I've been stumbling around in shock for the last few days, the image of the mushroom cloud seared into my mind. And everywhere I go, I see the devastation of the Great War, and the struggle for life to continue in its wake.
I found this cat outside of a shack that had some scavengers squatting in it. I'd found an actual working camera in a ruined subway station, so I decided to dust off the lens and get a quick photo. A reminder of a time before the War.
A couple of minutes later, he pounced on a bug the size of grape, not counting wings and legs. It was a mosquito. Many insects got a lot bigger since the bombs dropped. I don't understand the science, but I know that some of the new bugs are now so big that they would be able to eat the cat--or his owners.
Yes, I've been playing Fallout 4 a lot since it came out on Tuesday.
I had very high expectations and even higher hopes. They have all been exceeded. Fallout 4 borrows the best ideas from every RPG I've played in recent years. Let's walk through them in chronological order:
Splash Screen: The splash screen is beautiful. The camera pans slowly across the biggest symbols of the Fallout franchise: power armour, bobbleheads, workbenches. The tone is beautifully sad, with a touch of hope. I actually just watched it for a minute or two before hitting start, soaking up the tone.
Intro Story: The game transitions smoothly into a cinematic introduction to the setting, wonderfully sentimental for those familiar with the franchise while rapidly on-boarding anyone new. You then get some time to immerse yourself into life in this world. I will avoid story spoilers, but suffice it to say that the content isn't really anything new--one element is arguably hackneyed--but the execution is excellent. The fact you get to play through this introduction is a big part of it. The other part is that they keep the dialogue purposeful, introducing you to critical elements, setting the tone of peril and fear without turning the sequence into a dialogue-heavy slog.
Character Creation: The interface is very innovative, and I love the fact that they adopted so many good ideas from the Saints Row franchise. The "happy family" atmosphere that they added to the character creation gets a little over-the-top and cloying at points. On the other hand, they added atmosphere to the character creator. That alone is ground-breaking. Not a huge thing, but a new and valuable thing.
Entering the Wastes: Maybe an hour into the game, you finally emerge from the Vault you took shelter in to view the post-apocalyptic wasteland. I found my first few hours in the post-nuclear wasteland to be a little overwhelming and confusing. I have mixed opinions on this. On the one hand, this is something game designers should typically try to avoid. On the other hand, it mirrors your character's sense of being overwhelmed and confused. Actually, I think the thing I missed in the later conversations was a that the emotional impact of the starting sequence on my character seemed to fade quite a lot. But then again, I decided to help a small settlement rather than pursue the main plot at first, and those side plots can't have dialogue differences based on whether or not you *just* entered the wasteland or if you've been wandering it for months. I later encountered the main plotline and it felt really engaging again. Overall, Bethesda's writing gets better every game, and this is no exception.
Crafting: Possibly the biggest, most effective gameplay improvement in a Bethesda game. They like to scatter "junk" around the world, like coffee mugs and wrenches, just to create the sense that the world is real. But it was always just props. Sometimes they'd throw a collection quest at you (e.g. bring me 100 screwdrivers and I'll give you a screwdriver coat or something like that). But in Fallout 4, everything is now made of raw materials, and those raw materials are needed for crafting weapons, armour, and even entire communities! It now really feels like you're scavenging for parts in order to survive a hostile wasteland. So good!
Communities: Speaking of which, you are no longer just a lone adventurer, killing monsters and taking treasure. You can actually build up towns, providing them with farms, water supplies, electric generators, and defences. You can build houses and walls and place them how you like. It's incredibly powerful. I'm amazed they managed to provide this kind of functionality, as this is a big technological challenge for games. Usually customizability comes at a cost, like simplified worlds (e.g. Minecraft). I suppose there is one cost: my computer only runs on medium graphics settings, and it sometimes chugs to keep up--especially at dawn and dusk when the lighting effects are changing rapidly.
Progression: For non-gamers, progression is the sense that you start weak and get stronger over time. This is the experience points you earn and the new skills you unlock. So far, I've spent a significant amount of time studying the charts to figure out exactly what skills I need for the type of character I want to play. I may have made some mistakes, but they're mistakes that I can live with. For example, I am now not sure if the "Science" skill was a good choice. On the other hand, it let me build a really cool laser rifle, improve the armour pieces on my power armour (an unstoppable juggernaut that was the height of infantry technology before the Great War), and will even let me build superior power generators for towns later. So I'm still pretty happy to have the skill.
Time for me to hit the real-life wasteland of Edmonton to scavenge for some groceries and to get some exercise. I'm starting to feel like a Vault Dweller.
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