In a recent interview with YouTuber TKs-Mantis, former Obsidian creative director Chris Avellone said that he dislikes how Fallout: New Vegas’ Wild Wasteland trait was implemented, and thinks it should have been separate from character creation.
This came out of a discussion of the more zany sense of humor to be found in certain Fallout games, and how it may not be to all tastes. Interviewer TKs-Mantis expressed his appreciation of Wild Wasteland offering players a choice whether or not to engage with such content, prompting Avellone to deliver his critique.
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Wild Wasteland can be chosen as one of two traits at the start of New Vegas, character-defining abilities with positive and negative aspects. Wild Wasteland causes unique encounters to spawn in the game world, all of a more wacky or fourth wall-breaking character.
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“It is one of those traits—and Fallout 3 also had these traits—where, if you choose it, you get more content,” said Avellone. “You might be saying, ‘Ok, well just choose it.’ Well, the problem is, that’s something that you’re taking in character creation that’s actually depriving other people of the full content.
“My preference would have been, it’s an option in the interface … I think that would have worked better. That would have been more fair, rather than tying it into character creation.”
Avellone said that he did not like the way Wild Wasteland overshadowed the other traits at character creation, and that, “from a system mechanics standpoint, you’re actually telling players that, ‘Hey, you’re gonna want this choice, regardless of other options, because this gives you more content.'”
“That’s biased,” Avellone argued. “For me, I’m like, ‘Well, I’m gonna choose that no matter what. Because I don’t want to miss a damn thing.’ I want as much of the experience as I can get. It’s not even a question.”
TKs-Mantis did bring up a strong counter-example, though: YCS/186, the unique version of New Vegas’ Gauss Rifle. YCS/186 appears in an encounter that’s overwritten by Wild Wasteland, its band of mercenaries replaced with an alien incursion. Their captain drops the series staple Alien Blaster, a weapon that’s certainly fun, but not something you can hang a whole build on like YCS/186.
I disagree with that sentiment for the most part, even if I understand the critique. As I get older, I like more friction in my RPGs, consequences and sacrifices that maybe even impact me on a mechanical level. I really dig that Wild Wasteland means you don’t get YCS/186, for example, or that you have to pass on a beneficial or build-altering trait to see these scenes.
I used to always hate that in 3rd Edition D&D, there’s practically no mechanical reason to be any race but human—their extra feat at level one is unmatched. But these days, when I choose to be a mechanically inferior Half-Orc in Neverwinter Nights anyway, the gameplay sacrifice makes me feel even more ownership over that choice.
It’s something you lose in a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, which understandably avoids such alienating anachronisms altogether. So which way, New Vegas replayer? The beastmode YCS/186, or simple joys like a Zybourne Clock reference and that really good gag with the cyberdogs playing poker in Old World Blues?
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