In case you have been locked in a vault for the last few months, Bethesda will be at E3. This has got many people excited as it could lead to the much awaited announcement of Fallout 4. But E3 is still months away and we can only hope for an announcement, but we can also speculate. What could make the beloved Fallout franchise even better? As a fan myself I've thought long and hard and I've come up with three changes that could make the next Fallout the best ever.
1.More emphasis on survival.
One of the most perplexing facts of the Fallout universe is how anyone survives in the wastelands.
Sometimes it seems that the landscape is a little too forgiving; every raider or super mutant worth his salt is armed to the teeth with pre war weapons, Stimpaks seem to have a two century expiry date and food miraculously survives decomposition. These necessities should be few and far between which could make resource management a priority, and if the weapon crafting from Fallout 3 and the hardcore mode from New Vegas became mandatory then the gameplay could become more challenging and the exploration more rewarding.
See that Robco facility in the distance? It could be full of rare components or treasures but you had better take enough food and water to survive the journey.
2.Overhaul the V.A.T.S.
Fallout would not be the same without V.A.T.S and some have dared to suggest it should be scrapped altogether. However V.A.T.S is not perfect; the stop/start system used in the previous two instalments can upset the fluidity of combat as V.A.T.S effectively pauses the game, and when a deathclaw is charging at you I doubt that it will be courteous enough to sit and wait for you to carefully consider what body part it wants shot.
Perhaps the developers could take a leaf from Red Dead Redemptions book by slowing time instead of halting it, which could make the combat more fluid and frantic and every Action Point would become a precious commodity and the various V.A.T.S related perks would play a bigger role. There is still a place for V.A.T.S in fallout but with a few tweaks it could become even better, and taking on one of gamings most feared creatures could become an even more terrifying and memorable experience.
3.Make the A.I smarter.
The one recurring facet of most games is that as the difficulty goes up the enemies don't get any smarter, only tougher. A super mutant will act the same way on normal as he will on hard-the only difference is he will take an extra two clips to put him down on hard. The last two instalments did add the ever present danger of mines, traps and tripwires, but these were placed by the level editors and not the enemies themselves. The foes of this post apocalyptic world should be hardened and shrewd-not the cannon fodder that they appear to be.
Real time booby traps laid by a fleeing raider or a strategic bottleneck that super mutants fall back to could force the players to tread carefully and always expect the unexpected. From Softwares souls series showed us that clever level design and clever enemies can provide many heart in your mouth moments and if the developers of Fallout 4 could capture that essence then the combat would be memorable.
In conclusion, Fallout 4 could be the FPS that reinvigorates the genre-In an age of quick matchmaking and Deathmatches Fallout is one of the few games that provided a engaging single player experience which is why so many gamers are eager for the next instalment.
So are those three proposals spot on or way off the mark? Do you have your own ideas on how to make Fallout 4 the best ever? This Vault Boy is eager to hear the responses.
Fallout 4 will most likely be so dumbed down by Bugthesda that points 1 & 3 will be absent entirely. The enemies may as well be cardboard cutouts.
VATS being the ultimate hand holder, will still be present but in a format so buggy you won't want to use it. Fortunately, the AI will be so bad that you won't need it.
In conclusion, Fallout is supposed to be an RPG.
Yeah I've been saying for Vats to slow time with fluidity instead of stopping it.