Highlights

  • Bethesda once considered the idea of having headless corpses controlled by Liberators as one of Fallout 76 enemies.
  • The terrifying reanimated-corpse concept was ultimately scrapped in favor of the Scorched.

Fallout 76 was once meant to feature enemies in the form of headless corpses controlled by Liberators. But the concept was ultimately scrapped in favor of a Fallout 76 enemy that's a different type of terrifying, a former Bethesda developer has revealed.

The source in question is Nate Purkeypile, who filled half a dozen artist positions at Bethesda during his 14-year stint at the company. Immediately prior to leaving Bethesda to develop his own game in 2021, Purkeypile worked as the lead artist on Fallout 76.

Fallout 76 two-story C.A.M.P. with raider flag
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Fallout 76's the Scorched Once Had Some Terrifying Competition

Reflecting on his time at the company, the industry veteran has recently shared a horrific Fallout 76 enemy idea that was ultimately scrapped. Taking to Twitter in late May, Purkeypile revealed how he had once developed a concept for hostile creatures in the form of beheaded corpses whose skulls were replaced by Liberators, which control them. The idea got as far as some concept art, with Purkeypile stating that he had later even prototyped it as part of a game jam. The developer initially wanted to include these headless, Liberator-controlled corpses in the game instead of the Scorched.

That tidbit of info indicates that the concept itself is around a decade old. Given how the Scorched are an integral part of the Fallout 76 world and lore, Purkeypile must have been pushing for this idea before their role in the game's story was set in stone. That would have been no later than 2015, when the live-service RPG was still in pre-production. By the time Bethesda wrapped up work on Fallout 4 and started active development of Fallout 76, the game's main quest must have already been mapped out, making the idea of replacing the Scorched with any other type of enemy out of the question.

While the story of Fallout 76 would have been notably different without the Scorched, their scrapped competition could have expanded on the lore of the in-universe version of the People's Republic of China. The ability to reanimate beheaded corpses by inserting themselves into their necks would also have offered a stronger justification for the arachnid design of Liberators. The game that fans ended up getting ultimately went in a different direction, characterizing Liberators as more conventional spy robots.

Players who want to learn more about Liberators can do so by carefully exploring Mama Dolce's Food Processing located in Morgantown, assuming they haven't done so already. That's coincidentally also one of the best locations for farming Canned Dog Food in Fallout 76.