When Bethesda announced Fallout 4 in the summer of 2015, the reaction was generally positive. The showcase was fantastic, the gunplay was interesting, and the building looked like it could be a hit. One of the most common worries for the title was the game's inclusion of voiced protagonist.
Traditionally, Bethesda titles have always featured silent protagonist. The same could be said for the Fallout series before and after it became a Bethesda title. When it was announced the player protagonist would be voiced, it immediately received backlash from hardcore fans of the series because of what that represented more than what it may have actually meant.
In Oblivion, you wake up in a prison and through an act of divine intervention are set on the path to becoming the Hero of Cyrodiil. In Morrowind before it, you are some guy on a boat who may or may not be the Nerevarine but you did enough badass things everyone just sort of assumes you are. Even in Skyrim you possess the blood of a dragon but you are really just some guy who happened to be crossing the border at the wrong time. What all three have in common, is that there is an open invitation to create the backstory of your character and so there is less motivation to really care about the fact you may or may not be the chosen one. For example, if you create a Breton in Morrowind, what do you care if you might the second coming of the Dunmer hero Nerevar? Or if you're not a Nord in Skyrim, why should you pay any mind to the Civil War raging across the chilly landscape? Unless you hate the Thalmor, which everyone should, and you also know that Ulfric is really just a pawn in their game and the Empire should be the ones to win (whoops, got on the soap box a little bit there).
As a character, you were set on this path at the jump, but before then, that's all you. Fallout has always been a little different. After all, in 3 your whole life before you step out of Vault 101 was spent under the thumb of the Overseer, locked away behind cold steel. Once the Vault opens and your thrust into the world a mystery is presented before you and left conveniently near your desk, but it doesn't have to be your priority. Sure, you are forced out of the Vault because your dad escaped but its left up to you whether to actually care about that. You can chase after him and solve the mystery, or you can ignore that altogether and go find out what's going on in the Republic of Dave. For the first time in your life you are free of Vault-Tec, and its up to you to decide what to do with your newfound freedom. In Fallout: New Vegas, the issue of the character's backstory is reverted back to being left more open. After all, you are just a courier. What happened before is up to you. You are still given a mystery, like what the hell was in that package that got you shot in the head, but if you are willing to ignore attempted murder you can go ahead and ignore that.
All of that is thrown out with Fallout 4 and the overall story suffers from it. Before I go any further, Fallout 4 is a good game. Its just not the best Bethesda game. In the beginning, you pick a wife or a husband in a duo that is separated by a cold death very early in the game by the mysterious Kellogg. The child you shared is stolen, and a grand chase ensues. While in Fallout 3, your father leaving is a mystery, its not on the scale (nor is the grandest of importance placed in it like in 4) of 4. After all, that's your child. The voice acting is phenomenal, but never once does the game really let your free as the voice lines are limiting and the writing is very much geared towards you finding your son.
That's why there is something to be said for saying nothing at all.
I've never seen anyone be angry about a silent protagonist, but I've seen alot of people irate about a voiced one. If the protagonist would have stayed silent in 4, nobody would have passed it up at the checkout line. On the flip side, I bet it also didn't stop even the angriest of detractors from buying it either, but it clogged the forum post with complainers.
The main draw of Bethesda games had always been the freedom given to the player. Taking away some of that freedom affected every single thing in the game. Dialogue had to be limited because it takes time to do voice overs. Now, they had to do the voice work for NPCs and the player. I would bet the time it would have taken was also a deciding factor in taking out speech checks, which was also a huge complaint. Things that would have been easier to implement if the player selected just a line of text rather than a shorthand version of what their character said aloud. That is something Mass Effect does a pretty good job of, but even that series suffers from your character saying something wildly more intense than what you selected.
I understand the time constraints of development. These things don't magically happen, even without a voiced protagonist. Its hard making branching dialogue and speech checks. It really comes down to a matter of focus. Giving the players those options wasn't Bethesda's focus. Crafting, world building, exploration, and the main story were, and that's okay. Bethesda games have always had a central focus. Skyrim was exploration, Oblivion was arguably quest, Morrowind was in being the best RPG it could be. Its also okay to criticize what they focus on, just do it politely, please.
Crafting was an excellent addition to Fallout, as well as base building. We will never know if making a more complete RPG was the sacrifice the team made for creating the base building system. Nor will we know if a voiced protagonist was the sacrifice made to try and create a more fleshed out story while limiting dialogue and speech checks. Fans can only guess. I'd argue both are true to some extent, though not as much as some people scream about. While discussing base building is a different subject, a lot of the story and choice related hiccups Fallout 4 faced could have been drastically helped by making your character just stay quiet. In Fallout 76, choices have been added back to the Fallout series and your character doesn't have to say a single word aloud.
Speaking honestly, I think Starfield will have a voice protagonist and that's okay. I just hope that we truly get a more hardcore RPG because again, its matter of focus. This is also a new IP that doesn't carry the baggage of tradition like Elder Scrolls and Fallout do.
In saying all that, I just like it when my protagonist doesn't speak. Its what I'm used to. My brain automatically fills in whatever I can select in Skyrim anyways and in a way, I think I am the one saying it. When my character doesn't sound like a redneck, it just doesn't feel like me, ya know? Its amazing just how loud silence can be. Especially when you have tinnitus. Fun fact: I thought everyone always heard a little buzzing in a quiet room until a couple of years ago. I just thought that was what silence sounded like. Woe is me.
Comments