Fallout 3: A computer game looked at from the perspective of good writing
I've been spending the last week playing a game called Fallout 3 on the PC. Now, this might be perceived as a "geek" post, because I'm talking about a computer game here, but that's not what I wanted this to be. Instead, I want to talk about the writing in this game, because while I've read a lot of books in my time, I have yet to experience the writing that you find in a game of this magnitude.
For starters, the game is a sequel to a series of post-apocalyptic games called Fallout, which is also a loose sequel to a very old 4 color game called Wasteland. Like the very first Wasteland, the premise is that there was a nuclear war, and you are leaving one of the vaults where people escaped to, and you are seeing the new world for the first time. It's a dangerous, horrible place filled with tons of radiation, and the adventure you have is completely unique to you. There is always a strong mission within the story itself, but you're free to do whatever you want to do, and you don't even have to solve the original quest itself if you don't want to. Or you can. The choice is up to you.
Fallout 1 and 2 are considered amongst the greats of roleplaying games (rpgs) in computer gaming history. The story is almost identical, although in the sequel (Fallout 2) you play the descendant of the original vault dweller who leaves into the wasteland to explore. Fallout 3, well, it's like they went back and redid the whole story from scratch, and it's a wonderful adventure because of it. The whole thing plays like it's brand new, and the interface is a lot like a first person shooter, although a better comparison would be to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which is not surprising because Bethesda is the company that did Oblivion, and the company that did Fallout 3.
But I wanted to talk about the writing. One of the things that makes Fallout 3 unique is that the story and the way the story is told is just magnificent. This isn't some "look, there's a bad guy, aim your weapon and kill him" kind of game. Everything you do has moral choices, and even the way you go about doing things has so much richness behind it. In the story, you are "born" to a father who allows you to choose what your character is going to be like, and you actually grow up with that father leading you through some of your most important events in your childhood, up to the point where he escapes from the vault and leaves you to follow after him. The way this is done is told so well.
You have a portable device that you use as your inventory and character screen, and it also acts as your way of handling data within the game. It's where you first receive a radio signal from something called GNR. Then you receive another radio signal from something called the Enclave, which is the successor of what used to be the United States Government. Then as the game goes on, you receive other radio signals, including a really stereotypical Chinese broadcast that keeps telling you to stop doing the dirty deeds for those capitalist pigs that are sending you to your deaths in the war against China.
What's really cool is the uniqueness of those radio signals. GNR is run by Three Dog, and he's the coolest dude in the capital wasteland. You can eventually meet him, and he's just as cool in person as well. And his news is timely and up to date. It's like listening to a regular radio station. Or you can change the signal to the Enclave and listen to patriotic reports and music from President Eden. That's just a scratch on the surface of the radio stuff alone.
And that has little to do with the whole story itself because you have so much land to explore, and almost every little place you go to has some huge back story to it that you can delve into. Or not. The first city I went to was called Megaton, named after an unexploded nuclear missile that crashed into the center of the town. It is surrounded by the Children of the Atom, who worship the Atomic Bomb. The rest of the city isn't all that sane either as their sheriff is some guy in a cowboy hat who wants to instill "frontier justice".
There is so much going on in this game that I am in awe of the greatness of the writing. You turn a corner, and then suddenly there's a story of something you hadn't expected before. The whole adventure takes place in Washington, DC, so you can imagine the different types of stories that can occur. The time line is a little different as well, as the universe of Fallout 3 kind of veers off from ours after World War II, leading into some Twilight Zone-ish kind of world where things are just "different".
I don't play a lot of computer games anymore, mainly because I find them to be really redundant and boring. This game, however, redefines what computer games should be because it put the story back into the world and never compromised. There's a reason it's being hailed as one of the best games ever made.
If I ever get involved in computer game creation again, it will be for this type of game because this is how storytelling should be.
Stumble It!
For starters, the game is a sequel to a series of post-apocalyptic games called Fallout, which is also a loose sequel to a very old 4 color game called Wasteland. Like the very first Wasteland, the premise is that there was a nuclear war, and you are leaving one of the vaults where people escaped to, and you are seeing the new world for the first time. It's a dangerous, horrible place filled with tons of radiation, and the adventure you have is completely unique to you. There is always a strong mission within the story itself, but you're free to do whatever you want to do, and you don't even have to solve the original quest itself if you don't want to. Or you can. The choice is up to you.
Fallout 1 and 2 are considered amongst the greats of roleplaying games (rpgs) in computer gaming history. The story is almost identical, although in the sequel (Fallout 2) you play the descendant of the original vault dweller who leaves into the wasteland to explore. Fallout 3, well, it's like they went back and redid the whole story from scratch, and it's a wonderful adventure because of it. The whole thing plays like it's brand new, and the interface is a lot like a first person shooter, although a better comparison would be to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which is not surprising because Bethesda is the company that did Oblivion, and the company that did Fallout 3.
But I wanted to talk about the writing. One of the things that makes Fallout 3 unique is that the story and the way the story is told is just magnificent. This isn't some "look, there's a bad guy, aim your weapon and kill him" kind of game. Everything you do has moral choices, and even the way you go about doing things has so much richness behind it. In the story, you are "born" to a father who allows you to choose what your character is going to be like, and you actually grow up with that father leading you through some of your most important events in your childhood, up to the point where he escapes from the vault and leaves you to follow after him. The way this is done is told so well.
You have a portable device that you use as your inventory and character screen, and it also acts as your way of handling data within the game. It's where you first receive a radio signal from something called GNR. Then you receive another radio signal from something called the Enclave, which is the successor of what used to be the United States Government. Then as the game goes on, you receive other radio signals, including a really stereotypical Chinese broadcast that keeps telling you to stop doing the dirty deeds for those capitalist pigs that are sending you to your deaths in the war against China.
What's really cool is the uniqueness of those radio signals. GNR is run by Three Dog, and he's the coolest dude in the capital wasteland. You can eventually meet him, and he's just as cool in person as well. And his news is timely and up to date. It's like listening to a regular radio station. Or you can change the signal to the Enclave and listen to patriotic reports and music from President Eden. That's just a scratch on the surface of the radio stuff alone.
And that has little to do with the whole story itself because you have so much land to explore, and almost every little place you go to has some huge back story to it that you can delve into. Or not. The first city I went to was called Megaton, named after an unexploded nuclear missile that crashed into the center of the town. It is surrounded by the Children of the Atom, who worship the Atomic Bomb. The rest of the city isn't all that sane either as their sheriff is some guy in a cowboy hat who wants to instill "frontier justice".
There is so much going on in this game that I am in awe of the greatness of the writing. You turn a corner, and then suddenly there's a story of something you hadn't expected before. The whole adventure takes place in Washington, DC, so you can imagine the different types of stories that can occur. The time line is a little different as well, as the universe of Fallout 3 kind of veers off from ours after World War II, leading into some Twilight Zone-ish kind of world where things are just "different".
I don't play a lot of computer games anymore, mainly because I find them to be really redundant and boring. This game, however, redefines what computer games should be because it put the story back into the world and never compromised. There's a reason it's being hailed as one of the best games ever made.
If I ever get involved in computer game creation again, it will be for this type of game because this is how storytelling should be.
Labels: Computer Gaming, Writing
Stumble It!
posted by Duane @ 8:35 PM
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