By Sarah Fields
Todd Howard has recently talked about the ending of Fallout 3, and the incredibly negative reaction that it received from players at the time. The Bethesda executive producer explained the reasoning behind the team's decision to end Fallout 3 the way they originally did, and how much the response took the developers by surprise.
The Fallout franchise, and Fallout 3 in particular, have been on the minds of fans lately due to some recent developments. The second season of the Fallout Amazon TV series recently came to a conclusion, and alongside it, a mysterious countdown that fans had believed would reveal that a remastered version of Fallout 3 would be arriving. However, the countdown ultimately revealed an interactive tie-in for the TV show, not a remastered game.
Fallout 3 Ending Wasn't a Hit
Though Bethesda has remained tight-lipped regarding the possibility of Fallout 3 Remastered, that hasn't stopped the team from talking about the original game with Game Informer. Among several names, Todd Howard talked about Fallout 3 and how Bethesda tried to do the original two games justice while shaking up the franchise in considerable ways, like leaving an isometric view for third- and first-person perspectives. He said that during Fallout 3's development, the team decided "like the other Fallouts, it has to end," with the player reaching the title's conclusion and a video closing out the game. While the game received extremely positive reviews at the time, there was backlash that only grew as more players reached the original ending of the game. Howard recalls players being upset that the game simply ended, which led the team to go back to the drawing board when development of DLC began. One of the DLC, Broken Steel, would ultimately allow players to progress past this point in the story, and they could go back to access anything they hadn't completed prior to dealing with the purifier.
Aside from the simple fact that completing the game's main story meant that players couldn't continue exploring the wasteland and wrap up any side missions they may have left incomplete, many were frustrated due to the way the story's ending was handled. In the final quest, players were tasked with activating a water purifier that could change the future of the wasteland. However, due to radiation, having the player enter the chamber to do so would kill them. If players had companions like Super Mutant Fawkes, Sergeant RL-3, or Ghoul Charon, and asked any of them to do it, as they would be largely immune to the radiation, they would refuse outright. Even sending in the one NPC who would be willing, Sarah Lyons, would still immediately end the game.
As Howard indicates, Bethesda ultimately took this feedback into consideration while concocting the game's DLC. Installing Broken Steel would allow the game's story to progress past this point, and also changed the way radiation-resistant companions reacted to the situation, allowing the player to convince them to handle the task. Many players were pleased that Bethesda made this change, but others were frustrated that continuing any of the game's existing content past this point was effectively paywalled. Bethesda wouldn't repeat the original ending's mistake with Fallout 4, as that game allowed players to continue wandering once the story was complete.
Read the full article on GameRant
This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
