A former mod creator for Fallout: New Vegas has noticed that some of Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC resembles his own created mod.
Previously launched in May, Far Harbor unlocks a new namesake location for players to explore, in which the main goal is to address a long-running conflict in between the island's occupants — mainly, a colony of synths, the Children of Atom cult and the island's native townspeople. Players will either bring a working resolution to the conflict or plunge the island into deeper chaos.
Alongside the major story content additions are newly added creatures, a ton of new weapons to add to a player's arsenal and side quests obtainable through various non-playable characters (NPCs) in the area or certain locations.
One of these location-type side quests is Brain Dead, featuring a different kind of gameplay than the usual Fallout 4 style, in that it places gamers in a detective role. Players interview various robots, look for clues, check the surroundings, cross-check interviews and gather their wits to help solve the mystery of a murder.
Of course, none of these Brain Dead objectives are new concepts to people who've played a dozen or more games of the same genre, but to those who've played a certain mod back in Fallout: New Vegas, not only is the side quest familiar, but Brain Dead also features similar content.
The mod in question is specifically Autumn Leaves, released as a downloadable story mod for Fallout: New Vegas about a month before Fallout 4 came out.
"I wanted to bring the player out of their zone of comfort. Having them play a non-violent questline where they could exert their deductive abilities ... and have their worldviews challenged," says mod creator Guillaume Veer.
In an article on the mod's main Mod DB page, Veer compares the two quest lines and notes a number of elements used in his own mod, i.e. certain discussions with specific robots, purportedly appear in Brain Dead as well.
"I honestly thought Bethesda's staff played Autumn Leaves, had a blast with it (I hope) took some things out of it and made their own thing for Far Harbor," says Veer, adding that he's not out to get the company and is in fact "perfectly okay" with it.
The similarities are still alarming and credit, at the very least, should be given at some point — if we can say so ourselves.
"Many of us are making mods, often taking years of our free time in order to get a job in the industry, and this kind of recognition would really give us a tremendous boost," Veer explains.
However, such might not be the case for Autumn Leaves as the company already issued a statement about it and generally dismissed any concerns that Fallout 4 developers may have taken ideas from Veer's own.
"I checked, and any similarities between the two are a complete coincidence," says Pete Hines, vice president of marketing at Bethesda Softworks, adding that the company adores its modding community and "would never disrespect them."
