Reject Bethesda, return to Black Isle.
Not really. Black Isle signed off on Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, an abomination that makes Fallout 76 look decent by comparison.
Fallout 76 is a glitch-addled mess, but one day, once some modders fix all the bugs, that game will at least be decent. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel on the other hand, will always be a bad game.
Don’t fellate former Black Isles studios members too much, these are the same guys who signed off on Tactics, BoS, project V13, and the movie
It amazes me how much people can get off on nostalgia for the old days (Black Isle/Obsidian, Morrowind-era Bethesda) when even their masterpieces were flawed.
Fallout 1 didn't let you play as a Super Mutant, even though there was a choice to be one. Not letting you be a Super Mutant in-game was bullshit. It would have been fun to play as a mutant that goes around smashing humans into chunky salsa. I mean, come on, after the Brotherhood of Steel sent you to that irradiated hellhole with the full intent of letting you die there, who doesn't want to roll up into their bunker as a Super Mutant wielding a massive chaingun on the one hand and a chainsaw on the other?
Fallout 2 didn't even bother with an alternate ending. Aside from the small sidequest ending permutations, all paths lead to you going into the Enclave Oil Rig and blowing them up. Which is just bullshit. Where's the roleplaying aspect there? You can infiltrate the Enclave to the point where drill sergeants, comm officers, and even their damn president all think you're one of them. Not to mention you can take the inoculation against the FEV so they can't figure out you're a mutated human by hitting you with FEV gas. You can seamlessly mix in with them, so why not use that as a chance to change their direction or even take them over?
The way I see it, a smart-enough Chosen One should be able to talk down President Richardson. Sure, Frank Horrigan doesn't listen to reason, he has a fist for a brain. But not being able to talk down President Richardson was bullshit. Especially since you CAN do that in FO1 with The Master. A "paragon" or "heroic" Chosen One should be able to talk down Richardson and the Enclave leaders and get them to help the wastelanders instead, while a more militant Chosen One should be able to talk them into abandoning the FEV genocide plan and go for some Caesar's Legion-style conquering of the wastes, or just go the full Father Elijah route and support the Enclave as they genocide every mutated creature on the planet. Since you've been inoculated, it's no threat to you.
Heck, why not have it so that you can take optional missions from Enclave questgivers on the Navarro base and get yourself promoted by doing their bidding, so by the time you get to the Oil Rig, you're a bigwig within the Enclave? That way, you can make "judicious use" of "accidents" that a charismatic, tech-oriented Chosen One can cause, getting rid of everyone above you in the Enclave's chain of command so you can take over. Then you can go with Richardson's plan so that your goons are the only humans left, or you can change the plan to either A) help the NCR rebuild democracy on the West Coast by offering them the Enclave's aid, or B) conquer them and everyone else on the West Coast and start drafting people to the Enclave's side so you can restore America by the sword. Dark Forces 2 came out a year before Fallout 2, and that game allowed you to take over the Empire. Why can't you take over Fallout's equivalent of the Empire in FO2?
As a New Vegas kid, I never understood the blind nostalgia even for the classic Fallouts. They were good games, especially for their time, but only an idiot blinded by nostalgia goggles would see them as perfect and without flaws. People rag on Fallout 3 for not letting you join the Enclave, but Fallout 2 started that tradition, and the only reason they broke it in New Vegas is because a large tide of normies who started their Fallout experience with Fallout 3 were complaining that you couldn't join the Enclave.
And of course, people keep praising Morrowind as a classic masterpiece of an RPG, yet other RPG titles of that era (the early 2000s) can utterly obliterate Morrowind on gameplay, graphics, presentation, or even in story. The most I can say for that game is that it's got a decent story, but shit graphics and gameplay. It certainly isn't even as good as Oblivion or Skyrim, let alone Fallout 3.
So the next time someone bashes Fallout 3 or Bethesda in front of me, I'll just point out these obvious flaws in Fallouts 1 and 2, or talk about how Interplay/Black Isle signed on with such silly games as Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. That game makes Shadow the Hedgehog look like a quality title.
