Fallout 4 released little over a month ago, and while I heavily enjoyed the game myself, I’m not afraid to admit that it does little to improve upon its predecessors in any way. I’m left wondering if Fallout 4 marks the end of Bethesda’s glory days of making great, influential games.
Bethesda is widely known in the community as the developers who brought us the epic high fantasy Elder Scrolls series, and the ones who continued the legacy of Fallout. They have a lot great games under their belt, Morrowind and Oblivion shaped how we now see Open-World games as a genre and has influenced gems that rival the master themselves, with The Witcher and even Kingdoms of Amalur coming to mind.
In a day and age where there are tons of open-world games that always seek out to do something different and exciting, Bethesda keeping with the same formula they’ve used for over a decade is no longer just that; different or exciting.
The Industry Has Changed and so Have the Games; Bethesda Hasn’t.
We now have so many AAA RPGs and Open-World games this generation that many gamers would’ve never been able to predict would happen 10-15 years ago when developers were still grasping 3D technology and moving along with that. Now, graphics need little in the way of improvement and developers are now focused on making bigger and more intricate video games, along with adopting new ways in doing so. New engines are often made and used on a year-to-year basis that have more capabilities both graphically and technologically. CD Projekt Red developed the REDengine to use with The Witcher 2 and proceeded to then add more capabilities to the engine to then use for The Witcher 3, and both games are sights to behold with their graphical fidelity, even The Witcher 2 still looks really good. Yet, Bethesda is still using the Gamebryo engine to develop their games, an engine they first used with Morrowind, which released all the way back in 2002 for PC and the original Xbox. Sometime after Fallout 3 was developed, Bethesda added some of their personal touches to the engine and then labeled it as the Creation Engine, which they have used with both Skyrim and Fallout 4 thus far.
Piper pls
With Fallout 4, the engine is really showing its age, animations that look like they belong to an early PS2 game, bad texture filtering, etc. Along with Fallout 4 not necessarily looking up to par with other games that have come out this year, the engine has shown it can’t handle what Bethesda tries to throw at it, with extremely bad performance on both the PS4 and Xbox One, and oh man, the bugs. I could go on and on about all of it but I’m sure that would bother everyone reading this.
While most big name games that come out these days are state of the art in terms of of technology, it truly seems like Bethesda is just selling easy-bake ovens in comparison. With a studio that is top-tier and with the backing of Zenimax, I believe that Bethesda would be able to develop a far superior engine that they could truly call their own.
Fallout 4 Lacks Any Real Innovation
While Fallout 4 is a good game, it doesn’t do anything to be a great game, and with Bethesda being the developer, the fact it is just “only good” is strange to me. Their previous titles were massive pioneers in the industry and to see Fallout 4 fall flat is quite disheartening. It’s because Fallout 4 is so similar to Skyrim and only makes bad changes to the Fallout formula that it just feels heartless and boring for the most part even though it is a Bethesda game. I’ve played Fallout 4 as much as any other Bethesda game, and even though I found all of those games to be fantastic, with the lack of any true innovation makes Fallout 4 an average game in my eyes even though it’s in the same caliber as Bethesda’s previous adventures.
Although it is a game that immediately grabbed my attention and had me playing for over 80 hours, I still feel that it’s missing something that made the previous games so amazing, it lacks innovation and it’s a poorer experience because of it.
It has the Bethesda touch, it’s enjoyable to play and behold, but its technical mishaps make for a lesser game to play and experience, as only the truest of RPG gamers can enjoy the game to its full extent. It really feels like I am just playing a new Skyrim with a post-apocalyptic wasteland skin stretched over it with some changes here and there that make it “better”. It’s missing what made Fallout 3 different from Oblivion, as though two games, while looking and playing the same, had other qualities that differentiate each other, while the difference between Skyrim and Fallout 4 is almost purely the different universes they belong in.
Throughout my entire playthrough I was wondering why I didn’t just go back and play The Witcher 3, for it’s a better game. Fallout 4 had me hooked just like previous Bethesda games, but I wasn’t oblivious to all of its issues and shortcomings. With Bethesda’s history, it truly bewilders me why Fallout 4 isn’t great, and it all stems from something I’ve already mentioned, the industry has changed, Bethesda hasn’t.
Where Does This All Lead To?
The way I see it, there are two pathways that Bethesda can choose to go down that will lead to a future that is good, or a future that will lead to the end of Bethesda as we know it. Assuming that their next game will be The Elder Scrolls VI: “Add Tamriel Continent that hasn’t been in a previous game here” and that we’ll see it maybe 3-4 years from now on the next generation of consoles, it could be a really great game developed by veterans of the industry or a game that has no place in anyone’s collection. While Fallout 4 lacked the innovation and prowess that made Bethesda’s previous works so amazing, that doesn’t mean their next game has to. If they took some time off of creating the next great sidequest or placing silver plates on every single table or shelf in the game, they should have their programmers work on an actual new engine that looks great and performs well, and add innovation to the game that will force developers to yet again admire Bethesda for their epic game-making skills, they could be the Bethesda that Bethesda fans deserve. Unless they change things up with the next game, Bethesda may disappear like so many great developers before it have for the same reason. With a world where The Witcher 3 exists, Fallout 4 seems so pointless to give any attention to.
These words may all prove pointless themselves in the future if Bethesda can prove that are still a force to be reckoned with. They may have dropped the ball with Fallout 4, but they can surely rise up again with the next Elder Scrolls, but since they’re going to make a lot money regardless, does it even actually matter anymore?
Kyle Inman is a writer for The Game Bolt, he loves RPGs and all video games alike, unless they’re trash, in which he shames them and moves on with his life. You can check him out at Twitter where he rambles about video games and geeky things.