Call of Duty’s rumoured Fallout crossover feels like a collab too far
When it comes to Call of Duty crossovers, it's all well and good seeing the likes of Devin Booker and Snoop Dogg darting around the bunkers and trenches, but there's a glaring problem when it comes to combining with other shooter franchises.
Call of Duty (so far) has given shooter collabs a wide birth, opting not to combine with Activision's second lovechild of Overwatch, its new cousin in Microsoft's Gears of War, or any other closely related title.
Instead, we've seen franchises that are less all-guns-blazing and more monster-fuelled, which has made for some entertaining brute-force Operators. So, why on earth is there a supposed Fallout collaboration on the way?
Call of Duty is diluting the great name of Fallout
Click to enlargeFallout is back. The live-action series has been a blast and gamers are flocking back to the franchise, which is now dominating the game charts and has even been injected with hope that Fallout 5 is coming soon.
But that doesn't mean we need to scramble to see Ghoul take on Ghost in a Rust 1v1. Does it? Let's take a quick look at some of the games that Call of Duty has combined with so far. In the last 12 months alone, the Modern Warfare series and Warzone have been benefactors of Diablo, The Walking Dead, Dune, and Tomb Raider skins.
If you look even further back, you'll also find Zelda (2013 Ghosts), Mario (2009 MW2), and Tony Hawk (2004). None of these felt out of place, per se, but rather a little bit of a quirky advertising boost for both franchises - especially in the case of Diablo.
That's because these crossovers aren't from shooter games. Only Lara Croft in that list has any gun and military experience, but the badass heroine is better known for the action-adventure elements in her namesake games.
Yet Fallout will defy that, as the title is a direct competitor to Call of Duty, being pretty gun-centric, especially with Fallout 76 being somewhat of a DMZ rival. We're yet to see which characters are supposedly being added, but having Vault-Dwellers milked for cash when they are clearly skilled gunslingers is a bit on the nose.
The characters in Fallout aren't lemons to be squeezed for a few dollars but would rather be reluctant to strap on their boots alongside Nicki Minaj, as if they aren't part of a seriously applaudable force in a shooter franchise that rivals CoD. They are not jokes, so Activision, pick a direction and swing with it.
Do competitive shooters have a place in CoD?
Click to enlargeOf course, there are a few anomalies to the we-hate-competitor-shooters rule, as CoD recently broadened the horizon slightly by doing crossovers with Doom and Warhammer. Yet both of these collaborations came with their own features that differed from the core game experience.
Doom's bundle (which included no characters) saw the famed Super Shotgun have its signature retro pixelated animations, while Warhammer's much larger collab had exclusive juggernaut modes in which chainsaws were the golden chalice to cut through heavy-armour titans with usual CoD weapons.
Both crossovers have worked, but how does this happen with Fallout without ripping off the game? You can't implement core Fallout action into another game without completely saturating Bethesda's work. Okay, so maybe with a One in the Chamber variant with The Ghoul and his pistol.
Even then, it's nothing that hasn't been done before, and I don't see where Fallout can gain merits here. If these shooter franchises have characters loading into CoD for the giggles, Fallout will be nothing but a mockery.
Does Fallout x Call of Duty open more doors to shooter crossovers?
Click to enlargeThis combination also opens the possibility of even more shooter games being embedded into Call of Duty, as it marks the second time in a year that Microsoft and Activision have used their other IPs to create hype and advertise.
Bethesda's Fallout series might now be followed by Blizzard's Overwatch or 343's Halo, both of which are non-in-house Microsoft-owned IPs that are rife to slip in.
If this door doesn't slam shut, especially if unique abilities like Doom's shotgun continue, then what's to stop Call of Duty from just being some Microsoft Smash Bros. rip-off? There's little to draw the line between having mil-sim arcade shooters and a world where Vault Dweller assassinates Master Chief, all while Gengi charges with his sword directly at Marcus Fenix's LMG.
I'm all for diluting Call of Duty with quirky characters, but when it's shooters that have their own games, something doesn't quite sit right...Although maybe we could at least have the doggo. Riley needs a pal to play with.
