Bethesda and Obsidian’s FPS Fallout games are fantastic evolutions of the Fallout genre, although every game has its own pros and cons, but as a long-time fan of the series from before Bethesda’s reign, it stings that I may never see another isometric Fallout game ever again.

A spiritual successor to Wasteland—which has received its own sequels over the last decade—the original Black Isle Fallout games have long been some of my favourite games. Without so much as even a remaster on modern systems, although fans have brought the games to android, PSVita and even the Nintendo 3DS, the original RPG duology has largely fallen to the wayside.

Hell, with Bethesda’s love of remasters, anniversary editions, ports, and even full-on remakes of its games, it feels weird to not see spruced up versions of Fallout, Fallout 2 and even Fallout Tactics on PC or even console with some funky controller setup that’ll take ten hours to actually get used to.

While remasters of the classic Fallouts would be great to see, as a fan I want more—as most fans of something do. Fallout began as an isometric turn-based game with gorgeous 2D artwork and incredibly satisfying animation work, and I really want to see that classic style come back.

While Bethesda really did capture the feeling of the wasteland with Fallout 3 and Obsidian mastered the series’ humour and RPG mechanics, none of the modern games in the series has ever cracked the pacing of classic Fallout. Now, the original isometric titles are not incredibly difficult, they’re certainly not the thinking man’s game, but they did offer more depth to combat in terms of positioning, keeping track of your action points, and more.

Yes, a first-person walk  through the  wastes of DC or the deserts of the Mojave will always be more immersive than a top-down, turn-based RPG, but that style of gameplay often leads itself well to the feeling of isolation that Fallout does so well. One entire screen in Fallout 2 conveys as much as a massive expanse in first-person, and it does so with a lot less than Bethesda’s games require. However, with a solid budget and a team of brilliant artists, we could get an even more detailed isometric title, and it could faithfully recreate the originals’ pre-rendered look with ease.

When a series is simply replaced with a new version of itself, it feels like abandoning what made it special. Pokemon Legends is great because Pokemon’s main mechanics still exist in the mainline games; the Yakuza series’ turn-based gameplay is great because spin-offs still give the original series fans a taste of its previous beat-em-up action. Unfortunately, there is no classic Fallout gameplay, and there hasn’t been for a very long time.

With Fallout 5 not planned for release until after The Elder Scrolls 6, which in itself won’t launch until after GTA 6, it’s going to be a long time until we get any new experiences, outside of the years of additional Fallout 76 content in the works. 

As Amazon’s Fallout series creates an even wider fervour for new games in the series, it would be a fantastic opportunity to create a spin-off that not only explored unseen parts of the series’ universe, but also brings back the classic gameplay we haven’t seen since 2001. 

It’s worth noting that there is a spiritual successor to the original Fallout series in the works. In development at New Blood Interactive and currently dubbed New Blood CRPG, the upcoming project should give players a similar experience to Black Isle’s originals. It also helps that the game’s art is designed by Fallout Bakersfield artist Alexander Berezin and features music from Fallout and Wasteland composer Mark Morgan.

If we never get to see another classic-style Fallout game in the future, it would just be a shame. With Baldur’s Gate 3 pushing CRPGs into the mainstream, it’s a fantastic opportunity to give classic Fallout fans the experience they deserve. After all, the current series couldn’t exist without the former, and that style of gameplay deserves a chance of revival. 

Despite all of this, Bethesda’s Fallout games are still Fallout, and it’s actually testament to the studio’s adoration of those originals that they can feel so close to the isometric game despite a completely new gameplay style. While Fallout 4 certainly stumbles in terms of the whole RPG side of the franchise, Fallout can still be Fallout regardless of genre shift. I would just like to see the series I fell in love with make some form of comeback.