Fallout - Why Role-playing is Important

The Fallout franchise is something very near and dear to my heart. It has been my favorite game series since the first time I played it when I was eleven years old, when my father bought me Fallout 3 for the PlayStation 3. I had never played any kind of RPG up to that point and had no idea what to expect. I knew nothing about the Fallout lore and was going in a complete newbie. From the very beginning, I was hooked. This was the first time I was getting the opportunity to choose what I say to other characters and shape who my character was. I had never had that kind of freedom in a video game before and I absolutely loved it. 

Once I finished the Vault 101 sequence and set foot into the wasteland for the first time, I was overwhelmed - in a good way. I truly felt lost in the world and wasn't sure where to go. Eventually, I made my way to Megaton, and once I got there, I spent almost a week in real time just wondering around the shanty civilization conversating with the characters and getting to know their backstories. Everyone I talked to felt like genuine people. There was the hard-headed sheriff who watched over his people and still believed in law in a lawless world. There was the quirky shopkeeper who genuinely cared for the people of the wasteland, so much so that she wanted to write a survival guide for them. There was the scheming Irish bartender who would do anything to make a quick cap. There was the washed up raider who spent his days wallowing in regret. And there was the passionate cult leader who, along with his followers, worshiped a nuclear warhead. Everyone felt real and seemed like they had a purpose for existing in this world, which is what made Fallout 3 so great.

A few hours into my first playthrough, I was exploring the area of Grayditch. I had just helped a young boy find a new home when I saw something strange in the distance. It was a huge, scaly looking beast, almost like a crocodile with horns and legs. I entered into VATS and saw that the beast was called a "deathclaw". Deathclaw? What the hell is that? That was my initial reaction, and instead of fighting, I ran. I ran very far away.

I could go on forever about all the stories I have from playing Fallout 3. The first time I met the Brotherhood, that time I encountered and underground cult of cannibals, I'm sorry, vampires. To the time I freed a bunch of slaves from Paradise Falls. Even though all of this happened ten years ago, I still have vivid memories of doing all of these things.

When I reached the end of the game, I couldn't help but smile. There was something strangely unique about this game that demanded I return and play through it again. And that's what I did. Many times. I played it so much that eventually, I wasn't afraid of being in the wasteland. I was an unstoppable force who could take out any Deathclaw or Behemoth that crossed paths with me. Fallout had become a very special game to me, which is why when Fallout New Vegas was announced, I couldn't wait.

Fallout New Vegas took everything I loved about Fallout 3 and improved upon it. The characters felt more in-depth than before, the setting of the Mojave desert seemed perfect for a post-apocalyptic landscape, and the combat had even been improved. My favorite thing that Obsidian managed to do, however, was how they chose to handle the Role Playing elements of the game. In this game, we are not born in a vault, or maybe we are, depending on what character the player decides to role play as. The only thing that is pre-determined for us in this game is that we are a mail courier for the Mojave Express, and after getting handed a mysterious package, we are robbed and subsequently shot in the head. Shortly after, we wake up in the quiet roadside town of Goodsprings. What happens next is our choice.

Want to find out who shot you in the head and return the favor? Go for it. Or maybe you decide that the Mojave Express isn't the best line of work for you and you'd rather find other employment opportunities. You can do that as well. The point is, you have absolute freedom to choose what happens next and tell your own story. The game also did an excellent job of illustrating how our actions can and will have serious repercussions. There is just so much to do and see in this world that I'm pretty sure I still haven't found it all, despite investing over 300 hours into the game.

For those on PC, the addition of mods on the Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas Nexus can add hundreds if not thousands of hours of extra content. There is a mod which I highly recommend called "Tale of Two Wastelands", which allows you to COMBINE Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas into one game. You can actually travel back and forth between the worlds, bringing any NPC's with you. For those interested, I'll link it below.

As you can tell, I absolutely loved these games. So when Fallout 4 was announced, I was even more hyped than I was for Fallout: New Vegas. I saw the E3 press conference where Bethesda dumped all kinds of information on us and showed off the gameplay. Seeing that we now had a voiced protagonist made me worry, but everything else overshadowed that and ultimately, I was very hyped for the game.

Fallout 4, as many of you know, took the series in the wrong direction. At least, that's how I feel about it. To be clear, I don't think Fallout 4 is a bad game. As someone who has put in 269 hours, it's pretty much impossible for me to say this game is bad. I think by now we've all heard the phrase - "Fallout 4 is a good shooter but a bad Fallout game." I wish I knew where this originated from because whoever said it really hit the nail on the head. They may have advertised this as a role-playing game, but role-playing as anyone besides Nate or Nora is pretty damn difficult. That's because the game forces this on us. From the start, we are given a backstory, a family, and an occupation. With those things pre-determined for us, how are we supposed to roleplay as anyone else? The answer is, you can't. Granted, there are some mods that help with this, like the alternative start mod, but even then, when I speak with NPC's I still hear Nate or Nora's voice. Honestly, I wish they would've done something similar to the dialogue system in Skyrim. That game didn't have a voiced protagonist and the world didn't freeze when you spoke to an NPC. Seriously, why didn't they just adopt the same system for Fallout 4?

Fallout 4 also gets a lot of hate for the story, but honestly, I didn't mind the story. I actually enjoyed most of it and there were some genuine surprise twists throughout. The problem is that after completing the main story, I didn't feel compelled to go back and play it again. I still did it, but it just wasn't that fun. When I replayed Fallout: New Vegas, I replayed it as a different character. When I replayed Fallout 4, I replayed it as Nora instead of Nate and experienced the exact same story.

The biggest issue with Fallout 4, in my opinion, is that I always felt like my path was pre-determined. Sure, we have choices throughout, but many of the options in the game just give us the illusion of choice. In reality, the outcome is going to be the same a lot of the time. I don't' have many memories from playing Fallout 4 as I did with Fallout 3 and New Vegas. However, I will say that entering the Institute for the first time was pretty damn cool.

Another issue, and this is something that kind of bothered me with Fallout 3's campaign, is how the story is structured. It drives me crazy that I am supposed to be out finding a family member and am getting assigned multiple other side quests. Why would I spend time rebuilding the Minutemen or helping strangers plant watermelons when my infant son is somewhere out in the wasteland? It just doesn't make sense to me. In fact, the first time I played the campaign I never encountered Paladin Danse or the Brotherhood. I blasted through the main story because I felt the urgency to find my son. I felt that if I was in that position that's what I would do.

In New Vegas, I felt comfortable taking on side missions because I didn't have to do the main story if I didn't want to. Of course, you don't have to do the main story in Fallout 3 or 4, but it just makes more sense in New Vegas. I am not the lone wanderer from Vault 101 looking for my dad. I am not the sole survivor of Vault 111 looking for my son. I am a mail courier with the Mojave Express who had a bad day on the job. What I do next is my choice. This is freedom. This is how a Fallout game should be.

I think what many people miss, or at least what I miss, is the role-playing element of the Fallout games. If it was up to me, the next Fallout would have me fill out a series of questions that answer what kind of character I am, then start the game. I could choose between starting out as a vault dweller, a merchant, a raider, and everything in between. I think that for the next Fallout game, Bethesda seriously needs to return to their roots and bring the role-playing elements back. It's what makes the game genuinely fun and gives endless replayability.

Oh, for those wondering why I'm not talking about that one Fallout game, you know, the one that just came out, it's because I really have no comment on it, and I feel like people have shit on it enough. Bethesda knows better and should be ashamed of what they tried to do. Seriously. Don't let that happen again. 

Tale of Two Wastelands link: https://taleoftwowastelands.com/download_ttw