In a recent interview, the lead designer of Fallout 3 admitted that the game, released in fall 2008, was heavily inspired by the 2000 game Deus Ex.
When we think of Fallout 3, old immersive simulators don’t immediately come to mind. However, after reading Rock Paper Shotgun‘s latest interview with Fallout 3‘s lead designer, Emil Pagliarulo, we can see the connection, although we must also consider Todd Howard’s contributions from Bethesda Game Studios. It’s clear that he loves micromanaging things.
“We let you play as any type of character you want, and there are all these systems. So, if you want to shoot or sneak your way through, we have to support it all. It was not like back in the day of Thief 1, when they added fire arrows to appeal to Doom and Quake players who wanted a rocket launcher. We had done The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but I knew we could take it further in Fallout 3. I wanted to bring in as much immersive sim as possible. I love the original Deus Ex. It’s a huge influence on me. You see this with a lot of people who worked at Looking Glass or Ion Storm Austin. They went on to work for Arkane on Dishonored, so that DNA has spread throughout our organization. I really wanted to bring that to Fallout 3,” said Pagliarulo, who also worked on Thief 2 and Thief 3.
This meant adding a better stealth system, although it was still very exploitable, as well as mechanisms such as Fallout‘s limb system, which came almost directly from Deus Ex. Who doesn’t remember misusing the LAM mine in Deus Ex and having to drag their stump to the first aid kit on the other side of the level? Who hasn’t blown up their leg in Fallout 3 at some point?
This is an interesting approach that Pagliarulo has discussed before. While we wouldn’t call Fallout 3 an immersive simulator, we understand what he means. We probably didn’t give the game enough credit for its goals (which Fallout: New Vegas later achieved).
