Original Fallout's Pacifist Run Was Created Accidentaly

When you think about Interplay's original Fallout games (including New Vegas), one of the first things that comes to mind is the vast array of choices available to players as they navigate the quests and encounters within these games.

As is commonly known, the development team responsible for the non-Bethesda Fallout titles paid extremely close attention to player freedom, going so far as to enable players to finish their games as complete pacifists without hurting a single radroach. However, as recently disclosed by Tim Cain, a legendary Game Designer and one of Fallout's founding fathers, it turns out that what many regard as a hallmark of classic Fallout games was, in fact, a fortuitous accident.

In a recent video shared by Cain on his YouTube channel, the developer delved into the topic of pacifism in games, revealing that the pacifist run in the original Fallout was not a planned feature but rather "was accidental".

According to Cain, the ability to complete the Vault Dweller's journey without directly hurting or killing anyone (convincing the Master to unalive itself doesn't count) was discovered by one of the QA testers, who showed that "most of the dialogue playthroughs didn't result in anyone dying". Recognizing this accidental discovery, Cain and the development team decided to incorporate it as a deliberate feature, paving the way for the support of pacifist playthroughs in subsequent games.

Throughout 2023, Tim Cain shared multiple short videos similar to this one, providing tons of insights into his games. Earlier, the developer unveiled the true reason why Vault-Tec built a series of underground bunkers, explained why he left the Fallout franchise after the first game, revealed his studio's pitch for Baldur's Gate 3, proposed in July 2003, and more.

In a separate interview, he also disclosed the party responsible for starting the atomic war in the Fallout universe. We highly encourage you to visit Cain's YouTube channel to learn more about Fallout.

Speaking of Fallout, recently, a post made by Chris Avellone was rediscovered on Twitter, alleging that Bethesda declined numerous offers from Obsidian to develop Fallout: New Vegas 2, as well as The Elder Scrolls spin-offs. You can read the full story by clicking this link.

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