The Wasteland
Reclamation day has arrived and you have probably heard that it has been met with rocky reception. The folks over at Bethesda are dealing with some pretty scathing reviews and it will be interesting to see if the future patch promises will help repair the damages as the dust settles. Fallout 4 currently has a Metacritic score of 50 and a User Review rate of 2.9 out of 10. But, how could such a critically acclaimed studio produce such an apparently subpar product?
When we sat and listened to Todd at #BE3 talk about the newest installment in the Fallout Franchise we were already skeptical. After all, this would be the first time that multiplayer would ever be in the game let alone a staple of the gameplay.
Upon hearing the news we had flashbacks of being sniped right before bank deposits in GTA’s Online mode and grew fearful of how easy it might be for other players to ruin the formerly-solo post-apocalyptic experience. As we got the opportunity to play and the reviews and bug compilation videos started to pour in, the PVP and social elements of the game soon became the least of our worries. A series of poor design decisions and executions plagued the attempt at a compelling gaming experience.
Is it really that bad?
To describe what we were witnessing with this game let’s take your standard 7-year-old MMO (that is how old the game engine is) but reduce the server stability, crafting, customization, player base, completely eliminate the NPCs, and send your character out for the time of their life.
It is no surprise that most players encountered wanted to be left alone, and the ones that did want to interact only wanted to loot you so they found exploits to do so. With an engine that old the game is riddled with small visual bugs and some crashes that, may not be unexpected in Bethesda games, but that mixed with the dry and empty world leads players to mull over those weird negative encounters because there are not strong positive story elements to counteract them
- There are NO NPCs, that means a staple of Bethesda’s games the charisma or speechcraft is gone, no one to follow home and then murder, no choices about factions or motivations.
- There is randomization in the leveling tree taking away the great customization that exists in the Skyrim and Fallout 4 systems.
- The way to duels (PVP) is engaged is obviously exploitable and the spawning is poorly placed
- In a world with Fortnite, the building is slow and repetitive in comparison.
- “Hacking and Slashing and Hacking” is missing the sound the radio was one of the greatest elements to the Fallout 4 experience and I have been so bored by the audio deck quest chains that I have not gotten to the radio towers
- The customization of weapons has also been streamlined vastly reducing the desire to go into crafting which is one of my FAVORITE elements of gameplay in RPG games
- The game engine is older than the average Fortnite player. Yes, that is an exaggeration but not by much, this engine has issues the same damn issues are appearing from Fallout 4.
- Server bandwidth and optimization are all issues caused many players to disconnect or crash which is never a great time to crash but worst.
- MICROTRANSACTIONS – Do I even have to explain that this is a problem?
So now what???
We have to continue what is being done by the community. They are being vocal about the dissatisfaction in ways that the developers and executives can digest and find solutions. The premise of this game was ideal for an Online multiplayer experience. However, It needed to introduce a traditionally solo player audience to reasons why they would want to team up and settle the wilds of West Virginia together, rather than the lone wolf way they are accustomed to. It needed the Non-Player Characters to add critical depth and engagement. It needed to take notes from MMOs and from survival multiplayer of the current era. It needed attention in some pretty glaring areas and when you are starved you aren’t healthy enough to compete. To that effect, this game pales in comparison to all the other big AAA releases of 2018. We hope that Bethesda and all Game Developers take this as a teachable moment and we all move forward because we would love to see Fallout continue to entertain its fans but as it stands we can’t recommend that anyone spend too much time in this wasteland…
–H00k 0ut