Posted June 11, 2015
I'm slightly erring on the side of the original poster's actual points, though I do not approve of his behaviour in the thread.
I think there is an issue with playability with the original Fallout for the reason brought up in the thread. Even though I much dislike hand holding and games that have no mystery or sense of adventure because of it, there are actually very legit reasons for wanting it that has nothing to do with being an impatient, unimaginative or lazy player.
Fallout and many other CRPGs like it can be long experiences. Not everyone is going to breeze through it playing a few hours every day. Some of us would be lucky to finish a 10-20 hour adventure in less than a months time. Other times we are juggling several games at once. Coming back to an adventure after maybe a week long (or even longer) break from it can be daunting trying to remember where you were last time you played. It REALLY helps playability if you can get a refresher on where you are in the adventure, what you have accomplished and what you are currently working on. Many times I've loaded a save, traversed a lot of ground, fought several battles, perhaps invested an hour of my precious gaming time only to realise I had not actually picked up the quest or was on another leg of it last time I saved the game. GAAAAH.
Fallout's inconsistent and vague quest log combined with it's sometimes "realistic" (non-gamey) dialogue can often paint you into a corner like that if you're not giving the game your full attention, both while playing and in between. This is hurting it's playability. I love games that are challanging and perhaps do not have clearly identifiable "quests", but sometimes the player has to go out of character for a while to get their bearings to progress the fantasy in the direction they want. You're not actually the Vault Dweller, you're someone experiencing a story. There is a very high chance you won't experience what your character would reasonably experience. Sometimes you miss important dialogue that the game takes for granted that you have memorised. In a CRPG this can be devastating to the player experience.
I have dropped several playthroughs in many different games simply because I could no longer relate to the adventure and the accumulated experience of my character. Sometimes I need a refresher or a pointer to stay in the fantasy. Games that assume I'm fully absorbed with it from start to finish and always capable of staying on top can very quickly turn into sour and unfullfilling gaming experiences, especially when I feel that my time is wasted doing stuff I'm going to revert to an older save in the end.
Some modern games are indeed doing too much to help the player. The problem is that for the past 10 years or so, many game designers have had this idea that "everyone must be able to finish our games". Corridor shooters with a lot of fluff and MMOs with fully transparent game mechanics (ie "go and kill a few dozen animals in the area marked on your map, you obviously don't care why so skip the wall of text") are safe bets for publishers and developers. Fallout is from a much more organic school of game design for sure, but this doesn't mean the game is hardcore or that it is for more capable minds.
Sometimes it just means the game is a chore to play rather than a fun and engaging fantasy.
I think there is an issue with playability with the original Fallout for the reason brought up in the thread. Even though I much dislike hand holding and games that have no mystery or sense of adventure because of it, there are actually very legit reasons for wanting it that has nothing to do with being an impatient, unimaginative or lazy player.
Fallout and many other CRPGs like it can be long experiences. Not everyone is going to breeze through it playing a few hours every day. Some of us would be lucky to finish a 10-20 hour adventure in less than a months time. Other times we are juggling several games at once. Coming back to an adventure after maybe a week long (or even longer) break from it can be daunting trying to remember where you were last time you played. It REALLY helps playability if you can get a refresher on where you are in the adventure, what you have accomplished and what you are currently working on. Many times I've loaded a save, traversed a lot of ground, fought several battles, perhaps invested an hour of my precious gaming time only to realise I had not actually picked up the quest or was on another leg of it last time I saved the game. GAAAAH.
Fallout's inconsistent and vague quest log combined with it's sometimes "realistic" (non-gamey) dialogue can often paint you into a corner like that if you're not giving the game your full attention, both while playing and in between. This is hurting it's playability. I love games that are challanging and perhaps do not have clearly identifiable "quests", but sometimes the player has to go out of character for a while to get their bearings to progress the fantasy in the direction they want. You're not actually the Vault Dweller, you're someone experiencing a story. There is a very high chance you won't experience what your character would reasonably experience. Sometimes you miss important dialogue that the game takes for granted that you have memorised. In a CRPG this can be devastating to the player experience.
I have dropped several playthroughs in many different games simply because I could no longer relate to the adventure and the accumulated experience of my character. Sometimes I need a refresher or a pointer to stay in the fantasy. Games that assume I'm fully absorbed with it from start to finish and always capable of staying on top can very quickly turn into sour and unfullfilling gaming experiences, especially when I feel that my time is wasted doing stuff I'm going to revert to an older save in the end.
Some modern games are indeed doing too much to help the player. The problem is that for the past 10 years or so, many game designers have had this idea that "everyone must be able to finish our games". Corridor shooters with a lot of fluff and MMOs with fully transparent game mechanics (ie "go and kill a few dozen animals in the area marked on your map, you obviously don't care why so skip the wall of text") are safe bets for publishers and developers. Fallout is from a much more organic school of game design for sure, but this doesn't mean the game is hardcore or that it is for more capable minds.
Sometimes it just means the game is a chore to play rather than a fun and engaging fantasy.
