Well it finally happened. After months of tireless speculating and latching onto every word that Bethesda said, fans were rewarded with the reveal they had been waiting for. Fallout 4 is now indeed a thing. A thing that we’ll probably hear a lot about in the coming weeks, what with E3 being just around the corner. With that in mind, here are some things that our writers want (or in a few cases, don’t want) from the long awaited game.
A Greater Variety of Environments: Prior to its release in 2008 there hadn’t exactly been a plethora of post-apocalyptic games to compare Fallout 3 to, aside from its predecessors. Since then however there have been so many post-apocalyptic titles released, that it could become its own genre. Therefore something that Fallout 4 absolutely NEEDS to have is a wider variety of environments to explore. Fallout 3’s barren Washington DC wastelands were certainly impressive for the time, but I’m really craving some brighter and more unusual fare this time around.
Words by Alex Meehan.
Characters with Depth: Bethesda’s brand of open-world RPGs are praised for their ambitious scope more than anything else. A consequence of this is that other features, such as a cast of memorable characters, can fall to the wayside. However I honestly believe that Bethesda are capable of injecting Fallout 4 with a greater set of characters than those seen in Fallout 3. They almost achieved it in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the studio have only improved since then. In any case, I’m hoping to encounter a whole world of hilarious, frightening and lovable characters in Bethesda’s nuclear Boston.
Words by Alex Meehan.
A Non-Predestined Character: T
he Fallout 4 trailer is concluded with the line of dialogue ‘let’s go pal’, which is seemingly uttered by the game’s protagonist. There have been rumours swirling for months now that with the fourth installment, Bethesda would swap their tried-and-true silent protagonist for a voiced character, in the hopes of garnering more attachment to its central plotline. Whilst I understand the idea, it removes one of the most simplistic but enjoyable aspects of the game. In other open-world games you have a family, friends and a pre-defined personality explained via cut-scenes and dialogue. In Fallout 3 you had a barely existent father that only appeared in story missions but otherwise everything was up to you. I want an openworld game that never feels railroaded with its plot or with its characters. Each new playthrough should feel like a totally separate experience, centered on completely different characters. Whether you want to be the town sheriff, or reload to see Megaton explode just one more time.
Words by Jack Gracie.
No Multiplayer Pandering: I’ll admit it, I can often be one of those single player purist types. You know, the ones who complain about Bioshock and Mass Effect being saddled with a totally perfunctory online mode, even though the single-player is basically unaffected by the addition. That being said, it can be the case that these cheap ploys to reign in a more popular crowd can be detrimental to a game. If a developer is dividing their attention between a tacked on co-op experience and a single player journey, then naturally both can suffer. That’s not an attack on multiplayer as a concept, but it has to be established that there is a proper time and place for its inclusion. And Fallout is certainty not a franchise that warrants it. You might wonder why I’d even bring it up if there hasn’t been any mention of it yet, but nowadays there’s barely a single IP that forgoes online play. Just look at Dragon Age: Inquisition’s notoriously unnecessary co-op mode and you’ll understand my apprehension.
Words by Harrison Abbott.
An Epic Story: Obviously all Fallout games have had a story, so I’ll preface this by pointing out that I’m
not asking for that as if it’s never been done before. And what stories they were! From Fallout 3, where you wander about the wasteland whilst your dad spouts Bible passages at you, to Fallout: New Vegas, where everyone wants everybody else dead and you have to stop them from going through with that. Okay, gross oversimplification of some admittedly fantastic stories aside, it is true that neither of the games have a story that feels like it means much to the world. A good Fallout 4 story should feel high-stakes and base itself on the rich lore that the games have given themselves over the years. I want a game where the character doesn’t just feel important to their own story, but important to the world, and I want the same for the characters we encounter along the way. Bethesda’s previous game, Skyrim, involved us killing dragons whose collective aim it was to destroy all life on the planet. Just saying. With that in mind, Bethesda should at least let us blow up TWO cities this time.
Words by Thomas Davies.
Vehicles: Don’t roll your eyes at me! I get why some may be hesitant to the idea of vehicles entering the world of Fallout. The joy of the previous games comes from wandering about the wastes feeling like you’re truly in a lost world of ‘what once was’, a feeling which may not accommodate vehicles. But just imagine it, post-war aesthetic vehicles WITH a Borderlands/Mad Max–esque twist. Bethesda can do transport, there are horses in every Elder Scrolls game, and vehicles could seriously justify a larger map for Fallout 4. Plus it would give players the chance to feel like a true renegade, as they charge through the wastes with reckless abandon. This isn’t an issue of getting from one place to another, walking isn’t actually that tedious in Bethesda games and even if it was, there’s always a fast travel system in place. I want this because it would be fun.
Words by Thomas Davies.
