While Todd Howard – the man behind many of Bethesda’s biggest games – has referred to several of the company’s games as being some of the best he has ever worked on, he also mentioned an appreciation for the more cinematic approach to dialogue that was taken with Fallout 4. In an interview with GQ, he also spoke about how the dialogue system in Fallout 4 didn’t quite resonate with players how he had hoped to.
Howard also noted that the dialogue system in Fallout 4, which left behind the series’ traditional system that provided a list of options for players to choose from to instead only offer at most four responses, was also difficult for the game’s designers and writers.
“We spent forever on the dialogue system in Fallout 4,” said Howard. “How do we do an interactive conversation in an interesting way? How do we make that gamey? But it really did not resonate. It was also hard on our designers to write that way. Players want to role-play more and we had a voiced protagonist. The actors were phenomenal, but a lot of players were like, ‘That’s not the voice I hear in my head.’”
As for some of the other games that he had worked on, Howard spoke about Fallout 3 having the best opening of any of his titles, while Starfield had the best gunplay. He also gave a shout-out to the varied landscape offered to players in Fallout 76, as well as the freedom offered by The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
“I think Fallout 3 has the best opening,” Howard said. “I think Starfield has by far the best gunplay and gameplay in areas. I think the varied landscape of Fallout 76 is really good. Tonally and player agency-wise, I think Skyrim is really good. I also see all the things that either didn’t resonate with fans, or fans may not have noticed.”
Howard also took some time to work on the next major project undertaken by Bethesda – The Elder Scrolls 6. While he didn’t reveal too many details, he did admit that the franchise has been on “too long” of a break. He also noted that the title is “still a long way off”.
“We have hundreds of people on Fallout right now, with 76 and some other things we’re doing, but The Elder Scrolls 6 is the everyday thing,” said Howard about the current projects in development at Bethesda. When asked about the long time between The Elder Scrolls 6 and 2011’s Skyrim, he said: “I do like to have a break between them, where it isn’t like a “plus one” sequel. I think it’s also good for an audience to have a break – The Elder Scrolls has been too long, let’s be clear. But we wanted to do something new with Starfield. We needed a creative reset.”
Howard had previously also spoken about how there was “even more” in the works for the Fallout franchise at Bethesda, where he also apologised for not having anything to show for the time being. He did note that “we are looking forward to the day when we can share [the next Fallout project] with everybody.”
It’s interesting to hear about the challenges the team faced with Fallout 4’s dialogue system. It’s always fascinating to get insights into the creative process behind such beloved games. Thanks for sharing this perspective!
definitely a testament to how complex game design can be. The balance between player choice and meaningful narrative can be tricky, especially in an open-world game like Fallout 4. It’s fascinating to think about how these challenges might influence future titles in the series.
Absolutely, it really highlights the challenges of creating a dialogue system that feels both immersive and responsive. It’s fascinating how the team had to navigate those complexities to ensure players felt their choices mattered, especially in a game as expansive as Fallout 4.