Review Choose Your Own Fallout 3

[Jason]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Fallout 3

Emily Short's latest "Homer in Silicon" column takes a gander at <a href="http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/05/column_homer_in_silicon_character_creation.php" target="blank">character creation and development in Fallout 3</a>, lamenting that many character choices are frontloaded rather than occurring as the game progresses.
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<blockquote>Example: Fallout 3 concerns a man who has made significant sacrifices in order to offer a safe and healthy life to his daughter (or son -- the protagonist, in any case).
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Up to the point where I discovered that bit of backstory, I had been playing my character in the default mode that I use for all RPGs: with an emphasis on intelligence, ranged weaponry, and any skills that look like they'll get me out of tedious melee fight sequences; generally friendly and ethical, except when the dialogue tree offers me something irresistably sarcastic to say to a character who is irresistably annoying.
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When I found out about Dad's sacrifice, though, I immediately wished I'd chosen differently. It would have been much more creepy and compelling from the point of view of story if, actually, his daughter was a sociopathic monster. That would produce a much darker narrative, perhaps with a bit of a theme about not investing too much hope or ambition in any single person besides yourself.
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But by the point in the story where it's a narratively interesting question what ethical character you have, you've already made a lot of fundamental choices and established quite a lot of karma.</blockquote>

 

[Andhaira]

Say, does fallout 3 have level scaling like oblivion does?

 

[Azrael the cat]

Bizarrely, I actually agree with the random FO3 blogger. The problem is the incredibly uncomfortable combining of open-ended character creation and free LARPing combined with pre-set relationships that are clearly (in the context of the game's plot) supposed to have great meaning.

I have nothing against pre-established characters and relationships in crpgs. Both those and custom characters have their place. But you need to be aware that in choosing one or the other you are making a fundamental design decision that will resonate throughout the rest of the game design. If you're having a pre-set father/daughter or father/son relationship, you either need to provide a near impossible amount of freedom to react to all the different attitutdes the player might have to daddy neeson, OR you should go PS:T /Deus Ex stlyle where the relationship is pre-established and part of the game is discovering the true nature of that relationship.

For example, if the 'break the 4th wall by saying the PC is an artificially created construct' hadn't been already done by Bioshock and SS2 (is that 'done to death' yet? Maybe they could have squeezed one more use out of it...), you could have really enlivened the whole daddy neeson relation by allowing a difficult optional quest that results in you discovering that you were actually his artificial creation built specifically to be sacrificed to solve the water process. Say that built into your processor is all the technology needed to construct and implement a working mass water purifier, and he's hidden in an artificial son to get it past the enclave and other predators. The 'replicated man' quest could even serve to forshadow it.

It would also put a really neat twist on all the times he says 'your mother loved you so much'...'your mother was so proud of you' despite your mother barely seeing you past childbirth - i.e. your mother was the other key staff working on the project (ala your 'parents' in Deus Ex).

It would have made daddy neeson a MUCH more interesting character: he's doing a wonderful thing for the world, possibly saving many many lives, but he's doing that by completely screwing and deceiving you, and ultimtaely condeming you - who he has programmed and fooled into believing is his son - to death (I'm assuming that his plans would also explain why YOU have to be sacrificed at the end rather than using the radiation-resistant party members - you have to sacrifice yourself so you can transform into the water purifier). Arguably you'd have a perfectly good reason to HATE neeson and turn on him / help the enclave for reasons other than 'lol I'm evil'. As in 'I never chose to be a water purifier disguised as a person - I just want to LIVE - isn't that my right???'


OR you could scrap daddy neeson and all the pre-set relationships and have a pure design-from-scratch character that isn't burdened by the limitations of preset histories and families. The lone wanderer who can take any path he likes. That's just as good, and arguably is closer to being a 'true' crpg. Actually I agree that creating a character from scratch with no pre-existing daddy neesons or vault histories to limit him/her is closer to a traditional crpg, but either style can produce a good GAME regardless of genre,

The problem is when you mix the genres together without thinking about it - expecting the player to give a shit about daddy neeson without providing any compelling mystery to draw the player in to the backstory.

 

[1eyedking]

When I found out about Dad's sacrifice, though, I immediately wished I'd chosen differently. It would have been much more creepy and compelling from the point of view of story if, actually, his daughter was a sociopathic monster. That would produce a much darker narrative, perhaps with a bit of a theme about not investing too much hope or ambition in any single person besides yourself.

Deep.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'm assuming that his plans would also explain why YOU have to be sacrificed at the end rather than using the radiation-resistant party members

I still think a quick scripted event forcing you to leave them behind would've avoided all that mess. Like, they stay behind with a few BoS dudes to hold a wave of enemies, or to press a button for you on the other side of the building, whatever. Would've made the final duel against Autumn challenging, too.

 

[Alex]

@Azrael the cat
While I don't disagree with your views, I got the impression the blogger actually wanted to choose what her character was once she knew about the back-story. If I got it right, her problem wasn't that the game didn't react well enough to her choices, but that she wanted to make different choices once she knew what the game was about.

While I do think there is space for games where the player has more of a coauthor role (as much as we can do so in a video-game, anyway), I think that in this case, the solution is just to play again (or would be if Fallout 3 actually took your decisions in a meaningful way). I guest this is, at least partly, a result of most modern games (that aren't rogue-likes, and maybe sport games too) not being very friendly toward various replays...

 

[denizsi]

It's a bullshit article written by a liberaltard moron:

There were various flaws -- the sameyness of the setting after enough hours being a prominent one. Then there was the implausible world-building: after two hundred years, you're telling me there's still edible, unlooted food in the grocery stores?

But one forgives those things because one has to.

Ok, but then this:

Maybe "environmental storytelling" is becoming a buzz-phrase. There were two separate GDC 2010 talks on the way environment can carry narrative information: "What Happened Here?: Environmental Storytelling" by Matthias Worch and Harvey Smith; and "Environmental Narrative: Your World is Your Story" by Richard Rouse III. That's justified: story-as-told-by-place is something that mainstream games are getting increasingly good at.

Fallout 3 is exceptionally rich in this kind of storytelling, though it's worth pointing out that environmental storytelling is almost always backstory-telling: it's about what has happened here, not about what is happening or might happen in the future.

That works for Fallout 3 because, in apocalyptic wastelands, most of the present is about the past, so that's all right.

Unlooted stuff every two steps you take and other items and furniture in near pristine condition and even she herself acknowledged the implausability, so now, what does this tell about the "environmental backstory". That it's full of bullshit? Yep. And that she's also full of bullshit? Yep. Marvellous how one can contradict her own bullshit that fast, though she's far from setting the record.

She's just one of those newage gamer punks who's easily impressed by bullshit.

But I would make different and more interesting choices if, instead of doing character-building in a clump at the beginning, that process were more gradual. I admit I felt this way even more strongly after the stunningly longwinded character creation processes in Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

I hope she's talking about the Origin stories, else she's worse than she gives out to be.

I also loved her rant on gender. Damned if you conform to feminazi bitches, damned if you don't. "The NPC didn't acknowledge that I have tits and a vagina!" Games are just way too fucking conformist anyway. In a PA setting, a female should be fucking raped on sight and taken to a celler to be used as breeding tool unless she can defend herself, but no, that would be too politically incorrect. Fucking cunt.

Also read her Fable 2 article now. She demonstrates yet another idiocy she did also in in this article: I wants handholding! The way she's going on about how certain things aren't explained right away so she can make PC choices in the fucking game as if being a PC feminazi bitch IRL isn't enough.. fucking cunt.

So, why is this a news item? Will we be getting every random multikult liberaltard's PC subhuman "opinions" on RPGs?

 

[Sceptic]

Wait, so she's a liberaltard moron AND a feminazi bitch all at once?

 

[denizsi]

Son, I'm disappoint. All feminazi bitches are liberaltard morons by default.

 

[Sceptic]

But how can you be a liberal nazi? That makes no sense!

 

[Silellak]

bullshit article...liberaltard moron...full of bullshit...bullshit...bullshit...feminazi bitches...tits and a vagina...too fucking conformist...fucking raped on sight...Fucking cunt...PC feminazi... fucking cunt...PC subhuman

Jackpot!

 

[Shannow]

But how can you be a liberal nazi? That makes no sense!

You can shoehorn nearly every system to fit that. All it needs is inequality. (Of course you need to be very generous with you definition of "nazi" )

 

[Xor]

Sure is Godwin's in here.

 

[deranged]

bullshit article...liberaltard moron...full of bullshit...bullshit...bullshit...feminazi bitches...tits and a vagina...too fucking conformist...fucking raped on sight...Fucking cunt...PC feminazi... fucking cunt...PC subhuman

Jackpot!

He's Turkish what you expect?

 

[denizsi]

Damn right. Come back when you also have something to say instead of Post count ++!!

Codes these days; totally impossible to avoid PC multikult liberaltards who are more concerned with your attitude than whether you have a point/argument or not.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Azrael, please apply to Bethesda as a writer. Your scenario is already thousands time better than the tripe shit they scribbled together on their own. And while you are there, writing a decent story for TES V and Failout4, please assassinate some of our dear friends there, will you?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Azrael doesn't need to kill anyone , we can hire some fine hitmen on our own. My contribution:

Btw, it's sad how Azrael scenario wouldn't have a chance from the start. "No betrayal" rule, no making the player feel bad, etc.

 

[Silellak]

Damn right. Come back when you also have something to say instead of Post count ++!!

Codes these days; totally impossible to avoid PC multikult liberaltards who are more concerned with your attitude than whether you have a point/argument or not.

It's almost as though your absurd, over-the-top, I'm-trying-too-hard, dear-God-someone-please-notice-me attitude completely overwhelmed whatever point you were trying to make.

 

[protobob]

You guys all suck. Emily Short made Savoir-Faire, one of my favorite IF games ever, which means she can say anything she wants about anything as far as I'm concerned.

P.S. Decline

 

[denizsi]

Glad to know you're so butthurt off of my posts, bro. Too bad your oh so absurd, over-the-top, I'm-trying-too-hard, dear-God-someone-please-notice-me mimicking of my attitude completely overwhelms whatever point you were trying to make. So, what was it again?

Spend wisely. And I've now contributed to the Codex! And post count +1

 

[Silellak]

Glad to know you're so butthurt off of my posts, bro.

 

[Gragt]

You guys all suck. Emily Short made Savoir-Faire, one of my favorite IF games ever, which means she can say anything she wants about anything as far as I'm concerned.

P.S. Decline

Sure, do something good once and here is a free pass to everything. Accountability doesn't apply to you anymore!

Edit: post count +1!

 

[bhlaab]

im going to have to agree with denizsi. the only thing i hate more than this article is women in prominent positions of power

 

[SerratedBiz]

Sure, do something good once and here is a free pass to everything. Accountability doesn't apply to you anymore!

inb4 bethesda obsidian bioware troika

 

[Alex]

Actually, I would be really interested in discussing what she meant by having the choices not be so front loaded in the game. I mean, I can agree in principle that choices shouldn't be concentrated on any part of the game, with the subsequent parts consisting mostly of watching they play out (though having some of the most important choices early on might be necessary, otherwise they might not mean anything because of later choices).

However, the example she gives is very strange. It seems she wanted to know about the father's sacrifice before so she could change her actions in the game to create a specific kind of story. This suggests that, rather than being immersed in the game, playing as a character that makes decisions as he uncovers things about the world, she wanted to play as a co author, able to take elements as she finds in the game and use them to create the story. Fallout 3 isn't a game that supports this, and I think the closest of doing something like this was Planescape: Torment.