Summary
Some quests inFallout: Londonasks more from players than in games likeFallout 4, which has made me realize justhow lazy I had become while playing modern RPGs. Now, there are a lot of reasons why newer games may choose to make things a little easier. For one, the quick turnaround on game reviews incentivizes companies to ensure reviewers aren’t running into any frustrating missions which may lead to them forming a worse opinion of the game as a whole.
Accessibility is also a concern, so it makes sense that certain aspects of games would be made easier to accommodate people with differing needs. For example,team shooters likeOverwatchoutlining enemies in red make it easier to tell friend from foe than in older shooters likeGoldeneye 007. However, there is a point whereassistance can go a little too far, and players can become complacent, something I noticed in myself when playing throughFallout: London.
Fallout: London Is About To Get Ever Better, Developer Promises
Team FOLON, the group behind the massive Fallout: London mod, promises that major improvements are in development and will be deployed soon.
Fallout: London Punished Me For Not Paying Attention
Fallout: London’s “Charybdis” Quest Was Difficult Because I Skipped Dialogue
After entering Thameshaven, players can start the quest “Charybdis”, which will task them with finding anNPC called the Ferryman. Once they do, players will be instructed to find a support beam and destroy it to seal a breach. However,this is information I missed the first time I was speaking to the Ferryman.
It was entirely my fault, I was clicking through the dialogue options because I was simply trying to rush through this section of the game and get to Camelot (so I could take screenshots for work). My time playing newerFalloutgames told me that dialogue might help with immersion, but thatI could treat it as a formality, since my quest marker would show me exactly where to go. Unfortunately, while there is a quest marker in “Charybdis,” it’s hard to find where it’s pointing without listening to the Ferryman’s dialogue.
After wandering around a bit, I went back to the Ferryman to hear him repeat the instructions, only he wouldn’t. He had already told me, and now he would just repeat a one-liner about it being nice to see me. I quickly realized that I would have to reload an earlier save if I wanted to hear the dialogue again, and was frustrated with myself for not having paid attention. That’s when I realized whata bad habit I had picked up from newer games.
Newer RPGs Make It Too Easy Not To Engage With Them
Quest Trackers And Dialogue Signposts Make Newer RPGs Less Engaging
There are plenty of times when I want to speed through an area, and games make it easy for me to check out and not engage fully with what’s going on. Overly explicit quest tracking and easy-to-navigate maps have made it far too easy to simply sleepwalk my way through missions. While this might make me more efficient at completing tasks, it has also made me lazy when it comes to actually engaging with my surroundings in the game. This is pretty antithetical to RPGs, where the whole point is to embody a character and experience living in another world.
Fallout London Includes One Familiar Face With Ties To The Main Games
As players explore Fallout: London they should make sure to keep an eye out for a notorious Fallout 3 character who is up to their old tricks.
Many modern dialogue options also signpost the right choices for players. Older RPGs, like the originalFallout, would grant players access to better dialogue options when they leveled up their social skills. However, the game didn’t clearly show what those options were, the way newer games do by putting “speech” or “persuasion” in brackets next to these choices. This meant that players still needed to read all of their options and pick the best one, instead of simplyknowing that dialogue that requires a higher skill is likely to give them a better outcome.
Now that isn’t to say all modern games are bad at this.Disco Elysiumis a great exampleof a game that doesn’t do too much hand-holding. I min-maxed my firstDisco Elysiumcharacter too much, made a bad dialogue choice, and ended up having a heart attack only minutes after I started playing. When this happened, I wasn’t upset. I laughed at my mistake, and started over, having learned from my previous experience, andI appreciated the game more for allowing me to make such a bad choice.
Online Guides Have Also Taken Away Some Of The Joy Of Exploration
Relying On Online Guides Stops Players From Experimenting
Modern game design isn’t the only thing to blame for my complacency. The ready availability of extensive guides for nearly any game also makes it far too easy to check out when playing an RPG. The more I paid attention to my gaming habits after realizing how lazy I had become, the more I realized how quick I was to check my phone for answers.
I will frequently check information like what level I should be to take on a boss inPersona, or whichFallout 4perksI should prioritize unlocking. While I see no issue using a guide if I get stuck, I found that I was oftennot even giving myself a chance to try without it. This not only takes away the joy of discovering things for myself, but it also prevents me from discovering aspects of games that the writers of the guides I’m following may have missed.
AAA Titles Should Take Cues From Fallout: London
Fallout: London’s Strengths Show What Could Be Changed In Its AAA Counterparts
Not every modern RPG uses tactics that have contributed to my bad gaming habits. That said, the ones that have are mainly major AAA releases, likeFallout 4,Starfield, and evenCyberpunk 2077to some extent. Games like this could learn something fromFallout: Londonand other games thatforce the players to pay a bit more attentionto what’s going on. By doing so, they would require players to fully engage with the worlds the games are set in, instead of simply following trackers from one point to another.
Now that isn’t to say I’m advocating for the removal of accessibility options. Games like these don’t need to fully do away with quest trackers, or dialogue logs which let players go back and reread something they may have missed. However, I think making these optional accessibility features instead of the default way to play would go a long way toward making players engage more with the game.
I know from my experience that re-examining these habits has made me start to enjoy playing roleplaying games a lot more. I still occasionally check a guide if I’m lost, but for the most part, I have been trying my best to find my own answers, and not care so much if I end up making some mistakes. It may be a little buggy at times, and not all of its quests even live up to the same standard of challenging players to think for themselves, but I am still very grateful I playedFallout: Londonand realized this pattern.
