FALLOUT 4'S SYSTEM FOR QUESTS CAN COME ACROSS A BIT ROBOTIC.
quests, all of which are
unique and intriguing,
otherwise they needn’t
be involved. We’re at a
point today where the
number of hours you can
spend on a game is a
selling point, as though
mere time consumption
is the aim.
You don’t necessarily
improve something by
adding more and more
to it; this approach
often betrays a lack of
real depth. I’ve raised
this point before and
don’t want to give
the impression that I
consider all open world
games to be diffuse,
unmanageable messes,
so I’ll finish by describing
a moment in open world
gaming which illustrates
how brilliant the form
can be.
There’s a relay tower
in the northeast part of
the map in Fallout 3 that
allows you to pick up
radio signal Oscar Zulu.
If you find the signal
highlighted on your
pip-boy and tune into it,
you get a looped SOS
message from a man
called Bob Anderstein
asking
if
anyone
can provide medical
assistance. He says that
his boy is very sick, and
that his family are taking
Fallout
4 has 140
quests available
in the base game,
beating Fallout:
New Vegas on
109 and Fallout
3 at just 59.
refuge in a disused
drainage chamber near
to the tower. No marker
appears on your map to
point out where this is, no
quest name rolls onto the
screen, you simply get
the radio message, and,
should you choose to try
and help the family, you
have to find the shelter
using the few clues given
in the message. Once
you eventually find the
entrance to the drainage
chamber and go inside,
you find nothing but
the recording of Bob
Anderstein’s message
left on repeat on a
table, and two skeletons
lying side by side in the
opposite room.
It sounds a bit grim
and uninspiring, but
discovering the bodies
of Bob Anderstein’s
family after working
so hard to find them
captured the mood
of a post-apocalyptic
world perfectly, and
it’s a part of the game
most people probably
don’t even know about.
For me, the endless
number
of
quests,
the empty character
interactions, the sheer
number of ‘things to
do’, are not what makes
these games enjoyable.
Fallout grips me most
when it immerses you
in its bleak and hostile
world for hours at a
time, with no clear goal
or direction, then stuns
you with these fragments
of
environmental
storytelling.
Perhaps
there are a number of
Oscar Zulu moments
waiting to be discovered
in Fallout 4, but after 40
hours of grinding through
quests and setting up
settlements, I’m just too
tired to find them.
DRAINED
AWAY - THE
A