The remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 marked a before and after for Capcom and for the industry as a whole. Far from being something trivial or random, these are remade versions of two modern classics with an updated treatment that gave new life to the Japanese giant between original releases. This concept was put to a Bethesda veteran, who does not consider it feasible that Todd Howard‘s company could pull it off.

The person behind these statements is Nate Purkeypile, developer of Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, as well as environment designer on the saga’s MMO. Speaking with YouTube content creator KiwiTalkz, the creative, who left the company in 2021, explained that the main difference lies in the structure of the games. While the Resident Evil saga opts for more linear experiences, Bethesda titles are characterized by open worlds filled with interconnected systems, which makes remaking them from scratch enormously complicated.

Purkeypile further underlined that trying to replicate all those systems while maintaining their original functioning would be a titanic task. In his opinion, completely remaking an RPG of these characteristics would not only be extremely complex, but also unrealistic from a development standpoint. “With so many systems interacting, trying to make them work the same way… Ugh, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” he said.

The developer also cited the case of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which managed to update itself thanks to a hybrid solution: combining the original gameplay system with the graphical leap of Unreal Engine 5 to improve the visual side. This approach allowed the game to be modernized without needing to rebuild all its systems from scratch, something that would have sent production costs skyrocketing and might not have had Virtuos behind its development given the team size required.

For Other Former Bethesda Members, Fallout 5 Should Be Made by Another Studio

On another front, other former members of the studio such as Jonah Lobe and Bruce Nesmith outlined the company’s future. Both see it as possible that Bethesda Game Studios would delegate the development of Fallout 5 to another team, especially while the studio is focused on The Elder Scrolls VI. They also believe that releasing a new Fallout entry to coincide with the success of its television adaptation could be a key strategy to maximize its impact.

Source: 3djuegos