Fallout's original designer is fine with the direction of the modern games: 'They're both what they are, and a ton of people like it'

GamesRPGFalloutFallout’s original designer is fine with the direction of the modern games: ‘They’re both what they are, and a ton of people like it’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Bethesda Game Studios)

Fallout 76 - a player in a vault suit gives a thumbs up

Bethesda’s tenure as the ruler of Fallout’s Wasteland has brought with it massive changes: the first-person perspective, FPS combat, base building, its transformation into a survival MMO. Since Fallout 3, the series has gone off in a bunch of different directions, most of them distinct from the original vision of Fallout’s creators.

Tim Cain—who initially got the ball rolling and served as the first Fallout’s sole designer until he brought in fellow Interplay developers Leonard Boyarsky, Chris Taylor and Jason D. Anderson—wouldn’t have taken Fallout down this route. Indeed, back in the late ’90s, after he left Interplay,he pushed back on the concept of multiplayer spin-off.

“Fallout wasn’t designed to have other players,” he said when Interplay picked his brain on the subject. And while Fallout Online would never materialise, instead culminating in a legal battle between Interplay and new owner Bethesda, you can certainly see some of its DNA in Fallout 76.

Despite the significant changes that have occurred since Cain bid farewell to the series, though, he doesn’t think its transformation is a bad thing. “We were going in a different direction,” he says. “I’m not saying it’s bad. People immediately want to go, ‘Well, that’s bad, right?’ No, they’re both what they are, and a ton of people like it.”

Fallout 1 and 2 were critical and commercial successes, hugely influential, and enduringly popular, but the series has only grown more powerful since Bethesda took the reins. We’ll likely have to wait until the next decade until we get another Fallout, but in the meantime, Bethesda continues to expand Fallout 76, and we’re getting asecond season of Amazon’s Fallout TV show.

“I mean, how many people played Fallout 3 and 4? Way more than 1 and 2 put together,” says Cain. “You could almost argue it’s fundamentally a different game. It’s a very different game with the same veneer of the old one, and it obviously appeals to a ton of people. I’m the last person to want to yuck other people’s yums. So I’m like, if you like this, play it, love it. Post videos of Let’s Plays and have fun with it.”

He doesn’t understand why some players just want to dunk on the modern direction, either. “The opposite of that is what I don’t get,” he says. “When people post hour-long videos about why they hate a game. And I’m like, ‘Why aren’t you just off playing a game you like? Why are you doing this? The masses are playing it, they don’t need to know why you don’t like it.’ But game playing is so personal and subjective that I don’t even think there’s a bad game out there. I just think there’s bad games for you, and bad games for me, and maybe even bad games for 80% [of people]. But if you go to Steam, I defy you to find a game for which 100% of the reviews are negative.”

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

The critic in me wants to argue, but I suspect I’d be a lot happier if I spent less time complaining about how far Fallout has deviated from the games I loved so much in the ’90s.

More about falloutOG Fallout lead Tim Cain dusts off a trove of old development photos dating back to 1994 to show ‘what development looked like in the ’90s'‘Fallout wasn’t designed to have other players’: Fallout co-creator Tim Cain was extremely wary of turning it into an MMO

More about fallout

OG Fallout lead Tim Cain dusts off a trove of old development photos dating back to 1994 to show ‘what development looked like in the ’90s'‘Fallout wasn’t designed to have other players’: Fallout co-creator Tim Cain was extremely wary of turning it into an MMO

Fallout developer Tim Cain seated at computer wearing brown paper bag on head in the ’90s

OG Fallout lead Tim Cain dusts off a trove of old development photos dating back to 1994 to show ‘what development looked like in the ’90s’

Fallout 25th anniversary

‘Fallout wasn’t designed to have other players’: Fallout co-creator Tim Cain was extremely wary of turning it into an MMO

Latest

Masked Counter-Terrorist in helmet in forefront with sunglasses and beret-wearing CT in background touching headset

See more latest►

Most Popular

Civilization 7 has been Steam Deck Verified ahead of its launch next month

23-year-old D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights just got a new update thanks to the ‘unpaid software engineers’ of its unkillable community

My Summer Car, the absurdly detailed Finnish life sim about vehicle maintenance and drinking in your underpants, smashes into 1.0 after nearly a decade in Steam early access

Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April

Lords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

If you’re trying to convince me your ‘companionship’ robot is ‘lifelike’, maybe don’t rip her face off in the demo video

Square Enix launches new anti-harassment policy to protect its employees and partners from abusive fans

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals