Two-Face=Badass
Sidekick
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2008
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I'm still enjoying the game, but it's kind of hilarious how utterly superior New Vegas still is. Every quest in 4 is basically 'go here, clear out the raiders, grab the thing, bring it back,' and with the elimination of all speech checks except for Charisma there is far less freedom. Even more than that the reduced dialogue system is not only incredibly vague, but basically means you can be a good guy or sarcastic good guy. Most checks don't even change missions, they just up how much you get paid for it. Of course there are still missions with choice, but even those are just small ones at the end that don't make any real changes to the world.
Compare New Vegas in which it was a surprise if missions only had one resolution, and even more than that there were multiple branching ways to reach final decisions.
Just look at the different between the first two main missions of the games. In Fallout 4 you go to Concord, and are tasked with clearing out the Raiders. You have no choice to side with the Raiders, you have no choice in how you go about clearing them up, and ultimately the game railroads you into saving the Minutemen and sending them to Sanctuary.
In New Vegas you are tasked with resolving the Goodsprings fight. You can side with Goodsprings OR the Powder Gangers. From there, there are multiple ways to reach these goals. You can kill Joe Cobb early in the bar, thus making the conclusion easier, or you can actually go over to where they are waiting to invade and kill them all by yourself. You can rally the town in your defence by accomplishing various checks, or you can let all six of them invade and tackle them by yourself.
This then has an effect on the wider world - Goodsprings now loves you, and the Powder Gangers hate you - which then means later on you can't help them with their quests. But siding with the Powder Gangers gives you the option to later betray them to the NCR or defeat them when they attack. Multiple branching options that gives you a way to play the game differently, and allow you to roleplay effectively. But even more than that, it feels like the world is actually affected by your actions.
Which is what makes Bethesda's watering down of the roleplaying aspects in Fallout 4 frankly sad. I can no longer play as anything other than a concerned parent looking for their kid, and their watered down dialogue system and choice to have a voiced protagonist now means that my character is reduced further still. It's honestly beyond pathetic that after New Vegas showed - with just 18 months time to design the world and quests - how astounding branching storylines could be used in an open setting, that Bethesda has created an inferior game that is far more of a shooter by this point than an RPG.
Compare New Vegas in which it was a surprise if missions only had one resolution, and even more than that there were multiple branching ways to reach final decisions.
Just look at the different between the first two main missions of the games. In Fallout 4 you go to Concord, and are tasked with clearing out the Raiders. You have no choice to side with the Raiders, you have no choice in how you go about clearing them up, and ultimately the game railroads you into saving the Minutemen and sending them to Sanctuary.
In New Vegas you are tasked with resolving the Goodsprings fight. You can side with Goodsprings OR the Powder Gangers. From there, there are multiple ways to reach these goals. You can kill Joe Cobb early in the bar, thus making the conclusion easier, or you can actually go over to where they are waiting to invade and kill them all by yourself. You can rally the town in your defence by accomplishing various checks, or you can let all six of them invade and tackle them by yourself.
This then has an effect on the wider world - Goodsprings now loves you, and the Powder Gangers hate you - which then means later on you can't help them with their quests. But siding with the Powder Gangers gives you the option to later betray them to the NCR or defeat them when they attack. Multiple branching options that gives you a way to play the game differently, and allow you to roleplay effectively. But even more than that, it feels like the world is actually affected by your actions.
Which is what makes Bethesda's watering down of the roleplaying aspects in Fallout 4 frankly sad. I can no longer play as anything other than a concerned parent looking for their kid, and their watered down dialogue system and choice to have a voiced protagonist now means that my character is reduced further still. It's honestly beyond pathetic that after New Vegas showed - with just 18 months time to design the world and quests - how astounding branching storylines could be used in an open setting, that Bethesda has created an inferior game that is far more of a shooter by this point than an RPG.
