I thought the video was pretty weak, maybe because I was expecting something else. I have the impression he is a bit confused, the guy is not really talking about narrative, he is about world building, which is important, but not the key aspect that made Fallout unique. I didn't read the news post and thought this would be about Fallout 1 instead of FO 3 and NV.
I'd rather have a video analyzing Fallouts narrative structure, which for me was the best feautre of the game. A typical linear plot progression looks like this:
A-B-C-D-E
What was interesting about Fallout was that it didn't have so much of a plot rather than a set of objectives that have to be fullfiled. These objectives are spread around the gameworld and can be fulfilled in different ways.
A....................................... B..........................
................... C .................................. D .....
................................ E...............................
You have to find the water chip, you have to kill the Master, but there is no strict linear progression that would force you to meet a series of characters and do a series of quests in a strict order to win the main quest.
Instead, you as a player are gathering CLUES and INFORMATION relating your objectives, for example where is the Water Chip? There are different sources of information in the gameworld who can help you to find the Chip, but often they are independent from each other, which gives you alternatives ways to find the Chip.
Most importantly, the are no artificial barriers, the Water Chip is out there to be found, it isn't magically summoned by some "plot essential" NPC after doing a linear progression. Same with the Master. He is there, he is in the gameworld, and you do not need to follow a linear sequence of quests to find him.
This is why, with meta-gaming knowledge from a previous playtrough, you can finish Fallout even after killing every NPC in the gameworld. Or why you can do a speedrun and using a few tricks and meta knowledge go straight to the Master and blow him up. This is because KNOWLEDGE is essential for progression in Fallout.
Lets assume A is the starting point of a game, and B is the the final objective of a game. In a typical, linear game, what stands between A and B is a series of quests, that have to be done in a more or less linear way.
In Fallout, what stands between A and B is your LACK OF KNOWLEDGE. The game allows you to go directly to B, but you don't know where B is, and how to reach it, and what to do with it...that's why you have to explore the gameworld, talk with NPCs, gather information and clues. Once you know everything about B, there is nothing that hinders you from skipping much of the exploring, talking and fighting in a second playtrough, and go directly from A to B using your meta knowledge.
In a linear game, you can't do that. You will still have to do the same linear sequence of quests everytime you play the game, because B is closed of from you by artificial barriers that can only be lifted by progressing trough the linear plot (a typical example for such a barrier would be a plot critical location, that can be only reached by the player after he has reached a predefined moment in the plot).
Fallout is the complete opposite of a linear, cinematic story like Mass Effect. This is why I think in the video Mass Effect was wrongly displayed of an example of "Shantification". Sure, you can explore the world at your will, but the actual plot progression, the main quest, is still LINEAR.
There is this one experience which will for ever make Fallout one of the best games ever made in my mind. During my first playtrough, I arrived in Necropolis with my level 5 character. I talked to one of the Mutants there and was brought to the Mutant base where the Lieutenent interrogated me.
Now it is obvious that the Mutant Base is supposed to be an area that by most players will be experienced during a later stage of the game and not during early mid-game with a level 5 character.
Still, I decided not to reload, and instead to try my luck in the base. I had excellent diplomatic and science skills and some sneaking ability. With a lot of save and reload I managed with my level 5 character not only to escape the base, but also to set off the auto destruction and blow the Mutant Base up.
In a linear game, this would have been impossible. In the course of a strict main quest, you would first need to learn about the Master from a plot relevant NPC, do a series of quests, and then finally be lead to the Mutant Base and asked to destroy it.
In a game filled with independent "objectives" like Fallout, it is possible to destroy the Mutant Base early in the game, without you even knowing about the Master and his plans, and the game will recognize your deed and react accordingly.
This is a good example of what I am talking about, and maybe that's why I am dissapointed because I expected a video that would describe this amazing non-linear structure of Fallout.
tl;dr
I guess the video was ok, but a bit confused. When it comes to narrative structure, I'd rather have someone make a video about Fallout 1 and eloquently lay out what I tried to describe in my post.
This theirs new one (critically acclaimed no less), it's the same shit as the old one, just some bells and whistles added.
