War sometimes changes: Here's a free Lego Fallout game

Fallout has been a computer game, a tabletop game, a mobile game, a YouTube series, and will soon be an Amazon TV series. What could possibly be left for the post-apocalyptic RPG?

How about a Lego game?

That exists now too, unofficially, thanks to YouTuber and game developer ThrillDaWill, who spent the past several months working (and not working) on a game that combines Lego with Fallout. You can see the results in the video above, beginning with an impressive mini-movie, the type you might see at the start of an official Fallout game. Then ThrillDaWill shows off some footage of the game, and even better, some peeks behind the curtain of its development, including a friend testing an alpha on Discord. 

Lego Fallout really has lots of Fallout features in it, including VATS, a Pip-Boy, stimpacks, raiders, a Fat Man, and a gloriously realized wasteland made out of Lego. And here's the best part: you can download and play it yourself for free.

I couldn't resist giving it a try. Lego Fallout starts in a Vault, naturally, and after winding my way through the narrow passages I came upon a skeleton with a Pip-Boy, a pistol, and some ammo, which is typically what you'll find in a Vault. I shot a few Lego-ified rad roaches, then exited the Vault to find a vast, sprawling Lego wasteland while the famous Fallout theme played.

The world is massive, decorated with ruined houses and vehicles and a few stashes to find with weapons and ammo. I quickly ran into a pack of raiders, and even using VATS my pipe rifle didn't do much to stop them. After respawning at the Vault entrance I got a bit further, and I even ran into a friendly NPC who suggested I visit a crater to find some useful goodies. I made my way there but ran into some enemies in hazmat suits who made pretty quick work of me.

Lego Fallout is a bit light on stuff to do besides scrounge gear and get into shooting matches in the overworld, but it's still pretty impressive and looks absolutely outstanding (my GPU grudgingly agreed). It's honestly hard to not want an official Lego version of Fallout after playing ThrillDaWill's version. Who do I talk to about that? Does anyone have Mr. Lego's phone number?

I did have a couple issues playing: adjusting my screen resolution screwed things up and I had to delete my AppData folder so I could readjust it again. The game also froze once while I was trying to fiddle with other settings, requiring a manual shutdown. ThrillDaWill says "I am still working on additional bugs and stuff" so it sounds like there may be more updates in the future. Still: it's fun. It's Fallout in a ruined Lego world. Who wouldn't be into that?

You'll find the free playable Lego Fallout and other projects on ThrillDaWill's itch.io page.