Opinion: Bethesda’s Lifeless Worlds (Fallout 4 Spoilers)

Videogames, always have been, and always will be restrained by the contemporary technology on which they are built on, and for this simple reason will never tick all the boxes. However, some developers, including the eternally famous, Rockstar Games, have always pushed the boundaries, and overcame the limitations in order to deliver experiences not available anywhere else. But others on the other hand, have remained in a standstill for the past decade, and by others I mean Bethesda Softworks. I do acknowledge the fact, that anyone who dares to challenge the almighty Bethesda, will sooner or later by taken away by an angry mob and burned on a stake, however, I’m willing to face the wrath of the internet in order to prove my point.

In 2002, Bethesda has released Morrowind, an RPG which is still receiving praise from every fan of the genre 13 years later, and even I have to agree, that retrospectively, Morrowind is a fantastic game, and if all the Bethesda titles which followed Morrowind, were released in 2002, I would also have a much better opinion of them. However, they were not, in fact, Fallout 4 was released just 20 days ago, but it feels and plays like a decade old game.

Before I continue, I have to state that I gave Fallout 4, more chances than it deserves. After spending over 30 hours with the game, and completing the main story line, I came to a conclusion that majority of the people on the internet, are clinically insane. For the most part, I haven’t found the game mechanics to be problematic, they’re average at best, but still miles better than what I had a chance to experience while playing Fallout 3. Yes, V.A.T.S. is still the worst thing ever invented in the history of videogames, due to its nonsensical dependency on RNG, but there is something that overshadows it completely, and it is the Commonwealth, the world in which Fallout 4 is set.

In recent years we all had a chance to play more than a handful of games which featured catastrophically bad open environments; however, they all had something about them, something unique, something that stuck in your memory. Mafia II’s world was nothing more than an elaborate menu, but it allowed you to experience a seasonal change within the city, as well as the societal one. As snow started to disappear off the streets, so did the wooden framed cars, and once you’ve re-entered the outside world, when leaving the prison, you were faced with a different reality, a new world which followed a set of brand new rules, and the game reflected that perfectly with its missions.

You could argue that Fallout 4 has done just so by reforming the world with nuclear annihilation, however, unlike Mafia II it doesn’t give you nearly enough time to familiarise yourself with its old world setting, as you spend mere minutes cutting about the house looking at what you are going to come back for, before having to sprint straight to the vault. Also the new rules, which are visibly in place after the apocalypse has taken place are never explained, and the game becomes a simple go from A to B, shot some men, women, dogs, bastards, return; rinse and repeat. Fallout 4 doesn’t even suggest that there is a line you should follow in order to ensure your safety, and before you know, you’ll be putting bins on NPCs while spinning them around with bullets, because 99% of your actions are of no consequence. You can either do that, or simply walk around the entire world asking everybody about your son. By the time I’ve finally found him, I was so bored by the search for the Holy Grail ‘my’ son; I shot him in a head as soon as he stood in front of me, single shotgun shell, right between the eyes worked perfectly.

Before I’ve started writing this article, I’ve spent numerous hours trying to point out exactly, why Fallout 4’s Commonwealth is so lethargically dreadful, and it turned out that all I needed, was 2 hours with Grand Theft Auto V, to come to my optimal conclusion. When I’ve turned on GTA V for the first times in weeks, I didn’t want much from it, I just wanted to go to the beach with Trevor and start an all out brawl with all the body builders, but what I expected to be a 10 minute activity, has quickly turned into an hour-long endeavour. As soon as I’ve arrived at the beach, equipped with my newly acquired machete it was already too late, as the beach was already scattered with corpses, confused by what might have happened I’ve followed the trail of death and destruction, and before long I came across a shootout. Two police interceptors, were parked across the street, and behind them four police officers, trying to kill three other men who were hiding behind an SUV.

After couple of minutes, the stand-off between the police and Latin gang members was inconclusive, however, suddenly, out of nowhere I was hit by a stray bullet, so naturally I hid behind one of the interceptors, however, by doing so I’ve pushed out one of the police officers, who was instantly blasted by the gangsters. And as soon as they’ve spotted a window of opportunity, they have all started to run, but before long, police was already in their cars and hot on their heels. Naturally, I’ve decided to follow, and in order to keep the story short, all I’m going to say is that the whole chase culminated miles away from where it initially started, and ended with complete madness as The Lost have joined in and started firing shotguns at everybody, and after an hour of hectic pursuit, everybody, except for a single biker was dead. Yes, the biker was taken care of, with the machete which I finally had a chance to use.

After, everything has cooled down, I’ve decided to do the same in Fallout 4. I have chosen a random location, which in this case was the entrance and the surrounding area of the Diamond City, and have spent 3 hours waiting for something to happen, however, nothing has come of it. Over the period of three, tediously long hours, nothing has happened, not a single raider, molerat or mutant has attacked, I just stood there and listened to the NPC guards walking around repeating the same lines over and over again. The reason for lack of any action taking place wasn’t the choice of a wrong location, or me listening to Stiff Little Fingers discography, it was, and still is all Bethesda’s fault. The Commonwealth, is dead, it’s like everything that is outside of your view doesn’t exist. It’s like a board game, it’s here, it is in a sense physically accessible, but unless you interact with it, or trigger a certain script it will remain the same, and it is a huge shame.

If you I was to compare Fallout 4 to GTA V, I’d say that Fallout 4 is like rugby, it has its moments but entirety of the game is always concentrated within a single place on the playing field, making the rest of the pitch obsolete. Whereas GTA V is like football, the action concentrates around the player with the ball, but both teams are set out throughout the entirety of the field, and are subsequently creating opportunities for further interactions, therefore giving entirety of the pitch some level of significance. And in conclusion, football will always be much more spectacular sport for the viewers than rugby, as singular moments within a broad playing field, are much less exciting than a game which unveils across the eternity of such.