Oct 31
Fallout 3 – An achievement in achievements!
In continuing an ongoing email conversation with a friend about Fallout 3, it occurred to me that with all of the things that Bethesda Softworks did right, they also did a great job crafting the achievements. The game instills an incredible sense of discovery as you explore different areas of the world, so I have been hesitant to spoil any of that by discussing too many specifics with any of my friends. The achievements actually provide a helpful guide to safe topics of conversation. I don’t know that every quest has an associated achievement, but all of the major ones seem to. So, I can check my friend’s profile and learn which quests I am free to talk about. Now, it’s true someone looking to replay the game might not appreciate you bringing up a different way of approaching mission X, but for the average player it is a beneficial to know that it is safe ground for discussion. As someone diverging from his usual path in accepting any mistakes I might make instead of the usual save-reload cycle, and knowing that there are just too many games out there to allow any possibility that I may play through the game again, I have been ravenous to discuss each encounter in detail to discover what the alternatives might have been.
Milestone achievements at levels 8, 14 and 20 which show whether you’ve chosen to play altruistically, selfishly, or somewhere down the middle, provide another indication of how friends have chosen to play the game. Now, achievements like this piss me off as a completist, but I appreciate the fact that they help to define the play experience of an individual iteration through the game. When talking to my friends about the missions they’ve completed I have some indication about whether they blew up the town or saved every citizen. Or whether their professed fiendish behaviour hasn’t really been all that bad after all. And yes, I’m talking about you Shane.
I have to credit this article from Gamasutra, written by a professional game designer playing through Fallout/Fallout 2, with leading me down this train of thought. I got halfway through writing an email to a friend when the combination of that discussion and the subject of the article compelled me to write this post.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I also think Fallout 3 is a fantastic game (and GOY so far imho) but I had the feeling last night as I crossed level 9 that you get too many perks. Before I started the game I thought that they would come more slowly (at say 4th, 7th, etc.) and I was planning them diligently to fit my “role” I had in my head. But as I choose one each level it seems as though I can really most of the interesting ones and still many of the multi-rank more pedestrian ones (e.g. get 5 skill points in this or that).
Must say I’m caught between just devouring the game for hours on end and knowing I’ll be upset when it “ends” (I know you can keep just walking around but I’m sure, like Oblivion, that will become pretty boring). Also heard that 40 was the level cap (seems a long way away though).