Fallout 4 Review (XB1): The revolution will be safe

Fallout 4 is safe. For a game about traversing a post-apocalyptic wasteland, it is so fucking safe.

Fallout 4 is also an ugly game. It doesn't look exactly like (or 'as bad as') Fallout 3, despite what the social media cesspit may have you believing, but the improvement is slight enough to be dismissed as "incremental." That being said, post-bombing Boston isn't a technical marvel, but in terms of concept, it's consistent and effective.

Fallout 4 looks dreadful, but it's supposed to. Dogs aren't supposed to clip up and down through closed elevator doors, but this is the price we pay for Bethesda's janky brand of open world adventuring. To be able to wander through an expanse rarely-rivalled in terms of sheer width and possibility, we need to expect the frequent stuttering of frame rates and V.A.T.S-engaged combatants.

The possibilities aren't quite endless, but they are worth enduring technical difficulties for. How many other games allow you to create a strong, sarcastic woman warrior who brings violent peace to scorched earth? How many other games allow players to work with a diverse cast, including people of colour and women; in leadership positions, no less? Very. Fucking. Few.

But this is what New Vegas did. This is what, to my fallible memory's recollection, Fallout 3 did to a lesser extent.

This is iteration, not innovation.

The attempts at innovation fall flat for anyone rocking anything other than a strength and intelligence-tuned S.P.E.C.I.A.L build. My luck and charisma build made difficult conversations a cinch, but it also barred me from engaging in weapon and armour modding (in any sort of meaningful way) for more than a day's worth of play.

The settlement building is just as poorly explained, and is obtuse as all get out. I purposefully abstained from completing the tutorial mission on the hunch that any friendly territories I acquired before that point would not be subject to invasion.

For more than 40 hours, and the duration of the main questline, this hypothesis proved true. Funnily enough, the second I fast travelled away from the setting for the ultimate action, I received notice that an outpost was under attack. I don't want to say this new system is unusable, as some creative (if not, puerile) players have already published some impressive creations; it's just a little too indecipherable for my tastes.

Another reason I'm failing to engage with these new features is that the barriers to entry in terms of raw resource requirements are set too high for characters who can't carry an abundance of junk that has no application outside of combat. If I want to have access to weapons that will (eventually) kill an array of deadly enemies, I can't carry 10 pounds of paint thinner, 50 fuses, and my entire arsenal.

Yes, inventory management is still a pain after nearly 20 years of Fallout games. I'd love to offer a solution (like, for instance, being able to send companions to nearby settlements a la Torchlight), but I'm sure the internet as a collective would not deem it worthy. For now, at least, I must continue to return to my home settlement and stuff a fabric suitcase with miniguns and power armour pieces. Don't y'all get between gamers and their fucked up notions of realism now.

The main quest line is home to one too many pointless twists, with inconsistent pacing and some choices that left me feeling indifferent. I don't want to go too far into it for fear of spoiling anything, but the choice of faction for me was obvious, as the two alternatives that I had (could've been three, but I didn't pursue the Minutemen quest chain) had some moustache-twirling, vaudevillian creeds by which I couldn't abide. That being said, my choice didn't result in the satisfying, life-affirming conclusion I was expecting. It wasn't abjectly apocalyptic, but it didn't give me the warm feeling I was hoping for.

As was the case with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the best meat is in the off-cuts. A short sojourn to collect baseball collectibles for a fan who had no idea how the old game worked was far more enjoyable than the central revenge plot. The guy who wanted to experience every drug-induced high available was far more relatable than any of the Brotherhood of Steel lackeys I came across.

I could continue complaining, like say about the conversation system that leads to seemingly-random outcomes based on vague prompts, the transmisgonyst robot gag that is KL-E-0, or the near non-existent changes to V.A.T.S (or the the combat system as a whole, for that matter); but I'd be missing the point. Fallout 4 is a time sink, and for the most part, it's a sink that I and most other nerds are happy to piss into. War never changes, but Fallout does ever so slowly.

Bastion: Innovation in Narration

Bastion - the first offering from the Xbox Live Arcade’s “Summer of Arcade” promotion - oozes charm. Its visuals and isometric perspective hark back to classic RPGs like The Adventures of Alundra and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The combat system and other gameplay mechanics also appear to be reminiscent of Action RPGs released in the nineties. Innovation lies in the game’s sound design though. Not necessarily in the sound effects or the contemporary soundtrack, but in the use of a narrator. 

Other games have used them before, though not as comprehensively as Bastion. Previous instalments of the Fallout franchise have opened and concluded proceedings with Ron Perlman’s dulcet commentary, but his voice is notably absent throughout the action of each adventure. The narrator in that case sets the tone, but doesn’t maintain it. Supergiant Games’ first effort offers a new approach, with a narrator providing observation on most aspects of the player’s experience.

Bastion’s narrator, Rucks comments on almost every action the player takes. He will taunt you when you become careless and fall or take massive damage. He will remind you to heal yourself when you’re close to death. He will celebrate and detail the acquisition of new gear. He will lament your passing. 

For the first few minutes, I found this constant commentary distracting; almost annoying. About three hours in however, and this vocal chronicle of my adventure is essential. It elevates what is - in all honesty – a fairly standard, though beautifully-rendered hack-and-slash adventure to a thoughtful experience that I would recommend without hesitation. You need to listen to fully appreciate what Bastion offers, and how it differs to every Action RPG before it.

The way in which every deception, betrayal, triumph and shortcoming is reinforced provides a sense of warmth and guidance that can’t be achieved with the scrolling and boxed text normally associated with the genre. It also serves to develop the story at large. I can’t think of any game – RPG or otherwise – that tells players how they’re performing, what they need to do, and what’s happening in the game’s world as effectively as Bastion. Can this narrative strategy and sound design be applied to any game? Probably not, but the results could be hilarious if not inappropriate. 

Let’s start with a game like John Woo’s Stranglehold. I would invite you to provide a transcript to read over the action you’ll witness in the clip below.

Here’s my take:  

Inspector Yuen may have been a violent man – some would say, needlessly so – but if there was anything he enjoyed more than killing, it was grinding. Jumping on a rail and sliding; killing as many people as he could, as stylishly as humanly possible. He was doing that well this time. The rail had to end sometime, didn’t it? At least he found a cart to continue his dance of carnage. Time just seemed to slow down when those bullets flew and those bodies crumpled. So many bullets, but not enough bodies to make a good score this time it would seem. There will be others though, don’t you worry. Why is he jumping against that wall? Now he’s just showing off, isn’t he? 

Maybe that’s a little too lyrical for a game that allows players to shoot their opponents in the groin and watch as their victims fall to the ground in agony? Let’s try the technique on a game that is better suited to some exposition: Grand Theft Auto IV.

Niko loved to drive; and drive fast. So he did, on his newly acquired bike. It was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. He was listening to some light-hearted tune that reminded him of better days. If he had hair, you’d best believe it would be trailing behind him in the Liberty City sun. One thing you should know about our friend, Niko is that he did not much appreciate the law. Nor did he care much for paying hard-earned cash to abide by it. Either way, he had better slow down if he has any hope of avoiding certain death. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Few people would have called him a good man, but no one deserves to be thrown into the Liberty City deep like old Niko just was. 

Are there any games you can think of that would be richer with the inclusion of an all-seeing narrator? Have you got a transcript that you would like to share?