EvoG said:
Meh, the "story" is still linear in progression, regardless of being good or bad or stumbling on the main bad guy early on.
How is the quest in Oblivion broken up? Is it just one big "find the son" and that's all you have to do or is it step by step like it was in Morrowind? That is, a broad concept broken down into bit-size pieces where you're led by the hand and must do what you've been told?
Presuming that's the case (please correct me if I'm wrong), compare that to Fallout. In Fallout, it's just "find the waterchip". "We *think* there's one at Vault 15, go there first". Here's the kicker, you don't have to go to Vault 15 in order to be told the next magical step in the process. You're not hand fed the quest step-by-step with each successive step kept hidden from you until you find the next bit. Your goal is to find the waterchip. If you don't go to Vault 15, you can still finish the game. So how you do that quest, is entirely up to you. Unlike Oblivion (which I'm going to guess here as I haven't played it), is given to you in each individual step which you must complete in order until you're told where to go next.
Relate that back to Fallout. After going to Vault 15 and finding no chip there, the Overseer doesn't give you the next step of the quest. He just tells you to find a damn waterchip. He doesn't care where you get it from. That's up to you.
EvoG said:
You'll never have a unique experience that thousands of other people didn't have.
Why not? I can bypass the Necropolis completely, wander over to the military base or the Cathedral and join the Mutants. That's a unique experience isn't it? It's certainly not following "the linear story". I've done what I felt what was right. Fuck the Vault, let the Master rule.
EvoG said:
If you want to just get to the bad guy and kill him and be done with the game, um, what was the point? Yea its cool that you can, but its contextually without merit. What is your motivation for killing the foozle
The fat that other people in the area are being attacked by Green Mutants. The Brotherhood of Steel for one, the Hub caravans for another. Better yet, you can do it because you just don't like big green Mutants.
Your motivation can be entirely your own. If you see no point in that, then you obviously prefer to be told what to do. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with being a spineless weener.
EvoG said:
I am just dying to ask...how did you get through all the super tough baddies?
Erm.. by killing them like normal? If you want you can do a few hundred random encounters and level up or you can spend some time in the Hub and various other places doing quests to gain XP.
You can also run away from them if you want to play a complete pacifist. It's been done.
EvoG said:
In Oblivion, how would I know to reunite two twins separated young in their lives if I didn't hear about it first?
No-one's saying there should be no story. What we're saying is you shouldn't be led around by the hand (again, presuming you are. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this) and more to the point you should be able to join the bad guys. Even if all you get is a nice end-game movie of things going to hell.
EvoG said:
First off, the chip is an 'Important Main Quest" red herring. It was never meant to be important, thats just very clever way to set the player up for one of FO's many 'multiple-outcome' quests. The Master was technically the end game, and if you're playing the game fresh, you're not bolting straight to the front door of the base, you're following the story, or else how would you even know the mutants were a rising threat?
Gee, I dunno. It's not like you meet their invading army in the Necropolis or anything. Or if you don't meet them there, you'll certainly hear about them when you join the Brotherhood of Steel. Or if you skip those bits, from talking to Harold. Or if you miss that, the caravan problem in the Hub.
It's not linear when there are several feeds into them as a clear threat from many other characters. None of which you have to talk to in order. And all of whom which you can kill (there's no "he's unconscious" crap in this game buddy)!
EvoG said:
So, is it really you're "own" story? No. Is there a linear "story" told up to acquiring the chip(or not) or defeating the master(or otherwise)? Yup.
I'm interested in what this linear progression in Fallout is. I'm sent out from Vault 13, what sequential order do things happen in from there? Am I forced to talk to certain people to get the information I need
in a pre-determined sequential order? IE: Do I have to talk to Bob before I can ask Bill about the Mutant threat or can I just skip Bob and go straight to Bill?
Fallout was non-linear in that you could stumble across the end-game in a number of different ways. Even if you wanted to be led around, there is never anyone who tells you where to go from A to B. The Overseer is useless with his "Found the Waterchip yet?" and no-one else you ask knows anything about a Water Chip. There's no-one in Shady Sands who tells you "You must go to the Hub" and then someone in the Hub who says "You must go to the Necropolis". Sure, there are people that point those places out on your map (if you don't want to wander around on your own and find them) but there's never a definitive, set order. Throw in the multiple ways to finish quests and the option to join the bad guys and there you go. I'll admit it's limited in that if you ignore your Vault, the game ends but that's a lot less of a limitation than a lot of other games and certainly nothing's provided as much real "choice and conequence" since.
