Online Player Interaction:
The Fallout world is big and lonely, so why not spice things up with a little bit of co-op. It would be fun to have a friend to explore and quest with in the Wastelands. While this kind of flies in the face of the “loner,” mentality that all the games have. It still would be a riot to share an adventure with a friend in the Fallout Universe.
I don’t think it should go full MMO, games have a tendency to change drastically when they enter that arena of play, but a multiplayer cooperative mode or having missions that require you to cross the paths of other players online would certainly make the game feel more populated and “alive,” even if it’s a post-nuclear hell hole of a planet.
Environmental Perks:
Fallout 3 and New Vegas have some really great perks the player gets as they level up. There are some really creative and specific ones as well, things like “Lady Killer” and “Flower Child” really make for some interesting character builds. It is in the spirit of these uniquely specialized character options that we should see even more this time around.
Fallout 4 would also greatly benefit in having a whole lot more environmental perks as well. Remember the quests that could give you certain abilities you couldn’t pick from the perks list? Environmental perks like “Ant Might,” that the crazy scientist, Doctor Lesko gives you is a nice addition. These were nice little tid-bits in Fallout that would be great to see more of, it gives the character a sense of cause and effect, that the world they are in is changing them just like they are changing it.
Larger Scale Battles:
It was really cool seeing opposing forces running into each other in the Wasteland and fighting down to the last man. With factions from the previous games that are aggressive towards one another, or in complete and total war with each other, it would be great to see and even participate in large-scale battles, choosing a side or going rogue and killing everything you can on the battlefield would be very fun.
These battles could even sway the ending of a game, by having to choose what factions and NPC’s that survive could also change the outcome of the game, giving the player many more options for game ending. Instead of being the lone wolf raiding an enemy encampment, maybe you get to choose which side wins in a battle, or if they all die? In the end it’s really all about the choices we make.
Multiple Locations:
How about some different, large geographic areas? In Fallout 3 we spent all of our time in Washington D.C. and in Nevada for New Vegas. Having options to move between completely different locations would open the game up even more. The development team could to take full advantage of any new ides they have and also expand on some of the locations from previous Fallout games as well. We could see different themes in different areas, maybe some places aren’t completely decimated?
Being able to travel between say New York and Boston, or Pittsburg would be a real treat and give the players a much better scope of what the rest of the country looks like. While the Wasteland seems to stretch the length of the country there is so much that can be done when we’ve got more to explore. Half the fun in games like Fallout are exploration and discovering hidden treasures. The larger the maps, the more fun we can have.
