Fallout: A Tale of Mutation - A book discussing the development of Fallout

[CT Phipps]

The year was 1997 and Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game had just been released by Interplay.

This book looks back at the entire Fallout saga, tells the story of the series' birth, retraces its history and deciphers its mechanics.

The perfect book to discover and understand the origins of Fallout, with the saga's genesis and the decryption of each of his episodes !

EXTRACT

"The intro music and the end credits were the final main components of this hybrid post-apocalyptic/50s ambiance. Initially, Brian Fargo wanted to signal Fallout’s inspiration with Warriors of the Wasteland, by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but when he heard The Ink Spots, he changed his mind and loved the result. The first choice was I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire by this group of crooners from the 1930s/40s, but unfortunately the high cost made it impossible to acquire the rights. But while browsing an extensive list of tracks from the era, the team found that Maybe, by the same group, had almost the same sound-with the added bonus of being cheap! The lyrics are about a break-up, from the point of view of the person being left behind: "Maybe you’ll think of me when you are all alone/ Then maybe you’ll ask me to come back again". Leonard Boyarsky notes that, "It worked with the intro [and the ending]", referring to the ending with the betrayal and lonely exile of Fallout’s hero. "It felt like it was this genius plan we had [...] but it was only later that we decided to kick [the player] out of the Vault. I feel like this is a metaphor for the whole game: it looks like we had a better picture in mind than we did, it just came out of the things we were doing"."

Anyone check this out?

 

[CT Phipps]

I enjoyed this book even if it slips in a bunch of rather snide comments about Bethesda (specifically lore elements like the East coast using caps, the Enclave still existing, and so on). It however charts the creation of Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and the failure of Van Buren to realize. A big thing is following Tim Cain originally wanting to make a sequel to Wasteland and how he ended up making Fallout a separate IP because the rights holders truly hated Brian Fargo.

It does go a long way to clarify Tim Cain and Chris Avellone's feelings regarding Bethesda (largely positive) and depicts things as generally amicable between all fandoms of them.

 

[CT Phipps]

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2024/05/fallout-tale-of-mutation-review.html

FALLOUT: A TALE OF MUTATION by Erwan Lafleuriel is a book available on Kindle Unlimited that details the creation of the first four Fallout games (no real information on Fallout 76 or the series, which is a shame). This is basically a book discussing how each game came to be and some general discussion about their themes as well as world-building. It's nothing that hardcore fans wouldn't already be familiar with.

The premise of the book is that it details the origins of Fallout as a proposed sequel to Wasteland by Tim Cain before going off and becoming its own thing. It details such stories as how Brian Fargo came up with the idea of a retrofuturistic 1950s style for the Pre-War Era, how Tim Cain got so many big name Hollywood actors to do the voice work for the bare minimum required by their unions, and how the game was a smashing success despite not being a major priority for Interplay at the time.

The book doesn't just follow the production development of Fallout, though, but also the sequels. It moves effortlessly to the development of Fallout 2 and how the game's story development was passed on to Chris Avellone and others who explain their reasoning for some of the game's controversial choices. It talks about the behind-the-scenes that eventually led to the game franchise being acquired by Bethesda too.

Erwan Lafleuriel isn't shy about his editorializing during the book, showing his clear preference for the original two games while referring to what he thinks about as plot holes in both Fallout 3 as well as Fallout 4 (especially Fallout 4). Nevertheless, he doesn't go into pure hate either and I find that made all the difference for me in the book.

If I have any complaint about the book, it's the fact that it's a little light on content regarding the games themselves and the latter half of the book goes over the various factions and concepts in the series like Super Mutants. This is more of an encyclopedia entry for the setting than something than sharing the origins of the game. Still, I enjoyed the section on themes and discussing the music that have become iconic to the series both in terms of original as well as 1950s tunes.

Overall, Fallout: A Tale of Mutation is a very enjoyable book and I think fans of the franchise will very much enjoy it. Fallout is a fantastic video game franchise and the world it's created deserves this kind of scholarly analysis. Could it have gone deeper? Yes, but that doesn't mean it's not worth picking it up.