Are factions a good, or negative component for Fallout?

Are Factions a good component in playing fallout?

  • Total voters
    37
Without factions there is no motivation to do anything. The real world has always had groups with their own beliefs and agendas. This would be true for a postapocalyptic world as well. Factions felt best in NV for me. They were mostly Just towns in fo1 rather than actual factions for The most part. Fo2 did factions just fine but they we're once again ties heavily into towns and their alliances and shit. (Read up on Redding if you're unfamiliar with the sitch that was going on with that)
 
Factions don't exist in 3, it's a shallow and boring world that makes no sense and has no reason to exist or for anyone to do anything. New Vegas, on the other hand, has many factions, each with their own quirks and personality, and most of which the player can join. Without factions, as @R.Graves said, there's no real motivation for anyone to do anything, you might as well just have flavourless raiders everywhere... which is exactly what Bethesda does.
 
The game needs to provide an incentive for the player to tackle the problems it offers, factions or no factions.

You can get an interesting and involving game and story without any singularly highlighted isolated groups with fancy names, so it doesn't really matter all that much whether we have BoS in one corner, the Children of the Cathedral in another and Caesars Legion in yet another, or none of such. Factions like that might highlight the point of conflict more clearly, but it is in no way a requirement.

It comes down to what it is that's wanted to achieve with the given setting and narrative and how well it is written.

As for whether the factions are a good or bad... they really can be both.
 
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Yes, Factions make every new playthrough interesting and different, seeing how others react to you being NCR etc etc. I like Factions! (not F4's though :I )
 
The core concept behind fo4's factions had undeniable potential. I must admit that. Bethesda just failed super hardcore at the execution of th factions. Especially with the institute. Tbh I didn't play the game long enough to interact with any faction but the BOS. but from What I heard it seems I'm not missing anything but headaches and heartaches.
 
R.Graves said:
The core concept behind fo4's factions had undeniable potential. I must admit that. Bethesda just failed super hardcore at the execution of th factions. Especially with the institute. Tbh I didn't play the game long enough to interact with any faction but the BOS. but from What I heard it seems I'm not missing anything but headaches and heartaches.
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I feel like the Institute was written by multiple writers and they couldn't decide on how they wanted to play them. Some people wanted them to be evil bastards who are mad scientists to the core. Other people wanted them just to be people. The fact the Institute doesn't have a core vision is a central part of their narrative in the end because Father says, "We're a bunch of scientists. We don't have a real leader to lead us like you." However, it just makes them a boring directionless faction.

It also takes wading through a lot to get the straight answer of, "We don't give a shit about anyone but ourselves. Just give us a nuclear reactor and we'll do nothing ever again."
 
Sure, and the concept should keep evolving from new vegas. But why is it a problem to have conflicts related to towns. That is amounts the things I miss the most from fo1-fo2. You only have one big fillery location in fo3- fonv.
 
I don't think its essential or necessary to have factions in a fallout game but you would kinda of have to chance most of the formula to the game really. I mean NV had the best idea of faction as they where actually waring and interacting with each other that certainly did add alot to the game. I guess the only difference in NV was you have faction that where optional to join and played a big part in the end game etc. In all fallout game syou have faction etc however their usally more like a town or like BOS. But yeah NV was really the only game that included dynamics faction thats was quite alto down to the reputation system. This was tried in fallout 4 but did't really make sence , there was no reputation system and wearing certain clothes won't camoflage or get another faction to hate you. I think the main story of NV was built from the idea of different faction and Fallout 4 tried too. However in NV you felt like a conflict was actually going on and it was was't a mess lore wise.

I think you probably would need faction in the next fallout game however I don't think they need to be that overplayed or used just for the sake of it. I don't think we even need to see faction like BOS because I would like to see something different. TO be honest also I perfer getting to know more about the smaller faction and witch they where developed more just as botherhodd outcasts etc.
 
Factions is what make fallout, a rpg ,and not just some standard post apocalyptic game. New Vegas is the gold standard in my opinion, the factions actually felt like it was made out of people with different ideals,and goals/agenda then other people in said faction ,and wasn't just one giant hive mind of people who believe full heartedly in the factions cause. There was multiple NCR soldiers that hated being in the mojave, and think their superiors are asshats, while others genuinely feel like their doing their patriotic duty. This a a huge contrast to how fallout 4 does factions, which is basically one giant hive mind mentality. The member of the bos in fallout 4 never question maxson or say anything negative about him or the bos. You never hear paladins talking about their homes, family's,or anything else really it's all just one big hive mind in fallout 4
 
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