New Blood's Fallout homage will have first-person combat
It'll be in the vein of dungeon crawlers, not Doom.
New Blood teased a new CRPG back in June that's very deliberately taking cues from the original isometric Fallout games. Not only does the project boast two veterans of the Fallout modding scene, but original composer Mark Morgan will provide the soundtrack.
It's clearly a homage, but it isn't a copy. The still untitled game will deviate from the original games in at least one obvious way: the combat. In a Twitter thread, New Blood head Dave Oshry offered a rare update on the project, which will not be playable or even fully revealed "for a long time" (consider what you know and have seen of the project officially unrevealed, then).
"Surely the biggest complaint about classic Fallout games has always been the slow n' clunky nature of the turn based combat," Oshry wrote. "While we're still keeping things turn based, by switching up the style and perspective more akin to classic dungeon crawlers, we find it much more engaging."
See it below. As Oshry notes, it's first-person, but a boomer shooter it ain't. Most striking is the art of Alexander 'Red888guns' Berezin, who worked on the popular Fallout Sonora and Olympus 2207 mods.
Since today marks the 25th anniversary of #Fallout, maybe it's time we show you how we're changing the perspective of combat in @NewBlood's CRPG - and how it differs from our main inspiration. pic.twitter.com/ytFau23hqcOctober 10, 2022
The 30 second snippet also confirms some other features (albeit features you'd expect from a Fallout homage). Dialogue options range diplomatic through to cheeky, there's an action log, and the user interface is very much in keeping with the golden era of '90s CRPGs. The first-person view itself is very charming.
Still, given this game isn't even "revealed" yet, things will likely change between now and whenever it becomes an actual game we can play.
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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.
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