SiskoBlue said:
Can't say games are getting immersion right for me lately. They all go on about the HUD, and how this breaks immersion. It doesn't. If it's always there you kind of go blind to it.
Bugs, bugs break the immersion. When characters do truly bizarre things, that breaks immersion. Funny, but takes you out of the game.
My biggest gripe with Fallout New Vegas so far is the obvious "path" they've made in an open world game. In Fallout 3, you get directed to the nearest town on leaving the vault. A tip. A suggestion. You don't HAVE to go there. But it's logical in "role-playing" that you would. Actually if I was really role-playing I'd probably spend the first 24 hours curled up in the fetal position weeping and struggling to hide somewhere near the vault door. Come-on. I've spent my entire life underground in cramped tunnels yet don't suffer agoraphobia?
So you go to Megatown. The next major story quests take you deeper into the map and then south. And kind of all over. There's no OBVIOUS direction. Plus you constantly pick up map markers for what will presumably be points of interest and new side quests. And they're scattered all over the place. You can literally wonder in any direction. Of course some areas are tougher than others. Like around the DC monuments but you can still get around them without detouring too much.
And this is what's bugged me about Fallout New Vegas. I wake up in some guy's house. He's saved my life so already I'm being forced to be polite. I don't have to be but it's doesn't feel real or immmersive to be a jerk to him. Then going outside I'm already in a town and expected to start fitting in. For the next 15 hours every mission and side mission I got was pushing me south. I tried going North and meet a dead end. Enemies waaaaay too powerful for me to have any chance of gettnig past them. West there's a gigantic mountain range. Well, not gigantic but it's obviously a "wall", not a mountain range. it's purpose is to stop me getting to it's other side. East, same thing, although I could get through in some parts... no wait, ridiculously over-powered enemies there too, another "wall" then. South it is.
And as I make my way around I can see the "path". A path that leads me gently past most of the major attactions and content the developer paid damn good money for so bloody well look at it. All the way to the doors of New Vegas. At least I'm assuming that because I'm role playing and once I was more powerful I said "F*** you this is MY role-playing, not obsidian's" and took off. Still, it ruined the illusion for me.
The other thing that ruins the illusion is the stupid ass morality system and reputation. Very first contact with a jerk. I shot a guy in the bar because he was threatening the locals. Apparently this horrified them. Instead I'm supposed to convince them the guy is a jerk, rally them together and THEN kill this guy, but now he's brought his mates along? But they like me for it. If they just let me nip it in the bud in the first place stupid yokels.
Secondly what's so bad about martial law in a post-apocalyptic world. It might be necessary for our survival. But clearly Karma doesn't think so. Killing NCR is bad, killing Legion good. Thanks for letting me make my own choices obsidian. Also I'd like to clarify some unusual points;
1) If I kill everyone in the room how the hell does the group they belong to know to hate me? They can't even solve the most basic mysterys or puzzles yet somehow instantly know you've killed their comrades.
2) Having killed every single one of their comrades as and when I've met them, how come they don't attack me on sight? Or how come sometimes they do and sometimes they just decide to sneer at me? We are at war aren't we?
3) So it's ok Karma-wise to stab a sleeping man, and take all his stuff. But not cool to pinch a comic out of his foot locker? He's not going to use it now is he. And as pointed out before THIS IS WAR!?
4) How come the NCR is so stupid? They have these soldiers that will fight to the death guarding a post but they'll let some random idiot come in and steal, break, kill and fiddle with all their stuff.
Still I like shooting things in slow-motion. Guess no one told Yahztee you can press a button to stop the slow VATS at any time, or even turn it off in settings?
Yes, THIS, all of this. I definitely feel like I'm being shepherded along in New Vegas, like the main plot line is just kind of sitting there, tapping its foot and checking its watch, waiting for me to check the next task off its list. I feel like I have to go hunting for side quests and 90 of those lizard-coyote things will rip my nuts off (or my ovaries I guess, my character is a girl) if I try to go exploring where I'm "not supposed to" yet. FO3 was more successful in feeling like the main plot was a life goal, and in the mean time I'm going to have to see what's going on in this world.
And the karma system needs some serious work. They put a huge effort into creating moral ambiguity in the decisions to be made, but then overtly tell you who the good/bad guys REALLY are, according to the developers, by giving you karma gain or loss based on what you did. Perfect example, I was in Big Springs and (minor SPOILER) I had to go looking for a sniper picking off NCR, but when I found him he said it was justified because the NCR had murdered his people and they were the real aggressor. A morally ambiguous choice to be made. Then there seemed to be no other option to finish the quest (although I wasn't forced to finish it there is a clear incentive to do so for the XP), so when I stuffed dynamite down his pants and blew his ass off for defending his land against what he views as murderers, I gain karma. So despite the carefully crafted ambiguity, there is an arbitrary score system, like a teacher's edition of the text book with the answers all written in for who's really good and who's really bad. You can decide for yourself, but not really.
And the karma/rep/communication thing is bewildering too. So okay, I'm shunned at the NCR establishment because I massacred everybody at the last NCR establishment. Everybody is talking about what a horrible loss it was when everybody got massacred there; they must know I did it because I'm "shunned." But it's cool for me to walk about, buy medical supplies from the doctor, and then they act all surprised when I also stuff dynamite down his pants and blow off the doctor's ass. Oh, but karma loss for that, buddy.
Despite my complaints, I really like New Vegas very much. It is a load of fun and it does allow for some great role playing. For instance, I deal with the trauma of being shot at the beginning of the game by stuffing lit sticks of dynamite down the pants of as many people as possible. When I run out of dynamite, I stuff live frag mines in people's pants. I know of no other game which allows me to literally blow people's legs off by sticking explosives in their clothes.
Edit: I might note that this sort of consistency flaw extended all the way back to Oblivion. I have about 180 hours in Oblivion, probably capped the main plot somewhere around hour 80. Random NPC is telling me, "Have you heard about the (blah blah thing that happens at the climax)?) Dude, I'm the Hero of the Universe, or whatever they crowned me. You really don't know who I am? Okay if you're just the town drunk that's fine, but I get crowned Grand Poobah of the World for 3 seconds, and then I go back to incognito. Okay guys, I'm the Arch Mage of the Land, the Grand Overlord of Thieves, Murder Master and Fighting King, and you guys really have no idea who I am? Maybe a "behold, it's the Arch Mage" or "in my store you get a discount because you saved the goddamn world" would help fix this a bit.
