers, and the reinterpretations and personalisations atop the reality I'm familiar with is fine in it's own special way. At the end of the day my only real worry is what can be done to make this feel like an actual breathing world space instead of... well, how 90% of the rest of Fallout 4 feels. (Like a pretty place to shoot people and nothing else.) I don't know if Fallout 4's setbacks were due to actual limitations of that iteration of the creation engine, or just a misplaced ethos the company was holding at the time, but I hope whatever the case that Fallout London is able to overcome them. Just making the many factions they're developing interactable in some way other than being bullet sponges will be a huge step towards the better in my eyes. So Now we've finally got Fallout in London and I can put those longing dreams to rest, next step is Fallout China I guess...