Rock Paper Shotgun has been running some features on Wasteland 2, highlighting how reactivity is at the core of the game's design. The choices you make matter in the world you see, and the inhabitants react to the choices you make. RPS touched on that in an interview with Brian Fargo two weeks ago:
<blockquote>What if, for instance, you disobey Ranger orders to the point of becoming a liability? You become a pariah. Your own organization turns on you, hunts you. The entire game changes. And then, of course, there’s the extra-colossal, radiation-mutated elephant in the room: you can kill anyone, anytime. And sometimes – for example, if a party member won’t stop selling your stuff for booze money – you might have to.
“Remember: you can shoot or kill anybody in the whole game,” Fargo interjected. “That in itself [is huge]. If someone joins your party, you can kick them out, kill them, whatever you want. There’s whole sequences you’re not gonna see later because you offed the guy. We just deal with it. There’s no replacement – no NPC that joins you and acts just like him functionally. He’s out. You’re just not gonna see it.”</blockquote>
And today they came out with a feature on gender and discrimination in Wasteland 2, contrasting the approach with Fallout 3's, which largely ignored gender.
<blockquote>“Here’s a merchant that turns into a store if you help him get his cart out of the mud,” explained inXile president Matt Findley. “Otherwise he’s just a guy that hates you. The conversation that he has with you is really dependent on so many different factors – the makeup of the party. He has different lines if you come up with an all-women party or if there’s a really high charisma male. There are little flags that he’ll react to.”
Wasteland 2 isn’t necessarily trying to make a statement, though. Rather, the goal is to portray a world full of interesting individuals – each with their own preferences and prejudices. This place certainly isn’t a kind one, so some will inevitably be assholes. Others might give you the benefit of the doubt simply because you’ve picked a certain sex/background or brought a certain character with you.</blockquote>
That's the kind of reactivity we loved in Fallout 1 and 2 and to a lesser extent in Fallout: New Vegas. A world that acknowledged the choices you have made and the character you are playing.
<blockquote>What if, for instance, you disobey Ranger orders to the point of becoming a liability? You become a pariah. Your own organization turns on you, hunts you. The entire game changes. And then, of course, there’s the extra-colossal, radiation-mutated elephant in the room: you can kill anyone, anytime. And sometimes – for example, if a party member won’t stop selling your stuff for booze money – you might have to.
“Remember: you can shoot or kill anybody in the whole game,” Fargo interjected. “That in itself [is huge]. If someone joins your party, you can kick them out, kill them, whatever you want. There’s whole sequences you’re not gonna see later because you offed the guy. We just deal with it. There’s no replacement – no NPC that joins you and acts just like him functionally. He’s out. You’re just not gonna see it.”</blockquote>
And today they came out with a feature on gender and discrimination in Wasteland 2, contrasting the approach with Fallout 3's, which largely ignored gender.
<blockquote>“Here’s a merchant that turns into a store if you help him get his cart out of the mud,” explained inXile president Matt Findley. “Otherwise he’s just a guy that hates you. The conversation that he has with you is really dependent on so many different factors – the makeup of the party. He has different lines if you come up with an all-women party or if there’s a really high charisma male. There are little flags that he’ll react to.”
Wasteland 2 isn’t necessarily trying to make a statement, though. Rather, the goal is to portray a world full of interesting individuals – each with their own preferences and prejudices. This place certainly isn’t a kind one, so some will inevitably be assholes. Others might give you the benefit of the doubt simply because you’ve picked a certain sex/background or brought a certain character with you.</blockquote>
That's the kind of reactivity we loved in Fallout 1 and 2 and to a lesser extent in Fallout: New Vegas. A world that acknowledged the choices you have made and the character you are playing.
