War…War Finally Changed

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

2) That’s Not What I Meant To Say

Early in the game, I started a conversation with my spouse. My options for responses popped up like so.

I thought the option on the left was meant to be romantic. You know, as in, “Like that magical night in the park a year ago? When the moonlight danced upon your features like two lovers engaged in a waltz that will end the pain of this world?”

What? I’m a writer, my brain works better than yours deal with it. 

So I selected that option, which was a HUGE mistake, and now my wife is mad at me. Seconds later, we find out the world is ending in nuclear fire. My wife is holding our child, listening to Ron Perlman sing the song that ends the world, and all she can think is how she married a huge prick.

Later, with a different character, the left option was a super important bit of dialogue, but I didn’t select it because I thought it was the douchebag option. 

This random placement of emotional dialogue would be less of a hazard if the options looked in any way different. The only color coding you get in the game is when you’re planning to intimidate or persuade someone. Otherwise, it all comes out the same gross green as always. By comparison, let’s take a look at Bioware’s latest amazeballs experience, Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Ignore for a moment the wax paper hair on the elf, and notice the dialogue selector. When you pick an option, the image in the center changes to let you know how that bit of verbage is going to sound. Are you flirting? Intimidating? Coercing? It is clearly spelled out so you don’t make mistakes, which allows for more control over your character. Given how important dialogue can be in an RPG (as a Marine Captain put it, Words Mean Stuff), this kind of shoot-from-the-hip approach from Bethesda seems dangerously naive. 

The story in Fallout 4 is good, and the side missions are some of the best in the industry. It seems like such a misstep to lump it all in with a half-cooked dialogue tree.