Fallout 4 - Failure of Narrative Interactivity

Did Fallout 4 fail to deliver the narrative interactivity it promised?  Gaming Rebellion's Matt Faherty thinks so.  Be advised: mild spoilers ahead.

I don’t hate most of Fallout 4’s main quest line. I actually think it’s the most interesting main quest Bethesda has produced since Morrowind, at least until the last quarter of its contents. F4 cleverly sets up a complicated political/military/economic struggle between multiple factions of varying shades of morality and competence, and then asks the player to navigate a route between them. If most players are like me, they did their best to maintain an uneasy neutrality between all the factions for as long as possible. After all, I really did like and dislike elements of all of them. I liked the Minutemen’s benevolence but was unsure of their ability to project power. I liked the Brotherhood’s efficiency but wondered how far removed they were from being especially intelligent raiders. I liked the Railroad’s goals but wondered if such a small organization could really accomplish much in the long term. Finally, I loved being reunited with my son in a technological marvel but many of the Institute’s practices were highly ethically questionable.

So I bounced between all of the factions for most of the middle of the plot, feeding them information and scoring minor victories for each when I could without damaging another faction too dearly. Every time I was offered an increasingly transgressive quest, I agonized over which path to take and talked to as many people as I could to explore every possible option. I actually thought Bethesda was doing a remarkable job of allowing me to maintain this balancing act for so long.

However, the game could not allow this quest structure to continue indefinitely. At a certain point, the player is required to make choices which permanently alienate each faction until his allegiance is only to a single one (not counting the Minutemen who are typically excluded from the late-game conflict). Unfortunately, it’s right around this point that both the player’s narrative control and the plot itself collapse. While it is difficult but possible for a game to allow a comfortable level of player agency throughout most of its story and then reign it in right near the end, the problem with F4 is that the plot doesn’t adequately justify why it takes away so much player agency. The result is a feeling of frustrating dissonance between what “is” and what “should be” for the player as a once intriguing plot based on conflicting loyalties and shifting sands gets railroaded into one of four unsatisfying conclusions free of legitimate narrative interactivity.

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