Fallout 4: Part 1 - The story

I've racked up around 90 hours on Fallout 4 since launch. The majority of that time has been spent with the first character I created, Cogglins. This character was designed to be a pretty average guy that I wanted mainly to just have a little go at everything the game had to offer. I did quite a few side quests, explored about 60% of the map and finished up siding with the faction I thought made most sense roleplay/lore wise. I also stayed away from using any guides, mods or console commands to avoid - or change - any dumb shit that happened during my wasteland experience.

Since then, I've created a new character - Goose - with the intention of fully exploring the wasteland and adding mods to  the game until it behaves a little better. I also was finally able to bust open the sweet sweet collectors guide that until now has been the backing for my Pip Boy. Naturally, the foresight of a prior play through helped with character build choices and the like.

The main thing that stuck out to me from the latest instalment of Bethesda's inventory management game is how I was actually interested in the main story - at least a lot more than I have been in any other game they've made in the series. I wasn't super interested in the larger "why" of the main story, as it does have some dull moments. On the whole though, the characters you run into are interesting and the factions you bump into all have fairly convincing arguments. Even the side that's clearly set up to be the villain makes a couple of good points, though everyone's arguments tend to fall apart if you think too much about them.

Broadly speaking the games story is a little more Fallout 3 than anything else, in that it assumes the player character will care about a family member they've created. In Fallout 3 it's an absent father you care about and must save, in Fallout 4 it's your Son that you care about and must save. However, Fallout 4 has nothing to say if you ask why you should care. This is, in my opinion, the games biggest narrative flaw. In my experience with this kind of lazy story telling in video games the player character will often fall into one of two schools of thought.

1. I don't give a shit about this kid, I just want to explore
2. I'm being forced to care about someone I don't, I'm going to kill this person when I find them.
3. Oh sweet, more loot.

This story doesn't work in Fallout. I honestly don't think it can.

But, wait - there's more!

In the original Fallout you've gotta fix the water purifier in the vault you live in. There's an immediate threat to the vault you're in, you wander around trying to find something to fix it. If you decide not to find that chip right away, that's fine maybe the vault dweller didn't want to come back. Maybe they hated the vault.Fallout 2 is pretty much the same thing, you're a descendent of the vault dweller, you've got to save your village. The place where you live, maybe after leaving you decide "screw the village it's lame" and don't come back quite so quick. On paper Fallout 3 seems like it's the same story. You're in a vault, you then need something important outside of the vault.

The problem being this time round is that it's a person. I'm not going to get into why it's hugely stupid since we're talking about 4 not 3 but, broadly speaking it feel it's these x reasons.

1. You have to make the player character care about the family member in question, assuming just because the player has a family member X they must care is wrong and does not work.
2. You never have long enough to do it, it takes a long time to make a player character like someone. If your main story requires they are kidnapped/leave/killed early. You better be a hell of a writer.
3. If they player character hates this person for whatever reason, you're forcing them to rescue/find/avenge someone you've made them hate.
4. The game is a open world game focused on exploring, you either make the player character ignore all your wonderful content, or they explore everything and make the urgency that you force the player to talk about in the main story redundant.

New Vegas sidesteps all of these issues entirely, in short, you've got to get revenge. It's simple, it works and allows the player character to insert whatever reasons on top of the story they also have. If they think the guy that killed them is just too cool (he is Matt Perry after all) they can leave him alive, if they really hate him they can crucify him. You aren't forced to feel a certain way, the main story lets you exert you will over it, a little. The game does have its issues but a simple plot in a open world game such as fallout is a positive thing, as long as you've got an interesting world with interesting people and a good sense of environmental story telling.

Fallout 4 falls somewhere in the middle of 3 & New Vegas. It's story is a lot more focused than New Vegas' leading to some interesting story moments and boss conversations. This also allows for a better environmental story to be told via the various areas you visit that are connected to the main story. However, due to the nature of story telling in an interactive world players will always want to rebel from what you tell them to do and the game doesn't allow this as much as New Vegas did, and even New Vegas didn't do it much. Adding a voiced protagonist really added an extra layer of this is our story and you're gonna like it. The story is dumb, it's tight and focused with a few elements of fridge logic, it's just - well - not what the game is about for me.