An Ambitious Fan Remake of a Classic RPG Is No More, But There's Hope

An ambitious fan project that sought out to remake the original Fallout in the style of the more modern Bethesda role-playing games is no longer in development. But while this is a crushing blow to fans looking forward to this dream project, there is still hope on the radiated horizon.

Fallout: Vault 13 was a total conversion mod that took the 1997 isometric role-playing game and retrofit its story, world, and mechanics into Fallout 4’s Creation Engine. The volunteer team behind the game considered it a “full-fledged remake and reimagining” of the original game, retaining its perks, skills and locations and implementing them into a fully 3D open world. But a little over a month after the team released a demo of the mod’s opening section, it has suspended further work on the remake, citing a decision to “prioritize the well-being of project members.”

“Fallout: Vault 13 was suspended due to a combination of factors, including burnout, difficulty in recruiting and retaining team members with niche skills, and personal life changes among the core team,” the project’s co-lead (known as ‘Culinwino’ in the game’s Discord) wrote. “There was no infighting or cease and desist from Bethesda. Ultimately, this was an ambitious project being made with limited resources by volunteers.”

“This was not an easy decision,” they added. “But we believe it is the right step at this stage in our journey.”

With Bethesda’s own Todd Howard confirming the developer has no plans to remake any of the Interplay Fallout games, Vault 13 was the closest thing to a modernized version of the series’ 30-year-old debut. The August demo of Vault 13 lacked voice acting and only featured one of the five areas set for the final release. However, it was a promising proof of concept that showed this ambitious idea was feasible and the team was making steady progress.

Fan projects like Vault 13 aren’t easy to pull together. Fallout: London, the surprisingly massive mod that brought Fallout overseas for the first time, was five years in the making and had hundreds of volunteers contributing to the project from around the world. The lead developer on the project, Dean Carter, has said that downtime during the 2020 lockdowns was crucial in scaling up work on the mod. But the success of something as large as Fallout: London is one in a thousand. It can be unsustainable when volunteers are also juggling real life responsibilities.

Though active development on Vault 13 is ending, the volunteers are taking some reassuring next steps to ensure that the team’s three years' worth of development on the project still sees the light of day.

“We will release a full build of Fallout: Vault 13 that includes all unfinished content,” Culinwino wrote. “This release will allow the community to experience the project in its current form and serve as a foundation for anyone interested in continuing or building upon it in the future.”

Culinwino said the public would have access to the build “in the coming weeks,” and that it will be made available on the popular site Nexus Mods. Additionally, The Gamer reports that some of developers who worked on Vault 13 are now joining the team of Project Arroyo, a fan project dedicated to remaking Fallout 2 in the same manner.

The cancellation of Fallout: Vault 13 might be a bummer, but it’s been an otherwise great year for fans of the series. The aforementioned Fallout: London provided a refreshingly new experience for players looking to scratch that post-apocalyptic itch. The Fallout Amazon Prime show was met with critical acclaim, with season two currently in production.

The franchise is closing out the year on a strong note. Bethesda has planned a special steam for October 22, a day it’s dubbing Fallout Day. The stream appears to be dedicated to what’s next for the studio’s live service game Fallout 76.