The Fallout series is a strange beast, no matter which way you look at it. On the one hand you've got original developers Black Isle Studios who brought you the first two games, thereby establishing a tone and entire group of fans that still love their work to this day. On the other it's Bethesda's entry back in 2008 (after purchasing the rights to do so when BI were shut down) which darkened everything tonally, completely reworked how it all played - but again, brought about a group of fans that hold that take as the definitive and more definitive take. New Vegas was again handed off to another developer, Obsidian - formed by ex-Black Isle members - which tapped back into the original mindset of Fallouts 1 and 2, but now we're seeing Bethesda's return to a franchise that's only really their second attempt at commanding. Point being, no one can fully say what Fallout "should" or "shouldn't" be. It's a rather elasticated mythos in the first place, with all manner of creative teams having stretched and pulled it in many directions since its inception. Rather startlingly, we've really not seen enough widely-regarded instalments from any one developer over a long enough time period for anyone other than those at hand to lay claim to a worthwhile identity. Right now, whatever Bethesda puts out 'is Fallout' - and you can bet if they ever did a big-budget top-down entry, there'd be thousands of modern fans screaming from the rooftops that that "Isn't Fallout!" all the same. What do you make of the criticisms surrounding Fallout 4? Do any hold water, or does it feel like people are complaining for the sake of it? Let us know in the comments!
