“There’s really no winning”: Fallout 2 Remake mod lead talks “walking the thin line” of reimagining a classic
Skyblivion might have bagged more headlines, but it’s far from the only ambitious modding project being worked on for a Bethesda game with the goal of putting a fresh spin on a classic. Fallout 4: Project Arroyo arguably has an even tougher task, with its team aiming to reimagine the turn-based and isometric Fallout 2 through Fallout 4’s 3D action lens.
In a fresh interview with YouTuber AVV Gaming that also sheds light on how the team are hoping to incorporate aspects of an original Fallout remake mod that was mothballed last year, Project Arroyo lead Damion Daponte has discussed how they’ve approached the difficult task of deciding how much to tweak as they reinterpret the 90s RPG.
“I would say the hardest part is walking the thin line of not making a completely different game than Fallout 2, but also not keeping it exactly [how it is],” Daponte said in response to being asked about the project’s biggest challenges. “Because we could easily just keep it exactly the same, but I will say, especially in this engine, it will be a worse game if we do keep it exactly the same. Even if people don’t realise that. I’m sure some people will get angry that we’ve changed anything. There’s really no winning when it comes out. I think most of the changes will be for the better.”
As you might expect given the nature of the two games, Daponte outlined that most of the changes the Project Arroyo team are making are related to how Fallout 2’s tales and locations are best packaged in a Fallout 4-style game. For example, rather than putting together one big open world space to house everything, as was originally the plan, the modders have opted to break things up into hub worlds that are better at translating Fallout 2’s broader geography. So, you won’t be able to see San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge from everywhere, but the aim’s to have enough custom locations and encounters in and around each hub to give folks their exploration fix.
As for adapting individual missions or levels, Daponte outlined the process as follows:
We will block out the area very similarly to how Fallout 2 blocked out the level. However, there will be some minor changes [that] I’ll know immediately [to make] with certain areas. For example, the church at the den area in Fallout 2. I wanted more options to enter. If you have a stealth build, I wanted the player to be able to lockpick the door in the back and come in through the back. And then on the inside there’s crates and stuff. So, we laid out the crates in a way that the player could sneak in and hide behind the crates and loot them while there’s people inside.
In line with that, a lot of the changes stem from accounting for how the player’s movement differs, and also elements like adding verticality to Fallout 2’s fairly flat isometric sprawls. Presumably, they’ll be taking a few cues from how Bethesda themselves reinvented Fallout as a 3D first-person action-RPG with Fallout 3.
It’s a challenge that another Fallout 4 modding project, original Fallout remake project Fallout: Vault 13, also faced prior to its development being suspended after releasing a demo last year. Those modders were working closely with Project Arroyo’s devs, and as such, the latter’s team are hoping to incorporate an updated version of the NCR-heavy region around Shady Sands designed for Vault 13 into their creation. Daponte said its inclusion is contingent on how it affects performance, but if it’s doable, it’ll help speed up work towards an eventual release.
All in all, I’m keen to see what Daponte and co’s project looks like whenever it comes out. As the modder acknowledged in this chat, there are plenty of folks who’re aware of Fallout 2’s contributions to the series’ worldbuilding, but that don’t get on well with how it plays mechanically. Even for those who do, it’d be another excuse to delve back in and see how Frank Horrigan’s doing.