Yes, I’ve given into the hype of Amazon’s Fallout series, and I’m playing Fallout 4 again. While I've spent years replaying Fallout 2, 3 and New Vegas, I haven’t touched Bethesda’s controversial fourth entry in the series in years.
As someone who didn’t necessarily vibe with Fallout 4, primarily due to its restrictive conversation trees that severely limit per-quest dialogue, I saw this as an opportunity to play through a highly modded version of the game. While I love toying with the best Fallout mods, I typically only tinker with fan-made quest lines instead of adding weapons, enemies or game-changing goodies. However, as someone who doesn’t really care about Fallout 4, I thought it was time to turn it into something I do actually care about: Halo.
With the Fallout TV series being the second coming of Christ for video game adaptations, and Halo Season 2 being more of an own-brand pizza, this experiment was more about healing my heart than anything else.
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+ 4Using the Xbox version of Fallout 4, I made a sizable mod list to bring the world of Halo to Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG. With a small mod size limit, I used Green in the Commonwealth to bring overgrown flora to Fallout 4’s dull Commonwealth and used Flood Infection to replace the game’s Feral Ghouls and Radroaches with The Flood. With Elite Infiltration changing Raiders into Covenant Elites, Super Mutants turned into Brutes and myself kitted up as an ODST thanks to the Misriah Armory, it was time to Halo-up throughout Fallout.
In my mind, I had a roleplay in the back of my brain. This version of Halo saw an ODST stranded on a Covenant-invaded planet just after the war ended in 2552, after the end of Halo 3. With hostile Covenant forces still on-planet, cut off from the now-human-friendly main forces, the planet has become a desperate struggle between human and alien. Also, The Flood is there.
While Halo Infinite offered a great open-world single-player adventure for fans of the series, it is also a traditional Halo game. That means bombastic action with slick gunplay, letting you skid around hordes of foes as you quickly pop between weapons and vehicles. As not just one of the series’ powerful Spartans, but the Spartan Master Chief, we’d never get something that feels like a true struggle for survival.
click to enlarge + 4This collection of Fallout 4 mods does achieve that, making the game a pseudo experiment for an open-world ODST sequel that we’ll sadly never see. Especially with Microsoft cancelling ODST 2 and countless other Halo spin-offs.
Fire Support, the first mission for the Brotherhood of Steel, becomes a much more difficult early-game mission with these mods. Meeting the Brotherhood at the Cambridge Police Station at night time was a huge mistake as the powered-up Flood enemies become horrifying damage sponges for anyone with limited resources.
Armed with a Plasma Repeater and an Energy Sword acquired from an Elite in an earlier skirmish, I managed to help Paladin Danse defend the station from the Gravemind's minions at the cost of a few stimpacks and almost all of my ammo.
One of the first Minutemen radiant quests, The First Step, is just as difficult. Clearing out the sprawling industrial complex at the Corvega Assembly Plant, a battalion of Covenant forces stands between me and my target, a human traitor named Jeb.
click to enlarge + 4Covenant weapons rinse through early game armor, the plasma bolts of the repeaters burning through health. Using an energy sword to execute a melee-focused sneak attack is a decent option, but I was quickly forced to run for a plasma turret and spew through ammo to take out the horde of Elites protecting my foe.
This collection of mods also helps to make Fallout 4 terrifying. The powerful Flood hordes that replace the Feral Ghouls are far harder to fight at night, and being swarmed by the horrible, screaming monsters is genuinely one of the scariest moments I’ve had in gaming. (If I played this in Fallout 4 VR, there’d be a mess.)
Every battle in this Halo-themed horror mod felt like a struggle, especially with the difficulty turned up. Ammo is scarce and weapons hit like bricks covered in liquid hot plasma, and you can imagine the haunting music of Halo 3: ODST as you trundle through the dark, rainy wastelands at night.
Of course, it’s not perfect. There’s no mod to replace Synths with Prometheans from Halo 4 and 5, and Elites still have the same dialogue as the human raiders they’re replacing. But sneaking through the wasteland with an MA5B Assault Rifle and roleplaying as a sarcastic ODST trapped on this wartorn planet until the UNSC arrives is genuinely a lot of fun.
click to enlarge + 4Full mod list:
- NAC X Fixed
- True Storms: Wasteland Edition
- Green in the Commonwealth
- Enhanced Blood Textures
- Realistic Ragdoll Force
- See Through Scopes
- Interior Visual Overhaul
- Illuminated Billboards
- Bus Stop Lighting
- Realistic Sound
- Flood Infection - Feral Ghoul Replacer
- Feral Ghoul Flood Sounds
- Elite Infiltration - Raiders Reskin
- Brute Invasion - Supermutant Replacer
- Halo 3 Minigun Replacer
- Infinite Armory V2
- Misriah Armory
- Misriah Armory Extended
- Rakshaka Armory
- Halo Infinite Armory - Disciples (Nuka World)
- Halo Infinite Armory - Pack (Nuka World)
- Sierra 117 Redux
- Project Helljumper
- Enhanced Creatures AI Overhaul
- WET - Water Enhancement Textures
- Full Dialogue Interface
As someone who typically prefers to play games largely unmodded as I tend to actually enjoy the base gameplay, my lack of love for Fallout 4 in general has made me more willing to change it up. I still don’t like the game’s main plot or the game’s dialogue system, but it is still a decent game.
We’ll likely never get an official Halo survival game, as much as that sucks. While 343 Industries seems more than willing to experiment with Halo spin-offs, that’s seemingly not allowed. Only bad-to-okay TV show adaptations for you, Halo.
Nevertheless, this selection of mods on Xbox or PC can give you just a taste of what that could be, and I’m having one hell of a blast with it. A nuclear blast. Get it? Like Fallout.