#here he really thought he was alongside another faction but nope... it was still the federation this whole time

[hgduo]

There is something so beautiful about how earlier that day Cellbit and Max were talking about Jaiden and Foolish working for the feds and saying that they were using their naivety, innocence, love for others- there weaknesses and strengths- all of that to manipulate them into doing tasks for them...

and then later that same night it's revealed that Cellbit had been unknowingly working for The Federation... Everything he had been doing these past weeks was helping them- That was being manipulated and used by them this entire time and didn't even know it...

#qsmp #cellbit #it reminds me of how they used him before when Felps was missing- how they lead him further and further in and once he was in the building #teased him with mysteries that were really just bait- but at least back then he was aware of that he was working alongside them #here he really thought he was alongside another faction but nope... it was still the federation this whole time #it's beautiful really... having his illusion of control and progress pulled out like a rug underneath him man #they used it all against him- his pull towards solving mysteries- his love of his family- he feverish desire to leave this place- #like he talked about the others being naive and failed to see it in himself in the end- God damn!

[you-have-startled-the-witch]

ok, over the past couple week i’ve spent like 30-ish hours playing fallout 4 (and i intend to spend many more because i’m having a ton of fun &c &c) but like. i just sort of wanted to put down some thoughts about an issue i had. ppl have discussed this before but i wanna put it in my own words!

essentially, i feel like 4 had breadth without having depth. like, ok. the weapon/armor modification. the settlement system (i fuckin love building houses and farming). a ton of really fun and interesting companions. prettier graphics and lighting (i love you nv but i see nothing but brown and orange in my dreams every night and it’s terrible). and a bigger world, with hundreds of new locations to explore.

except. therein lies the problem. fallout is, and always has been, extremely good at environmental storytelling. a skeleton holding an empty pistol with one bullet on the ground, an abandoned church with pews full of bodies, ruined schools and nursing homes and campgrounds with tons of little details that make the world feel both lived-in and abandoned. it’s great and as a big fan of exploring in games, i love it. but i feel like, with the new abundance of locations, the game’s more human and roleplaying elements got stretched thin. i can walk into an old factory and read a terminal about what happened there...and how everyone in the building is dead now and it’s full of mirelurks. it all becomes sort of a “walk in, kill raiders/ghouls/roaches/etc, rinse and repeat.” gives me the feeling that an interesting story happened here, and i juuust missed the opportunity to be any part of it.

and like, ok, there are tons of areas and obviously not every single one needs to have quests and interactions attached to it. but there are so many of them that have really good potential for characters who i can talk to and not just immediately gun down. how about the irish pride shipyard - a terminal inside reveals that a man living there was trying to raise and tame mirelurks; you fight and kill lots of them and then discover his dead body next to the loot chest. but wouldn’t it be much more interesting if he were still alive, and angry at you for killing his pets? what if you could negotiate with him to calm them down, or help you fight them, and maybe if you failed he’d attack you? or, the east boston preparatory school. home to a group of raiders who captured and tortured people in order to get them to sign a blood contract to join the gang, and run by some fucked-up raider jury system. and you walk in and... kill everyone, find a bunch of empty prison cells, and read about what happened on some terminals. interesting, but wouldn’t it be much better if you could, say, help free a torture victim? maybe pretend to infiltrate the gang and launch an attack on their “judge” and leader at one of their “trials?” how about the beantown brewery, where a terminal reveals that the gang hiding out there quickly ran out of food and was forced to negotiate with another group of raiders at a military rationing site. at some point they kidnap the sister of the rationing site’s leader, accidentally kill her, and continue sending fake letters, pretending the girl is alive so they can keep getting food. you can visit both places, kill everyone inside, and then read the letters. but wouldn’t it be more interesting if you could talk to them and try to pick a side? help one woman try to get her sister back, or help the other raiders and lie that she’s still alive, maybe for a bigger reward? or, ok, here’s a more plot-relevant one: the combat zone where you meet cait. you walk in and you can watch her fight for a bit... and then you kill all the raiders inside and she agrees to travel with you. but what if, instead, they invited you in, you could bet money on fighters or take part in an actual match (maybe even against or alongside cait herself?) and have a quick way of making some money. but nope, what could have been an interesting place is just kind of empty and only there to look pretty.

i like the game a lot and i appreciate its good elements! but, the main story railroading you into playing a very specific way, the generally one-dimensional factions, and this lack of opportunities for even side-quest character growth and roleplaying in what’s supposed to be an RPG make the game feel sort of exhausting at times. i’m really tired of “kill and repeat” when i know this series is capable of much more.

#thewitchbitches #long post #there were a few places that have quests attached to them #like covenant was really cool and vault 81 was fun and i loved all of nick's detective missions! #it just felt painfully void of places where i could do something other than fight my way through