Fallout 4 is a game that I have been waiting for a very long time. I loved Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas is one of my favorite games of all time. However, I do have a lot of little problems with the Fallout games and one of the reasons I'm so excited for Fallout 4 is that it is looking to address several of the issues I've had with Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Here are the four main reason that I'm excited for Fallout 4.
 |
| It's good to be home. |
1. Vastly Improved Combat Mechanics
I think one of the most prominent issues that people have with the Fallout 3 and New Vegas is that the minute to minute combat is kinda shitty. While there has always been a wide variety of fun, zany weapons to use they were sadly undermined by very stiff shooting controls and overall slow player movement speed. Compared to a pure shooter game like Shadow Warrior where you can move and react quick to threats all around you. The V.A.T.S system did help mitigate some of these issues by letting you stop time completely so you could plan out your attacks and Fallout New Vegas further improved Fallout 3 combat systems with weapon mods, alternate ammo types, and iron sights aiming, but combat still only really felt good when using a character build that focused on getting the most out of V.A.T.S and weapon mods. When I played characters that focused on Charisma and Intelligence I always felt that combat was a chore, which contrasted greatly with when I played characters that had focused on Perception and Agility where I had a blast being a walking death machine. Also melee combat sucked in both Fallout 3 and New Vegas sucked and I just didn't enjoy the lifeless combat animations when swinging a baseball bat or using a ripper.
Thankfully, Bethesda is doing everything it can to make them minute to minute combat feel much better, even for characters builds that don't focus on straight combat. During the development of Fallout 4 Bethesda was in contact with Id Software which has quite a number of excellent, industry defining shooters under their belt including DOOM and Wolfenstien. From the footage we've seen pre-release the combat looks leaps and bounds better than anything in Fallout 3 or New Vegas. Player movements are now much faster, grenades are now tied to their own button rather then being a regular weapon you have to equip, and the addition of a sprint ability is a nice touch. V.A.T.S has also been modified to slow time rather than outright stop it which keeps V.A.T.S from being the overpowered solution to any combat encounter it was in previous games. The only thing I'm still not sure of is melee combat. What little they showed does look like a big improvement, but I've noticed that they have showed it much less melee combat then the improved shooting mechanics which screams of not wanting to show how bad melee combat is. At least that what it feels like to me. I hope I'm wrong and regardless of wither melee combat still sucks the rest of the combat mechanics are looking really great.
 |
| Combat is looking to be more fast paced and funnier to engage in. |
2. Streamlined Character Progression System
Whenever a gamer hears the word "streamlining" they are filled with great dread because to many gamers it means that the developers are intending to dumb down various systems within the game so that they can be enjoyed by the lowest common denominator. This is also not necessarily an unfounded fear when dealing with Bethesda games. Their last major game The Elder Scolls V: Skyrim simplified a great number of character creation systems. They removed character attributes to focus on a system that focused solely on building skills. I was afraid that for Fallout 4 Bethesda would remove the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system that has defined the Fallout series since long before Fallout 3 in favor of something simpler. Thankfully it would seem that Bethesda is going a very different route with Fallout 4 compared to Skyrim and most certainly for the better.
Rather than removing attributes to focus on skills like they did with Skyrim, Bethesda has instead gone the opposite route and put the attributes center stage. Skills are still in the game, but they are now merged with the new perk system that governs character builds and progression. Players still gain experience points from doing pretty much anything in the game to level up, but instead of distributing skill points and then picking a perk to complement those skills. You now can either use the perk point you get from leveling up to upgrade one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes or select a perk. What perks you can unlock and upgrade are dependent on what rank you have in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat governing it. For example to unlock the Lockpicking Perk you need at least one point in Perception and to unlock the next rank of Lockpicking you need to be Level 12. There are seven base attributes that each govern ten perks. That is seventy base perks and counting the ranks of each perk that is 270 perks to build. It is a much more straightforward system then the previous games, but it also doesn't sacrifice the complexity of the system either. Fallout 3 and New Vegas suffered from having players abuse certain character builds to max out all of their skills early in the game which ruined the sense of building a unique character that had strengths and weaknesses. This new system prevents this kind of exploitation from happening and will result in more varied and creative character builds as a result. I honestly can't wait to dive into the subtleties of this new character progression system as so far it looks like a major improvement over both Fallout 3 and New Vegas's skill point focused systems.
 |
| The Perk Chart that govern's your character progression in Fallout 4. |
I knew I was going to get Fallout 4 ever since the first trailer. Mostly because I'm a die hard fan of the series, but what really got me excited were was all the new Minecraft inspired features that were revealed at Bethesda's E3 Press Conference. It also took me by surprise because I didn't even know that I wanted a lot of these systems until Bethesda was laying them out for me. The new weapon modding system looks absolutely crazy with so many possibility to play around with to make the weapons that you want to use was simply breathtaking. One of my favorite things Bethesda showed was that all the random crap that littered the game world in previous games like scrap metal and empty bottles are now actually useful. Now instead of looking at these useless items and thinking "Why did they put this in the game world if I couldn't use it?" you can know pick up these items to breakdown into useful materials that you can use to create and modify weapons.
Those same materials you use to work on weapons with can also be used for building entire settlements with. For the first time in Fallout history you can actually build your own town where you can invite fellow wastelanders to live. While the particulars of this new system are still vague to say the least from what we've been shown it seems that you'll be able to build multiple settlements and run caravans between them to build up a network of merchants that sell power weapons and gear. Raider can also attack your settlements and you must build defenses to ensure that they can survived being attacked. It looks like it's going to be a fun aspect of the game and one that I'm very interested in diving into.
Last but not least power armor is looking like it is getting a massive redesign both aesthetically and mechanically. Where as in previous games power armor was simply a set of heavy armor that you equipped like any other article of armor in Fallout 4 power armor is now something far more special. Rather then simply equipping it you actually climb into the armor and it basically becomes a walking tank that you can use to traverse dangerous areas and go up against extremely powerful enemies. You also can upgrade your power armor and maintain it when it gets broken. Power armor is now more than a simple piece of powerful armor it is now a game changer that you have to carefully maintain and keep in mind when it is best to use it. All in all, the emphasis on crafting and player expression is looking great in Fallout 4.
 |
| Weapon modding is looking more in-depth than ever, |
4. The Story, the Companions, and Exploring Post-Apocalyptic Boston
The story of Fallout 4 is perhaps the thing I'm both most excited about and most worried about. I liked the main story of Fallout 3 and I thought the side quests were okay. I thought the main story of Fallout New Vegas was great and that the side quests were fantastic. I'm sure that the main quest of Fallout 4 will be good as well, but the thing that has me worried is the fact that for the first time in Fallout history your protagonist will be voiced. I would be less worried if it wasn't for the fact it was Bethesda writing the plot and not Obsidian which made New Vegas. Then again the last Obsidian game that had a voiced protagonist was Alpha Protocol and that wasn't a very good game. Regardless, I'm looking forward to diving into the story of Fallout 4 and I'm very excited that the introduction sequence is set right before the end of the world. The idyllic 1950s aesthetic of the Fallout universe is one of the reasons I love it so much and to see it unspoiled by the horrors of the apocalypse will be really cool.
Another thing I'm looking forward too in Fallout 4 is the companions you can bring with you on your treks into the wasteland. All the trailers have emphasized the presence of Dogmeat who is a series tradition and is undoubtedly the most adorable incarnation of the character yet. Another companion is your servant robot Codsworth that survived the apocalypse and I'm curious what kind of life he's been living since you been tucked away in the vault for two hundred years. Two other companions that have been revealed are a man named Preston Gravey, leader of a group called the Commonwealth Minutemen, and a woman named Piper, a news reporter from a town called Diamond City. There will be twelve companion and all human companions can be romanced by the player regardless of gender. I hope that the companions are as fleshed out as they were in Fallout New Vegas because some of those characters are going to be hard to top.
Finally, I'm just excited about exploring post-apocalyptic Boston. Boston is a place that is fairly well-defined within the Fallout universe, but has never been directly visited. A side quest in Fallout 3 dealt with a replicated human robot that escaped a life of enslavement in Boston and when you ask an NPC from Boston what it is like up there they describe it as "a war-ravaged quagmire of violence and despair" so we are in for a very interesting setting to say the least. Fallout 4 is about two weeks away and can barely contain my joy for much longer. I am skeptical about a few things, but overall I think that Fallout 4 will be one of the best games of the year. I simply can't wait!
No comments:
Post a Comment