Is It Important That Fallout 4's World Lacks Credibility? - RPS article

AgentBJ09

AgentBJ09

Vault Dweller
https://archive.is/A2OqM

This one came up in my Twitter feed a while ago, and the title of this piece does little to undermine suspicions of clickbait. The majority of this piece asks: If people in the Commonwealth are establishing places to live, work, and do business, like the diner where the showdown between mother and drug dealer/loan shark takes place, why would there be things like trash, skeletons, and etc. littering the place, or certain buildings not be picked completely clean, even supposedly locked areas?

I however would pose another question: Isn't this just an attempt to reframe the issue of internal consistency, a major issue of storytelling that we know Fallout 4 suffers from due to lack of care, to the moot, yet nagging, point of 'Well, this logically wouldn't be here 210 years on, or after someone made a home of this place?'

How about you all? Thoughts?
 
The people of the Commonwealth just don't understand their own needs, so they don't clean up the spaces they live in.
 
I think that's a direct result of games being written by folks who have been separated from harsh and common reality long ago thanks to their lifestyle. ^^
Just imagine how they live - Todd Howard for example, young millionaire, surrounded by flatterers, servants, and fully-fledged services everywhere he moves. He don't need to lift a finger to make anything on his own. Do you think that he cleans up his place with his own hands? That he cleans up his own toilet, or his working place? Well, I think not, because that's not how lifestyle of those spoiled kids living in modern big cities and urban areas looks like. Cleaning up their own mess is completely alienated and unimaginable concept to even think about for such kids obviously, so their minds cannot grok that very idea, not even make it so in their games!
So, this is my personal theory. :)
 
I find it no more odd that there is trash everywhere then it was that people living in buildings in Fallout 1/2 didn't seem fit to fix the absolutely massive holes in their roofs despite living there for decades+
 
Someguy37 said:
I find it no more odd that there is trash everywhere then it was that people living in buildings in Fallout 1/2 didn't seem fit to fix the absolutely massive holes in their roofs despite living there for decades+
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Good RPGs can get away with this stuff, including crazy glitches like NPCs floating in the air and janky animations, because their writing and story immerses you enough to forgive and forget about these things so that you can still maintain your suspension of disbelief.

Bethesda took all semblance of that out of Fallout 4. When you remove the RPG entirely from the game, these problems become a lot more apparent and unforgivable, and suspension of disbelief and immersion are broken.

In other words, by removing the RPG from Fallout 4, the glitches, animations, and other issues that are present in every game become even more apparent. All Bethesda RPGs have always had robotic character animation, glitches, etc, but they were still better RPGs than whatever Fallout 4 is and that is the key.
 
Someguy37 said:
I find it no more odd that there is trash everywhere then it was that people living in buildings in Fallout 1/2 didn't seem fit to fix the absolutely massive holes in their roofs despite living there for decades+
Click to expand...

Those "absolutely massive holes" are first of all not that absolutely massive. They are also very rare, I just checked the game-maps to be sure.
They're also almost entirely gone in FO2, replaced by - plates of metal, showing signs of active repair.
Fo2_Gecko_Junkyard.png

Let's count the ammount of massive holes:
Fo2_San_Francisco_Chinatown.jpg
I want to laugh hysterically, but I'm sleepy.

You forgot to say "90%!!!"
 
Lets look at the poorest town in Fo2, The Den
latest



I'll be damned, look at all those numerous gaping holes in the roofs! And the only building that is truly in disrepair is actually haunted in said ruined room!
 
Whenever we deal with FP gaming, attention to detail is key as nothing is left to the imagination or flavor text.

Since the whole point of beths games are immushun, it's a huge set back when we run into glitches/bugs/whatever. It's worse when you don't even have good writing or rpg mechanics to distract the players

Thats why so many here have wanted 3/4 iso because it allows more to be left up to the imagination.
 
I don't think an isometric perspective would've helped for immersion. It's the reason I can't easily RP a game like F1/2 but I can with FNV.
 
Doctor 0 said:
It's just a game, who cares!
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This is the type of mentality Bethesda and other Triple A companies expect from the average gamer, which is quite sad really. Whenever I hear or read this phrase, it makes cringe intensely. "Herr derp, it's a video game." No shit, Sherlock, but it does not excuse nonsensical world design when the fucking selling point of the game is IMMERSION. If the game does not make any sense, it loses it credibility, thus breaking the immersion. Good lord... why is this such a difficult concept for people to understand? No is asking for 100% realism in a game world, but it needs to have some goddamn consistency in its rules.
 
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Well, it depends on the game you are playing. Like some other said, the Fallout series is supposed to be an RPG (as said on the first two games damn titles), which try to immerse you in a fictionnal world full of dilemmas.

Some other games like plateformers or fighting games don't need that same level of credibility, unless they specifically insist in their presentation that they want convey a more deeper story/world.
 
I mean kind of but it doesn't really matter in comparison to so many other things like the story, characters, lore, and general setting all being sub par at best and god awful at worst.
Not to defend it but Fallout 3 at least had skill checks. Hell at least Fallout 3 had skills!
 
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zegh8578 said:
Someguy37 said:
I find it no more odd that there is trash everywhere then it was that people living in buildings in Fallout 1/2 didn't seem fit to fix the absolutely massive holes in their roofs despite living there for decades+
Click to expand...

Those "absolutely massive holes" are first of all not that absolutely massive. They are also very rare, I just checked the game-maps to be sure.
They're also almost entirely gone in FO2, replaced by - plates of metal, showing signs of active repair.
Fo2_Gecko_Junkyard.png

Let's count the ammount of massive holes:
Fo2_San_Francisco_Chinatown.jpg
I want to laugh hysterically, but I'm sleepy.

You forgot to say "90%!!!"
Click to expand...

Most of the holes in Fo1 are actually for gameplay purpose. Usually they show you a hidden door which you otherwise wouldn't be able to click on (or could only find by running along the wall) or give you a glimpse of what's inside the house.
 
Doctor 0 said:
It's just a game, who cares!
Click to expand...

Post-Witcher 3, the AAA casual gamerbase had their entire standards for world building ramped up by half a billion. Fallout 4 was actually lucky enough to take the small amount of flak it took, compared to what it should have taken.

But nah, that's not going to be a statement people are going to be using as often as during the 2000s.
 
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