As Mike B will attest, Fallout is a special series for us here at MMORPG.com. While the series has never gotten an MMO or true online treatment, we’re still fans of the venerable and highly regarded franchise. And today, with the announcement of Fallout 4 from Bethesda, we figured there’s no better time to postulate about what we want to see in the newest version of the Wasteland.
As the trailer shows, we seem to be picking things up across the states in Boston, far from New Vegas and a little closer to the Washington DC of Fallout 3. This time we’re emerging from Vault 111, trust furry companion in tow. It seems for the first time in the series, we may even be getting a voiced main character, which would certainly be novel. We won’t know much more about Fallout 4 until the game’s official preview at E3 on June 14th, but for now… here are five things we want from Fallout 4.
A HARDER SURVIVAL MODE
This one comes courtesy of our own Mike Bitton:
There are a metric ton of survival games out there -- most of them in various states of being unfinished. People tend to play games in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series far past the length of the main campaign, these games are sandboxes after all, so why not (at least for Fallout) emphasize the need for survival? Obsidian took a step towards that direction with Fallout: New Vegas, adding a Hardcore mode that made things a bit more realistic, but I think future games in the series could continue to explore that space.
From mods like Nevada Skies, Project Nevada, and most recently, DUST, it’s clear that there is significant demand for survival elements in the game. Sure, modders on PC can do what they always do and add this stuff in post-launch, but where does that leave console players?
I’d love to see Bethesda take inspiration from these mods and expand on Obsidian’s Hardcore mode for Fallout 4 (unlikely if not already in) and beyond. In Hardcore mode, items such as ammo and stimpaks should be rarer, weather (radioactive sandstorms!) and temperature should affect your character, the Survival skill should be fleshed out to be more useful overall, and so on. These don’t need to come in all at once, but all I'm saying is that I’d like to see Bethesda experiment with this stuff going forward. I think the potential for the Fallout games to be both amazing RPGs and excellent survival games at the same time is fairly high if the developers push for it.
VEHICLES!
Mad Max is all the rage, right now right? What better place to dig into vehicular radioactive manslaughter than the new wasteland of Massachusetts? True, there is a stellar looking Mad Max open world RPG coming in September, but I’d love to take Dogmeat (or whatever we call him this time around) and strap him into a sidecar of a motor cycle. Given how hard it’s been for the Bethesda engine to add in stairs, I won’t hold my breath. But with a fully current-gen game, the sky’s the limit. Hey, there’s an idea… planes! Ok, now I’m just thinking of a GTA V mod.
BETTER CHARACTER CREATE, AND BETTER LOOKING CHARACTERS
It’s kind of hard to tell from the trailer, but as we all know from years of Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Skyrim… the characters in these games can look pretty ugly. Mods and mods and mods have made Skyrim’s denizens look better over the years. But here’s hoping that character creation and overall looks are a damn sight better in Fallout 4.
MORE MONSTER VARIETY
The stories in Fallout 3 and New Vegas are some of the best the RPG genre has ever had. Far better than what we were treated to in Oblivion and Skyrim even. But there’s always been one thing Bethesda games have been weak at… monster diversity. You’re basically fighting the same 4-5 mobs over and over for 40 to 100+ hours. Take some of that horsepower the new console allow, the new tech on modern PCs, and turn the artists over on some new enemies or at least many variations to fight.
A MORE PERSONAL STORY
The trailer led onto something unique that we have to confirm later, but this might be the first Fallout to let the main character talk. It’ll be a contentious choice, but if the main character (male or female) has a voice, it could lead to something a lot of Bethesda games have lacked… empathy with our own character. The trailer shows a mother, a father, over their baby in the crib before the end of the world happens. We’re led to believe, between the way the vignettes intertwine, that this is the house our character lived in before the bombs. Wouldn’t it be something if our character had a soul, a heart, and a real driving pathos in Fallout 4? I’d love it, personally.
But what about you? What do you want from Fallout 4? Online co-op perhaps? Let us know, and sound off in the comments.
