The game famously features a post-war recreation of downtown Washington D.C. The main structure of the station comprises a Space Age-inspired metal rocket fixed onto elongated, acute-angled supports which feature protruding horizontal tailfins – all coming together to create a reassuringly familiar sight as you traverse the game’s topography. A prominent example of Googie architecture found in the game is the numerous Red Rocket refueling stations.
Fallout 3’s architecture is far more prevalent than before, with a multitude of power stations, shacks, depots, diners, stores, towers, train stations and many other buildings all serving to populate the wasteland with hundreds of structures. The crime-families’ bases of Salvatore’s Bar, the Shark Club and the Desperado all feature extravagant personalised entrances, emboldened with boastful neon signage – used to both entice feckless addicts and display their owner’s affluence and power.įallout 3 not only takes the series’ locations to superior numbers once again, it also realises them in a fully 3D environment courtesy of the Gamebryo engine. New Reno is certainly a highlight – hapless junkies and graffiti tarnish its streets as you pass under the iconic Reno Arch warning you that shady shenanigans and outright lawlessness lie ahead. Vault City and the New California Republic both house an abundance of smooth, pale stone buildings with prominent structural openings which serve to let the player know they’re in a more advanced and ‘civilised’ location. The towns of Redding and Klamath are made up from a combination of previously featured buildings and new ones that show slightly greater detail, such as those with walls constructed from large clay blocks rather than indistinct metal panels. Finally, the town’s perimeter wall made from stacked automobile carcasses and entrance fashioned from a rail-carriage seems both a practical and realistic use of salvaged materials – illustrating the resourcefulness of the fledgling post-war civilisation as well as being a memorable addition to the game’s aesthetic.įallout 2 features a greater number of locations that its predecessor and many excellent ideas for these were conceived by Black Isle: Gecko is a town built around a failing power-plant, the Enclave’s base is a fortified old oil rig and Arroyo village features a temple as its centrepiece. This building is notable due to its smooth white finish which contrasts sharply with its neighbouring buildings and also for its rounded edges and triple horizontal line detail, the latter two being characteristic of Streamline Moderne architecture.
The massive cathedral in Fallout is probably the most architecturally impressive structure in the game its striking form a blend of a traditional main structure with a Futurism-influenced spire – a spectacular backdrop for the climactic battle with the cultish Children of The Atom.Īnother location of significance is Junktown, as – although it houses several crude buildings fashioned primarily from corrugated iron and steel, it also contains Doc Morbid’s hospital. The early games are somewhat limited by their isometric engines and rely heavily on basic buildings in most of their locations: dark, dismal and monotonous boxes which reflect their titles’ pessimistic tone. This is all deftly melded with the inevitable post-war remains, debris and plenty of innovative new buildings to create the many locations found in the Fallout games. Up until that point the architecture of the pre-war Fallout universe had remained true to the aforementioned styles and it is their presence, along with keenly-designed posters, infomercials and other features which create the series’ retro-futuristic aesthetic. It was during the post WWII period that the series’ timeline deviated from our own and followed a course which led to The Resource Wars and nuclear Armageddon. In the 1940s and thereafter, the Atomic and Space ages had a large influence on contemporary US culture and this surging period of technological optimism was reflected in architectural styles such as Googie, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne (all three can be grouped into the ‘Raygun Gothic’ catchall). The series’ architecture is crucial to the atmosphere of the games and acts as a robust vertebra in the backbone of its distinctive quality.
#GAMEBRYO ENGINE FALLOUT NEW VEGAS SERIES#
Yet much of the series unfolds in and around a multitude of architecture, every piece of which has been thought-out and designed by the games’ developers. Think of the Fallout series and it’s likely your mind’s eye will envision the post-apocalyptic desert wasteland in which the games are set. This is a repost of my 2012 piece for Thunderbolt.
0 kommentar(er)
