<table align="left" width="100%" border="0"><tr><td align="left">To page 1</td></tr></table>
Quests and dialogue
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</center></tr></td></table>For a good chunk, quest design is where this game really shines. There are a few negative exceptions, and the predilection to violent solutions and dungeon crawls ruin a lot of perfectly good quests, but the basics of quite a few quests are fantastic: a variety of truly different approaches, variable solutions (sometimes with far-reaching consequences) leading to variable rewards, and a real relevance of the PC's skill makes for this game having some of the best side-quests of any RPG of the past decade.
But then there's the main quest... Bethesda negates almost all good they've done otherwise by making one of the most banal, badly-written, nonsensical and boring main questlines I have ever had the displeasure of playing through. Big advice: avoid the main quest as long as you can, it is so bad that it has the potential to ruin the entire game for you. And the ending? Never mind that Bethesda once again felt this childish need to go for a “huge OMGZORS” effect in the penultimate moments (Napoleon complex much, Todd Howard?), those moments only lead to an ending area and ending vids that are not really worth bothering with.
Dialog is another area where Bethesda struggles with itself. They've gone from Oblivion's keyphrase dialog to fully written lines, but it looks like they were unable to fully shake their heritage. The PC's lines often read stiffly and incomplete, as if he's supposed to say more than is written there, and the NPCs' reactions often fit that impression. The writing itself varies, a lot of it is horrible, especially in the main questline which just has some jaw-droppingly bad moments, even more of it is just average, and the little bit left is pretty good. Of course, in good Bethesda tradition good dialog is often butchered by incompetent voice actors. The celebrity voice performances are passable at best, annoying at worst (I'm look at you, Ms Yustman and Mr Neeson).
One awkward thing is that whenever Bethesda is trying to be clever in literate references, they tend to get it wrong or repeat it multiple times shoving it in your face and shouting “look at how clever I am!” I get, guys, quoting from the bible in a “subtle” hint about the main plot, very clever.
How is this game so unfinished?
Oh gorsh, the big one. Here it is: on the day of release, this game wasn't finished. Not a big shock in today's gaming industry, but it's not just about technical polish this time. Don't factor out technical polish, this game manages to be a bug-laden mess on all 3 platforms it has been released on, many people encountering hard crashes, freezes, save corruptions and a large variety of quest-ending bugs.
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</center></tr></td></table>But that's not even what I want to talk about. Here's the thing: this game was made with either an enormous lack of attention to detail or an even bigger lack of basic professionalism. We'll just put it in a catchword of “laziness”. I have no way of knowing how the development of CW:R went so I can't pinpoint where it all went wrong, but fact is that it did. This game shows some attention to detail in world and quest design, but it's all sporadic. If you look at the bigger picture, you'll see Bethesda just had people who sometimes focused on crafting certain spots, and the rest was just painted with one big lazy brushstroke.
Constant repetition of the same models. Some of the worst animations I have ever seen. The same voice actor being used for all old people. The game offering freedom but adapting very badly to people using this freedom (dialog will always respond as if you took the “normal” path without skipping anything). The odd implementation of owned beds and sleeping mechanics. Gun design not making any sense realistically. Barely improved facial animations since Oblivion (modelling has been improved though). A main plot that is more full of holes than Swiss cheese. Even little things, like the fact that fire doesn't burn you. Or, to get back to an earlier point, a setting that shows a complete lack of a single, dominant vision of what the game should be, and instead went with the design school of “let's add anything that's cool”.
And they did. They added a lot of cool stuff. And the net result is a messy, inconsistent and unfinished game.
Conclusion
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</center></tr></td></table>To come full circle, here's another way this game reminds me of Oblivion: it tries to wow you with first impressions and then just basically entice you on. Both games are like hot cheerleaders who you follow a year as they tease you on. And finally you sleep with them (both). And maybe this realization hits outright, maybe it takes a few years, but at some point you'll suddenly go: “hey, hang on, they were crap in the sack!” Capital Wasteland: Revelation works like that: it tries to wow you, sometimes in rather farcical ways (a mini-nuke catapult? Really?), and then it tries to take you by the nose and have you explore as you try to find the next awesome spot. But the thing is: most spots are really boring, a lot of quests are uninteresting and none of the NPCs come even close to being memorable...except for Moira Brown: I have never felt so passionate about killing any NPC as I did her, sometimes I had no choice but to exit dialog and shoot her in the face because she's just that annoying.
Here is the real shocker: even though this game does not excel at much except creating annoying NPCs, it is still a good game. Because sometimes, even when the cheerleader is crap in the sack, it's still fun to chase after her. But more importantly, for years now RPG designers have focused purely on pretty graphics and fun combat, and while Capital Wasteland: Revelation also does that, it is a rare return to values of quest design we know of from Black Isle Studios and Troika, an approach that says quests have to be interesting, have to have multiple solutions and your choices really do matter. The latter point is probably the weakest one for CW:R and there are plenty of bad quests to turn you away, but this is still a remarkable accomplishment that I did not expect after Oblivion.
So what do we have? Blind recommendation? No. This is still a good game, just too flawed to be considered a great game or a classic. Bethesda was not able to let go of their habits from Oblivion enough to make a convincing post-apocalyptic FPSRPG. It does not stick out above the pack in most areas, but if you – like me – feel interesting quest design is a staple of good RPG design then you will likely enjoy this game. The downside is that its impressive package of minor and major flaws can mean you'll hate it or – again like me – be completely done with it after one-and-a-half playthroughs.
I get the feeling this game had the potential to be great but at some point in development Bethesda did not just drop the ball, they put cement shoes on it and dumped it in the river. It's a shame, but it's still a good game.
<table align="left" width="100%" border="0"><tr><td align="left">To page 1</td></tr></table>
Quests and dialogue
<table align="right" width="310px" bgcolor="#333333" border="1"><tr><td><center>
</center></tr></td></table>For a good chunk, quest design is where this game really shines. There are a few negative exceptions, and the predilection to violent solutions and dungeon crawls ruin a lot of perfectly good quests, but the basics of quite a few quests are fantastic: a variety of truly different approaches, variable solutions (sometimes with far-reaching consequences) leading to variable rewards, and a real relevance of the PC's skill makes for this game having some of the best side-quests of any RPG of the past decade.But then there's the main quest... Bethesda negates almost all good they've done otherwise by making one of the most banal, badly-written, nonsensical and boring main questlines I have ever had the displeasure of playing through. Big advice: avoid the main quest as long as you can, it is so bad that it has the potential to ruin the entire game for you. And the ending? Never mind that Bethesda once again felt this childish need to go for a “huge OMGZORS” effect in the penultimate moments (Napoleon complex much, Todd Howard?), those moments only lead to an ending area and ending vids that are not really worth bothering with.
Dialog is another area where Bethesda struggles with itself. They've gone from Oblivion's keyphrase dialog to fully written lines, but it looks like they were unable to fully shake their heritage. The PC's lines often read stiffly and incomplete, as if he's supposed to say more than is written there, and the NPCs' reactions often fit that impression. The writing itself varies, a lot of it is horrible, especially in the main questline which just has some jaw-droppingly bad moments, even more of it is just average, and the little bit left is pretty good. Of course, in good Bethesda tradition good dialog is often butchered by incompetent voice actors. The celebrity voice performances are passable at best, annoying at worst (I'm look at you, Ms Yustman and Mr Neeson).
One awkward thing is that whenever Bethesda is trying to be clever in literate references, they tend to get it wrong or repeat it multiple times shoving it in your face and shouting “look at how clever I am!” I get, guys, quoting from the bible in a “subtle” hint about the main plot, very clever.
How is this game so unfinished?
Oh gorsh, the big one. Here it is: on the day of release, this game wasn't finished. Not a big shock in today's gaming industry, but it's not just about technical polish this time. Don't factor out technical polish, this game manages to be a bug-laden mess on all 3 platforms it has been released on, many people encountering hard crashes, freezes, save corruptions and a large variety of quest-ending bugs.
<table align="left" width="310px" bgcolor="#333333" border="1"><tr><td><center>
</center></tr></td></table>But that's not even what I want to talk about. Here's the thing: this game was made with either an enormous lack of attention to detail or an even bigger lack of basic professionalism. We'll just put it in a catchword of “laziness”. I have no way of knowing how the development of CW:R went so I can't pinpoint where it all went wrong, but fact is that it did. This game shows some attention to detail in world and quest design, but it's all sporadic. If you look at the bigger picture, you'll see Bethesda just had people who sometimes focused on crafting certain spots, and the rest was just painted with one big lazy brushstroke.Constant repetition of the same models. Some of the worst animations I have ever seen. The same voice actor being used for all old people. The game offering freedom but adapting very badly to people using this freedom (dialog will always respond as if you took the “normal” path without skipping anything). The odd implementation of owned beds and sleeping mechanics. Gun design not making any sense realistically. Barely improved facial animations since Oblivion (modelling has been improved though). A main plot that is more full of holes than Swiss cheese. Even little things, like the fact that fire doesn't burn you. Or, to get back to an earlier point, a setting that shows a complete lack of a single, dominant vision of what the game should be, and instead went with the design school of “let's add anything that's cool”.
And they did. They added a lot of cool stuff. And the net result is a messy, inconsistent and unfinished game.
Conclusion
<table align="right" width="310px" bgcolor="#333333" border="1"><tr><td><center>
</center></tr></td></table>To come full circle, here's another way this game reminds me of Oblivion: it tries to wow you with first impressions and then just basically entice you on. Both games are like hot cheerleaders who you follow a year as they tease you on. And finally you sleep with them (both). And maybe this realization hits outright, maybe it takes a few years, but at some point you'll suddenly go: “hey, hang on, they were crap in the sack!” Capital Wasteland: Revelation works like that: it tries to wow you, sometimes in rather farcical ways (a mini-nuke catapult? Really?), and then it tries to take you by the nose and have you explore as you try to find the next awesome spot. But the thing is: most spots are really boring, a lot of quests are uninteresting and none of the NPCs come even close to being memorable...except for Moira Brown: I have never felt so passionate about killing any NPC as I did her, sometimes I had no choice but to exit dialog and shoot her in the face because she's just that annoying.Here is the real shocker: even though this game does not excel at much except creating annoying NPCs, it is still a good game. Because sometimes, even when the cheerleader is crap in the sack, it's still fun to chase after her. But more importantly, for years now RPG designers have focused purely on pretty graphics and fun combat, and while Capital Wasteland: Revelation also does that, it is a rare return to values of quest design we know of from Black Isle Studios and Troika, an approach that says quests have to be interesting, have to have multiple solutions and your choices really do matter. The latter point is probably the weakest one for CW:R and there are plenty of bad quests to turn you away, but this is still a remarkable accomplishment that I did not expect after Oblivion.
So what do we have? Blind recommendation? No. This is still a good game, just too flawed to be considered a great game or a classic. Bethesda was not able to let go of their habits from Oblivion enough to make a convincing post-apocalyptic FPSRPG. It does not stick out above the pack in most areas, but if you – like me – feel interesting quest design is a staple of good RPG design then you will likely enjoy this game. The downside is that its impressive package of minor and major flaws can mean you'll hate it or – again like me – be completely done with it after one-and-a-half playthroughs.
I get the feeling this game had the potential to be great but at some point in development Bethesda did not just drop the ball, they put cement shoes on it and dumped it in the river. It's a shame, but it's still a good game.
<table align="left" width="100%" border="0"><tr><td align="left">To page 1</td></tr></table>