The Fallout series most interesting and mysterious cut content
The Fallout series has adapted, improved, and tested numerous new ideas and gameplay modifications over the years right in front of our eyes as the series progressed. However, there are still plenty of scrapped concepts and designs that we never got to experience first hand in post-apocalyptia. The following are just a few examples of interesting and mysterious cut content of the Fallout franchise we’ve been able to uncover.
Tenpenny Tower Radio
Home to the “elite” of the Capital Wasteland, Tenpenny Tower is the brainchild of founder Allistair Tenpenny. The prewar hotel remains relatively untouched by the outside world and as such, the residents have taken up a prewar lifestyle to compliment that. Dressed head to toe in Casualwear and Parkstroller outfits, you can’t expect the residents of such a classy establishment to be subjected to the rough and rowdy sounds of Galaxy News Radio! Enter Tenpenny Tower Radio. A station seemingly cut for unknown reasons in the late stages of development, several audio files can still be pulled from Allistair Tenpenny’s file!
Vault 120
Most likely to be an end result of completing Fallout 4’s cut quest, 20 Leagues Under the Sea, Vault 120 was to be located in the waters of The Commonwealth! Files and assets for this vault can still be found using the Fallout 4 Creation Kit as well as several unused scripts referencing the underwater vault. Furthermore, Vault 120 appears to have been tossed around as an idea for the wild wasteland of Appalachia in Fallout 76 as multiple unused cells can be found for Vault 120 that are not present in the files for Fallout 4. Don’t be surprised when the next Fallout title or even 76 DLC features this underwater mystery.
Catfish Mierlurk
Sticking to the underwater genre, there have been several references to a catfish like creature across multiple titles In the Fallout franchise. That being said there shouldn’t be any surprise the idea has been toyed with as to how it should be represented in game. The only official In game name given to the creature occurs in Fallout when a fisherman speaks of a “Giant Catfish” . However, Fallout 3’s concept art shows the idea for a mierlurk variant referred to as the “Catfish Mirelurk” a mutated bipedal fish with menacing teeth and barbs that very well could’ve been another obstacle for The Lone Wanderer. Yet another entry we are expecting to eventually see become canon.
Vault 65
A vault cut from the final release of Fallout 76, Vault 65 contains numerous files depicting a large scale vault including several rooms, elevators, machinery, and crafting stations. Diving into the game files will find the vault also referred to as “Vault 75” which might have been an early prototype for Vault 76 or other larger scale vaults according to Fallout Wiki. Interestingly enough while this vault was cut and may not even have ever been intended for gameplay, a Vault 65 trunk does exist alongside the other canon vault numbered containers.
Vault 11 Survivor
Naturally, a game built around the idea of surviving nuclear annihilation via underground vaults is going to have plenty of vault related content that doesn’t make it off the cutting room floor. With that said, we tack on our third vault related entry to the list. Located in the barren wastes of the Mohave, Vault 11 played host to one of Vault-Tec’s darkest social experiments. For those not familiar, residents of the vault were told each year one member of their community must be scarified in order for the rest of them to be able to sustainably survive, failure to do so would result in all dwellers death. In reality, Vault-Tec had a prepared message once the residents refused to do so explaining they are a true beacon of humanity and as a reward for not killing one another would be granted access to the vault door. Unfortunately the dwellers found this out much too late, with only 5 remaining survivors. The final five are said to have gone insane form the realization of that they had done resulting in eventual suicide or homicide of all the remaining member except for one. This one remaining member was originally meant to be able to be discovered in game with game files containing a character model able to be spawned via console commands. However, unlike the previous entries, while the NPC itself was removed, this character as a concept is still canon thanks to the Holotapes able to be collected in Vault 11.
Mister Burke
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Mr.Burke? One of the primary characters in Fallout 3? Someone who is directly involved in one of the largest choices the player can make in game?” Yes. While the majority of us who have played through Fallout 3 are faced early on with the option to either save or destroy the town of Megaton courtesy of Mister Burke, players who revived the Japanese version of the game did not! The Japanese release of Fallout 3 featured the removal of Mister Burke and with him the players ability to revive the detonation device, meaning destroying Megaton wasn’t even an option! While this was removed for “Cultural Reasons” and understandably so, it just seems odd to play through the events of Fallout 3 without one of the biggest choices the character has to make, as well as seemingly removing much of the appeal of Tenpenny tower.
These are just a handful of the mysteriously interesting cut content found within the Fallout series. As always, we’d love to hear your favorite content that never got the chance to make it to release day! Let us know in the comments down below, and check out more Fallout related content right here!
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“Fallout Wiki.” Fandom, fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_
“Fallout 3 Concept Art.” Neoseeker, http://www.neoseeker.com/fallout-3/concept_art/.
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