The Escapist Issue #83 Now Available
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 796
Originally created by Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson of Interplay, Fallout is an open-ended, comedic game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. You're sent out of your bomb shelter by your community to find clean water. Once the shelter's giant lead doors slam shut behind you, the grim world of barter towns, bandits, PIPBoy 2000 and radioactive scorpions invite you into any number of adventures.
Praised by fans for its dry-as-a-bone, dark-as-night humor and the huge scope of the world, Fallout has been on a nigh-Biblical journey. The original game was the only one to have its creators' names on it, and each progressive version, from Fallout 2 to Brotherhood of Steel, has gotten progressively worse. Cain, Boyarsky and Anderson couldn't get the rights to the franchise from Interplay, and their work on a spiritual successor was cut short when their new company, Troika, went bankrupt. But Bethesda, with their deep pockets and street cred to match, was able to capitalize on Interplay's financial trouble in 2004 and acquired the Fallout license.
While the Anachronox article looks at some of the reasons why the RPG didn't enjoy much commercial success:
Most of the reviews at the time of Anachronox's release praised the game for its storyline and characters, but reviewers and players docked points for the number of bugs found within the game. Hall says "it wasn't insanely buggy compared to some titles, but it was rushed out the door. Eidos wanted to ship it. If we'd shipped Joey [Liaw]'s final build, it would have been very stable." Bugs alone may not explain Anachronox's commercial failure, however. "I think most people didn't know the game was out. ... I sing the praises of Eidos for sticking with us through all the craziness - they were amazing. But they spent millions on the game, and in the tens of thousands on advertising. I think it could have found a pretty strong audience. But with all the craziness that had gone on, I feel fortunate that people got to experience it at all." He describes the potential audience as "people that love RPGs, people that love adventures, people that love story and humor. People still write to me saying they found a copy, that they played and loved the game, and that they wished they'd heard about it coming out at the time."
