Fallout 3 - Hands-on

Onlangs kreeg X-Power de kans om Fallout 3 onder handen te nemen, en daar zeg je natuurlijk niet neen tegen. Als er niet direct een belletje rinkelt: Fallout is een befaamde rpg-reeks, destijds ontwikkeld door Black Isle. Deze sequel liet lang op zich wachten en is geen direct vervolg. Deze titel wordt bovendien ontwikkeld door een compleet ander team. En niet zomaar het eerste het beste: niemand minder dan Bethesda staat aan het roer van deze opvolger! Je zal deze studio vast nog herinneren als de spirituele vader van Oblivion, de schitterende rpg die vrij kort na de lancering van de Xbox 360 brokken maakte.

Intussen hebben we nog maar net de indrukwekkende E3 beelden van Fallout 3 achter de kiezen. De titel opende immers de Microsoft conference en maakte indruk. Ik moet dus niet vertellen dat we zaten te watertanden om zelf in de vervallen wereld van Fallout 3 binnen te duiken. Bij aankomst kregen we eerst een korte demo te zien, gepresenteerd door Pete Hines, Bethesda-woordvoerder van dienst. Jammer genoeg werd dezelfde demo getoond als op E3. Aangezien zowat iedereen deze strakke HD-beelden intussen wel al gedownload zal hebben van de marketplace, gaan we hier niet meer over uitweiden. Na dit opwarmertje kregen we gelukkig een uurtje de kans om zelf te spelen, en dit in een op het eerste zicht vrij compleet ogende wereld. Hier en daar staken nog wel enkele bugs de kop op, maar we konden ons desondanks een mooi beeld vormen van wat het eindresultaat zal worden. En het belooft heel wat!

We starten de game wanneer we Vault 101 verlaten, de bunker waar je hele leven zich tot dan afspeelde. De tutorial en character build die hieraan vooraf gaan slaan we over. Een zware metalen poort zwaait open, even worden we verblind door een fel licht, en luttele seconden later openbaart zich de door een atoombom vernielde wereld van Fallout voor onze ogen. Het eerste wat opvalt is hoe ver het landschap zich wel uitstrekt. De wereld van Oblivion was al immens groot, maar dit is minstens even indrukwekkend. Je tuurt over de woestenijen van Washington DC na de bom. In de verte zie je de ter ziele gegane stad, overal staan ruïnes en er hangt een pijnlijke stilte over het hele gebied. Heel even lijkt het er op dat je het enige bovengrondse wezen bent dat nog in leven is. “Waar naar toe?”, gaat er door mijn hoofd, dus begin ik maar rond te zwerven in de richting van iets wat van ver op een vernielde autosnelwegbrug lijkt. Onderweg kom ik de eerste tekenen van leven tegen. Enkele gemuteerde ratten kruisen mijn pad, en na enkele welgemikte schoten tussen hun knaagtanden zet ik mijn weg verder.

Al snel blijken er echter ook mensen rond te dwalen in dit onheilspellende landschap, de een al vijandiger gezind dan de andere. Je kan ze te lijf gaan met wat je maar vindt. De nadruk ligt in tegenstelling tot Oblivion veel meer op vuurwapens dan op melee combat. Zelfs al ben je eerder het type dat mensen in elkaar ramt met een slagwapen, dan nog zal je niet op je honger blijven zitten. Zo kwam ik een kerel tegen die me aanviel met een biljartkeu. Na een raak schot tussen zijn ogen was de keu de mijne, en kon ik er zelf mee beginnen timmeren op vijanden. Enkel het blauwe krijtje ontbrak nog. Let wel, je wapens slijten naar mate je ze gebruikt dus ze tijdig repareren is de boodschap.

Fallout 3 laat je overigens de keuze tussen spelen in first person of third person view. Gelukkig zijn de animaties in het third person standpunt al iets minder houterig dan in Oblivion. Je kan de gevechten op twee manieren aanpakken: ofwel speel je in realtime, zo’n beetje als een gewone shooter dus. Ofwel gebruik je het VATS-systeem, waar je de actie pauzeert en heel specifiek kunt aangeven welk lichaamsdeel je wilt raken. Hiervoor dien je wel action points te spenderen. Je bent vrij in welke aanpak je verkiest, de een is niet noodzakelijk efficiënter dan de andere. Zoals het een echte rpg betaamt krijg je ook ervaringspunten voor je daden. Je kan dan punten toewijzen aan skills. Je science skill laat bijvoorbeeld toe om computers en turrets te hacken. Groeien in een bepaalde specialiteit kan echter ook op andere manieren. Zo kan je boeken vinden. Wanneer je deze leest verbeter je een bepaalde skill. Levelen kan tot maximum level 20. Dankzij een kompas dat voorzien is van een questtracker vind je snel waar je moet zijn. Handig, en zeker noodzakelijk in een grote wereld als deze.

De vraag op vele lippen is ongetwijfeld: is dit nu Oblivion in een futuristische setting? Bethesda beweert dat Fallout zich voldoende onderscheidt van hun middeleeuwse voorganger. Wat mij betreft leunt het toch heel sterk aan bij de gameplay van Oblivion. Zelfs de controls zijn grotendeels hetzelfde. Maar daar houden de gelijkenissen niet op. De mogelijkheden zijn even uitgebreid, en de vrijheid is enorm. De grote verschillen mogen dan wel vooral cosmetisch zijn, je voelt toch direct dat dit van de hand van Bethesda komt. Wie hier een pure Fallout-titel gaat verwachten zal misschien lichtjes teleurgesteld zijn, want er is wel degelijk heel wat veranderd sinds de laatste Fallout game. Een isometrische 2D-titel kan je sowieso niet gaan vergelijken met de 3D-kaskrakers van tegenwoordig. En gelukkig maar, want tegenwoordig weet men toch beter hoe een game boeiend te maken. Toch vind ik dat Bethesda de Fallout-wereld met respect benaderd heeft. De smakelijke humor alleen al maakt het een ervaring als geen ander. Koppel dit aan gelijkaardige gameplay van een der grootste rpg’s van de laatste jaren, Oblivion, en je hebt geen reden tot klagen.

Voor Oblivion fans zou ik durven stellen dat Fallout 3 sowieso verplichte kost is, maar ook voor nieuwkomers is Bethesda’s nieuwste creatie zeker een kijkje waard. Er staan immers geen andere noemenswaardige rpg’s van dit kaliber gepland voor de rest van het jaar. De speelduur liegt er alvast niet om: 100 uur als je alle quests en sidequests doet. Reserveer zeker een dikke week in je agenda wanneer deze kanjer in het najaar verschijnt!

Na onze hands-on kregen we bovendien de kans om een kort interview te doen met Pete Hines. Een gelegenheid die we uiteraard niet aan ons voorbij lieten gaan, aangezien we nog heel wat vragen hadden over Fallout 3. Jammer genoeg kregen we slechts een kwartiertje tijd, waardoor vele vragen niet gesteld raakten. Toch kwamen er nog enkele interessante weetjes boven tijdens dit gesprek. Wat ons betreft kan het najaar niet snel genoeg komen!

XP: In Oblivion opponents leveled along with you. This way you always had challenging fights, however it never really gave the feeling of accomplishment. Basically you felt as powerful at level 5 as when you were level 20. How does it work in Fallout 3?

P.H.: Leveling in Fallout 3 is actually very different. Basically, the way it works is that things are the way they are. If you go into an area and there is a bunch of really tough creatures that you need to handle, you can leave and level up and be much tougher then them. When you come back they will be the same as you left them. You’ll find areas of the game right when you start that are easier or harder when you first get there. So you can come back to an area and be really tough and wipe them out, as opposed to Oblivion where it just kept getting harder and harder. There are certain parts of the game where we do check what level you are, so that you are not getting a challenge that is way too difficult for you when you get there. Particularly if it is an area where you are sort of locked in and you can’t leave and come back. We do check to make sure. But a super mutant is always a super mutant. We may change what kind of weapon they are carrying, but you don’t suddenly go from seeing a skeleton, to a dread wraith that it is impossible to kill. We don’t do those kind of changes anymore.

XP: The combat system gives you different approaches. You can either tackle the fights in very tactical way, using VATS, or you could just blast your way through in real-time like a regular shooter. Is VATS more effective but slower to use?

P.H.: It is about the same percent chance hit in real-time versus VATS. Because when you are playing, your character is moving, and so it is based somewhat on your ability to move and keep a crosshair on an enemy. If you are better at a first person or third person shooter, then you are better able to move and keep a crosshair on what you are aiming at. Then the percentage hit is pretty much same. The difference is when a ghoul or molerat is coming at you when you are trying to move and keep the crosshair on it, you are introducing your error into the game. Whereas VATS says: I don’t care if the player can target something or not. I’m just gonna tell you what is the gameplay characters chance of hitting this. So that’s the difference as it removes your ability to use the keyboard and mouse or controller.

XP: The humor in Fallout 3 looks very important. The cartoons, the look of the website, everything breathes humor. How difficult is it to implement jokes in such a depressing world?

P.H.: It is actually something we spent a lot of time thinking about and working on, because we wanted it to be there. The previous Fallout games had it, and there it was very good. We have to be careful how much we use it, so that it is humor that you only find in certain places. We are not trying to make a funny game. We are just trying to use bits of humor here and there to lighten up what is a very bleak and post apocalyptic world where things are all blown up and people are struggling to survive. You get some funny things that people say in dialogue, or you see some of the pre-war posters up and some stuff that kind of makes you laugh or smile. We spend a lot of time making sure we are doing it just right.

XP: Fallout 3 presents a world after an atomic blast. If you leave the Vault you’re more than likely in constant danger of radiation. How does this affect the player?

P.H.: Well it is 200 years later. So after 200 years a lot of radiation has disappeared from a lot of areas where you walk around. As you play the game, you do cross areas where there is still persistent radiation as you walk around. And than you also find radiation that is still very present in more subtle ways. All the food that you find to eat or heal yourself, all has radiation-damage. All the water that you find to drink, at least the most of it, has some level of radiation. So there is still lots of radiation around but it is just how it is presented to the player. Every step you take, there is always radiation. So it becomes impossible for the player to manage or to deal with because it is always there. So we present it to you in different ways.

XP: Can it be life-threatening in some places?

P.H.: Yes, I actually saw somebody getting radiation-sickness just now. So if you keep getting exposed to it than you get specs that decrease, worse and worse and then eventually if it gets too bad it will kill you.

XP: The third person animations in Oblivion weren’t exactly great. Are they better in Fallout 3? And why does Bethesda still chooses third person animations?

P.H.: Mostly because we found a lot of people, particularly in Europe, very much prefer third person to first person. They really like their third person perspective and seeing their character. A lot of us in the office actually prefer first person if you have a choice. When I did a lot of press tours for Oblivion I noticed how many people played in third person, and so we spend a lot more time working on a better camera system for the third person to make it a viable option to people. It‘s a choice, if you want to use it you can.

XP: When you target a creature with the VATS system, you see various percentages on it’s limbs. It seems obvious to choose the highest percentage and leave the lower percentages alone. Is that the best way to play?

P.H.: No, for a couple of reasons. Number one: depending on the enemy you are fighting, some areas of the body are more vulnerable then others. You‘ll notice that when you target different body parts some will do much more damage to a creature’s health than others. So you may have like an 80% change of hitting a torso, but you are only gonna do a little bit of damage. Whereas there is a lower percent chance to hit the head, you should do much more damage. So that might be one reason to target something else. Another reason: each bodypart has a condition that’s represented by a health bar percentage. When that bar goes all the way down that part is considered crippled. So even if there’s not a good chance to hit, you might target their legs to try and cripple them. Once they move more slowly they can’t get to you to attack you. Whereas if you are fighting an enemy who is using a weapon out of cover, you might target their arms so that they can’t fire their weapon as accurately. You also might target the weapon to try and disable it. There are different tactics based on the kind of enemies you are facing.

XP: The original Fallout titles were made by an entirely different company. Did you consult them on how to make the sequel?

P.H.: I wouldn’t say we consulted them. We certainly talked to guys who worked on the original games. Just kind of chatted with a few of them. Most of those guys are doing something else. Our stance was: if folks wanted to work on it, they were welcome to apply and come work at Bethesda. We didn’t really start with a clean slate. It actually started with Fallout 1. We wanted to make a new Fallout game, but we needed it to be as much like Fallout 2, more than Fallout 1.

XP: These days, more and more games rely on multiplayer, online co-op etc. Singleplayer titles also tend to get shorter and shorter. Do you think there is a future for the standard singleplayer game as we’ve known it for years now?

P.H.: For us there are couple of reasons why we focus on singleplayer. Any time you add any other type of mode beyond singleplayer, that is something the team has to focus on. It divides your focus and you have to spend less time focusing on the singleplayer. But you also have to worry about how it works in co-op. How many enemies do you have to fight in singleplayer, and is that enough enemies to fight in co-op? So it ends up being a distraction of the core experience. We want it to be as much fun as possible. In the case of Fallout it also doesn’t necessarily fit. The idea of Fallout is this: you are this person who is thrown into this post apocalyptic world, and you are trying to make your own way in this world. While you can hire a companion, the story is more focused around you on your own, and what it is you do to survive in this world. So throw in another character who is experiencing that with you kind of changes that.

XP: Do you think the Fallout world could work as a mmorpg?

P.H.: Interplay has licensed the right to develop an MMO on Fallout, but we have nothing to do with that. We are not developing it, but we still have certain rights to it.

XP: Do you have to do everything on foot in the game?

P.H.: You do have to explore everywhere on foot, but there is a fast travel system. Once you have discovered a location you can fast travel between any location you already discovered. It works much like it did in Oblivion.

XP: One thing not all RPG's succeed in, is providing good sidequests for the player. According to some, Mass Effect failed in this (to name a recent example), so could you tell us if this has been a concern for Fallout 3? Could you also mention a few examples, if possible?

P.H.: I tend not to. I usually don’t like to give specific examples because it ends to being spoilers. We have probably 25 hours of content for the main quests, and then probably another 75 or more hours of side quests. So there is tons of content out there for the player to find. One of the things you can find in Megaton is a lady who runs the trading post there, and who is writing a survival guide. She wants you to be her field researcher, so she sends you out on all these quests to find out more information about this, that, and the other. And you end up not only having to go to these places to collect information but you also get the flavor, the tone of the survival guide by the way that you talk to her, the answers you get, what you do and don’t find and so forth. So we have things like that or situations where you want to give the player the ability to decide how they want to solve the main quest. You can resort to combat or try and use dialogue and talk you way through situations. You can be an evil guy or you can be a good guy, or you can be a neutral guy. We give the player a chance to explore all those different ways to solve quests.

XP: How can you interact with your fellow party members, both with Dogmeat and the human NPC's?

P.H.: It is done through dialogue. So even with the dog, you can talk to him and he barks back to you. You give basic commands: you tell him to stay put and wait for you if you are gonna explore a location and you don’t want him coming along or get hurt. You can tell him to stay back in combat and not run in and have a fight. You can send him off and ask him to find things for you like ammo. He’ll go running around the environment trying to find ammo for you. So different things like that. And it works similarly with companions. You can give them basic comments of how you want them to act in combat.

XP: The game director jokingly said once that there won't be DLC similar to horse armor. What other kind of content can we expect then? Oblivion-esque expansions maybe?

P.H.: I think the for the most part, our plans right now are for it to be substantial. More similar to Knights Of The Nine, that we did for Oblivion. So several hours of gameplay.

XP: How accessible will Fallout 3 be for those that haven't played the previous iterations yet, especially story-wise? Would you say that a "newbie" has to play the other games first in order to appreciate Fallout 3?

P.H.: We have a philosophy that we followed with the Elder Scrolls that we also follow with Fallout 3. If you have played the previous games in this series there are certainly things in there that you‘ll appreciate: references to the overall series or previous games. But each game stands on its own. You can come into it whether you are a huge Fallout fan or never played the games before, and experience and enjoy it. So you’ll understand exactly what is going on without having to play the previous ones. The game is really able to appeal to both hardcore Fallout folks and people who have never played before.

XP: So with Fallout 3 nearing completion, time to think about Elder scrolls 5?

P.H.: You’ll have to wait and see ☺