Review - Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel

A Post Nuclear Slipknot Concert

Understanding this bizarre game needs to begin with a little history lesson. Interplay Entertainment developed the original Fallout in 1997. After becoming a huge success for the company, they established a subdivision called Black Isle Studios that would be dedicated solely to game development since Interplay was more of a publisher at the time. They released Fallout 2 in 1998 which was also hugely successful, however in the years following, Interplay fell into financial trouble and was forced to shut down Black Isle Studios as well as scale back their operations. At this time they were developing a project titled "Van Buren", which would have been their version of Fallout 3 prior to Bethesda's acquisition of the license. The little known secret was there was another Fallout title being made at the same time called Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, which was Interplay's last ditch effort to make money in attempt to keep the company afloat.

Around this time, console games were hitting it big, and Interplay previously published a title called Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance for the PlayStation 2 that was a hack-and-slash action game based on the Baldur's Gate rpg series. Despite being a departure from what made that series popular in the first place, it was a massive financial success, meaning one thing: they would try and replicate that success with Fallout. Unfortunately it didn't work this time and bombed (no pun intended) terribly. The series has been on my mind recently and despite this game's reputation I was curious to take a crack at what is the only Fallout game I have never played. And wow did it suck.

The menu that gave me the false impression it might be good

Upon opening the game, I had some brief misplaced hope that the experience wouldn't be too bad. You are greeted with a fairly cool menu showing two dead raiders in a restaurant and a catchy, 50s style tune playing in the background. You get to pick between three playable characters: Cyrus, Nadia, and a ghoul named Cain. Naturally I picked the ghoul since it's the first time you ever have the option to play as one in the series. After this, a cutscene plays to set up the story and while it still fits the vibe of old-school Fallout, it skips the famous "war never changes" line and then proceeds to kick up a metal song by Slipknot, I'm not joking. This was the point, maybe five or six minutes in that I realized how weird it was going to be.

The story follows the main character that you choose, who is an initiate in the Brotherhood of Steel. You get tasked with hunting down some paladins who have gone missing in the town of Carbon, which is the main quest driving you forward. Playing as a ghoul makes all of this instantly weird as there is no way Cain would be accepted as a member of the Brotherhood, despite him not being feral. I know not everyone in the wasteland hates ghouls, but aside from a few silly dialogue choices that are played off as a joke, the game basically pretends you're just a human. You eventually find a lead who points you to the nearby ghoul city of Los, where you rescue the Brotherhood paladin from a menacing ghoul leader named...Blake? After this, the paladin reveals that they were chasing a group of mutants who were heading towards a vault underneath the city of Los.

The cast of "characters" you can choose from at the start

You decide to pay the vault a visit, where you learn that the mutants are after it because they were experimenting with a cure for sterility, which would allow the mutants to repopulate again. Naturally though, you kill the lot of them, leading to a bomb getting set off, a quick escape, watching the blast from afar, and then rolling credits. It's really not a great story, and the first two chapters which focus on finding the Brotherhood paladin are simply boring. I do have to give credit where it's due though, as the idea of exploring a "Corporate Vault" that was reserved for Vault-Tec scientists is genuinely a cool idea. I also like how they tied the mutants motivation into the story of Fallout 1 with the sterilization and even mentions of the Master (the main villain of the original game for those unaware). Even though it doesn't stick the landing, I appreciate the attempt at expanding on the world a little bit.

Being an action game this time, combat revolves around a lock-on, dodge, and attack system that doesn't feel all that bad to use. There are an assortment of melee weapons and firearms in your arsenal that give some variety as you button mash your way to victory. The controls are simple and it was fun enough to drag me through the game's short runtime. It does have a perk system that you can spend points in, but it boosts rudimentary stats like health, critical hit chance, faster shot speed, and increased heal strength. It doesn't give you much room to experiment with builds beyond picking melee or ranged as a focus for improvement. The ghoul did have one unlockable ability that let him heal through radiation, which is cool but essentially broke any need for healing items.

This shows you everything you need to know about the writing and visual style

During your travels you get to visit three little zones: The city Carbon, the city Los, and the Corporate Vault. These hubs are the most "traditional Fallout" in that there are a few scattered npcs that you can chat with, pick up a couple little quests, and trade. Usually this is the best part of a Fallout game, stumbling into a new town, chatting with the locals to find new missions and places of interest, learning about who they are, and seeing if they have unique goods you couldn't find anywhere else. However, this game's writing is so painfully, atrociously bad that it's almost comical and ruins any semblance of that charm. It feels as if a thirteen year old boy wrote down all the edgy things he could think up and the developers just dumped it all in. There are dialogue choices when speaking to people, but all roads lead to the same outcome and the rest is just flavor text.

This whole game feels like Fallout had an identity crisis. It is a series known for a very certain aesthetic, and this game departs from it in practically every way. Nuka-Cola has been replaced by the real life soft drink Bawls, The Ink Spots have been replaced by Slipknot, and the clever writing that mixes sardonic humor with heart and soul has been replaced with the scribblings of a teenager's diary. I completely understand why Interplay needed to do this to try and save their company, but in a franchise marked by satirizing Americana, seeing an ad for Fallout 1 or a billboard for Bawls in the game makes it feel like a laughing stock. What sucks is that between the metal tracks is surprisingly good ambient music that for a moment captures the right atmosphere and serves as a reminder that this could have been something interesting.

I wish it wasn't, Wasteland Woman

If I'm being honest with myself, I was compelled on to finish it by how insane the experience was. I am a huge Fallout fan and I wanted to check off this box to say I've played it but nothing about it was really good at all. The gameplay was fine on the surface; it was kind of enjoyable to mindlessly shoot everything but that was about it. I'm always on board when a franchise wants to try something new and I think the idea of a beat-em-up, action Fallout game isn't bad. Even the engine they used clearly had the potential to produce something better, but they throw the same kind of encounter at you over and over again in levels that are somehow confusing despite being linear. It feels like there was a focus test on what would sell and then a bunch of cocaine-addled developers took a crack at it using the popular license they happened to own.

Would I recommend it then? To be honest, it's short enough that I can see it being a fun game to point and laugh at with friends for a few hours like I did. The history surrounding it makes it an interesting run through just to see its insanity, but most people aren't crazy enough to care about that like I do. Otherwise, there are a million games of this kind that do the same things vastly superior. So unless you like talking to barkeepers named Armpit and have a fondness for Bawls soda, it's a very hard pass.