Viva (New)Mexico!
The world of modding is always one of the most impressive creative avenues I think one can dedicate themselves to, for the very practical way it demonstrates talent, passion and drive to create for an audience of excitable no-paying consumers. I always think it's the perfect springboard for game developers to meet their newest generation of employees (even if I wish Bethesda would wait until the release of highly anticipated mods before poaching the working staff sometimes.) And, of course, Bethesda games count themselves among the most commonly modded in all the industry. Small model retextures all the way up to massive story mods that are contributed to by dozens of artists, modding is a venue for expression that cannot be overlooked for the impact it has on the games around it. Indeed, I suspect the reason why Bethesda games have been made using practically the exact same engine for so very long is because of how well that engine facilitates modding.
Claiming one mod as 'the one to watch' however can actually be a little difficult at a time like this, especially as we teeter on the release of two major projects both within the realm of Fallout within the coming year. The increadibly impressive 'Fallout London' which I've covered before and the just as creatively curious, Fallout Nuevo Mexico which recently debuted an extended glimpse at Gameplay for perusal. For my money, however, simply from being born from the easier to work with framework of Fallout New Vegas, Nuevo Mexico is probably going to have the easier time working it's way to the masses. I do not envy the London team trying to squeeze a fully fledged RPG experience out of the Fallout 4 toolkit.
In the heart of many other giant 'full conversion' mods of the past, Nuevo Mexico transports Fallout New Vegas players to a totally new adventure in a new land with new mechanics they've never seen before in a Fallout game. Whereas 'New California' had some fantastic new visuals and a decently branching core narrative, and 'The Frontier' had an overly ambitious grasp on the New Vegas engine and what they could accomplish within those confines; Nuevo Mexico seems to want to provide an experience very similar to what New Vegas was with a lean towards exploring more distinct various cultures. It's quite surprising, actually, that we've yet to meet a Spanish speaking character in a game set right next to Los Angeles, until this mod, of course.
In an extended gameplay reveal event for the giant mod, we've seen a lot about what makes this experience interesting compared to the game we know to death and already I'm picking up on a few peculiarities that have wormed their way into the old imagination hat. One such that intrigues me for the moment is the idea of Nuevo Mexico offering two unique introductions to the world that seem to start you on totally different main quest paths, at least initially. You have the more standard route of 'The Convict', who is an escapee from some sort of robot manned post-war prison in an obvious nod to the original 'Van Bulen' concept for Fallout 3 which was in planning before the company collapsed and Bethesda acquired the brand. And 'The Amnesiac' which presents a franchise first perspective of being a Ghoul inside a community of Ghoul faithful's in what appear to be an expansion on the concept of the Jason Bright questlines from 'Fallout New Vegas' proper.
One of the unescapable truths of any sort of open world adventure title is that no matter how hard you try there'll never be a moment like the first time you step out into the world and discover the adventure waiting for you. But with the good grace of the incredible slate of brilliant and giant mods Fallout is being treated to of late, that is a feeling we can evoke time and time again. Some mods nail it better than others, but the brief snippets of Nuevo Mexico we've seen seem to nudge at that sensation in my heart, that I have hope for what these budding developers can accomplish creating something that neatly fits the rhythm of a Fallout title in a neat little one shot side story- which are indeed some of my favourite ways to experience Fallout. (Who has time for a full game length playthrough every few months? I've got a life to pretend to live!)
I think there's an understanding by this development team of what the crux of a great Fallout game should be, one that has avoided Bethesda ever since they acquired the franchise. A constant hallmark of Bethesda's Fallout has been their focus on the desolation of the destroyed world, whereas Obsidian and these mod developers find the peculiarities of the risen post-modern societies far more interesting. Even the brief road-side interaction with a gang of particularly 'aggressive' raiders that we seen in the gameplay speaks to an acknowledgement that the human element of Fallout is it's most threatening and it's most endearing. Give me hubs full of stories and characters I want to get to know and you'll have my attention. Oh wait, we've already seen some cool guy with a sick robot arm and a girl with a half-ghoul face- I want to get to know the world already!
Of course the only thing I really care about is the one thing I didn't know I even needed from a Fallout game. Something so obvious that it's inclusion struck me like a diamond bullet through the skull, shattering my hedonic compliancy like fine glass. Dual wielded pistols, of course. How else am I going to role-play the wanted bandito gunning down locals with my dead-eyed draw? Truly I've been letting down the team for not expecting this from every Fallout game and being livid as we've been denied time and time again! But seriously, it's cool to see a development team on their toes to think up what they can do which others around them haven't already tried. (In big mods like this I mean. I'm sure someone has cobbled together akimbo pistols in a New Vegas mod before.) That's the kind of fire that serves a creative very well in the arts.
Fallout is like that canvas which never fails to inspire, heck I even wrote a short story set squarely in it's universe that I published on this blog a while ago- there's just so many stories we all want to tell in it's world. Someday I hope Bethesda take advantage of their licence a bit more and give out the rights to specialist studios that can really expand out the licence. Fallout Squad tactical game in an XCOM fashion, Fallout puzzle point-and-click adventure title like a renaissance Monkey Island- heck, maybe even a Fallout style life-sim with Persona elements. It could work! Until then it's the fans that are the key creative force keeping this franchise alive in the decades between release instalments- ensuring that the spark for the darkly humorous never reaches it's half-life.
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