One of the most exciting announcements during E3 in 2021 wasn't for a new game but a mod for an existing one. Fallout: London is a DLC-sized mod for Fallout 4 that takes the famously unchanging nature of war and airmails it to jolly old England in the year 2237.
Following up on last year's announcement trailer, the mod team has released nearly 20 minutes of gameplay footage you can watch below. The gameplay trailer shows the very start of the game, beginning with a slideshow and voiceover (by a not-that-convincingly British narrator) and then moves on to the player waking up in a giant beaker surrounded by curious scientists.
As usually happens at the beginning of Fallout games, things quickly go terribly wrong underground and the player has to escape the bunker and reach the surface world. Or at least what's left of it.
It looks stonking brilliant, guv! I like that instead of radroaches, the typical Fallout starting enemy, the trailer instead shows radshrews. (I realize shrews are found just about everywhere in the world but they do feel like a decidedly English critter, probably because of Shakespeare.) There's plenty of "mind the gap" talk in the trailer—since Vault-Tec is an American company, the London survivors have been hiding in bunkers built beneath tube stations.
Interestingly, the player has a bit of help escaping the bunker from a figure known as Mr. Smythe, who has a bit of G-Man mystique to him. Apart from punching shrews, we don't get to see any gunplay or combat (except for a few brief instances of NPCs shooting each other), but the trailer shows plenty of nice-looking underground locations and a brief view of post-apocalyptic London itself near the end.
I do find it a little weird that the UK version of the Pip-Boy is called the Atta Boy. "Attaboy" feels (to me) like an American saying and "Pip" makes me think of "Pip-pip!" which is distinctly British. But, I do love the look of the device, which isn't bolted to your wrist but is instead a hand-held PDA that can be inserted into consoles after blowing into the device, like you would a Nintendo cartridge. It's a really nice touch.
My main thoughts, however: Yes, please! I'm very much looking forward to exploring the remains of London in the Fallout world, and so far the mod is looking great. There's no release date yet, but you can find out more about Fallout: London, or volunteer to help out with its development, here at the official website.
