It’s been five years since artist Alexander “Red888guns” Berezin’s efforts to reimagine the grim world of Fallout as a 3D Doom-style shooter had us wondering what a more substantial version of their vision might look like. And finally we have an answer thanks to a newly shared, and stunningly atmospheric, Fallout: Bakersfield trailer.
When Fallout: Bakersfield first came to our attention, it was little more than an animated gif, presenting a vision of what Fallout’s originally isometric universe – or more specifically, the ghoul city of Necropolis (AKA Bakersfield, California) – might look like when presented using the first-person action and iconography of the original Doom. But since then, Red888guns has been turning that proof-of-concept into something closer to reality.
Two years later, Red888guns gave us our first progress update on the project, improving on that once mostly static image with approximately ten seconds of footage featuring a player blasting their way through an enormously atmospheric slice of first-person action, built using the GZDoom Engine. And with a few more years having passed since then, we’ve finally been given another taste, and the results are more impressive than ever.
Red888guns’ latest Fallout: Bakersfield reveal begins with a nod to Fallout 1’s trailer, the camera slowly zooming out from an old-fashioned transistor radio (rather than the black and white television set) to reveal the surrounding ghoul-populated desolation of Bakersfield, all to the old-school warbling of the Ink Spots’ I’d Climb The Highest Mountain.
From there, as the mood darkens, the trailer switches to a player-controlled first-person camera, initially as our jumpsuited protagonist quietly explores the filthy, decimated world, and next as they confront a group of gun-toting mutants using a blood-stained knife. After that there’s some shooting, some classic Fallout fridge looting, and even a dialogue tree conversation with a big bad before things go seriously south.
Red888guns (who’s also serving as an artist on developer New Blood’s long-teased but still unannounced Fallout-inspired CRPG) is developing Fallout: Bakersfield alongside Denis Berezin, and a brief progress update at the end of the trailer reveals their non-commercial Doom 1993 total conversion is 60 percent complete. A heavily obfuscated release date is also seen, confirming it’ll be out ??.??.202?. So mark your calendars as best you can.
Fallout, of course, has had something of resurgence in recent times, thanks to Amazon’s well-received live-action TV adaptation. Season two – which visits a much-loved location – airs this December, and in the game itself, last year saw the release of the impressive Fallout: London.