Fallout: Where Bethesda Went Wrong

The Problem With Removing Player Choice

Compare the opening quests in each game: in New Vegas players can either choose to help the townsfolk of Good Springs fend off a group of Powder Gangers or they can choose to side with the invaders instead.

Each choice provides players with ample options for how to approach their chosen objective, leads to other quests with other branching pathways, and each choice provides a different narrative introduction to the game. All of which is based on a single choice.

Fallout 4’s first big quest, on the other hand, is nowhere near as flexible. When you make your way into Concord, a group of Raiders immediately become hostile. You fight your way through to the museum and help Preston and his surviving Minutemen win the fight by tacking control of power armour and a minigun before they decide to follow you to Sanctuary to set up shop. No matter what you do – even if you refuse Preston’s plea for help – this is the path you follow.

Stripping player agency in a roleplaying game is never a good option, and unfortunately this is how much of Fallout 4’s quests play out.

Although they're well written and performed, the narrative is a disappointingly linear experience where (save from siding with particular factions later down the road) how you engage with the world around you doesn’t hold the same importance as it did in previous titles.