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Yes, in the Ur-Fallout games if you created a character below a certain threshold of smarts you were treated to custom dialog choices and reactions befitting someone a few knives short of a drawer. It’s very possible Bethesda decided not to continue that out of fear of causing offense. It’s also very possible my friends and I are terrible people because we found them hilarious and missed the option in its absence. I suppose now I feel equal parts guilty and giddy. Guiliddy?
Anyhow, it’s not an accident the folks behind TOW included Fallout alumni who perhaps were more than ready to do a very Fallout style game out from under Bethesda’s thumb, even if they had to create a whole new setting to do so. What we end up with is basically a colonial space Western crossed with a nightmarish depiction of late-stage capitalism where mega-corporations control (nearly) everything and everyone. If that sounds a bit like Borderlands, now you’re getting why I said what I did at the beginning. The art style as well feels somewhere between the two franchises, and (surprisingly) TOW is an RPG which goes the Borderlands route of having no third-person view while playing. This is one disappointment for me because the character creator has a heck of a lot of facial customization options and the models look great, but in-game the only time you get to see your character are during a 360 degree idle pan that you can’t adjust or on your inventory screen, which you can’t angle or zoom.
It’s possible they did this because your character doesn’t talk out loud so there’s no reason to have the camera on them during dialogue. That does let the dialogue be a lot freer and more expansive on the player’s end because there’s no audio needed, and I’ll tell you it’s another bit that reminded me of earlier Fallout games where the camera would just center on the person you were talking to. Borderlands again for the first-person only view and a lot of the aesthetic, though you don’t always have to shoot your way through. In fact this time around your dialog skills can even have an effect on combat should talking not be an option, causing enemies to cower before your impressive presence, for example.
Anyhow, if you’re a fan of old-school Fallout pick up TOW when you get a chance. I’ve heard some complaints that it’s short and also no companion romance options, and so far no real modding support. That last is possibly the biggest reason to wait for it to be on sale like I did, just in case you feel like more bang was needed for your buck. But from what I’ve heard this first installment was extremely successful, so here’s hoping the next will be bigger and better, while remaining micro-transaction free. Oscar was probably hoping Chuck would talk him down from his suspicions, not escalate them.
We're close to the end of this episode/issue, just a matter of figuring whether the final page will be next Wednesday the 18th or we'll put it up for Xmas. We'll try to drop a notice here and on Facebook once we figure that out, but we definitely want to post it before the New Year.
2 thoughts on “538 – Astute Paranoia”
darius404
Well that’s a pretty damn good question! Another reminder that Chuck isn’t stupid.
Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)
Corpo sponsored snuff films … no surprise there. I wonder what voice over model they use – dispassionate wildlife commentator or enthusiastic conservationist. Or maybe Nascar ?