The Canadian government has recently funded a full-blown modding production of the oldFallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steelgame, it would appear. While it’s not outright unprecedented that a government would fund a video game project of some sort, several unique features of the anarchist-leaningNous Aurons, orThe Sum, make it stand out even in this admittedly niche category.
While theFalloutfranchise has never shied away from modding and community-driven projects, especially after Bethesda picked it up, none of its innumerable mods are quite as strange at face value as that ofNous Aurons. Penned by developer Hugo Nadeau, this mod was originally launched back in 2017, but its funding has only been greenlit just recently, which is why it’s been making rounds once again as of late.
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Whilemods such asFallout: Londonintroduce major new features and extra batches of content to their respective games,Nous Auronshas always had its sights set on something entirely different. Nadeau attempted to useFallout Tacticsas a platform to explore a completely anarchist post-apocalyptic society, and though it’s taken years for its funding to be approved, the Canadian government has finally signed off on paying its budget. In his talks with Kotaku, Nadeau explained that the responsible government body was well aware of the mod’s anti-government sentiments, but that the projects are approved by a council of artists rather than an actual government representative.
Though it’s unclearwhat players should expect from Bethesda in 2023aside from games such asStarfieldandRedfall, it goes without saying that a deeply anarchist exploration of a hypothetical post-apocalyptic society isn’t all that probable. This makes Nadeau’s project all the more interesting, as it stands out no matter which point of view one might consider it from. It’s particularly impressive, in fact, that Nadeau had managed to secure funding both from the Quebec Council of Arts and Letters and the Canada Council for the Arts.
While theFallout 2first-person shooter modisn’t going to receive the same sort of government funding asNous Auronshas been granted, the fact that there’s a multitude of such inventive mods for games that are this old proves that there’s no measure nor limit to community-driven content creation. It’s going to be particularly interesting to see if the same approach ends up being applied to Bethesda’s upcoming flagship title,Starfield.
Not all PC game mods are as remarkably comprehensive and highbrow as the aforementioned ones have been, it’s worth remembering. The recentGod of Warmod whereMbappe and Messi replace Kratos and Baldur, for example, proves that little things are sometimes more than thrilling enough to count.
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steelis available now on PC.
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