War never changes, and if we only relied on Bethesda to produce new games and content for the Fallout series, that would also mean never leaving the confines of America. But in the Fallout world, the nuclear devastation that was wrought was not confined to just the US. It was a global event. However, other than a few hints here and there about what happened to the rest of the world, players never really discovered how everywhere else out there, other than at a few remote places like Far Harbor, had been doing in terms of rebuilding after the bombs fell. Fallout London, which was created by a team of over 100 volunteer developers called Team Folon, aims to change all that.
Technically, Fallout London is a DLC for Fallout 4, and you need the game of the year edition of Fallout 4 (the version with all the official DLCs included) in order to play. But Fallout London completely overhauls Fallout 4 to the point where you are basically playing an original game that is completely unconnected from the original setting. Thankfully, what awaits you is pretty impressive, both in terms of scale and quality. The map of London and the surrounding area is bigger than Boston from Fallout 4 by at least half, and the DLC is dripping in British culture which helps to color everything about it as a unique experience.
Fallout London is free to download and play, but that comes with a big caveat. Bethesda released a next generation patch for Fallout 4 just about a week before Fallout London was ready to release which totally breaks the DLC and makes it unplayable. The timing of that surprise patch, 10 years after Fallout 4’s release, is somewhat suspicious, with many suggesting that Bethesda did it to blunt the highly anticipated DLC’s popularity. In any case, you can still play Fallout London, but if you are playing a version from Steam or the Epic Games Store, then you need to download a roll-back mod from the Nexus forms to reset the core game to pre-patch mode. Thankfully, you can also just buy Fallout 4 from GOG, and then download the free Fallout London DLC and start playing, although that means you may have to purchase the core game again if you own it elsewhere. But that is the easiest way to start playing. Also, I don’t see any way that Fallout London ever makes it to consoles, other than Bethesda suddenly deciding to embrace a DLC that they did not create – which is highly unlikely given the circumstances.
If you are able to finally get Fallout London working, then you are in for a real treat. I was wondering how Team Folon would drop a player like me, who doesn’t know too much about London, into a title where my character was supposed to know everything about it. Team Folon accomplishes that by having your character be grown in a lab by mad scientists, so you are a newly-made human with no prior knowledge about the world. Your first mission when that lab is attacked is to shatter the glass of your test tube home and escape – a classic prison break kind of way to start a Bethesda game.
At it’s core, Fallout London has all the same mechanics as the main Fallout 4 game, so exploration and combat are going to be identical in terms of mechanics. It’s really just the setting and the presentation that is different, so if you liked playing Fallout 4, then you will also enjoy Fallout London.
That said, the changes are pretty huge. Even the ubiquitous Pip-Boy, which is called an Attaboy in London, gets a British-centered makeover that shows how things in London are just a little different from what we are used to seeing in Fallout. You will need to get used to that too because there are quite a few British-centered weapons, factions and tech throughout the adventure.
Unlike many Fallout adventures that do at least some bits of handholding, you are kind of out on your own in Fallout London. For the first few hours after you escape the lab, you really will be roaming the streets on the outskirts of the main area, dealing with street thugs as well as some unique British monsters, like Beefeaters, which is what those who live there call cannibals. Exploring the new environment while discovering clues about what is happening in the city that you were just dropped into brings to mind that feeling of wonder that has not really been that strong since players first stepped out of the vault in Fallout 3 and took a look at the destruction and death in all directions. It’s clear that Team Folon understood that amazing sense of wonder and found a way to replicate it here.
After a few hours of scavenging bins for food and medicine while dreading encountering creatures such as a hungry radshrew, you will eventually find a way (probably) to get into London proper, where the meat of the adventure takes place. You will find a bevy of interesting factions all with competing goals that are as varied as government authorities, modern-day privateers and a faction based on King Arthur’s legendary court. Earning the trust of those groups requires lots of questing as the plot advances, so be prepared, just like in any Bethesda title, for a lot of go fetch assignments. Fallout London’s plot is pretty amazing as you slowly uncover what is really going on, and it is every bit as good as any other entry in the Fallout series.
The true star of Fallout London is its open world, which is extremely well done. The core engine is over a decade old at this point, so we won’t get Unreal Engine 5-level graphics like you might with other modern titles, but it’s clear that the developers took their time to craft realistic environments and interiors that always remain true to the London theme. That made exploration a real joy almost all the time, whether on a quest or just wandering around and seeing what is around the next block.
The voice acting is also surprisingly well-done overall. The developers were able to secure the participation of several well-known voice actors whose performances add a lot of quality and professionalism. Coupled with a unique soundtrack, it makes the sounds of Fallout London a definite high point.
Because this is a fan-made mod, there are some bugs and quirks to be found. It crashed twice during our testing, which is not terrible in a 60 plus hour title. There are lots of other bugs however, mostly minor in nature like floating objects, bad clipping and NPCs getting stuck in walls or floors and things of that nature. None of them that we encountered were game-breaking. The biggest annoyance was actually trying to get Fallout London working with our existing Steam copy of the title, before we just gave up and bought the GOG version of Fallout 4 instead.
Fallout London is a masterpiece of modding. It’s sad that Bethesda chose to throw up roadblocks instead of supporting such an effort, as this could have really rekindled interest in the old game even more with a little official support. But in any case, Fallout London is great even as a standalone title in the Fallout universe and worthy of becoming official canon. More than that, it’s really fun to play and recaptures some of that Fallout magic that made many players fall in love with the series in the first place. It may take a little bit of jury rigging to get it to run, but it is more than worth the effort considering what Fallout London has to offer.