Design Lesson 101 – Fallout/Fallout 2

Raven Software’s Manveer Heir has penned an article on Gamasutra about the lessons that can be learned from Fallout 1 and 2. More specifically, he focuses on choices and consequences:

In many games, this would be the end. The poor choice I made in talking to an official in a snide manner would result in the consequence of game over, since the critical information was hiding within.

However, in Fallout, while the consequence of making my life more difficult was apparent, the game wasn’t over. There were other sources that had the same information elsewhere. I just had to explore some other cities to find them. I had to find an alternate path. A path that the designers made available, knowing that someone would talk themselves into a pickle inside Vault City.

The game never told me if I talked back to the man in Vault City that I would get the boot. It just did it. I made that choice. I remember clicking the dialog option and thinking to myself (Man, this guy is a little annoying. I’m going to be a smart-ass.” Nowadays, many games would broadcast you the consequence of your choice before the choice is made. Give the player all the information up-front, and they can make the right decision.