QUANTITY
OVER
QUALITY: A
CLOSER LOOK
AT FALLOUT 4
FALLOUT 4 HAS BEEN OUT FOR SOME TIME AND RECEIVED ALMOST UNIVERSAL PRAISE. BUT DOES ITS APPROACH TO
QUESTS AND CHARACTERS LEAVE SOMETHING TO BE DESIRED?
MICHAEL HAWTHORN
6
W
hen I first loaded
up Fallout 4 I was
bludgeoning molerats
and thinking ‘this is a
masterpiece. This game
is a certified masterpiece; look at how they
burrow
underground
and burst out behind
you, it’s genius. They’re
descended from moles,
so they would do that,
probably. That’s genius.’
I was clearing away
the debris in Sanctuary
Hills, flicking through
all the preset structures
and building materials
thinking, ‘look at all this
potential. I’m gonna
build a fortress, with
sliding doors and
secret passageways,
and an underground
dungeon housing a
collection of stuffed
deathclaws.’ I was
scouting the ruins
of Boston warily,
crouching at every
sign of life, VATSing
frantically in every
"As soon as it
became a game
of completing
quests, I lost all
interest."
direction like a paranoid
addict firing blanks at
his own shadow. The
wasteland was fraught
with unknown dangers,
and here
I was,
a
young
suburban
mom in a bright blue
jumpsuit with a baseball
bat, taking it on, my
imagination reaching
out ahead of me.
A while later and
I’m on a quest in a
derelict building. I’m
crouched, but not in any
way cautious. Raiders,
mutants, robots or
ghouls? Mutants. I clear
it out, find a cache in the
hardest-to-reach room
storing a handful of
weapons and a paltry
sum of caps, then fast
travel back to Sanctuary
to offload. My fortress
is a wooden platform
with a nameless man
guarding
against
nothing, a few turrets
splutter uselessly here
and there, some
powerless lights line
the street. Forgotten
companions potter
about, sit on stools,
go to bed, potter
about, sit on chairs, go
to bed, potter about,
and stand on the roof of
a house. I store my junk,
talk to Preston, receive
word of a potential
settlement, fast travel to
the nearest available
point to my destination,
and find myself in a
derelict building. I’m
crouched,
but
not
cautious.
Raiders,
mutants,
robots
or
ghouls? Raiders. I clear
it out, find a cache in
the
hardest-to-reach
room storing a handful
of weapons and a paltry
sum of caps, then fast
travel back to Sanctuary
to offload, where Preston
waits with another quest.
This
was
my
experience of Fallout 4.
I loved it when I knew
and had nothing, when
I was just a scavenger
picking through society’s
bones,
wondering
what I could make of a
desk fan; but as soon
as it became a game
of completing quests
rather than of surviving
and exploring, I lost all
interest. I’ve become
completely disillusioned
with the concept of ‘side
quests’. When translated
properly, ‘side quests’
just means ‘repetitive
and trivial tasks for
you to carry out so that
the game might go on
forever’. The proliferation
of ‘side quests’ in games
today might be a sign
that things are becoming
focused on quantity
rather than quality. By
no means am I saying
that games should be
more linear – one of the
things I love most about
the pastime is being able
to discover secrets off
the beaten track – I’m
suggesting that there
shouldn’t be a distinction
between main quests
and side quests, so that
one is accepted merely
as an added bonus.
There should just be