Fallout 5 is more than likely years away at this point, but as a die-hard Fallout lover, it’s a game that tends to always be on my mind. When it comes to the games, the Fallout franchise has been stuck in a bit of a limbo state. Amazon’s live-action series has been a great way to pass the time between entries, but Fallout 76 has mostly been carrying the games, leaving a lot of space to wonder what Fallout 5 will even be like. Now that Bethesda just recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, whatever comes next for Fallout hopefully embraces the same kind of unexpectedness that the studio has brought forth through the years.
Bethesda’s 40th anniversary celebration marked the first new update for the next Elder Scrolls game in eight years, confirming that the project is officially called The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel. This Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel announcement was clearly the highlight of the anniversary, but there were also plenty of great memories shared by longtime Bethesda developers. One that particularly stood out to me was from Associate Art Director Dan Lee, and it has me excited about Fallout 5‘s gameplay possibilities.
Fallout 5 Needs to Keep Bethesda’s Unpredictable Spirit Alive
An official Bethesda blog post that was shared for the 40th anniversary featured a variety of interesting stories from devs who detailed some of their favorite memories while working for the company. Dan Lee joined Bethesda during Oblivion‘s production, and one moment that made a lasting impression on him was while playtesting the game’s “A Watery Grave” quest.
Put the consoles in the correct order.
In “A Watery Grave,” players have to kill a ship’s captain, which is followed up by two of his allied NPCs finding his body, triggering a fight. However, Dan Lee decided that this quest was the perfect time to think outside the box. Instead of taking the obvious route with the quest, Lee snuck into the captain’s room while the NPC was sleeping, removed all the food from the room, snuck a poisoned apple into the captain’s pocket, then left the ship. After a few hours, Lee got a notification that the captain had died after eating the apple, and the quest was completed. What surprised Lee the most, though, was that this Dark Brotherhood Oblivion quest didn’t account for this; he had merely stumbled into this solution via his own curiosity.
I raced to see Emil Pagliarulo, the designer of the quest, to praise him for taking such an unorthodox approach into account. To my surprise, he was just as shocked as I. He informed me he did not, in fact, take that into account and it was simply the systems interacting.
This is fascinating, because it shows that even devs who work hours upon hours to bring gameplay systems to life can’t always predict how those systems will interact with one another. These kinds of moments are why games by Bethesda have gained reputations for being so freedom-driven. It’s another reason why Starfield disappointed so many Bethesda fans, because even though there’s still that sense of freedom with quests, the overall exploration was hindered by the procedurally generated world.
Both The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel and Fallout 5 present a great opportunity for Bethesda to get back to its roots and embrace as much player freedom as possible. Systems overlapping in unplanned ways add a deeper layer to the experience, completely bumping up the immersion factor. If Bethesda really wants to make Fallout 5 gameplay feel like it was worth waiting so many years for, then the studio needs to dive deeper into this phenomenon.
Bethesda Has Years of Catching Up to Do When It Comes to Fallout 5’s Mechanics
A lot has changed since Fallout 5 and even Fallout 76. When it comes to RPGs, players now expect deeper, richer worlds that are easy to get lost in. What worked for Bethesda in the past won’t be the key to meeting modern expectations. Some of the best RPGs of the last decade have increasingly been more careful and meticulous about quest storylines and their solutions, and Bethesda could set itself apart by leaning even harder into the unpredictability that its games have been known for.
A lot of details regarding the next Bethesda games remain locked away for the foreseeable future, but the good news is that the company has been more vocal in 2026 about its upcoming projects than it has been in years. Now that fans have gotten The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel news, a Fallout 5 update is hopefully on the horizon next. Bethesda hasn’t revealed a single thing about the project other than the fact that it’s in development. Bethesda’s last few years have made me cautious about what to expect from Fallout 5, but Dan Lee’s story about outsmarting Oblivion‘s systems has ignited a fresh spark of optimism.
