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Back in the day, Fallout was an isometric CRPG somewhat alike to older Baldur’s Gate games. Contrary to popular opinion, it was not developed by Bethesda, but rather Black Isle Studios. Now defunct, the developers worked on the original game, Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game, and even on a third that was never made. This game, Fallout 3: Van Buren, has since lived on as myth, with a 700-page script and short playable demo the only memory of its existence. At least, that is until now.
Fallout: Yesterday – Van Buren (an absolute mouthful of a name) is the expansion mod for Fallout 2 that essentially turns the game into The Sequel That Was Promised, yet has unfortunately been glossed over heavily by the Fallout community.
With roughly 700 unique downloads on NexusMods, Fallout: Yesterday has had it’s first publicly playable release ready since July 6th. It should be noted that this is not a full release, and only the main storyline is completed so far. According to the developer of the mod, it is the “biggest Fallout game ever.” With Fallout: London and Miami also looking to pip that claim.
Fallout 3: Van Buren was famously cancelled following crossed wires involving the concurrent development of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. It was shunned in favour of the hack-and-slash title that is well regarded as the franchise’s lowest point, although Josh Sawyer (who had worked on Van Buren) went on to lead development of New Vegas at Obsidian.
Our understanding of the game has come through a very limited lens, but at least now with Fallout: Yesterday – Van Buren, we can experience a fresh interpretation that might actually live up to expectations.
Getting more time in The Wasteland is far from a bad thing. We’ve just seen the Amazon Prime show shake the world, followed by a next-gen update to Fallout 4. Fallout 76 is getting plenty of attention, while there’s so much interest in Fallout: London that it might as well be a Bethesda-owned project.
With Fallout 5 so long away, these kind of mod projects are keeping interest in Bethesda games consistent. Yesterday might not be getting attention that it deserves just yet, but when the whole mod is fully polished, I’m sure it’s going to enjoy the success it eventually gets.
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