Canceled video games can quickly become something like legend. Fans always wonder what could have been and are left dreaming of the possibilities. Well, now one of the most talked-about canceled video games is playable. Kind of.
A proposed sequel to video game classic Fallout 2 is being given a second life due to a team of talented modders who are crafting a massive new mod. Their project, made as a Fallout: New Vegas mod, is going to follow and adhere closely to the original concept behind what would have been Fallout 3, codenamed Van Buren.
The Van Buren project was being developed by Black Isle Studios after the success of Fallout 2 but was abruptly canceled back in 2003, long before it was finished or any players got their hands on it. After Van Buren’s development was shut down, the Fallout series took a radical turn and became a different – yet still incredibly successful – type of game. Since its cancellation, many old-school diehard Fallout fans have pondered about its potential and what it could have done for the franchise.
The mod project, called Revelation Blues, is taking existing assets from Fallout: New Vegas and is using them to create a game that recreates the experience Black Isle was aiming for with Van Buren. The project’s page on NexusMods said that it will “stay faithful to the original Van Buren story as much as possible.” It also mentioned that the project is still a work-in-progress and that “in the future we plan to add in a large number of customized features.”
Van Buren would have taken place in the year 2253 and was going to feature much of the typical post-apocalyptic settings and scenarios found in all Fallout games. Players would have ventured the ruined future landscape as an escaped prisoner with the location set to be the American southwest. Denver and the Grand Canyon were supposedly going to be featured in the game, although fans were never even able to see as much as a screenshot.
