New Vegas character immersion.

[Alixen]

Anyone else concerned about how Vegas will begin? Incase you don't want to know anything at all about the game don't read on. The thread is on topic because it's about Fallout 3 too.

 

Fallout 3 did everything right when it came to character creation for a set storyline, in my opinion. Sure, Oblivion for example, it often works really well to have a character you can make up a background for. Thats why the option of Alternate Start mods for Fallout 3 are excellent and I only have two Vault Dwellers out of fiteen characters.

 

Still, on my console playthrough where mods weren't an option or even paticularly important to me, the way Fallout 3 began grabbed me and didn't let me go for well over a hundred hours and had me waiting anxiously for every DLC.

 

You actually witness your own birth from the first person; and start forming a bond with your father right here and then. You watch your character grow; safe and sound in the Vault. Even the G.O.A.T was pretty immersive and fun. It all combined to make the experiance genuine, and then make the events that start with James leaving feel dramatic. I think Liam's acting had a lot to do with it; but it was also the approach of following your character,a nd Father, from your birth that made the game personal.

 

You never really get any justification from a story standpoint why your character is such a badass in a fight (Even in normal clothes it's impossile at lvl 10 to be as fragile as the characters in previous Fallout's characters where at top level without armor); and while that impacts the story for me personally, the immersion outweighs that (and it has been fixed with mods now I play on PC) for me.

 

Now onto Vegas.

 

It's already known that you are found in a shallow grave; and then an ex-Vault Dweller fixes you up. Obviously this is a likely point for you to choose your gender and looks.

 

Things is with that it's very close to how Oblivion started; and it won't even be a Bethesda game. I'm not talking storyline; I mean it's the same as in you can choose your looks and make up a background, utterly clean slate aside from the basics. You where a courier and had something someone obviosuly wanted. That seems to be it for background details.

 

I've never been able to get quite as attached to a character that I create from a generic start as I have from a character I craft but has a lot of personal life that i'm aware of as a backstory. In my view, Fallout 3 managed a perfect blend of Oblivion's ability to craft your own character, and the immersive background of a linear game.

 

I'm not really worried. I loved Fallout and Fallout 2 and we know a lot of the people involved in both are at Obisdian. KotR 2 was also one of my favorite RPGs; aside from the ending which was due them being forced to release way before it was finished, rather than any fault of their storywriters.

 

What i'm saying is... I'm hoping the NPCs in the game are a lot deeper than those of Fallout 3 if only because there will need to be something more to the world to add to immersion. There are only so many times I can have a chat with Sarah Lyons and see the game already used chat options before the characters really start to feel cardboard.

 

Fallout 3 started great in my view; but the grim wasteland combined with the lacking characters really damaged my urge to explore and interact with the world.

 

With Obsidian and how deept he characters of KotR2 and the previous Fallout games. Well, at the least i'm expecting the style of Bethesda's massive open worlds and fps-rpg combat with the story and characters that I grew to expect from Obsidian and Black Isle.

 

It just seems a tad underwhelming that the 'hook' of the start of Vegas is that we where shot and dumped in a shallow grave, compared to looking for my beloved Father who has left the Vault for an unknown reason. Honestly, if I got shot because the package I was carrying was something important, the syle of character I play (the everyguy/everygirl) is unlikely to go chasing someone who's already shot me once, or try to steal the package back from them. Uh-uh, i'll be off to the nearest settlement and getting a drink, then looking for a new line of work.

[evilneko]

Honestly, it was kinda the opposite for me. When I got out of the vault and stood next to that "Scenic Overlook" sign, slowly surveying the wastes, I thought, "Wow.. I wonder what's out there." I wanted to see it all. I wanted to learn how people were living in this (even if certain things don't make sense...) and I loved the little details, like the Keller family transcripts and the highly-personal journal entries you find in some places like that abandoned farm over north of Canterbury. Little things like that made me really stop and appreciate the game. I think that's what was missing from Oblivion for me, and why I've long since lost interest in it and continued playing Fallout 3. Oblivion felt lacking, and I never really got into my character or even the world as I did with Fallout 3.

 

And even Fallout 3 didn't really come alive for me until I grabbed CUTE and turned my first character into a sneaky little blonde twin-tailed girl with a sniper rifle. Suddenly everything fell into place. The Lone Wanderer in my story, much like Paul Bunyan and other folk heros, wasn't one person but many. The original Kuroe, was long dead, replaced by a succession of different people (evidenced by her changing appearance and weapon preferences as I downloaded mods) touched by her and who took up her quest, and Talia was the fourth. Suddenly the Lone Wanderer had personality (her resemblance to a freeform RP character of mine probably helped ;)) and was more than just a player-avatar seeking the route of greatest advantage or least resistance. (Incidentally, this link should go to the post where I described them ;))

 

After all, from a roleplaying standpoint, it only makes sense to do the main quest ASAP. Assuming you like you dad*, you'll be trying to catch up with him as quickly as possible, and pass over anything that doesn't help you along in that task, at least up until the Warers of Life. Even then, if your character is one that would want to continue Dad's work, you'd probably keep on plugging, and of course, the game wants you to do so. This though is your first in-character opportunity to start doing sidequests, but you've got to consider: what is your character's mental state at that point? Would they even care? Or would they tell, say, the Outcasts at Bailey's Crossing or Wernher to go die in a fire? Or would they plunge into whatever opportunity presented itself in an effort to forget? (My second character recently went through this stage, actually) I'm finding it difficult to justify going certain places with my second character. To my mind, the only real explanation for a single "character" doing even half of what there is to do in the Wasteland beyond the main quest is for that character to be a composite of different people, or just an extreme case of wanderlust and perhaps an inability to say no, or just greed, taking on any job offered in hopes of a good reward.

 

*I never had liked Dad anyway, and like him even less with the Childhood Beginnings mod which I started with my second character, Blaze the pyro-girl. For a time she was second-guessing her quest to track down Dad. He did abandon her after all.

 

I think the Death & Rebirth beginning of New Vegas will provide ample opportunity for character change and growth, though a main quest of "finding out who killed you" that really doesn't lend itself to being picked up and continued by successors unless they're relatives or close friends. (eg, why would Talia care who killed the first or second Lone Wanderer? And she probably already knows, and maybe even killed, whoever killed the third Wanderer) This depends on how it's presented though. In any case, as long as there is an abundance of the little things that I like from Fallout 3 in New Vegas, I'll find a way to make it fit. ;)

[Vagrant0]

There's a thread for this sort of discussion already.

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=175873

 

Closed.