T w e n t y S i d e d

Let’s talk about our “breaking and entering” mechanics.

Lockpicking

Lockpicking works. It’s just interesting enough to make for a fun mini-game, but it’s brief enough that it doesn’t feel like it’s bringing your dungeon crawl to a halt. I enjoy it in Skyrim, I enjoy in in Fallout, and even after picking thousands of locks I’m still not sick of it.

The only problem, which I mentioned in this episode, is that for the most part it’s all just more trash to loot and sell. You’ll loot 9 chests of ammo, weapons, and junk. Then the 10th chest will be protected by a lock. Is it worth all those perk points to get one more chest worth of stuff? Not really. I’ve played as a master lockpicker and I’ve played as characters with no points in lockpicking, and aside from the nagging annoyance of leaving a chest behind, you can’t tell the difference at all. You never think, “Wow! I sure do have lots of rare resources. Glad I spent those lockpicking points!” And you also never find yourself in the position of, “Man, I am so starved for resources. If only I’d put points into lockpicking!”

The whole thing is kind of weak and gutless. You can hear the game designer wringing their hands and saying, “But what if players miss out on things? What if they have a different experience from the norm? What if there’s something they want to do it and they can’t because of their build? We have to save them from themselves! We must make all the choices shallow and painless!”

Ugh.

Terminal Hacking

The hacking game never really worked for me. I like the idea of the puzzle, but the individual rounds are too short and too governed by luck to to reach a proper solution. Sometimes you’ll spend your first two clicks and not get any hints that give you meaningful progress. Yes, you can hunt around in the garbage characters for brackets to help you, but it’s still a crapshoot. Worse, the game actually becomes easier and more interesting when it supposedly gets harder. The clues for long words are far more useful than the clues for short words.

But the thing that really kills the game is that it’s a literal waste of time. The fastest and most expedient way through is not to linger over the puzzle for five minutes, trying to reach a provable solution according to the rules of logic. The fastest way through these things is to open up the terminal, click on random entries until you’re about to get locked out, and then close the terminal. Repeat until the dice favor you.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

To complete the thought I started to make in this episode before getting distracted:

Both Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4 begin with a personal story: Benny shoots you in the head vs. the Institute steals your baby. Both use that to drag you into a larger conflict: Which faction should control Hoover Dam vs. which faction should murder the others? On a conceptual level, the segue in Fallout 4 makes more sense than the one in New Vegas. You don’t necessarily have a stake in the fight over Hoover Dam, but you continue to have a stake in the Institute because Shaun is still involved. Unfortunately, this transition from personal to large-scale happens right at the point where the whole world really starts to unravel. It’s a bit like the Mass Effect 3 ending problem: Up until now you could – if you’re feeling generous – assume that stuff will fall into place as a result of a later reveal. That somewhere down the line, all this nonsense will start to pay off and fit together.

But once we meet the Institute the game is out of places to hide the writer’s shenanigans. Once we know the Institute plans and motivations and their reasons for kidnapping Shaun, all of the cards are on the table and we can see the writer has been bluffing us the whole time.

Here in ArcJet Systems, Danse goes back and forth from interesting to incoherent:

“I’ll tag this location for sweep and retrieve.”

Oh that’s cool. We learn a little about how the Brotherhood works.

“Synths are abominations.”

This idea would be okay, but we need to hear their reasoning. Characterize them!

“Those evil corporations before the war exploited technology for their own gain!”

Dude. Isn’t that like, your entire mission statement?

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Fallout 4 is a mess on a story level, but I do like to give it credit when it gets things right. While the sides don’t have properly explored motivations, they’re certainly more coherent than the Brotherhood and Enclave in Fallout 3. (And Fallout 4 lets you choose from FOUR different groups of idiots to work with!) The nonsense railroading of Fallout 4 is bad, but it’s less infuriating than Fallout 3.

And when it comes to companions it’s no contest. Fallout 4 has some genuinely good companions to take with you, and Fallout 3 has… what? That idiot mutant who wouldn’t help you out at the end of the game? I guess?

So this series is going to be negative, but peppered with awkward, backhanded compliments congratulating Bethesda for not repeating ALL of the mistakes of the past. It’s all part of the Spoiler Warning™ service. You’re welcome.

Also, I think Josh’s playtesting has proven conclusively that gravity works in this game. So that’s nice.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.