Chris Avellone is the mastermind behind many record-breaking RPGs. He’s known for his work on games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Planescape: Torment, and most crucially, the Fallout series. It won’t be a stretch to say that the post-apocalyptic series wouldn’t have achieved the heights it did without Avellone.
The RPG genre has proven to be a staple in the gaming industry. But, at one point, it had been facing a downward spiral due to a lack of quality releases. However, Avellone believes that all of that came to an end with the release of Baldur’s Gate, which completely shook everything up.
Fallout legend believes Baldur’s Gate saved the RPG genre
While chatting with PCGamesN, Avellone opened up about his career and all the classics he has had a hand in crafting. He talked about his relationship with the Baldur’s Gate series and credits it for saving Black Isle Studios and delaying Interplay’s collapse.
If you’re unaware, the Fallout legend at one point contributed to the development of Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound. It was Black Isle’s shot at coming up with a Dungeons & Dragons title. While it was canceled, Avellone still respects the series as it saved the RPG genre.
The market was lacking a strong run of RPGs, so the time was ripe if RPGs appeared on the market – and Baldur’s Gate and Fallout both came out of the gate strong. Not only were both good games – Baldur’s Gate sold much more than Fallout
According to Avellone, the RPG market wasn’t doing that great and only had a few major releases. Interplay wasn’t able to continue with the Wasteland franchise and came up with Fallout as a spiritual successor. The debut of Baldur’s Gate and Fallout completely shook up the RPG landscape as both titles managed to fill a gap in the market.
Even though both of these franchises were smash-hits, it was Baldur’s Gate that ended up selling more than the post-apocalyptic franchise. It proved that gamers desired deep, story-driven RPGs. Without this franchise, the RPG genre would’ve never had a resurgence and a loyal fanbase.
Chris Avellone believes Fallout 2 damaged the franchise
Last year, after the release of Amazon Prime’s Fallout TV series, Avellone chimed in and gave his reviews. While he praised the show, he stated that Fallout 2 and later games, such as Brotherhood of Steel, ended up tanking the franchise’s reputation more than Bethesda’s games.
That’s not all, though; he also stated that the whole anti-capitalist agenda wasn’t a thing in the original Fallout titles, and it was something that was introduced in the 3D era of the series. According to him, showcasing capitalism as evil is quite a recent trend.
He further bashed Hollywood for using anti-capitalism as a major plot point while referencing the Vault-Tec meeting in the Prime Show, where discussions around dropping the bombs are held.
It’s true that straightforward anti-capitalist ideas such as vaults being nothing but an experiment weren’t a thing until the 3D games. However, we had seen bits of this in the original titles.
If you’ve forgotten, Nuka Cola took the entire nuclear disaster and made a marketable drink. We also had a 50s aesthetic that teased the peak of capitalism in America.
With that said, do you agree with the Fallout legend’s opinion on Baldur’s Gate series? Let us know in the comments below.
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