Let’s start with the beginning shall we?
A lot of people don’t like the intro to fallout 3 because it gives you your backstory as a 19 year old vault dweller, however I believe fallout 3s intro is great for an RPG. The backstory may be set for your character but the purpose of fallout 3s intro is more so to introduce character development and personality. Specifically on ways that your character deals with specific situations like bullying, what you do when you see your friends getting bullied and how your character treats his friends and family. Now yes, new Vegas does allow you to have more freedom with backstory however I find character development a more important mechanic to showcase in an RPG as it’s more focused on what your character does and showing what type of person he grows up to be. It makes more sense for an Rpg to showcase character development as the first mechanic the game introduces.
Next is the nitpick about the vault 101 guards and how they attack you once you escape vault 101. Frankly, it makes a lot more sense for the vault guards to attack you, you see you and your dad entered vault 101 as foreigners. The second your dad leaves the overseer turns into a dictator and enforces martial law on the vault and seeing as you are his son who also entered the vault as a foreigner, it would only make sense for the overseer and the kill you seeing as the overseer is xenophobic against the wasteland. I also just don’t get why people complain that the first human enemy in the game is automatically hostile, there are many other side quests in fallout 3 where you don’t even have human enemies. The power of the atom, blood ties, oasis, rescue from paradise, the superhuman gambit, trouble on the home front are all quests where you don’t have any human that’s automatically hostile towards you but people are so fixated on this particular quest.
This also brings me up to my second point about why people claim that fallout 3 is morally black and white. This is completely false, in fact, I’d argue there are many more morally grey quests in fallout 3 than black an white ones:
Morally black and white quests are: power of the atom, big trouble in big town, head of state, and take it back.
Morally grey quests include: tenpenny tower, blood ties, trouble on the Home front, oasis, the super human gambit, the replicated man and rescue from paradise.
Yet this is a myth that constantly gets pushed that fo3 only consists of black and white decision making.
Next is the argument that fallout 3 isn’t an RPG and that most quests are linear. I really don’t understand how people say this because not only do you have multiple builds and play styles to choose from but you also have complex quests with multiple ways of completing:
Trouble on the home front where you have the overseer and her daughter fighting over what’s best for vault 101, you can either kill the overseer, kill the rebels or convince either of them to that they are wrong, you can also tell the overseer about the guards plans to raid the rebels or completely destroy their home.
Oasis, a quest that deals with euthanasia and wether you should kill Harold or convince him to live, and even then the people of oasis are deciding wether it’s good to share oasis with the rest of the wasteland or keep it to themselves, another situation you can choose to interfere with.
(My personal favorite) you gotta shoot em in the head, it starts off as a simple kill and loot quest, but if you actually talk to the people your supposed to kill they reveal that they were part of a mercenary team sent by tenpenny to explore Fort Constantine. My favorite part of this quest is that it rewards you for talking to npc’s and investigating why you’re sent to kill these people. Sure, you can kill everyone mr Crowley says and give him the keys, that’s a valid way of completing the quest but it rewards you for a more thought out play style. And even then you can either double cross mr Crowley, do what he says, kill everyone with the key or sneakily take the key off of everyone.
The superhuman gambit: kill them both, kill one or kill none. A classic RPG quest, you can either side with one of them and/or eventually double cross who you teamed up with or convince them both that they are wrong.
Even black and white quests have a level of complexity to them:
The power of the atom, it’s simple at first, either rig the bomb to explode, or disarm it. However if you don’t have the skill required to mess with it you unlock this mini quest with Leo stahl where you can either convince him to stop his addiction or use it to your advantage, and either warn Lucas Simms about mr Burke.
Head of state: you can either kill all the slavers yourself, get help from the temple of the union, or tell the slavers where they are and just sit back as you watch the fireworks or join them.
I just don’t understand how people can say that this game is linear when it is filled with multiple solutions, play styles and choices. Well I’m done with this unorganized rant, I might write a part 2 because there are still arguments I have to talk about that don’t make sense leave your feedback down below and we’ll discuss it out.
A lot of people don’t like the intro to fallout 3 because it gives you your backstory as a 19 year old vault dweller, however I believe fallout 3s intro is great for an RPG. The backstory may be set for your character but the purpose of fallout 3s intro is more so to introduce character development and personality. Specifically on ways that your character deals with specific situations like bullying, what you do when you see your friends getting bullied and how your character treats his friends and family. Now yes, new Vegas does allow you to have more freedom with backstory however I find character development a more important mechanic to showcase in an RPG as it’s more focused on what your character does and showing what type of person he grows up to be. It makes more sense for an Rpg to showcase character development as the first mechanic the game introduces.
Next is the nitpick about the vault 101 guards and how they attack you once you escape vault 101. Frankly, it makes a lot more sense for the vault guards to attack you, you see you and your dad entered vault 101 as foreigners. The second your dad leaves the overseer turns into a dictator and enforces martial law on the vault and seeing as you are his son who also entered the vault as a foreigner, it would only make sense for the overseer and the kill you seeing as the overseer is xenophobic against the wasteland. I also just don’t get why people complain that the first human enemy in the game is automatically hostile, there are many other side quests in fallout 3 where you don’t even have human enemies. The power of the atom, blood ties, oasis, rescue from paradise, the superhuman gambit, trouble on the home front are all quests where you don’t have any human that’s automatically hostile towards you but people are so fixated on this particular quest.
This also brings me up to my second point about why people claim that fallout 3 is morally black and white. This is completely false, in fact, I’d argue there are many more morally grey quests in fallout 3 than black an white ones:
Morally black and white quests are: power of the atom, big trouble in big town, head of state, and take it back.
Morally grey quests include: tenpenny tower, blood ties, trouble on the Home front, oasis, the super human gambit, the replicated man and rescue from paradise.
Yet this is a myth that constantly gets pushed that fo3 only consists of black and white decision making.
Next is the argument that fallout 3 isn’t an RPG and that most quests are linear. I really don’t understand how people say this because not only do you have multiple builds and play styles to choose from but you also have complex quests with multiple ways of completing:
Trouble on the home front where you have the overseer and her daughter fighting over what’s best for vault 101, you can either kill the overseer, kill the rebels or convince either of them to that they are wrong, you can also tell the overseer about the guards plans to raid the rebels or completely destroy their home.
Oasis, a quest that deals with euthanasia and wether you should kill Harold or convince him to live, and even then the people of oasis are deciding wether it’s good to share oasis with the rest of the wasteland or keep it to themselves, another situation you can choose to interfere with.
(My personal favorite) you gotta shoot em in the head, it starts off as a simple kill and loot quest, but if you actually talk to the people your supposed to kill they reveal that they were part of a mercenary team sent by tenpenny to explore Fort Constantine. My favorite part of this quest is that it rewards you for talking to npc’s and investigating why you’re sent to kill these people. Sure, you can kill everyone mr Crowley says and give him the keys, that’s a valid way of completing the quest but it rewards you for a more thought out play style. And even then you can either double cross mr Crowley, do what he says, kill everyone with the key or sneakily take the key off of everyone.
The superhuman gambit: kill them both, kill one or kill none. A classic RPG quest, you can either side with one of them and/or eventually double cross who you teamed up with or convince them both that they are wrong.
Even black and white quests have a level of complexity to them:
The power of the atom, it’s simple at first, either rig the bomb to explode, or disarm it. However if you don’t have the skill required to mess with it you unlock this mini quest with Leo stahl where you can either convince him to stop his addiction or use it to your advantage, and either warn Lucas Simms about mr Burke.
Head of state: you can either kill all the slavers yourself, get help from the temple of the union, or tell the slavers where they are and just sit back as you watch the fireworks or join them.
I just don’t understand how people can say that this game is linear when it is filled with multiple solutions, play styles and choices. Well I’m done with this unorganized rant, I might write a part 2 because there are still arguments I have to talk about that don’t make sense leave your feedback down below and we’ll discuss it out.
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