Fallout 4: Does anyone else find the pre-war opening contrived?

It's not opinion, that video literally has incorrect information and ignored mechanics then complained about those things he ignored not being there. Which makes it a bad video by definition. Not to mention it doesn't even seem to understand how the narrative of a Fallout game works and even suggest things that wouldn't make sense o an rpg.
 
I just don't understand how the wife and child bit is a good way to motivate me through the game. I was talking to a friend about this, why would his family be a driving concern once the 200 year time skip settled in? There isn't a reason to be motivated to look for you child. Your hypothetical child could have grown old and had his own family in Vault 111 before things went terribly. You got a Pip boy off a skeleton, so when exactly the Vault went down hill is unknown. This as a plot driver seems like it can fall apart easily.

As for having heterosexuality forced on you, you can be gay/bi if you want to, I assume Bethesda will allow that. People in the 50's thought gay people were pedophiles. It is likely that the same prejudice survived into the 2070's as well since the Fallout world is a world of cultural stagnation relative to ours. So, your character could be closeted and go on his/her merry way after the escaping the Vault. Just watch the video I linked, that's what people thought of gays back then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17u01_sWjRE
 
The game would've been better (IMO) if you'd just started by coming out of the vault. Discovering (through clues, visuals etc.) that you were actually born before the war is more interesting than just being flat out told you were.
 
Earth said:
The game would've been better (IMO) if you'd just started by coming out of the vault. Discovering (through clues, visuals etc.) that you were actually born before the war is more interesting than just being flat out told you were.
Click to expand...

That would be a bit difficult to pull off without some amnesia crap. Otherwise any normal person would be like "What the hell happened?!" "Where am I?!" and the first question you ask someone would be "What year is it?!"

So as interesting as the idea is, it would require some fiddling with it to make sense.
 
Nothing wrong with amnesia in an RPG. Simple way to start your character anew. Piecing together who you originally were and discovering that you're actually someone from before the war is more interesting than just seeing yourself in the past right at the start (again, IMO)

If anything, it could be a fun reference to Total Recall. Especially if you discover that your former self was an asshole.
 
What would be the point of your character being from before the world? Specially if they have amnesia? Why not make it a better more interesting mystery or revelation? "Oh noes I was born before the war..... uhmmm so what? I am in the post apocalypse now". I don't even get what is gained from making The Lone Survivor a pre war person, actually it has actively limited the variety in characterization, you are always an ex military Veteran living in an idylic suburbia with a wife and kid, who then proceed to die (I think the kid might play a bigger role, Chekov's gun and all) but at the end of the day those characters barely interacted with the player and the pre war world will barely affect the Post Apocalyptic adventure. It's been 200 years, it's ancient history by that point.
 
It's pretty pointless regardless of whether they have amnesia or not. Right now the pre-war scene is there for only (from what I can guess) two reasons: to give your character a goal:

"Looking for my husband/wife, middle aged guy/woman" (or it'll be your child: whatever)

and emotional manipulation. Because as people have said over and over and over again, "I'll never forget that moment when you walk out the vault for the first time and see the wasteland"

Bethesda needed a way to keep that concept "fresh", and the only thing bigger than walking out of your home vault into the wasteland for the first time, that they could think of was, walk from the pre-war world into the wasteland for the first time.

At least amnesia and not seeing the pre-war world would've:

not ruined the mystery of the pre-war world and,

added some level of mystery to your pre-war past that you could then be pieced together.
 
I don't know, amnesia and piecing together your past seems cliched to me, if anything you'd think that would ruin the RPG element since your character would need a backstory to "rediscover" which kinda ruins the roleplaying ability a bit IMO. Not that fixing a backstory to your character is any better but I personally would like it all laid out on the table to begin with.


On a side note, I don't think the opening ruined the mystery of the Prewar world since the opening just showed the PC's neighbourhood and not the world on a large scale.
 
But it didn't make much sense. For example: Why was there a Vertibird flying around if they were still in a prototype stage at this point in time? Why were there soldiers in suits of power armor, if the east coast was at no risk of attack from the Chinese? The only way you could explain it would be riots and big scale unrest in the area, but the way the neighborhood is portrayed, it looks like your typical American dream story.
 
The vertibird was a prototype, but that doesn't mean they couldn't be used, especially in a desperate situation like the Great War.

The neighborhood the PC is from is probably one relatively isolated from the riots. With that said, the intro has no logic errors relative to pre war America in the Fallout universe. People here are are just mad because they dislike the intro's dramatic style.
 
What for exactly? It's not like they didn't have any other planes or helicopters, there is no reason to take a prototype out during a nuclear war. Why would they? And even those vertibirds. what did they actually use them for during the prologue? Nothing. They didn't seem to use them to transport people.

They were there to tell Fallout players: Yep, it's a Fallout game, look, a vertibird, and power armor! They are completely out of place, but they are iconic to Fallout, so they must be crammed anywhere possible.
That's the kind of thinking Bethesda shows, and when you consider that fight with a deathclaw within what seems to be the first hour or two of gameplay, it just screams at you, Beth is trying to show everything that is Fallout as quickly as possible, in case someone starts disbelieving it really is that venerated series that people came to love for good writing, plot, roleplay opportunities... Wait a moment, they aren't showing what Fallout is famous for. I guess Beth doesn't quite get it. Again.
 
Yep, the presence of a Vertibird there makes 0 sense. But Bethesda stopped giving a shit about making sense within the Fallout lore the moment they removed skills... No wait, FO3.... they never gave a shit about making sense within lore at all.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Vertibird you can call with a flare later on is stated to have sat on the building you find it along with the Power Armor for 200 years without anyone taking care of it and it still works.
 
Last edited:
You're under the assumption that all vertibirds before the Great War were prototypes. Maybe the vertibird flying overhead was a semi unique model, non prototype, used to ferry government officials to some bunker. They would make make sense if that is true.

It's true that they are showcasing iconic elements of Fallout, and why wouldn't they from a PR and marketing perspective? It gets the most attention. I'm not advocating BGS, but showing iconic elements in rapid succession works in their favor.

I highly doubt the writing will be worse than Fallout 3's, and maybe it will be above decent, but we know almost nothing about the story, and can only base our expectations from Fallout 3 and Skyrim.
 
Of course, it could always be the case that the opening pre-war sequence is not real, but instead memories implanted in the PC by the Institute, so something like "there's a Vertibird where there shouldn't be" would be a reasonably subtle way of foreshadowing "this isn't real" without tipping your hand overmuch.
 
I really, really hope they don't go the "YOU'S AN ANDROIDS" route.

Not just because everyone on the internet has already guessed it.

But because you just know that it's basically going to render the storyline a series of "Oh man, I'm a robot?" and "I DON'T HAVE TO DO WHAT YOU TELL ME ROBOT-DAD!"
 
Practicat, we are "assuming" what has been stated by lore, you are trying to think up convoluted ways to justify it, tell which one is the more rational one?
 
Practicat said:
You're under the assumption that all vertibirds before the Great War were prototypes. Maybe the vertibird flying overhead was a semi unique model, non prototype, used to ferry government officials to some bunker. They would make make sense if that is true.

It's true that they are showcasing iconic elements of Fallout, and why wouldn't they from a PR and marketing perspective? It gets the most attention. I'm not advocating BGS, but showing iconic elements in rapid succession works in their favor.

I highly doubt the writing will be worse than Fallout 3's, and maybe it will be above decent, but we know almost nothing about the story, and can only base our expectations from Fallout 3 and Skyrim.
Click to expand...

Again, why would there be a non-prototype version of a very much prototype aircraft, if they must have had other helicopters they could've used to do the same instead? Also, Vertibirds were scheduled for release in 2085, so quite a long time after the war.

Showing Fallout things in a Fallout way itself is ok, but going out of your way to do it, contradicting canon and logic in the process just shows how poorly Bethesda understands what Fallout is. And writing on the level of Fallout 3 would already be rather miserable, so lets hope they manage way above it, so that the writing is at least decent. But I don't expect even this much from Beth.
 
Walpknut said:
Practicat, we are "assuming" what has been stated by lore, you are trying to think up convoluted ways to justify it, tell which one is the more rational one?
Click to expand...

What I suggested would be adding to lore, but going by current lore, I'd agree that there should be no vertibird in the intro unless the intro is an implanted memory from the 200 years in stasis.
 
PossibleCabbage said:
Of course, it could always be the case that the opening pre-war sequence is not real, but instead memories implanted in the PC by the Institute, so something like "there's a Vertibird where there shouldn't be" would be a reasonably subtle way of foreshadowing "this isn't real" without tipping your hand overmuch.
Click to expand...

Nice idea. But do you really believe Bethesda is capable of creating some awesome Firdge Brilliance, where they foreshadow things and delivering a plot that is on the level of Planescape? Are we still talking about the same people that made the dialogues for Col. Autmn, President Eden and had no problem with the irritating ending where your completely radition immune comanions refuse for the shittiest reason ever (destiny ...) to start the purifer?
 
They could have limited the "Fallout Stuffs" to just the Power and Combat armors in the Pre War segment, those are Fallouty enough to stablish the setting, not to mention the robots, and the 50's music that Bethesda forced into being an staple.... The addition of Vertibirds is completely unnecesary and breaks lore. Maybe the people in charge of the cutscene weren't informed properly and they just thought "Vertibirds are Kool!".... and the people in charge of the game didn't really care about details, but those matter of course.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top