Everything wrong with Fallout 4s writing

[Hassknecht]

Oh yeah, it's really odd that the Minutemen were apparently the first in 200 years to check out Sanctuary. I mean, most of the houses are still standing, and it even has a moat! A fucking moat! How much more for a defensible settlement do you need? But no, leave it to the player to build fucking everything new, all while Marcy Long bitches and does nothing.

 

[Jogre]

I'd say my overall attitude towards Fallout 4 is the same as my attitude towards Fallout 3: It wants us to suspend our disbelief to such a degree that the very little(if anything) it offers in return becomes entirely pointless.

Fallout 4 establishes yet another source of Supermutants and yet another source of FEV, doesn't tie them in with anything or establish a good reason to bring either back, and makes them generic orcs whose entire culture is based around killing.

Fallout 4 establishes yet another part of the wasteland which has remained mad-maxy with minimal rebuilding for 200 years, and in return we get generic boring towns filled with generic boring raiders, no fun towns with cool quirks or interesting tribes or gangs, nothing at all of interest or original.

Fallout 4 establishes the first true Artificial Intelligence in the franchise, but rather than focusing on the effect it has on the Wasteland, or fleshing out how AI would work in the Fallout universe, they make generic humans with human motives and human emotions, but with machines as brains.

Fallout 4 establishes the Brotherhood as a major power, but handles them so weirdly, and doesn't explain how they reached the conclusions/policies they did, that it honestly doesn't feel worth adknowledging them.

Fallout 4 establishes yet another suit of pre-war power armour, and pre-war vertibirds(Which shouldn't be a thing), all for a 5 minute introductory sequence.

Fallout 4 puts super-weapons in a theme park, just for the purpose of being cool loot.

I'd say that Fallout 4 wastes potential opportunities that could have been explored by better devs, stretches the lore, and gives us absolutely nothing interesting in return. It's far easier to just ignore it, and argue it's not part of the Fallout Universe, then it is to try and justify this being part of the Fallout Universe, for me anyway.

 

[Einhanderc7]

Unlike the previous Fallout games the Bethesda titles don't spark a revelation moment in players. For example when a player encounters something very interesting in the original titles there is typically enough fluff to acknowledge its presence and reason to be there. Normally making it note worthy enough to be used to remind players of an over arcing plot or theme. (Example Fallout 2 Enclave death Squads, or skippable content such as side quests and documentation in terminals.)

In the Bethesda titles any attempts at this usually yield "WTF" moments that break the flow of the game and force players to wait to play the game. Most people know these as mandatory cut scenes, and the implementation of them in a game that should put freedom of choice as paramount leaves little to be desired. I personally find that if you give the player something that they can miss it often generates a better feel to the game. The reason for this is because in doing so the player can feel stupid or smart for registering the change.

With Bethesda the approach is more akin to a rail shooter when they approach their story lines, in such a way that you will literally glitch out your game in Fallout 4 if you walk away from a quest line dialog. (Yes this is a bug, and no they have not fixed it therefore it is now a feature.) Bethesda also forces players into narrow fields of options, this should only be reserved for dire situations where all the other options have been exhausted previously. In Fallout 4 for example all the player options are immediately boiled down and cannot under any circumstances take advantage of any other ingress or egress options to the event.

With players only being authorized to make clear choices based on a system that has options like "Yes", "Maybe", "Sarcastic/lazy", and "Not now" they cannot actually influence the flow or position of the game. In a typical RPG depending on how you approached an event, or left one could throw major ripples through the rest of the game. Something as simple of ensuring you have a specific item or knowing a specific person could have massive implications. In a game like Fallout 4 all interactions are treated like single serving friends on an airplane where all you ever do is say a few disposable remarks and continue your journey.

So I ask you, how in the world based on logic and science does Fallout 4 have good writing? For a game that is supposed to have characters then where are they? NPC's don't feel human, they don't act human that's for sure, and none of them really have any purpose other than a singular goal.

You want good writing? Then take a moment to break down all the characters 1 by one and compare them to a normal person. Do they have a range of emotions considered normal, act in a reasonable way to traumatic situations, or do then even attempt to make connections with anyone other than the player character?

I can tell you none of the NPC's in Fallout 4 react in a remotely human way, and the "emotion moments" are so staged that they are cringe worthy since their timing is way off, or so disconnected from the event there isn't even a point to it.

Just because someone wrote make "piper" sound "sad" for this trigger doesn't mean they are "good" at writing.

 

[CT Phipps]

The failure of Fallout 4 is the fact the game's writing is bland and generic rather than the fact there's no interesting ideas.

What frustrates me is not the Institute's myopia, shortsightedness, or hypocrisy--it's the fact none of it is investigated.

It's not the fact the Brotherhood of Steel is now evil, it's the fact we don't get any chance to investigate or call it out on its evil.

It's not the fact the Railroad isn't interesting or the Synth question but a lot of issues as to how the fuck there's a massive faction for one small group of people and where they came from.

The Minutemen are also interesting as a potentially hopelessly flawed group who don't have the tech to fight the factions in the Wasteland.

Can we ADDRESS ANY OF THIS.

No.

Because it's about shooting and looting and yet has less character than Borderlands 2.

 

[Prone Squanderer]

Just because someone wrote make "piper" sound "sad" for this trigger doesn't mean they are "good" at writing.

Emil disliked that.

The failure of Fallout 4 is the fact the game's writing is bland and generic rather than the fact there's no interesting ideas.

What frustrates me is not the Institute's myopia, shortsightedness, or hypocrisy--it's the fact none of it is investigated.

It's not the fact the Brotherhood of Steel is now evil, it's the fact we don't get any chance to investigate or call it out on its evil.

It's not the fact the Railroad isn't interesting or the Synth question but a lot of issues as to how the fuck there's a massive faction for one small group of people and where they came from.

The Minutemen are also interesting as a potentially hopelessly flawed group who don't have the tech to fight the factions in the Wasteland.

Can we ADDRESS ANY OF THIS.

No.

Because it's about shooting and looting and yet has less character than Borderlands 2.

What frustrates me is not the Institute's myopia, shortsightedness, or hypocrisy--it's the fact they're poorly written.

It's not the fact the Brotherhood of Steel is now evil, it's the fact they're poorly written.

It's not the fact the Railroad isn't inter- you get the point. Poorly written, boring groups.

Kill. Loot. Return.

 

[Cobra Commander]

I confess I did not understand what exactly are the purpose of the Institute.

Why create those human synths anyway?

I can´t even mention that it is a case of bad writing, because I really did not understand.

 

[R.Graves]

Apart from constantly contradicting themselves Bethesda also has a problem where anything interesting in their games never amounts to anything more than a footnote.

 

[Alphons]

Also FEV:
FO1:
-West Tek FEV is a cure for New Plague and several other diseases, it also can be used to create super-soldiers
-Mariposa FEV is solely used to create super-soldiers
-Post-war Mariposa FEV created mutants that were attacking Hub caravans, turned Grey into Master and mutated Harold
-Masters FEV created floaters, centaurs, dumb supermutants and supermutants with enhanced intelligence
FO2:
-Mariposa FEV turned miners and Horrigan into Supermutants, enhanced Melchiors abilities
-Enclave modified FEV could kill anyone exposed to radiation
FO3:
-FEV creates dumb and agressive supermutants and 2 friendly with inteliggence comparable to average human
FO4:
-FEV is used by Institute to create dumb and agressive supermutants and one dumb and friendly

So my issue with FEV is that they weren't really creative with its effects.

Also, Shauns DNA was used to create Gen 3 synths- so they have his DNA. He's called Father because of that. You are his parent. You can bang Curie, Danse and Magnolia (Gen 3 synths). All are Shauns Children.

You can bang your 3 grandchildren (Brycen is looking for rot in wrong Fallout)

 

[Cobra Commander]

Also, Shauns DNA was used to create Gen 3 synths- so they have his DNA. He's called Father because of that. You are his parent. You can bang Curie, Danse and Magnolia. All are Shauns Children.

You can bang your 3 grandchildren

I had never thought about it

 

[Alphons]

Another few:

-In Diamond City Blues there is a drug deal between Triggermen and that kid from higher class outside DC, near river.
Why are they so secretive, if both Goodneighbor and DC don't have embargo on any kind of drug? They could make a deal in center of DC, especially considering there is a shop there already that deals in drugs.

-Eddie Winter was a pre-war crimelord. He found a way to become the ghoul before the war. OK, but why instead of rebuilding his crime empire, leading Triggermen or some raider gang he sits for 2 centuries in his single-room shelter eating beans and cram?

-Eddie Winters stayed in closure longer than Billy. He had food, water, light, place to sleep that wasn't a corner where he was taking a dump, medicine, some entertainment (books and magazines) and space to walk or even stand, while Billy was pissing under himself in small, empty fridge, but there isn't almost any difference between their physical and mental conditions?

-Why Shaun played all those games with Kellogs memories and synth kid, instead of waking you up and giving you a gun and Kellogs exact location?