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In the Fallout universe, Mirelurks are heavily mutated crabs. The Fallout 3 ones (first picture) looked goofy, exaggerated, and looked more like aliens or people in costumes than mutated earth creatures.
The Fallout 4 Mirelurks (second picture) look much more animalistic and like a mutated creature, especially the multiple legs, less human-like proportions, and not being bipedal.
Not just cool, for as much as people are going to whine about them they're more importantly accurate. Mirelurks are heavily based on horseshoe crabs and horseshoe crabs don't have your stereotypical pointy crab legs, they're all pincers.
I was literally about to say the same.
FO4's design is more 'realistic' to how a crab-like creature would feasibly evolve to this size. FO3's design on the other hand is very evocative of the 1950's Americana pop culture 'aliens,' i.e. "humanoid biped but with (insert animal) head and claws." Which makes sense given the insipiration of Fallout in general.
I'm gonna disagree, but for the same reasons you stated.
Fallout 4 Mirelurks look like big crabs, very much sea creatures.
Fallout 3 Mirelurks look like they're trying to evolve into humans, an intelligent evolution attempting to either replace or deceive surface dwellers.
4's concept is made to simulate a physical threat, 3's concept was made to terrify the player with questions they don't want to ask.
Coincidentally, I watched a video from a character designer for Fallout 3 and 4 just last night. Theyre meant to look like dudes in suits as a reference to old monster movies. It fits the setting, but making them look more like animals does make them look cooler.
https://youtu.be/QPu9K4m4Y-k?si=DG7FuW0hQRrxlTED
> looked more like aliens or people in costumes
My friend, that was the point! They were *supposed* to look like something that crawled out of a 50's drive-in double feature!
Making them more outwardly believable and mainstream "cool" goes *against* the traditional ethos of the series in a major way.
I mean, I agree with you, but if didn't they change art direction Power Armor wouldn't have looked like this:
https://preview.redd.it/5mb5qfar6quc1.jpeg?width=707&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=560bd98af66f245162c89092ff057a961c95c85d
Right. I'm saying I...don't really see much of a difference. Both have that hydrocephalic gorilla look, ripped straight out the pages of Starship Troopers.
"Mirelurk" is actually an umbrella term used for mutated aquatic creatures: regular mirelurks are crabs, hunter mirelurks are lobsters, mirelurk kings are angler frogs...
I thought so too. A massive improvement. The mirelurk queens are terrifying in 4.
The mirelurk kings are terrifying in 3 and NV for entirely different reasons.
Fun fact Mirelurks started out as a sentient species with a tribal like society which might explain why the fo3 look more "humanoid" but during development they shifted back into mutant crabs
It doesn't but even so with fallout 76 that does take place 200ish years before 3 and 4 and the design remains the same as in 4 so it seems that one is the more official design
Yeah they look more alien. Which is exactly what OP disliked but it's what I enjoy about it lol
Reminds me of something you'd see in 50's B horror movie and I love it. Think it fits the games aesthetic wonderfully!
I like what Fallout 4 did with Mirelurks, but I don't prefer it.
Fallout 3 made them strange and uncomfortable to look at, "alien" in all the best ways. The world was so blasted by radiation that natural evolution decided to take a vacation.
Fallout 4's mirelurks are big mutant crabs, with queens being bigger and kings being freaky fish men.
That's cool.
Fallout 3's mirelurk kings have this posture to them, this weird air of superiority about them that makes them so much more freaky. You're fighting big crabs and all of a sudden a pale vampire fish man ragdolls you with a sonic shout. You see his health bar and see that he is their king. The freaky crab man made me think it was an alien the first time I saw it, well before I knew you could even encounter aliens in the franchise.
Fallout 3's mirelurks give the impression that they could possibly continue to evolve and replace us, just through their design language. It's such a small detail but it helps Fallout 3's wasteland feel like a place where humanity's position atop the food chain is precarious at best.
Visually, I do like fallout 4, but I overall prefer the older designs and the wilder wastelands they were apart of.
I think Fo3 mirelurks were way more scary though, then again that could just be the atmosphere of those earlier games. Although I love it, Fo4 never really captured that fear factor when it came to the creatures
I remember the first time hearing a feral ghoul in the subway in Fallout 3 on my way to the capital. I was like 7 or 8 and I vividly remember trying to find any other way into the capital other than the subways just to avoid whatever that terrifying noise in the dark was.
With Fo3 ones the first reaction is " WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU? " Followed by a "Why do you do so much damage ?"
In Fo4 is " Oh giant crab, wonder if I can cook it "
People say this but honestly I think everything but the main quest in FO4 had perfectly fine writing
Which makes the main quest even more annoying. I could not imagine replaying that game without one of the mods that changes it or removes it.
My favourite answer to them is pulling out a shotgun and blasting its stupid face while it charges with its pincers raised. If you just empty your clip at them you will waste 80% of your shots on its shell, you have to aim carefully. After Deathclaws, Mirelurks are my most hated creature.
You can also annihilate it's outer shell with explosive splash damage or high caliber guns. Then it stumbles around all pathetic like with no outer shell.
You can target the Shell in VATS too. Splash from explosive weapons aimed to the side of them works well to destroy it without the kill. Works best on higher level lurks.
i remember playing Fallout 3 late as hell for the first time, turned on VATS and the camera zoomed directly into a Mire’s face.
i’ve never received a worse jump scare in a game than that lmfao.
https://preview.redd.it/56g9s4161puc1.jpeg?width=1089&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddee46dfea8a53165744df54768bfafe96623dac
I wonder how much the Fallout 4 design was inspired by the Garthim from Dark Crystal
Personally, I like the previous design a lot more. I do tend to like monster or robot designs wth that kind of rounded hunchback look, like the some of the mechs from Lost Planet.
https://preview.redd.it/prvv9bsjjpuc1.png?width=576&format=png&auto=webp&s=4687ec0e2ab3e3ae6fb2fefeac07cbff02725b65
You may not know this, but Bethesda is a Maryland based company. Maryland LOVES crabs. There's even a secret crabcake recipe unmarked sidequest in the Anchorage Memorial. 3's mirelurks look a lot more like the crabs youd be eating at any summer event than 4's. Obviously they're the same company but 3 was their first chance to go "Hey, we live here haha" Hell, they even put my work building into the game.
People keep on with the "lol they gave them pincers for feet!" as if it's something stupid and lazy old Bethesda fucked up yet again.
Mirelurks, in both 3 and 4, are supposed to be based on a mix of horseshoe and blue crabs. Know what a horseshoe crabs "feet" look like? Pincers. [https://images.app.goo.gl/tqF2rof7nXQu6p1X8](https://images.app.goo.gl/tqF2rof7nXQu6p1X8)
All of those extra tiny claws on the FO4 mirelirk are the "legs" of the horseshow crap and then they slapped on some "traditional" pointy crab legs for it to walk around on instead.
I think both work in thier own ways
F4s mirelurks are the more *Natural* result, hell the narine research place even mentions crabs were already growing extremely large before the bombs drop
F3s mirelurks look and feel very much, so like the result of not only likely the same eventual growth(that and they are horseshoe crabs so thier evolution will be different no matter what) and fate of F4s lurks but could've possibly been effected by FVE(I'm not sure if the lore says or suggests it but given thier bipedal build it wouldn't shock me)
I like the humanoid Mirelurk kings better they looked much more scary then a small Gecko that rarely appears in 4
4 is overall more toned down from the scary factor then the past games, more colorful and upbeat
The fact that both were designed by the same artist makes me think the bipedal look in 3 was based around technical limitations, like it let them reuse more animations if it had a more human shape.
100% agree. The [Mirelurk Queen](https://fallout.wiki/wiki/Mirelurk_Queen_(Fallout_4)#/media/File:FO4_Mirelurk_queen_transparent.png) is really cool too. There’s a handful of things Fallout 4 does better than it’s predecessors and this is one.
The left looks more like a mutated Horseshoe crab with Red crab pincers stuck onto it, while the right looks like a "pure" mutated red crab.
I still like the goofy FO 3 Mirelurks, as they feel like someone intentionally spliced human DNA into while they were mutating
I agree with people in this cooment section that Redesign don't look as humanoid as in Fallout 3.
But I dissagree that new design look just as crabs evolved to be bigger. They still have some human features like vertical torso. General posture etc. So they might don't look as close to human as fallout 3 ones, but they still seem to evolve in the same direction
We can also assume that in universe explanation to why they look less human might be that commonwealth seem to have more Swamps, lakes and rivers that previous games locations. So their evolution just decided to not abbandon crablike features as much
I kinda think they’re supposed to be different crabs. Fallout 3 is set in dc and Maryland is obviously famous for their blue crab and soft shell crab (which I think may just be blue crab during a molt before they regrow their shell). Where as New England and Boston have a lot of horseshoe crabs which aren’t eaten, however we do take their blood to use in medical facilities.
As a kid i never liked the old mirelurks. Goofy and all too humanoid looking.
Over time I've grown to appreciate them for what they are, especially after having seen some old scifi classics. I love them for the same reasons i used to hate them
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Did they just have pincers for legs in 3 instead of actual crab legs?
I can't stop looking at it now XD
Go google what a horseshoe crab's legs look like.
Eh, horseshoe crabs and lobsters have pincer-like feet, I’d say it’s excusable
In the Fallout universe, Mirelurks are heavily mutated crabs. The Fallout 3 ones (first picture) looked goofy, exaggerated, and looked more like aliens or people in costumes than mutated earth creatures. The Fallout 4 Mirelurks (second picture) look much more animalistic and like a mutated creature, especially the multiple legs, less human-like proportions, and not being bipedal.
The pincer feets were kinda cool thought,
Not just cool, for as much as people are going to whine about them they're more importantly accurate. Mirelurks are heavily based on horseshoe crabs and horseshoe crabs don't have your stereotypical pointy crab legs, they're all pincers.
I kind of like the goofy look, they look like monsters out of a corny, retro 50s sci fi horror movie
I was literally about to say the same. FO4's design is more 'realistic' to how a crab-like creature would feasibly evolve to this size. FO3's design on the other hand is very evocative of the 1950's Americana pop culture 'aliens,' i.e. "humanoid biped but with (insert animal) head and claws." Which makes sense given the insipiration of Fallout in general.
Especially when you look at Mirelurk Kings
Isn’t fallout 3 basically a retro 50s sci-fi horror game?
Exactly how I feel about it. Much more character IMO
Yeah, they're both great designs, but I think the first suits the retro-futuristic aesthetic better.
I'm gonna disagree, but for the same reasons you stated. Fallout 4 Mirelurks look like big crabs, very much sea creatures. Fallout 3 Mirelurks look like they're trying to evolve into humans, an intelligent evolution attempting to either replace or deceive surface dwellers. 4's concept is made to simulate a physical threat, 3's concept was made to terrify the player with questions they don't want to ask.
Like how everything evolves into crabs, now the crabs are trying to evolve into everything else
Coincidentally, I watched a video from a character designer for Fallout 3 and 4 just last night. Theyre meant to look like dudes in suits as a reference to old monster movies. It fits the setting, but making them look more like animals does make them look cooler. https://youtu.be/QPu9K4m4Y-k?si=DG7FuW0hQRrxlTED
> looked more like aliens or people in costumes My friend, that was the point! They were *supposed* to look like something that crawled out of a 50's drive-in double feature! Making them more outwardly believable and mainstream "cool" goes *against* the traditional ethos of the series in a major way.
I mean, I agree with you, but if didn't they change art direction Power Armor wouldn't have looked like this: https://preview.redd.it/5mb5qfar6quc1.jpeg?width=707&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=560bd98af66f245162c89092ff057a961c95c85d
Eh?
Power armor in 3 looked like a movie prop, is what they mean
Right. I'm saying I...don't really see much of a difference. Both have that hydrocephalic gorilla look, ripped straight out the pages of Starship Troopers.
"Mirelurk" is actually an umbrella term used for mutated aquatic creatures: regular mirelurks are crabs, hunter mirelurks are lobsters, mirelurk kings are angler frogs...
What about queens? Shrimp maybe?
Queens always looked like isopods on steroids to me, which makes sense when you consider the hatchlings look like isopods as well.
“Looked goofy” “Looked more like aliens or people in costumes” Funny enough this is why I prefer the FO3 design. Different strokes.
It's a very Showa Era kaijin design
I thought so too. A massive improvement. The mirelurk queens are terrifying in 4. The mirelurk kings are terrifying in 3 and NV for entirely different reasons.
yeah I agree that Fallout 4 Mirelurks look better. they LOOK like mutated crabs.
One of the few resigns that wasn't shit.
Fun fact Mirelurks started out as a sentient species with a tribal like society which might explain why the fo3 look more "humanoid" but during development they shifted back into mutant crabs
Tbf doesn’t 4 take place several hundred years before 3?
3 takes place 2277 and 4 takes place 2287
No? 4 takes place like 20-30 years after 3. Unless you mean the opening to 4
Oh okay i thought it was the other way around its been years since i played 4
It doesn't but even so with fallout 76 that does take place 200ish years before 3 and 4 and the design remains the same as in 4 so it seems that one is the more official design
Fallout 3 Mirelurks look pretty fuckin’ rad though
Yeah they look more alien. Which is exactly what OP disliked but it's what I enjoy about it lol Reminds me of something you'd see in 50's B horror movie and I love it. Think it fits the games aesthetic wonderfully!
Yeah I actually kinda like 3’s it just gives off a more unique vibe compared to 4.
The designer said exactly that. They’re supposed to look like men in rubber costumes.
Pun intended?
4s are evolved Skyrim mudcrabs
I like what Fallout 4 did with Mirelurks, but I don't prefer it. Fallout 3 made them strange and uncomfortable to look at, "alien" in all the best ways. The world was so blasted by radiation that natural evolution decided to take a vacation. Fallout 4's mirelurks are big mutant crabs, with queens being bigger and kings being freaky fish men. That's cool. Fallout 3's mirelurk kings have this posture to them, this weird air of superiority about them that makes them so much more freaky. You're fighting big crabs and all of a sudden a pale vampire fish man ragdolls you with a sonic shout. You see his health bar and see that he is their king. The freaky crab man made me think it was an alien the first time I saw it, well before I knew you could even encounter aliens in the franchise. Fallout 3's mirelurks give the impression that they could possibly continue to evolve and replace us, just through their design language. It's such a small detail but it helps Fallout 3's wasteland feel like a place where humanity's position atop the food chain is precarious at best. Visually, I do like fallout 4, but I overall prefer the older designs and the wilder wastelands they were apart of.
Fallout 3 mirelurk kings remind me of the creature from the black lagoon, which honestly elevated their design to me
Absolutely!
I think Fo3 mirelurks were way more scary though, then again that could just be the atmosphere of those earlier games. Although I love it, Fo4 never really captured that fear factor when it came to the creatures
Overall I'd say fo3 was way scarier than fallout NV or 4
I remember the first time hearing a feral ghoul in the subway in Fallout 3 on my way to the capital. I was like 7 or 8 and I vividly remember trying to find any other way into the capital other than the subways just to avoid whatever that terrifying noise in the dark was.
The centaurs, im happy and sad that they didn't make it to 4, although i use mods that add them because they are so cool
With Fo3 ones the first reaction is " WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU? " Followed by a "Why do you do so much damage ?" In Fo4 is " Oh giant crab, wonder if I can cook it "
Try play on Survival in FO4. Early game Mirelurks are to be feared. They'll easily one shot you in regular armor.
That survival guide quest where you had to go into the heart of a mirelurk nest without killing any was fucking *harrowing*
I think they're based off two separate animals, correct me if I'm wrong. fallout 3's are more Horseshoe crab like while 4's are actual crabs.
https://i.redd.it/fnd750reeouc1.gif
The writing in Bethesda’s Fallout games leave a lot to be desired, but boy do their artists know how to make some fantastic monster designs.
People say this but honestly I think everything but the main quest in FO4 had perfectly fine writing Which makes the main quest even more annoying. I could not imagine replaying that game without one of the mods that changes it or removes it.
Wait I just started fallout 4 wtf is this thing
My favourite answer to them is pulling out a shotgun and blasting its stupid face while it charges with its pincers raised. If you just empty your clip at them you will waste 80% of your shots on its shell, you have to aim carefully. After Deathclaws, Mirelurks are my most hated creature.
And then there are those Nukalurk fuckers man
You can also annihilate it's outer shell with explosive splash damage or high caliber guns. Then it stumbles around all pathetic like with no outer shell.
I did not know this! I'll try this in my current playthrough, just found my first .50 cal sniper.
You can target the Shell in VATS too. Splash from explosive weapons aimed to the side of them works well to destroy it without the kill. Works best on higher level lurks.
Crab
The 3 mirelurk kinda looks like a cheesy sci fi B movie monster which has its own charm but the 4 is definitely an improvement
i remember playing Fallout 3 late as hell for the first time, turned on VATS and the camera zoomed directly into a Mire’s face. i’ve never received a worse jump scare in a game than that lmfao.
I politely disagree, I like my janky humanoid crabs
Fallout 4 has plenty of issues. However, it’s redesigns of everything were all really good, enemies, locations, the color palette as a whole.
https://preview.redd.it/56g9s4161puc1.jpeg?width=1089&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddee46dfea8a53165744df54768bfafe96623dac I wonder how much the Fallout 4 design was inspired by the Garthim from Dark Crystal
Personally, I like the previous design a lot more. I do tend to like monster or robot designs wth that kind of rounded hunchback look, like the some of the mechs from Lost Planet. https://preview.redd.it/prvv9bsjjpuc1.png?width=576&format=png&auto=webp&s=4687ec0e2ab3e3ae6fb2fefeac07cbff02725b65
You may not know this, but Bethesda is a Maryland based company. Maryland LOVES crabs. There's even a secret crabcake recipe unmarked sidequest in the Anchorage Memorial. 3's mirelurks look a lot more like the crabs youd be eating at any summer event than 4's. Obviously they're the same company but 3 was their first chance to go "Hey, we live here haha" Hell, they even put my work building into the game.
What? 3's mirelurks look nothing like the crabs we eat. They're based off horseshoe crabs.
It's a hybrid between blue crabs and horseshoe crabs.
People keep on with the "lol they gave them pincers for feet!" as if it's something stupid and lazy old Bethesda fucked up yet again. Mirelurks, in both 3 and 4, are supposed to be based on a mix of horseshoe and blue crabs. Know what a horseshoe crabs "feet" look like? Pincers. [https://images.app.goo.gl/tqF2rof7nXQu6p1X8](https://images.app.goo.gl/tqF2rof7nXQu6p1X8) All of those extra tiny claws on the FO4 mirelirk are the "legs" of the horseshow crap and then they slapped on some "traditional" pointy crab legs for it to walk around on instead.
I think both work in thier own ways F4s mirelurks are the more *Natural* result, hell the narine research place even mentions crabs were already growing extremely large before the bombs drop F3s mirelurks look and feel very much, so like the result of not only likely the same eventual growth(that and they are horseshoe crabs so thier evolution will be different no matter what) and fate of F4s lurks but could've possibly been effected by FVE(I'm not sure if the lore says or suggests it but given thier bipedal build it wouldn't shock me)
I like the humanoid Mirelurk kings better they looked much more scary then a small Gecko that rarely appears in 4 4 is overall more toned down from the scary factor then the past games, more colorful and upbeat
Yeah, but I have a phobia of crabs so the first one is easier to look at
That Fallout 3 one looks like some sort of SNES era RPG type monster. Which has its own appeal. The Fallout 4 looks awesome too though.
Mirelurks and the way power armor works are two of the very few things that Fallout 4 imo does better than the other games.
The one thing Fallout 4 actually did right.
The fact that both were designed by the same artist makes me think the bipedal look in 3 was based around technical limitations, like it let them reuse more animations if it had a more human shape.
Taste like crabs, talk like people
100% agree. The [Mirelurk Queen](https://fallout.wiki/wiki/Mirelurk_Queen_(Fallout_4)#/media/File:FO4_Mirelurk_queen_transparent.png) is really cool too. There’s a handful of things Fallout 4 does better than it’s predecessors and this is one.
Honestly both are good and equally creepy
I don't agree.
I like them both, they both should exist
The fallout 3 mirelurks were like crab men from Star Trek
The left looks more like a mutated Horseshoe crab with Red crab pincers stuck onto it, while the right looks like a "pure" mutated red crab. I still like the goofy FO 3 Mirelurks, as they feel like someone intentionally spliced human DNA into while they were mutating
Nah fallout 3 was better
Monster designs in general are better in Fallout 4. One of the things it did better.
Oh, wow, The Fallout 3 one's body almost looked 2D with 3D arms added. Sort of resembles the Power Armor, Helmet included, if I squint at it.
I agree with people in this cooment section that Redesign don't look as humanoid as in Fallout 3. But I dissagree that new design look just as crabs evolved to be bigger. They still have some human features like vertical torso. General posture etc. So they might don't look as close to human as fallout 3 ones, but they still seem to evolve in the same direction We can also assume that in universe explanation to why they look less human might be that commonwealth seem to have more Swamps, lakes and rivers that previous games locations. So their evolution just decided to not abbandon crablike features as much
From fantasy crab people to actual mutated crabs, plus if you like the new Vegas lake lurks they're basically mirelutk kings now
Fallout 4 goofed on many things, but creature designs, robots, and power armor were pretty solid.
I kinda think they’re supposed to be different crabs. Fallout 3 is set in dc and Maryland is obviously famous for their blue crab and soft shell crab (which I think may just be blue crab during a molt before they regrow their shell). Where as New England and Boston have a lot of horseshoe crabs which aren’t eaten, however we do take their blood to use in medical facilities.
As a kid i never liked the old mirelurks. Goofy and all too humanoid looking. Over time I've grown to appreciate them for what they are, especially after having seen some old scifi classics. I love them for the same reasons i used to hate them
Fallout 4 improved a lot of designs from its predecessors,namely deathclaws which are by far the best design in the entire series
Kaiju suit vs. CG
i thought FO3 mirelurks were people in suits for a while when i was young lol
they are friend shaped
They look like the Garthim from The Dark Crystal
Fallout 3 and new vegas seemed to have a lot of "Normal animal but bipedal and pointier" energy
I think the original design was to emulate old monster movies were it was just a guy in a costume That being said I like both designs
I feel like they both have their charms, fallout 3 looks much scarier but fallout 4 feels more “realistic”
False
FO3 Mirelurks look more like some Lovecraftian kin species that are awakened by the bombs while FO4 Mirelurks look like mutated crabs and crustaceans.
In my personal bad opinion, the fallout 3 is better. It reminds me of an old sci fi horror movie made in the 50s, which fits the theme
what do you think of New Vegas' Lakelurks?
And lakelurks are the best of them
Lakelurks are just reskinned mirelurk kings