Now that we’ve seen the Fallout 4 announcement and the reveal of gameplay, it’s time to talk about what we hope the game is like to play. Both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas have their charms, but we’d like to see the best of both of them come together in the newest title. Here are eight things that we’d like to see in Fallout 4.
Got a suggestion we missed? Tell us in the comments!
Vehicles
Vehicles are everywhere in the world of Fallout, but we haven’t been able to drive one since Fallout 2, outside of mods. With the news that the world of Fallout 4 will be the biggest one yet, this is the time to bring back vehicles in a big way. They don’t have to be everywhere, or always available, but personally pilotable vehicles would be a great addition to the series.
Improved combat and gunplay
While V.A.T.S. has always been a huge part of the Fallout experience, this wish isn’t about changing that. It’s more about making sure the fans of first-person and third-person games have a great experience too. As good as the last couple of Fallout games have been, the real-time combat has always felt a bit off. Refining that experience could expand the audience that much more.
Make the epic moments epic
What does “Make the epic moments epic” mean? It means that when I expect to see a huge, pitched battle, that’s what I want to see. Throughout New Vegas, people were talking about the first battle at Hoover Dam, and how huge and awesome it was, but when the second one rolled around, it was not just disappointing, it was anticlimactic. Worse, it was never exciting. Hopefully, the new engine and added horsepower of the new consoles will allow Bethesda to make some really large-scale encounters.
Less Bugs
I know. At this point, bugs in a Bethesda game are almost part of the experience. You expect to see monsters stuck in the landscape, vanishing NPCs, and other such nonsense. But just because those bugs are common doesn’t mean we should just accept them. In this new generation, it’s time for a Bethesda game that doesn’t knock you out of the experience by rotating the head of the NPC you’re talking to, or corrupting your latest save file.
A Livelier World
While there was plenty to do in both Fallout 3 and New Vegas, there were also vast stretches of open land with nary a soul to be seen. On top of that, even the metropolitan area of New Vegas still felt mostly empty. Give NPCs lives and reasons to move around, and make the cities feel alive. On top of that, more wandering encounters in the wasteland wouldn’t be remiss, either.
Improved Karma System
While I have always liked the idea behind the karma system in Fallout, it’s always vexed me a bit as well. If you chose the world-altering step of nuking a town in Fallout 3, you could still be a good person. It wasn’t even all that hard to work your way back from. If there were certain choices that you couldn’t recover from, it would give the system more weight. Also, why does it give me bad karma to clean out the footlockers of the Legion soldiers who just attacked me without provocation? Let’s fix this up, Bethesda.
More Obsidian-like characters
If you’ve played both Fallout 3 and New Vegas, then you know that Bethesda fills a world with great detail, but Obsidian is much better at making the storyline and characters morally ambiguous. Fallout 4 shouldn’t be the story of you saving the world, but of you saving yourself. If Fallout 4 can split the difference between the two previous games, it could be the best game in the series.
An even more Hardcore mode
The wasteland has been deadly, but never overwhelming. New Vegas added a hardcore mode, but it was still not overwhelming, as there was plenty of food, water, and other necessities to sustain you. What I’d like to see is a super-hardcore, or realism mode. Make the world more dangerous, and challenge players to make tough decisions about using consumables, exploring dangerous places, and choosing perks and skills. It could be an alternate difficulty setting, but Bethesda should really try to implement it.
