You're playing Fallout 4 and have scared yourself half to death. I don't blame you, because whereas traversing the barren, irradiated plains of the Glowing Sea can be a haunting endeavour at the best of times, you know the lay of the land by now. You've slouched through the omnipresent yellow mist while ducking its pesky airborne wildlife of Bloatflies, Bloodbugs, and Stingwings countless times. On the ground, you even know the patrols and attack patterns of its native Deathclaws and Radscorpions. The thing is: today, the latter aren't where they're supposed to be. In fact, today, the latter aren't there at all.
Today, you're playing Fallout 4 with FallEvil installed, an in-progress player-made mod suite introducing the Resident Evil series' most horrific enemies to the Boston Commonwealth. Today, you've just been jumped by a razor-tongued Licker, and are now sprinting for your life from a hostile Hunter who's snapping at your heels. Today, you might have just shit your pants. "My business is bioweapons," says FallEvil creator Arroganz. "FallEvil is a one-man journey in opening up the Commonwealth to the Pandora's Box that is the creatures of Resident Evil."
VAT-Virus
Meet the graphic designer who is basically the Bob Ross of Fallout settlement building
After cutting their teeth in the Skyrim modding scene, Arroganz sought to combine their passion for Resident Evil with their love of open-world sandboxes. With Tamriel's hulking dragons, earth-shaking magic, and fumbling draugers, who's to say Resident Evil's foes wouldn't have fitted in roaming this fantastical realm, but Arroganz reckoned Fallout 4's post-nuclear apocalypse better suited the T-Virus – wherein a fresh outbreak has crippled the cursed inhabitants of the new world.
With that, across their interpretation of Lickers (whose models replace Radscorpions), Hunters (who replace Deathclaws), Zombie Dogs (Junkyard Dogs), and Paleheads (Feral Ghouls) so far, Arroganz offers lore-friendly bios that galvanise their place in the Commonwealth. Moreover, each beast has multiple variants, depicting the severity of their T-Virus infection. Zombie Dogs, for example, feature as standard canines; Zombie Hyenas, which are more aggressive but back off once crippled; and Cerberus, which use their gaping mouths to inflict stagger and bleed status effects.
"Overall, I prefer adding creatures that will play a specific role inside the game that aren't already there," explains Arroganz. "For example, there's no point in adding the mutated bugs and spiders from Resident Evil when Fallout's menagerie practically serves to fill the exact same role."
"I am currently working on a Mega Zombie Pack, something that was highly requested by my followers. It will effectively replace all Feral Ghouls in default Fallout 4 with the iconic shambling Zombies from several entries from the franchise. It is a massive project, but I didn't undertake such a Herculean task without knowing the scope of it. Between school, life, and other obligations, I pour whatever downtime I have into my FallEvil projects."
So far, FallEvil's rollout of Resident Evil baddies looks fantastic. And while outrunning a Deathclaw in vanilla Fallout 4 is hardly a walk in the park, being stalked by Emaciated and Glowing Hunter variants – which spawn at level 35 and level 50+ respectively – is the stuff of nightmares. Seriously, it's jump-out-your-chair, spill-your-coffee terrifying. Hence the aforementioned soiling of the underpants.
In Resident Evil: Village, the most recent entry in Capcom's long-standing survival horror series, we're offered a degree of extracurricular exploration inside a mostly contained, but occasionally open-world-light setting. Projects like FallEvil inevitably make us ponder the potential of a fully-open-world Resident Evil, where tactful expedition and horrifying enemies are placed above B-movie narrative and on-rails environments. Naturally, a key part of what makes horror games successful are those uncomfortable moments of unsettling claustrophobia, but if Metal Gear Solid 5 can make close-quarters combat and stealth work in a more open expanse, I see no reason why Resi couldn't one day follow suit.
For what it's worth, Arroganz agrees. "Would I personally like to see an open-world Resident Evil happen? Absolutely. Will it actually happen? That depends. If that's an idea that the development team is willing to experiment with, I think it could turn out to be one of the most unique Resident Evil games ever. However, fans might take it the wrong way, thinking that Capcom is hopping on the Ubisoft bandwagon of formulaic and stodgy open worlds. But if executed correctly, it could garner new fans as well as gratifying veterans."
The working dead
"Would I personally like to see an open-world Resident Evil happen? Absolutely. Will it actually happen? That depends."
Arroganz, FallEvil creator
As for what Arroganz has planned next, a Tyrant-like monster that chases the player around the Commonwealth tops their list. Experimenting with other horror game characters has crossed their mind too, with Dead Space's Necromorphs a potential candidate for Fallout treatment down the line too.
With a hypothetical open-world Resident Evil game in mind, I suggest to Arroganz that the same process FallEvil harnesses could be done in reverse – imagine the Raccoon City Police Department HQ crawling with Deathclaws, or the Spencer Mansion's underground lab guarded by Super Mutants. Would Arroganz be at the forefront of making that happen should the opportunity arise?
"Haha, this is an interesting question. I would love to, but Resident Evil modding is something I still have to venture into," says Arroganz. "Each game is so unique in the limitations of which it can be modified. Bethesda, if nothing else, provides one of the most versatile tool sets that allow its users to create virtually anything, which is one of the reasons I stick to their games for years on end."
"Speaking more generally, people tend to overlook the fact that most mods are made without any form of monetary compensation – simply out of the love that mod authors share for the respective games they play and tinker with. Regardless, for me, seeing my fanbase slowly grow through my work never fails to put a smile on my face. Because of these feelings and the many nuances I am learning throughout my modding adventure, I can't see myself leaving the scene anytime soon even in the hectic years to come."
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