Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/31/bethesda-reveals-latest-fallou.html
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I am willing to re-evaluate upon further evidence; but the idea of Bethesday/Zenimax going online for this one makes me very, very, nervous.
There certainly isn’t anything about TE:O that screams “Bethesda is really good at this”; and ‘online’ typically means “we consider mods cheating”(except in the very oldest tales; when 3rd party matchmaking was the rule and servers were free to run whatever oddball house rules and mods they wanted); and Bethesda’s work is usually much improved by a round of people who aren’t them modifying it.
I really want the next round of Fallout to be good; so I’m hoping that they’ll pull it off; but I can’t ignore the ‘flayed skin of Fallout smeared across whatever online genre seems trendy’ possibility.
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Yup. Bethesda =‘It will break. Bigly’. Someone (not them) should just go the whole hog and create a Paranoia MMORPG.
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Maybe 4 was an improvement in terms of mechanics and visual design. But story telling wise Bethesda has been collapsing for a while. Bland characters. And weightless stories. Clunky dialog. I don’t actually remember much if anything about the story of either Fallout 4 or Skyrim. And Fallout 4 I found it powerfully boring as I was playing it. I found myself struggling to play it for more a 1/2 hour. As much as I found some of the mechanics to be clever. Even engaging for longer stretches here and there. It was really a slog. There’s nothing much of fallout in that game. Set dressing over “post apocalyptic resource management ugly fort builder the game”.
It was especially galling given what the Witcher 3 managed to pull off with less money, fewer people, And a smaller built in audience.
A shift to online just signals even more perfunctory story telling. And I’ve just got no interest in a game that’s all mechanics. That’s been the biggest short coming of Bethesda’s games this just sounds like they’re giving up.
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I started the Fallout series with “New Vegas” and I loved the story. FO3 and now FO4 are boring (as watching paint dry) without modding. Purist gamers stick their noses up in the air about modding, but mods have made the games playable for me.
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FO4 was a lovely canvas on which an amazing storytelling, exploration, and crafting experience should have been painted. All the modern FPS style Fallout games have eventually made me yearn for less violence and more negotiating, talking, trading, etc.
In theory an online game could be a platform for continuous improvement and expansion in exactly that direction, but is there any reason to expect that? The basic dialogue tree form of storytelling and interaction has not much changed in 20 years.
Maybe I’m just too old, finally.
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I feel bad - I find these rpgs super boring - tried many times to play Fallout and couldn’t even get out off the bunker - the only one I have enjoyed (and absolutely loved) is Portal 2. I played a ton of Left 4 Dead, and counterstrike (but more the custom servers with player created content like surfing and mini games). Currently liking PUBG and fortnite - I really enjoy interacting with people online and doing team oriented things. I also find the solitary nature of RPGs a little lifeless too. They are so boring - like Skyrim - you walk for 20 hours to pick up some gloves or coins. Used to love civilization too but got a little repetitive after a while.
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I’m torn.
I love Fallout, and have been with them since the first isometric game. I even bought Fallout Tactics. Hated it, but I bought it.
I disliked the building aspect of Fallout 4, so hearing in the trailer, “You must rebuild,” has me on edge.
I’m not a social gamer, so MMORPGs are not a game genre I enjoy playing at all. Even a Fallout skin won’t make me like trying to work/play with random gamers.
I briefly enjoyed the Fallout mobile game, until I ran into the paywall.
Ugh. I want to want it, but I expect much disappointment when it finally launches. Time will tell.
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I’ve got 5 buck on it containing some form of gacha or other loot box mechanic.
Or letting some other company actually make the game as they did with New Vegas
I’ve been playing the Fallout series since the first one. And Wasteland on the Commodore 64 before that when dinosaurs roamed the earth, which was said to be the inspiration for the first one.
I guess I’m easily amused, but I’ve enjoyed them all, aside from the occasional technical issue that made some of the quests hard to complete. I got chills and waves of narcotic-like video game euphoria washing over me as I watched the trailer for this. I hope it’s good.
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Is not an RPG. More of a coop puzzle game with the trappings of an fps. The recent Fallout and Elder Scrolls games are absolutely not great examples of what an RPG can bring. They’re almost mmo grind fests without an online element.
It’s not surprising that Bethesda wants to move in that direction. Their games have been circling it for a while and they spent a lot of time in court tl prevent Interplay from making a fallout mmo.
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I love FO4.
Still playing it right now. My friends and I are all playing asm survival game right now anfmd post caps in our FB group and OMG its awesome and hilarious. So much dying so much hunger so much thirst so much running away.
I also loved FONV buy mainly for the DLC.
FO3 was just ok despite Liam Neeson. I never got the DLC to work tho so Id prolly like it better if I could do Alaska.
So that all said I for one am excited as fuck! I dont care what flavour the game takes Ill play it.
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I’m with you on this: this shift to an mmo style isn’t a good sign. I’m willing to wait and see…but…I’m not going to get my hopes up.
thanks so what is a super great RPG that I could have no trouble enjoying? I don’t like grindfests…also I’m not huge on reading alot of text boxes.
Grindfest isn’t really an accurate descriptor for the sort of experience you get with Bethsoft’s more recent games. What they can be called is sandboxes. They set up a world and give it to you to explore or not as you choose. I agree their plots and writing in general arn’t great, but largely it feels like the story is just there to give you a modicum of direction to fall back on if your natural exploration drive is lacking.
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Honestly I feel like I harp on this a lot. But everyone with your taste I know. Who I’ve gotten to try witcher 3 has lost their mind. So start there. Don’t need to have played the first two games. Just dive right in. It might be one of the best rpgs ever made. And it’s recent so there’s no old school weird to drive you away.
But increasingly there’s nothing to find in all that exploration. You spend hours exploring an area and all you find is a few crafting supplies. A weapon. And a single note with nothing interesting to stand in for plot. Every building or cave or quest is identical to the previous one. And you do that a thousand times. And then they all reset ao you can do them again.
It’s a sandbox. But a pointless one. When there are quests they’re increasing fetch quests. Or go here. Kill all the guys. Repeat.
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I think that’s a little reductive. The environmental storytelling for individual areas is still very good in my opinion. Its the overarching plot that’s crap. But yeah if you’re looking for stuff that connects to the game’s story in some way, you’ll be disappointed. Also I have to say the combat is vastly improved in 4, so going somewhere to blast some dudes is fine by me. I can understand why someone wouldn’t enjoy that particular loop of gameplay however.
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Naah, that was a pretty useless DLC IMHO. The only thing that made it at all worthwhile was the fact that you could get power armor training earlier than otherwise. The PItt OTOH was a pretty darned good DLC.
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No I intended to call out the environmental story telling us well. New Vegas did that very well. There were a few areas that didn’t it really well. Others it’s 1 terminal with a single entry or “ooo there’s a spooky skellington”. Early Bethesda games did it quite well as well.
Fallout 4 often peaks at the spooky bones. And you’ll see the same spooky bones multiple times. If it spawns a self contained plot. It’s another kill all the psychos “plot”. Overall for all that space there is very little content there.
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