Fallout: London, the DLC-sized mod—which is a flat-out lie, given its gigantic scope—from Team FOLON was released on July 25th. Now that the team at VG247 has had enough time to get a feel for this highly anticipated mod, we decided to discuss and share a few of our favorite things about post-apocalyptic London.
The mod is, unsurprisingly, full of cute Britishisms (not that being British is a great thing) and Easter eggs that are a real treat. Of course, Fallout: London had its fair share of bugs and crashes (which I think is true to the Bethesda experience), but that doesn’t take away from the incredible passion and detail that went into making Fallout: London.
And without further ado, some of our favorite things in Fallout: London.
The Jeremy Bentham Protectron
Mark Warren: “What’s a gentry?” asks my character from Fallout: London, a mustachioed man made for sharpshooting and not much else, his head in a jar. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of modern utilitarianism, stares back. His cold, dead, preserved eyes peer into my soul. WHAT did you just say, they seem to ask. His protectron body should probably hit me in the face with a metal limb.
That’s not the case.
Because Jeremy Bentham – or rather his preserved corpse – is a gentleman. He believes in healthy debate, and that’s exactly what he wanted to have with me before I grossly disregarded the laws of stupidity. He’s slowly realizing it’s not worth it. I have no views on The Gentry, and even if I can cobble some together after he tells me, they’re not worth hearing.
He politely ends the debate and as we say goodbye he hands me a biscuit. I stand on the steps leading to University College London, trying to process what has happened in the last five minutes since I spotted the robot and thought, “This can’t be happening.” Finally, I pull up my inventory and nibble on the biscuit.
My silly character might not be sure if the whole “the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of good and evil” thing has anything to do with the philosopher’s corpse. But I certainly found this part of Fallout: London entertaining.
Mysterious scientists from Doctor Who
Jim Trinca: What I like best about Fallout London is a daring situational pun right at the beginning: you’re in a giant test tube, being examined by two doctors, voiced by two doctors. Specifically, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, the sixth and seventh titular stars of Doctor Who, most notorious for leading the show during its ultimate demise in the late ’80s.
Colin Baker’s tenure was notoriously awful, and McCoy’s tenure, while a marked improvement, was simply not enough to save the show from its eventual cancellation in 1989. One of the main reasons for this was the unrivalled quality of the science fiction series coming out of America at the time: in particular, Star Trek: The Next Generation. The British, the BBC thought, simply cannot compete with series with real money behind them.
And there will never be an official Fallout set in the UK, because it’s an American story about how America sees itself. But the Brits have somehow cobbled together something that lasts. Through endless hours of bedroom programming, calling in countless favors, and sheer persistence, there’s a British Fallout that’s just as rich as a real, regular installment.
And so I think it’s good that the first NPCs you meet in this remarkable project are former Doctor Whos. The very ones responsible for ending the original series. That’s a statement of intent: this is a proper games project, with proper access to proper talent you’ve actually heard of. And like all good British science fiction, we made it with two yoghurt pots and some string, and still managed to blow everyone away with its bold vision and eccentricity.
Also, I didn’t play beyond the opening.
Postboxer
Kelsey Raynor: Wandering around post-apocalyptic London is pretty dangerous. In Fallout: London, there are hooligans, collectors, beefeaters, and all sorts of hideous, mutated creatures to watch out for. There are foxes with brutal bites, giant ladybugs that I was terrified to kill, and crabs that will take you on.
However, I was unprepared for one enemy: the Royal Mail. One of the few trustworthy postal delivery services in the UK that is actually reliable is anything but reliable in Fallout: London.
I passed by a lot of red mailboxes in the first few hours of the game with no problem. In fact, one of my first screenshots of the game is a mailbox. Nothing special, but I was certainly amazed to see one for the first time in Fallout. My surprise faded, however, when one of the things scared me.
That’s right. Some of Fallout: London’s mailboxes aren’t relics from a time when red mail trucks were on every corner. No. Instead, some of them have been converted into mailboxes; mailboxes that pop out when you least expect it, and conjure up wheels underneath them and saws for hands.
My previous obsession with raiding post boxes in the hope that they might contain some money quickly faded and I have avoided post boxes ever since. However, there is one friendly post box in Westminster that I can look forward to.
Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett
Kelsey Raynor: Sweeney Todd is a 19th century story that describes the life of a barber who murdered his customers with his razor-sharp tools. He disposed of the bodies by giving them to his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, who then used these victims as ingredients for “mysterious meat pies.” It’s really quite grim, but so is post-apocalyptic London.
If you explore the streets around St Paul’s Cathedral during the day, you’ll find Fleet Street, where Sweeney Todd lived. In fact, if you stroll down the street, you’ll see a barber shop run by a scruffy man called Ted. And look at that? His neighbor, Mrs Miggins, happens to be a baker, and there’s a corpse-shaped garbage bag lying right outside… I wonder what those two are up to.
If you walk a little further, you will find a bucket of human remains behind Mrs. Miggins’ counter.
The interaction, unfortunately, doesn’t consist of much more than Ted actually cutting your hair and his neighbor, the baker, being a merchant, but it’s still nice to see the old, gruesome story brought to life in Fallout: London.
Bercow Bot
Mark Warren: Yes, all my posts are about Protectrons, which are modeled after the iconic Brits. See, I’m a New Vegas fan, robot fetishism is kind of part of that.
But getting back on topic, John Bercow’s cameo in Fallout: London is a small thing, but a perfect example of how the mod goes the extra mile to provide an authentically English experience, complete with all of our wacky traditions and bizarre sense of humor.
If you’re from another part of the world and play the mod, you’ll find that we’re a nation – at least as far as the establishment is concerned – that’s almost psychopathically devoted to the concept of order above all else. Everyone should do as they’re told. In theory at least, these rules often clearly don’t apply to those at the top, at least not in any way other than appearances.
Having a man there who is known for shouting “Quiet” to MPs during his tenure as Speaker is just a kiss from the chef. And it’s pretty funny too.
Fesco’s horse meat
Kelsey Raynor: In case you haven’t heard, the UK and other parts of Europe were at the centre of a scandal in 2013. A horse meat scandal. That’s right. People across the country were buying 100% beef burgers and god knows what else, only to later find out that these foods actually contained traces of horse DNA. It also happened that Tesco was at the centre of the scandal, while other stores such as Aldi and Lidl were also affected.
Although eating horse meat poses no real health risk, there has understandably been a lot of concern about how horse DNA ends up in our food. If that could happen, what else ends up in our food that we don’t know about?
If you explore the aptly named Fesco in Fallout: London, you’ll find “Meat Mix Burgers” with all sorts of animals depicted on the packaging. One of them, of course, is a horse, which is no doubt a gentle jab at the food safety concerns faced by Brits in 2013 and the meme the whole scandal later became.
Fallout: London has a lot of niche references like this, which is what makes the mod so brilliant. Take, for example, the random NPCs in Westminster talking about napping in Parliament. This actually happened. Also, if you explore every inch of Fesco, you’ll find some controversial Warmite as well.
For more information on Fallout: London, check out this section to learn about future updates to the mod, all the companions you can recruit, and the easiest settlement locations to reach.
