Being a Fallout fan is a bit of a mixed bag, these days. While Fallout 76 has improved greatly over time and the Fallout TV show is a huge hit with Season 2 on the way in December, there hasn’t been a new single-player RPG in the franchise since the decade-old Fallout 4 — and it’s entirely possible there won’t be one until we’re well into the 2030s. After all, while Fallout 5 is on the way, Bethesda has The Elder Scrolls 6 to develop first.
The good news, though, is that Fallout’s passionate community is always working on awesome mod projects like Fallout London to tide hungry fans over. And thanks to the release of a viral new trailer this pas weekend, I’ve been made aware of one in the works that just might be one of the coolest mods I’ve ever seen anyone make.
That project is Fallout: Bakersfield — a total conversion mod for the first DOOM that reimagines the original isometric Fallout CRPG as an old-school FPS. I’ll dig into specific details below, but honestly? Its new trailer and gameplay footage speaks to how impressive it is far better than I ever could, so give it a watch.
As the name implies, Fallout: Bakersfield is set in the city of Bakersfield, California; longtime Fallout fans will recognize that as Necropolis, the “City of the Dead” from the first game that became something of a safe haven for ghouls (humans mutated by severe and prolonged radiation exposure). As the trailer shows, you’ll be playing as a Vault 13 vault dweller, with the appearance of Harry the super mutant suggesting you’ll either be the protagonist of Fallout 1 or the scout Talius that was sent before them.
The gameplay of the mod looks to be a fusion of classic Fallout RPG systems and the FPS action of the original DOOM, complete with a bespoke UI that draws inspiration from both games for visuals and functionality (the Fallout-style log messages in particular are a really nice touch).
Its graphics, too, harken back to Fallout 1’s pixel-y post-apocalyptic retro-futurism and its over-the-top gore, with the “2.5D” perspective — 2D sprites in 3D environments — giving the experience its DOOM feel.
The trailer shows combat against ghouls with a wide variety of Fallout 1 weapons like the 10mm SMG, Flamer, and Plasma Pistol, along with light environmental prop destruction, the ability to open containers to collect the items within, and even some simple dialogue options to pick from when you’re talking instead of blasting.
Notably, everything is animated with the exaggerated and limited-frame style that gives old-school shooters a lot of their charm, and it’s all brought to life with crunchy sound effects taken directly from the first Fallout itself.
Again, this is hands-down one of the coolest-looking Fallout (or DOOM) mods I’ve ever seen, and easily one of the neatest made for a game in general, too. As for when it’s coming out, a concrete release date hasn’t yet been provided, but its developers say it’s about 60% finished, with 30% of creatures, 80% of environments, walls, and tiles, and 50% of weapons and UI elements completed.
The team behind Fallout: Bakersfield is Alexander “Red888Guns” Berezin and Denis Berezin, and the pair have a Boosty page you can subscribe to for $2.66/month if you’d like to donate. Subscribers will get access to periodic progress updates and blog posts as development continues. You can also gift subscriptions to someone else if you’d like to.
However, they’ve been upfront about emphasizing that profit is not a goal with this project, even going so far as to disable monetization for the trailer video. “This project isn’t supposed to generate financial profit for its creators. … Financial support IS NOT necessary and will NOT generally affect the development process,” reads its description.
Still, I’m going to throw a few dollars their way to support them and the project, and I encourage you to consider doing so as well if you’re as excited for Fallout: Bakersfield as I am. Creative mods like this one explore opportunities larger studios may never consider, and they have been — and will continue to be — fresh, new experiences fans can enjoy while they’re waiting for official releases.