Character Creation, Gender, And Fallout 3

Gamasutra is offering up a retrospective-of-sorts for Fallout 3, focusing primarily on the game’s pace, character creation, “environmental storytelling”, and how the team at Bethesda overlooked the female protagonist.

Fallout 3 concerns a man who has made significant sacrifices in order to offer a safe and healthy life to his daughter (or son — the protagonist, in any case).

Up to the point where I discovered that bit of backstory, I had been playing my character in the default mode that I use for all RPGs: with an emphasis on intelligence, ranged weaponry, and any skills that look like they’ll get me out of tedious melee fight sequences; generally friendly and ethical, except when the dialogue tree offers me something irresistably sarcastic to say to a character who is irresistably annoying.

When I found out about Dad’s sacrifice, though, I immediately wished I’d chosen differently. It would have been much more creepy and compelling from the point of view of story if, actually, his daughter was a sociopathic monster. That would produce a much darker narrative, perhaps with a bit of a theme about not investing too much hope or ambition in any single person besides yourself.