Fallout 5 is likely a long way out. With Bethesda’s new projects, it even seems possible that fans of the post-apocalyptic roleplaying franchise will not be see another main installment in the series released this decade.
Nonetheless, there’s list doubt fans are looking forward to a more-redeemed Fallout 5. There’s one feature fans have been asking for for years which, if included and properly developed in Fallout 5, could make the game well worth the wait.
Bethesda’s current development timeline makes it seem very unlikely that a new Fallout game is coming any time soon. Currently, Bethesda is working on its first new IP in decades. Starfield will be a space-set RPG, but though some images from Starfield have reportedly leaked, fans have little insight into what the game might entail or how closely it will stick to the Bethesda RPG formula.
It has been reported, however, that The Elder Scrolls 6 will not release until after Starfield. This makes it’s likely that if Starfield releases at some point in the next three years, fans could be waiting until 2026 or beyond for the next installment of Bethesda’s flagship fantasy franchise.
This in turn makes it likely that Fallout 5 will not be released in the 2020s. There has been a lot of speculation that the Fallout franchise may be thrown a life raft over the next decade if Bethesda outsources the development of a Fallout: New Vegas sequel to a third party. Considering the controversy surrounding Bethesda and Obsidian’s relationship following the release of the original Fallout: New Vegas, however, that may also be unlikely.
Some leakers have claimed that Fallout: New Vegas is on the way from a surprising new studio, but that remains unconfirmed. Even if Fallout: New Vegas 2 or some equivalent third-party Fallout game is developed, like the original New Vegas, it would likely rely on an old engine and old assets from previous games, and so would be considered a spin-off rather than an all-new main installment in the franchise.
All of this makes it very likely that Fallout 5 is a long way out, so it’s time for the Fallout series to take a page out of The Elder Scrolls‘ book and include multiple playable races. However, it will be vital that Fallout 5 take the time to flesh out its races in a way that The Elder Scrolls simply does not.
Fallout games have allowed players to pick their race in the past, but the options have been based on broad and limited real-life ideas of race. Fallout 4 took this part of character customization out of the equation to little effect. What Fallout 5 really needs is races based on the many different species in the Fallout universe. Fallout 5 players should be able to pick from options like human, Ghoul, Super Mutant, and perhaps even Synth.
However, the games can’t treat race in the same way as The Elder Scrolls. They can play as one of four Elven subraces, multiple human races each based on a hodge-podge of real-world cultures, and the Beastfolk races, the feline Khajiit and the reptilian Argonians.
The problem in The Elder Scrolls it that the huge difference in the way these races are treated in the lore and even in quests throughout the world is not reflected in the experience of the player very much at all. In Skyrim, for example, the Khajiit trading caravans throughout the province mention that their nomadic lifestyle is in part influenced by the fact that the Nords do not allow the Khajiit to enter their hold cities.
However, a Khajiit player will have no issue getting into any of Skyrim‘s cities, and the only prejudice they will face is an occasional off-handed comment by the game’s generic guards. Indeed, playing as a Khajiit can be particularly immersion breaking, because the game’s dialogue options in no way reflect the unique syntax of the other Khajiit found in the world, a problem which mods like Skyrim‘s Khajiit Speak fix.
Similarly, Argonian players can enter Windhelm despite all of their kinsmen being forced to live on the docks outside the city walls. Dark Elf players will not face nearly the same prejudice as the other Dunmer in the same city. Instead of properly adjusting the dialogue for Dark Elf players, they end up with ridiculously clunky responses to questions like “are you one of those ‘Skyrim for the Nords’ types,” to which they can respond “yes, outsiders like me have no place here.” A Dunmer being bullied by two Nords will even ask a Dark Elf player if they “hate the Dark Elves.”
If Fallout 5 included playable Ghouls, Super Mutants, and Synths, there would still be far fewer races than in The Elder Scrolls. As such, the world needs to be far more reactive to the player’s race if those races are going to be as immersive as they have the potential to be. If Fallout 5 is years away, that time should be taken to create a world where playing as one race unlocks unique dialogue, quest options, and roleplaying opportunities with all of the other races.
This would give Fallout 5 huge replay value, while also allowing players to have far more control over their character and their backstory than Fallout 4‘s prescriptive opening allowed. It would be a step forward which would realize more of the roleplaying possibilities of the Fallout universe while still sticking to the Bethesda RPG formula. If fans of Fallout face a potentially decade-long wait for the next game, a fully-realized feature like this could make that wait worth it in the end.
Fallout 5 has not been announced.
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