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xannosideLast time I wrote about Fallout 3, it was to make a minor nitpick about how the game will occasionally force your decision-making into one or two paths in order to create a plot point, and it's particularly annoying given the open-ended nature of the regular game-play.
Well, the ending of the plot is even more guilty of this unfortunate turn of design.
Obviously, there will be spoilers in these here hills.
Okay, so you've acquired the G.E.C.K. and you've met Fawkes, and by the time you get away from the Enclave and their crazy as shit "President", you've almost certainly kept Fawkes with you (unless you're a sneaking character), because he/she's fracking invincible and has a Gatling Laser Cannon.
The Brotherhood figures that the Enclave is just too crazy to be trusted with control of the water supply of the entire post-apocalyptic Washington DC area, and decides to attack Project Purity head on and take it back. Again, so far so good.
You join in, fight your way back to Project Purity, have the climactic firefight, and everything is fine.
And then, shit just stops making any kind of sense.
Yes, granted, it's a post-nuclear dystopian story, a lot of shit doesn't really make sense, but this is where it stops even being consistent to itself.
Project Purity is irradiated, and the only way to fix it and cleanse the water supply is to walk into the chamber, enter in the code to purge the radiation from the water supply, and succumb to the radiation you've already absorbed, secure in the knowledge that you've saved everyone (or killed everyone if that floats your boat).
This is why that's stupid just from what you've seen and done in the game already.
1) Unless you've been swimming everywhere, you've probably got enough Rad-Away and Rad-X to avoid lethal doses of radiation for at least ten minutes.
2) On top of this, if you have an anti-rad suit, you can probably last at least another 5 minutes.
3) In this extra time, they should easily be able to get you back into the externally-controlled airlock they used to get you in the chamber in the first place and, you know, not leave you to die when your anti-rad measures run out.
4) (And this one is the kicker) - FAWKES IS IMMUNE TO RADIATION, YOU ASSHOLES! IT'S A MANDATORY PLOT-POINT!! Why the hell would ANYONE in their right mind walk into likely irradiated death just because the radiation-immune super-being standing right next to you insists "it's your destiny"?
Look, I know that forcing a plot-point in inherently open-ended gameplay is difficult, but was there really no way that Bethesda couldn't have avoided the above problems? How about in the final firefight, the ceiling caves in and you're the only one who can make it to the chamber?
If you're going to force a choice, don't do it half-way.
Well, the ending of the plot is even more guilty of this unfortunate turn of design.
Obviously, there will be spoilers in these here hills.
Okay, so you've acquired the G.E.C.K. and you've met Fawkes, and by the time you get away from the Enclave and their crazy as shit "President", you've almost certainly kept Fawkes with you (unless you're a sneaking character), because he/she's fracking invincible and has a Gatling Laser Cannon.
The Brotherhood figures that the Enclave is just too crazy to be trusted with control of the water supply of the entire post-apocalyptic Washington DC area, and decides to attack Project Purity head on and take it back. Again, so far so good.
You join in, fight your way back to Project Purity, have the climactic firefight, and everything is fine.
And then, shit just stops making any kind of sense.
Yes, granted, it's a post-nuclear dystopian story, a lot of shit doesn't really make sense, but this is where it stops even being consistent to itself.
Project Purity is irradiated, and the only way to fix it and cleanse the water supply is to walk into the chamber, enter in the code to purge the radiation from the water supply, and succumb to the radiation you've already absorbed, secure in the knowledge that you've saved everyone (or killed everyone if that floats your boat).
This is why that's stupid just from what you've seen and done in the game already.
1) Unless you've been swimming everywhere, you've probably got enough Rad-Away and Rad-X to avoid lethal doses of radiation for at least ten minutes.
2) On top of this, if you have an anti-rad suit, you can probably last at least another 5 minutes.
3) In this extra time, they should easily be able to get you back into the externally-controlled airlock they used to get you in the chamber in the first place and, you know, not leave you to die when your anti-rad measures run out.
4) (And this one is the kicker) - FAWKES IS IMMUNE TO RADIATION, YOU ASSHOLES! IT'S A MANDATORY PLOT-POINT!! Why the hell would ANYONE in their right mind walk into likely irradiated death just because the radiation-immune super-being standing right next to you insists "it's your destiny"?
Look, I know that forcing a plot-point in inherently open-ended gameplay is difficult, but was there really no way that Bethesda couldn't have avoided the above problems? How about in the final firefight, the ceiling caves in and you're the only one who can make it to the chamber?
If you're going to force a choice, don't do it half-way.
