Super Mutants are a fictional race of posthuman beings from the post-apocalypticFalloutvideo game franchise. The Super Mutants were first introduced in 1997's Fallout as the results of human experimentation with a strain of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV), a genetically engineered viral mutagen which transforms the subjects into a hulking monstrous humanoid form.
Within series lore, Super Mutants tend to be depicted as savage and innately violent beings who, as a result of their transformations, lost a substantial amount of intelligence and often have cannibalistic tendencies. While Super Mutants tend to form their own factions or societies and are usually hostile to civilized humans, some have chosen to live peacefully alongside humans in settlements across the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Among the most recognizable and integral elements of the Falloutintellectual property (IP), Super Mutants have appeared in every media of the franchise, and have been the subject of numerous fan mods of Fallout series games. Certain individual Super Mutant characters have been well received by critics for their characterization, although the role the Super Mutant race have played throughout the history of the franchise have been the source of contention for some commentators.
Characteristics
Super Mutants are first introduced in the first Fallout as part of an ambitious effort by a grotesque mutated being known as "The Master of the Super Mutants", to create a single, perfect "master race" and remove inequalities which have been the cause of strife among humans.[1] The FEV, an artificially-created virus by a defense contractor and research corporation contracted by the American government, was originally meant to protect against various forms of biological warfare.[2] Subsequent games in the Fallout series feature other antagonistic factions that employ different strains of the FEV to create Super Mutants.[2] For example, Vault Tec, the technology company which built the nuclear fallout shelter facilities called Vaults, deliberately exposed the occupants of Vault 87 to a modified strain of the FEV as part of an unethical experiment called the Evolutionary Experimentation Program.[3] The Institute, an elusive faction of scientists in Fallout 4, kidnap the inhabitants of the surrounding region and subject their victims to another strain of FEV for experimentation. Super Mutants created by the Institute are less intelligent compared to other variants but are capable of speaking like normal humans.[2][4]
The physiology of a Super Mutant is very different compared to ordinary humans; the most immediately noticeable effects are their immense size and strength, their different skin color, and their immunity to radiation damage. A standard Super Mutant's skin tone is usually green or yellow and stands approximately 10.4 feet tall, 7.8 feet when hunching, and weighs around 800 pounds.[5] The Nightkin, an elite Super Mutant caste, have gray-blue colored skin and largely retain their pre-existing intellect unlike their lesser brethren.[6] They are often equipped with cloaking devices known as "Stealth Boys" and developed schizophrenia from prolonged use.[6][7] Other varieties of Super Mutants encountered in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 grow much larger when they age. An immensely large variety first introduced in Fallout 3, the Behemoth, stand at roughly 20 feet tall and could grow up to 30 feet in height.[5]
In comparison to the series' other notable mutated beings like ghouls, Super Mutants are very formidable opponents in combat.[8] Behemoths in particular are capable of overpowering opponents like Deathclaws and hordes of Feral Ghouls with little difficulty, and are unexpectedly nimble for their size.[8][5][9] In spite of their physically impressive qualities, Super Mutants are sterile and cannot reproduce as the gametes of the reproductive system consist of "half-cells" using split DNA, which could be perceived as "damage" by the FEV, and in the attempt to "repair" them, it would render the subject infertile.[1]
Development
According to producer Tim Cain, the Fallout development team conceived of a faction of mutants who grow their ranks by dipping people into virus vats.[10] During the discussion, a team member wondered what would happen if more than one person was dropped into the vat. The team decided to conceptualize such a being as the "Master of the Super Mutants", who would switch between three voices: male, female, and electronic.[10] The Master's birth surname, Moreau, references the titular mad scientist of the 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells, who leads a group of genetically altered beings he has created through unethical experiments.[11]
Concept artist Adam Adamowicz was responsible for conceptualizing the Fallout 3 iteration of the Super Mutant, in particular the Behemoth variant.[12] In a 2008 developmental diary titled "Conceptual Design", Adamowicz said he was inspired by a line of dialogue from the 1974 film Blazing Saddles about the dim-witted but strong and tough character Mongo, Adamowicz wanted the game's Super Mutants to look like "they would step into a tree shredder, for relaxation.".[13] He described their musculature to be straining at the bone structure underneath, evoking a caricature of a person with well developed muscles "in the throes of radioactive testosterone poisoning, and liking it".[13] The armor and equipment used by the Super Mutants of Fallout 3 are predominantly based on salvaged material, such as car hoods and fenders crudely pounded into chest plates and pauldrons, and lawn mower blades welded onto helmets.[13] The idea behind this design approach is to show recognizable real world elements being twisted to a more violent purpose, which conveys a sinister resourcefulness by these creatures to survive in a highly dangerous post-apocalyptic world.[14]
Adamowicz noted that his “junkyard wars” approach to designing the Super Mutants' armor and weapons inspired a number outlandish designs for homemade weapons, with some of them implemented in the final game.[13] Adamowicz incorporated numerous visual gags into the character design for the Behemoths; examples given include their wielding of parking meters as if they are police batons and carrying their victims bound by shopping carts on their backs, which they will occasionally consume when they get hungry.[13]
Obsidian Entertainment, the developers of Fallout: New Vegas, initially considered allowing players the opportunity to play as a ghoul or a Super Mutant for their protagonist in New Vegas. The team faced technical limitations as New Vegas shared the same engine as Fallout 3, and the developers realized that the game engine's equipment system would not work properly for player characters which use non-human character models after Bethesda provided advice discouraging the addition of the proposed feature.[15] Modiphius founder Chris Birch said the inclusion of Super Mutants as a playable race in the officially licensed Fallout tabletop roleplaying game, developed by his company to be part of their design decision to make the game "authentically Fallout".[16]
Appearances
Super Mutants have appeared in every Fallout video game as both hostile antagonists and supporting non-player characters, beginning with 1997's Fallout which takes place after a global nuclear war had destroyed most of human civilization a century earlier.[17] Information about how the "Master of Super Mutants" raised an army of Super Mutants is picked up throughout gameplay prior to the player's final confrontation with the character in the cathedral.[18][19] The Master was originally a human named Richard Moreau who was exiled from Vault City as a murder suspect. He changed his surname to Grey and migrated to a merchant town called the Hub, where he became a physician. Grey met a trader named Harold in 2102, and they form a joint expedition to discover the source of the mutant attacks on Harold's caravans. This led them to Mariposa Military Base, where the expedition group is overwhelmed by mutant forces. Grey is knocked into a vat of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (F.E.V.), which mutated him into a blob-like creature that expanded himself by absorbing other humans.[17][20][21]
After a month of simmering, Grey crawled out of the vat and installed himself inside a vault. Driven insane and severely mutated, he decided that humanity was inept and had to be replaced by a master race.[22][23] Through his experimentations on humans with the F.E.V., the Master managed to create a race of virtually immortal monsters that were immune to disease and radiation.[17] Deeming Super Mutants to be the superior race, the Master went on a campaign to replace all the humans with the Super Mutants by infecting them with the virus. To accomplish this, the Master created a cult called the Children of the cathedral as a front for his campaign, using aliases such as the "Holy Flame" or "Father Hope" when dealing with his followers.[19][24]
When the player engages the Master near the end of the game, they can confront the Master with a number of different skills and approaches.[25] The player can enter combat with the Master and his Super Mutant allies. The player can also convince the Master to abandon his plans by revealing to him that Super Mutants are sterile, a revelation that causes the Master to commit suicide. Skipping the confrontation entirely, the player can sneak into his chambers and find a hidden nuclear arsenal that can blow up the cathedral, killing the Master and his Super Mutant associates.[22] The player also has the option of joining the Master's campaign, which will lead to a bad ending in which Vault 13 is raided by Super Mutants.[26][27]
Following the death of the Master in the canonical ending of the original Fallout, the Super Mutant remnants of his organization are hunted by the Brotherhood of Steel, who would label them "Frankenstein's Monsters" as a derogatory term. Survivors scatter from their base of operations beneath a cathedral and go their separate ways to find a new purpose: many resort to become raiders and resume their violent ways against baseline humanity, while some individuals congregate together in non-violent communities and attempt to live in peace with humans and ghouls.[2][6]
Players could recruit Super Mutant characters as traveling companions or allies in the sequel to 1997's Fallout. Noteworthy companion characters throughout the series include Marcus in Fallout 2, Fawkes in Fallout 3, Lily Bowen in Fallout: New Vegas, and Strong in Fallout 4. Super Mutants are available as a playable race in the Fallout tabletop roleplaying game released in 2021.[15]
Promotion and reception
Super Mutants are a recognizable element of the Fallout franchise. Some characters are particularly popular with players. Fawkes from Fallout 3 was among the top-voted characters in a RPG character poll organized by IGN in 2014.[28] Super Mutant characters and their physiology are also the subject of popular works derived from fan labor, such as mods, music videos and fan films.[29][30][31] They have been featured as part of a range of Fallout-themed Funko Pop toys,[32] as well as figurines for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, a miniatures wargame which adapts the Fallout universe.[33]
On the other hand, the portrayal of Super Mutants following the transition of the series' ownership to Bethesda have been a source of contention for some fans. Story elements introduced in Fallout 3 contradicted lore in the first Fallout, developed by series creators Interplay Entertainment, which established that Super Mutants were originally created by the Master in 2103, while the Vault 87 FEV experiment took place in 2078.[3] In a report about the Falloutfansite, No Mutants Allowed, Luke Winkie from Kotaku highlighted criticism from community members about the creative and design decisions in video games developed by Bethesda Game Studios: one aspect of contention involved the ubiquity of Super Mutants as ordinary "mob bad guys" in the early game levels of Fallout 3, which departed from the perspective of escalation presented in the original games' stories, gameplay mechanics and setting.[34] The presence of Super Mutants in Fallout 76 also proved to be a controversial retcon with series fandom, as the game established that its iteration of Super Mutants is native to the region and thus unrelated to the Super Mutants in previous games.[3][35]
Commenting on Adamowicz's developer diary post in 2008, Joseph Leray from Destructoid praised the creative vision and art style for the Super Mutants of Fallout 3 as "delightfully twisted", and said these aesthetic elements were key ingredients "that makes post-apocalyptic stories work".[14] Some of the best side quests in Fallout 4 according to The Escapist's Ron Whitaker involve conflicts with Super Mutants, with one that culminates in the recruitment of Strong as a companion character noted to be a highlight by Whitaker.[36] Some individual Super Mutant characters have received critical acclaim.[37] For example, the Nightkin character Lily Bowen has been praised for her characterization and has appeared in "top" character lists, including Polygon's "The 70 best video game characters of the decade".[38][37][39] In a paper published by the University of Leicester, Conor Appleton scaled an ordinary Super Mutant up to the size of a Behemoth and used dimensional analysis to determine the plausibility and viability of such a creature's existence.[5] After examining the Behemoth's physiology using in-universe data and discussing how it may be affected by gravity, Appleton concluded that it is unlikely that such a creature would survive in reality.[5]
^ abcdeAppleton, Conor (April 19, 2018). "Could a super mutant behemoth really exist?". Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics. The Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, University of Leicester. 7. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
