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theseventhoffrostfall · 1 year

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Actually, since I have a few days yet before I transition back into WarPosting Mode (ceaseless autistic worldbuilding, updates on books I'm reading, and occasional tales of getting shelled, running away, and looting On-Site Procurement of Supplementary Funding) I suppose I have time for some of my more common brand of autism

Namely, having been playing F:NV so directly on the heels of 4, I'm reminded of Bethesda's frankly scummy habit of frontloading/centerloading all of the production value in their games.

New Vegas, the first several towns and major quests you come across, you're presented with a number of factions to support, some minor-to-moderate choices to be made, and piles of skill checks to pass or fail depending on your build. This is presented with basically the exact same level of voice acting, animation work (actually a bit less, consider the few bits of scripting and set pieces happen much later for momentous occasions) present through the rest of the game; a few static, pre-planned encounters happen along the road you're travelling for cowboy vengeance, from the minor (raider gangs and wildlife) to the major (The Legion's burnt down a town), all to set the stage for the game to come in the most honest way possible.

4, you come out of your cryotube and out of the vault commenting on everything, special voicelines for everything you see. The first NPC you're expected to talk to is the only one who actually possesses the vaunted-in-promo-material attribute of acknowledging your chosen name. You'll likely proceed to Concord, for, infamously, a protracted setpiece battle that sees you grabbing power armor and a minigun and fighting a deathclaw--power armor being among the very few attributes to get special animations for things like climbing inside it, deathclaws being one of the rare enemies with special grab- and kill-animations, you get the idea. The three locations you're pushed towards afterwards are:

1.) Abernathy Farm, where you'll meet some of the only named settlers, who have a specific quest with a bit more narrative (if not functional) meat than "we're being bothered by enemies please go kill them", which sends you to a fairly distinctive base where you fight one of the few Raider bosses to have a distinctive weapon/gimmick or any distinguishing feature besides being named

2.) The first Minuteman mission, which is guaranteed to always give you the objective of clearing Corvega, the largest, most elaborate, densely-populated base in the game that isn't a faction headquarters.

3.) Diamond City, the by-far larger of the game's, like, two towns. Namely, you get an elaborate scripted sequence with a conversation running between numerous NPCs, the most prominent of which is also making (badly) hand-crafted gesticulations.

The trend continues-- picture the quality of this game as a big wedge shape. Very early on there's effort put into making almost everything you see in every direction look and give the impression of being highly-produced, deep, well-written and well-scripted content with unique assets and voice actors galore. The deeper you go into the main quest, the more that bridge of high-effort content over the ocean of generic radiant quests narrows until, right after the Prydwen docks and/or you go around your tour of the Institute, where even the tightrope you were walking on vanishes and even the main quest consists of fetch quests and area-clearing missions in recycled areas.

It goes beyond prioritizing time and budget and into a very clear ploy to make sure anyone's first impression of the game (from game journalist on a tight schedule to player who's gonna leave reviews and spread word of mouth) is as good as it possibly can be, and that took priority over everything else including the actual overall quality of the game

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