I was originally planning on writing a complementary entry to my commentary below ("Fallout Sucked") weeks ago but I got busy at work and swept up in Gears of War, which is currently consuming all my gaming time. But today I am bored! Woo...so I will think way back to 2 weeks ago when I was finishing Fallout and recap why it was so awesome. Enjoy.
Fallout was a phenomenal game overall. I've already mentioned what I thought was terrible about it but in brief summary, it's not as satisfying an experience as some other games. When it ends you still feel like you haven't done anything or made it anywhere. However, that right there is what makes this game so great. The absolute freedom. The lack of direction. The go anywhere, do anything, be anyone mindset.
The free world Fallout is created around gives you the option to do main story quests...or not. You could just wander around the wastes and collect scrap metal for hours if you wanted, which happens to be the exact way I entered this game. I left the vault and there it was…a vast expanse of desolation as far as the eye could see (well, much further actually). So I started wandering around, stumbled across a few destroyed remains of houses and scavenged for whatever I could find. This early in the game I had an empty inventory and no idea what was useful. I found myself pocketing every tin can and empty whiskey bottle I came across. Soon enough though I found Megaton, the first rummaging of organization you encounter in the wastes. You start meeting people and everyone has something for you to do, or someone for you to find, or something for you to research. I came across a shiesty fuck named Moriarty who gave me some news about how to find my father, I knew it was a mission of story progression and avoided it like the plague. Instead I figured I'd run a few errands for the other folks around town. Before I knew it I had gained a few experience and leveled up a few times. My character was starting to get fleshed out. The original plan was "Aesop Doom, the smooth talking, charismatic thief who'd agree to help you out then pick your pocket and rob your house as soon as you turned your back." He would constantly be committing small crimes and loosing karma, but ultimately be good by completing the good karma missions and making the morally correct big decisions. He was going to have an emphasis on the sneaky, lockpicking, and speech skills. Well, it turns out it's hard to survive without some sort of combat focus. I gave up on sneaky-ness and started buffing up my explosive skills. I developed quite the collection of mines and grenades of all varieties. The more I grew my collection the more I desired. Every time I leveled up I struggled with where to place the development points, I just wanted more.
The deeper you dig into the game, the deeper you want to dig. Two hours slip away like nothing, just scrounging around in some deserted subway station looking for a new lab coat and just waiting to bump your lockpick skill the final 15 points to a full 100…it’s easy to lose yourself in sculpting this alternate world and suddenly I realize my character is at level 15 (of 20) and I hadn't completed any main story. Somewhere along the way the original vision of being cosmically smiled upon had been lost. My karma was deep into the nether regions. Aesop was straight-up evil, he was still a smooth talker and could lockpick absolutely anything, but he was also well versed in the combat shotgun and explosives. He had become misanthropic with a taste for human flesh. He'd find himself clearing out a small villages and raider outposts then feasting on them and collecting their ears. I know, he was a sick fuck. Anyway…
He was a big bad mother fucker who was wiping out entire towns single handedly. I figured it was time to do some story missions, give this game a little heart. I had wandered for tens of hours, doing random tasks and exploring wherever impulse led. It was ridiculously fun and addicting to create this beast of a man. And that is the point. There exists so much freedom to create whatever you want and make that creation so powerful…it’s ridiculously awesome. Then I played the storyline...
What this game boiled down to (for me) was simply an addicting journey.
Fallout was a phenomenal game overall. I've already mentioned what I thought was terrible about it but in brief summary, it's not as satisfying an experience as some other games. When it ends you still feel like you haven't done anything or made it anywhere. However, that right there is what makes this game so great. The absolute freedom. The lack of direction. The go anywhere, do anything, be anyone mindset.
The free world Fallout is created around gives you the option to do main story quests...or not. You could just wander around the wastes and collect scrap metal for hours if you wanted, which happens to be the exact way I entered this game. I left the vault and there it was…a vast expanse of desolation as far as the eye could see (well, much further actually). So I started wandering around, stumbled across a few destroyed remains of houses and scavenged for whatever I could find. This early in the game I had an empty inventory and no idea what was useful. I found myself pocketing every tin can and empty whiskey bottle I came across. Soon enough though I found Megaton, the first rummaging of organization you encounter in the wastes. You start meeting people and everyone has something for you to do, or someone for you to find, or something for you to research. I came across a shiesty fuck named Moriarty who gave me some news about how to find my father, I knew it was a mission of story progression and avoided it like the plague. Instead I figured I'd run a few errands for the other folks around town. Before I knew it I had gained a few experience and leveled up a few times. My character was starting to get fleshed out. The original plan was "Aesop Doom, the smooth talking, charismatic thief who'd agree to help you out then pick your pocket and rob your house as soon as you turned your back." He would constantly be committing small crimes and loosing karma, but ultimately be good by completing the good karma missions and making the morally correct big decisions. He was going to have an emphasis on the sneaky, lockpicking, and speech skills. Well, it turns out it's hard to survive without some sort of combat focus. I gave up on sneaky-ness and started buffing up my explosive skills. I developed quite the collection of mines and grenades of all varieties. The more I grew my collection the more I desired. Every time I leveled up I struggled with where to place the development points, I just wanted more.
The deeper you dig into the game, the deeper you want to dig. Two hours slip away like nothing, just scrounging around in some deserted subway station looking for a new lab coat and just waiting to bump your lockpick skill the final 15 points to a full 100…it’s easy to lose yourself in sculpting this alternate world and suddenly I realize my character is at level 15 (of 20) and I hadn't completed any main story. Somewhere along the way the original vision of being cosmically smiled upon had been lost. My karma was deep into the nether regions. Aesop was straight-up evil, he was still a smooth talker and could lockpick absolutely anything, but he was also well versed in the combat shotgun and explosives. He had become misanthropic with a taste for human flesh. He'd find himself clearing out a small villages and raider outposts then feasting on them and collecting their ears. I know, he was a sick fuck. Anyway…
He was a big bad mother fucker who was wiping out entire towns single handedly. I figured it was time to do some story missions, give this game a little heart. I had wandered for tens of hours, doing random tasks and exploring wherever impulse led. It was ridiculously fun and addicting to create this beast of a man. And that is the point. There exists so much freedom to create whatever you want and make that creation so powerful…it’s ridiculously awesome. Then I played the storyline...
What this game boiled down to (for me) was simply an addicting journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment