Tue, Jul 08, 2008 | 06:59 BST

Fallout 3 to feature “slavery, children, drugs and addiction”

Speaking in a fan interview on Bethesda’s site, Fallout 3 executive producer Todd Howard has said in no uncertain terms that the anticipated RPG won’t be one for the kids.

“[The game includes] slavery, children, drugs and addiction more than the others, as those factor for into the setting more,” he said in response to a question about mature content. “In regards to nudity and child killings, no, it features neither of those, as they don’t really add to the flavor of the game.”

Howard added: “You will not be able to be a child killer. There are several reasons for this, some of them are very basic, like we wouldn’t be able to sell the game, anywhere to anyone, if the children could be killed. I’m not using that as a scapegoat. We never wanted the game to offer any incentive or desire to be blowing kids away, so from our initial designs, we didn’t know how we were going to handle if you shot them, we just knew it was going to be a big no-no, especially with a system like VATS and the graphic fidelity the gore has.

“Anyway, when attacked, all children flee and any regular NPCs friendly to the children will instantly attack you, so it feels good in the game, in that there is an appropriate response.”

4 comments

Whizzo
08/07/08, 9:53 am

Child killing was perfectly possible in the original games, it wasn’t encouraged and you gained nothing but if you did it there was a pretty severe penalty. It’s all about giving people options, having kids magically just running away from a guy in powered armour shooting a turbo plasma rifle at them seems a bit daft.

SticKboy
08/07/08, 1:51 pm

@ Whizzo – true, but I think the change in perspective for Fallout 3, as well as the hyper-realistic GFX, kind of make killing children more problematic in this game than in the 2D, isometric, tiny-sprited original.

Also, there was less media attention on games back then. I fully understand the commercial pressures Bethesda are under, but I agree it’s a shame their art has to suffer as a result.

mightyhokie
08/07/08, 9:30 pm

I have no problem at all with not being allowed to kill virtual kids…especially very realistic kids. I mean, I don’t believe it would make anyone go out and kill a child, but just the concept is fucked up. I can’t imagine being disappointed because the game won’t let me kill the children in the game. That’s sick thinking.

As for ‘their art suffering’, well, is it really? If the point is to be pure evil then yeah, it takes away a powerful storytelling element. However, short of wanting to make your character as evil as Saddam or Bin Ladin, it shouldn’t affect the game at all. It’s okay to have you ‘try’ and kill a kid and have the people attack and kill you. It’s just not necessary.

I know it is just a game and the characters are not real so it really shouldn’t be an issue, but lets face it, the concept is pretty fucked up. Sure, games give us an opportunity to live lives we would never be able to live, or even want to live, in real life, but I think we can leave the kid killing off the plate unless it is reeeally necessary.

Just my opinion.

TJ
10/07/08, 10:21 am

You know, I realise there’s a big stigma over killing kids, but killing innocents in general is pretty nasty – why have one without the other?