I can see that. One thing I've heard as a complaint about Fallout 4 was that Fallout 3 and New Vegas let you start out more-or-less as a blank slate. Well, Fallout 3 -- you're from a vault. Fallout New Vegas? You're a courier, and it's anybody's guess what you were doing before that, and it wasn't until the "Lonesome Road" DLC that it was hinted you might have any sort of history of note. But it's largely up to you whether you play as good guy or bad guy. But with Fallout 4, when you go to Concord, the only real way to move forward is to assume you side with the Minutemen; you aren't given a choice to side with the Raiders, for instance.
Hmm. Well, in New Vegas, granted, when the Powder Gangers were harassing Goodsprings, you could decide either to help defend the town of the people who so nicely helped nurture you back from being left-for-dead ... OR you could be a total heel and side with the Powder Gangers (which would eventually bring you into a point of conflict with NCR, but not necessarily Mr. House or Caesar). There were lots of "mini-factions" and sides you could choose apart from the main conflict -- but as far as the central storyline was concerned, you weren't really given a choice to go full-on psycho-bad-guy, say, and still get to make any sort of appearance at the Battle for Hoover Dam. (Near as I can tell, if you managed to get all three major factions to hate you, the Battle for Hoover Dam would just NEVER HAPPEN, because there'd be no way to trigger a "quest" for it. :D )
But I digress.
Fallout 4 was interesting in that it hinted at a more SPECIFIC background for your character, even if you're given a lot of freedom in how your character appears. My disappointment was that more wasn't done to flesh that out. Given the tragedy that immediately befalls our hero, I was bugged at how quickly I had companions hitting on the main character, because -- HEY, HIS WIFE JUST DIED.
But ... what was his wife like? (Or, for that matter, what was HE like?) Playing as the male character, there's a point where an NPC robot recognizes him as a former member of the armed forces. I recall that in the house (pre-war), there's a tri-fold flag, a box with uniform and insignia hinting at his military career (plus the opening montage), but also a framed certificate on a shelf indicating that the wife (Nora, I think, is the default name?) is or was a lawyer at the time. I'm curious if, as playing through as the female character, the careers get swapped, or whether that encounter will play out differently with the robot (i.e., my character will or won't be recognized as a former member of the armed forces ... and maybe there's somewhere else that the lawyer background would be relevant).
Since there's a specific role, it would be nice to have a little more fleshing out of the character. I think they did it the way they did so there was a little more room for "self-insert" into a blank-slate sort of avatar, but I feel like, with as much characterization that went into all those Companions, and even a few non-Companion NPCs, it would be nice to know more about the primary character, or at the very least his (or her) spouse. Like ... MAKE ME CARE.
It's frequently joked about how in most play-throughs the player will just ignore the central "find my son!" quest and spend forever on side-quests. (As for me ... I was just running into trouble DYING when I'd run into giant radscorpions and such at low level -- there's a particularly nasty gauntlet where you have to follow Dogmeat and it seems he stirs up every deathclaw, giant radscorpion, killer robot, super mutant, and raider gang in the vicinity -- so I had an incentive to try to gear up and level up first before proceeding.) But maybe if there were a few more touchpoints (flashbacks? maybe things you pick up amid the ruins suddenly spur memories that reveal a little more of either your backstory, or memories of your loved one(s) ), it could flesh out the story more and make the central quest MATTER more to the player, on an emotional level.
More work, of course. I'm sure resources are limited, and any work done on THAT would mean cutting something ELSE. But it's just something that came to mind.
Hmm. Well, in New Vegas, granted, when the Powder Gangers were harassing Goodsprings, you could decide either to help defend the town of the people who so nicely helped nurture you back from being left-for-dead ... OR you could be a total heel and side with the Powder Gangers (which would eventually bring you into a point of conflict with NCR, but not necessarily Mr. House or Caesar). There were lots of "mini-factions" and sides you could choose apart from the main conflict -- but as far as the central storyline was concerned, you weren't really given a choice to go full-on psycho-bad-guy, say, and still get to make any sort of appearance at the Battle for Hoover Dam. (Near as I can tell, if you managed to get all three major factions to hate you, the Battle for Hoover Dam would just NEVER HAPPEN, because there'd be no way to trigger a "quest" for it. :D )
But I digress.
Fallout 4 was interesting in that it hinted at a more SPECIFIC background for your character, even if you're given a lot of freedom in how your character appears. My disappointment was that more wasn't done to flesh that out. Given the tragedy that immediately befalls our hero, I was bugged at how quickly I had companions hitting on the main character, because -- HEY, HIS WIFE JUST DIED.
But ... what was his wife like? (Or, for that matter, what was HE like?) Playing as the male character, there's a point where an NPC robot recognizes him as a former member of the armed forces. I recall that in the house (pre-war), there's a tri-fold flag, a box with uniform and insignia hinting at his military career (plus the opening montage), but also a framed certificate on a shelf indicating that the wife (Nora, I think, is the default name?) is or was a lawyer at the time. I'm curious if, as playing through as the female character, the careers get swapped, or whether that encounter will play out differently with the robot (i.e., my character will or won't be recognized as a former member of the armed forces ... and maybe there's somewhere else that the lawyer background would be relevant).
Since there's a specific role, it would be nice to have a little more fleshing out of the character. I think they did it the way they did so there was a little more room for "self-insert" into a blank-slate sort of avatar, but I feel like, with as much characterization that went into all those Companions, and even a few non-Companion NPCs, it would be nice to know more about the primary character, or at the very least his (or her) spouse. Like ... MAKE ME CARE.
It's frequently joked about how in most play-throughs the player will just ignore the central "find my son!" quest and spend forever on side-quests. (As for me ... I was just running into trouble DYING when I'd run into giant radscorpions and such at low level -- there's a particularly nasty gauntlet where you have to follow Dogmeat and it seems he stirs up every deathclaw, giant radscorpion, killer robot, super mutant, and raider gang in the vicinity -- so I had an incentive to try to gear up and level up first before proceeding.) But maybe if there were a few more touchpoints (flashbacks? maybe things you pick up amid the ruins suddenly spur memories that reveal a little more of either your backstory, or memories of your loved one(s) ), it could flesh out the story more and make the central quest MATTER more to the player, on an emotional level.
More work, of course. I'm sure resources are limited, and any work done on THAT would mean cutting something ELSE. But it's just something that came to mind.
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