Player Beats Fallout 4 Without Killing Anything

[Steven Bogos]

Player Beats Fallout 4 Without Killing Anything

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Fallout 4 often demands you shoot people in the face. To this, gamer Kyle Hinckley says "no".

"I can't tell you that you can play the whole game without violence - that's not necessarily a goal of ours," Fallout 4 lead designer Todd Howard said back in July, 2015. While most people would take this quote at face value, gamer Kyle Hinckley took it as a challenge. Hinckley has just accomplished the unthinkable: completing a full "pacifist" run of Fallout 4, where his character doesn't kill a single person, creature, or mutant.

You can watch the entire series of Hinckley's play-through right here [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcg6Kygx-MfRzt1Kf6oUZTvdocDYtQX-M], but keep in mind there are a few caveats. First up, to make it even more impressive, Hinckley is playing the game on "survival" mode - the hardest difficulty in the game. And, while his character technically never kills anyone, it doesn't mean no blood is shed. With a very high charisma stat, Hinckley is able to convince various characters to do his dirty work for him. It's worth noting that Hinckley achieves all of this without the use of a companion, as any kills made by your companion count towards the kill count.

He says that the hardest part of the game is the *SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD* fight with Kellogg. Kellogg is a character that absolutely has to die for the story to progress. In the end, he managed by luring Kellogg onto some mines to bring down his health, and brainwashing his AI goons into landing the killing blow.

"I'd love to ask [Todd Howard] why pacifism is so difficult in this Fallout," Hinkley Told Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/guy-beats-fallout-4-without-killing-anyone-nearly-brea-1749882569]. He said that as a result of his pacifist playthrough, the game "broke" several times. It didn't know how to react to a player who could simply pacify every enemy, and would do weird things like spawn additional enemies, or cause NPCs to shut down completley, and cease to interact with the player.

In contrast, Hinckley says that Fallout: New Vegas had a pacifism option built-in from the ground up, as the player could talk his way out of most situations.

Source: YouTube

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[munx13]

So it involves playing a mob boss who orders killings of people. Quite far away from a "pacifist" if you ask me.

 

[Aeshi]

This is pretty impressive don't get me wrong, but you're really stretching the definition of "Pacifist" here.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

See I was expecting it was some clever way to get through the game without anyone dying. But no, he just has his companions get the killing blow.
That's not even close to pacifist, by the way.
It's like saying someone got through all of Starcraft without killing anyone because technically speaking his Marines and Firebats did all the killing!
It defeats its own purpose.

 

[Kevashim]

I think it's less stretching the definition of "pacifist" and more flat-out ignoring it.

Pulling the trigger of a gun to make a bullet fly out and hit the target enemy is just the same as ordering a robot slave (AI goon) to take arms and murder a human (Kellogg).

A true pacifist run abhors all violence, would not permit allies to harm others, and would prevent enemies causing harm as much as possible too. The main story of FO:4 just can't be beaten in a pacifist run (is it really not possible to skip Kellogg or pickpocket his key and access the computer? If so then for shame Bethesda, for shame).

 

[Sampler]

Should call it a "Purple Man Run" instead... I wonder if you could create someone who looks like Tenant in the character designer..

 

[LordMonty]

Prefered new vegas in general tbh. Obsidian dont get enough credit for what a great game they made there.

 

[Qizx]

I think it's less stretching the definition of "pacifist" and more flat-out ignoring it.

Pulling the trigger of a gun to make a bullet fly out and hit the target enemy is just the same as ordering a robot slave (AI goon) to take arms and murder a human (Kellogg).

A true pacifist run abhors all violence, would not permit allies to harm others, and would prevent enemies causing harm as much as possible too. The main story of FO:4 just can't be beaten in a pacifist run (is it really not possible to skip Kellogg or pickpocket his key and access the computer? If so then for shame Bethesda, for shame).

As far as I know, no. I don't think you can progress without killing him. I do think Bethesda did drop the ball with the options of this game but it still was enjoyable, at least for me.

 

[direkiller]

(is it really not possible to skip Kellogg or pickpocket his key and access the computer?

If someone mods in fatigue weapons you probably can.(although the outer thing you need from him is not exactly pacifist friendly).

But due to how he fights, and the way his convo/attack trigger starts. I don't think you can target him or stealth before he starts shooting.
to boot, the way he fights(stealth boy), you don't have the option to pickpocket.

 

[Creator002]

(is it really not possible to skip Kellogg or pickpocket his key and access the computer? If so then for shame Bethesda, for shame).

No. It's impossible to keep him alive to beat the main story.

Spoiler

You need his cybernetic implant to give to Amari for the memory sequence in which you get the knowledge on how to get into the Institute.

 

[Sarge034]

Reminds me of a saying, "Lies, damn lies, and statistic." Ordering a death is just as violent as pulling the trigger yourself. Was what they did really amazing? Yes. Was it pacifism? Not in the slightest.

 

[gact]

(is it really not possible to skip Kellogg or pickpocket his key and access the computer?

If someone mods in fatigue weapons you probably can.(although the outer thing you need from him is not exactly pacifist friendly).

But due to how he fights, and the way his convo/attack trigger starts. I don't think you can target him or stealth before he starts shooting.
to boot, the way he fights(stealth boy), you don't have the option to pickpocket.

kellog uses a stealthboy? I never knew, I crited his face with a gaussrifle before he could even move

 

[IceForce]

In the end, he managed by luring Kellogg onto some mines to bring down his health,

Mines that he placed down himself I suppose?

As others have said, the logic here is stupid. I'm half-expecting him to unlock the Minutemen artillery and simply use that to kill everything, because it's technically not *him* firing the artillery.

It's dumb logic.

 

[JayRPG]

Why the fuck is everyone clamouring on about how this isn't real pacifism?

Wake up people, the guy is telling you he tried to do a full pacifist run, just as he had done in previous Fallout games, but that in this game it was impossible.

The quote in the story from him is him asking Bethesda why they made it so hard to be a pacifist.

We know it's not real pacifism if you have to get others to do the killing for you but the title of the news story is "..without killing anything" not "pacifist run of fallout 4" and by the game's own statistics is true because he doesn't use a companion (which adds to your kill count in the game's stats) and only uses perks to command NPCs; the game recorded 0 kills for the player.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Props to him, this is the first thing I tried to do in my first run with my 10th Doctor character, with even looser rules, and still found it.... well too hard to be any fun frankly. My rule was no sentient kills.

Then we got to Kellog, and I decided... well he killed The Doctor's child, and it was mutual combat so...

well I ended up renaming a Mini-Nuke launcher "The Fury Of The TimeLord", which I thought was cool.

 

[lacktheknack]

Why the fuck is everyone clamouring on about how this isn't real pacifism?

Because this is the Escapist. The users who would happily chat about the achievement rather than grab at any opportunity to put it down are loooooong gone.

OT: I'm impressed. Usually, if a pacifist run starts "breaking" the game, I give up.

 

[Bindal]

Wake up people, the guy is telling you he tried to do a full pacifist run, just as he had done in previous Fallout games, but that in this game it was impossible.

Well, if it would just been an indirect kill of Kellogg (as far as I know, the only REQUIRED kill in the entire game), yes, it would be.
But he didn't, he had his companions and a lot of other folks he persuaded do killing for him. That's not a pacifist run anymore, that's just avoiding the kill-stat actually getting tracked.

"..without killing anything"

Except he clearly killed things on purpose, just not with his own weapons. And there is no mention of not destroying robots (which, depending on your definition might be allowed, forbidden or only forbidden against Synths)

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

He did a pacifist run in as much as the game would let him. I too would like to know why the devs made a true pacifist run impossible.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

- posted in wrong thread, sorry -

On this thread, meh he did the best he could given the parameters he had to work with - if the body count was kept to the BARE minimum