Fallout 4’s Sole Survivor Was A Mistake, But It Doesn’t Have To Be A Waste

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One of the most common points of criticism surrounding concerned its protagonist, the Sole Survivor. Contrary to otherplayer characters, the Sole Survivor never really felt like an avatar for the player. Instead, with the character's established traits and backstory, players often felt shoehorned into certain choices and events.

The Sole Survivor contrasts directly with the protagonist of , the Courier, who is essentially a blank slate at the start of the game. Many players enjoyed the freedom this afforded them when role-playing, but that doesn't mean that a protagonist needs to be like this for a game to succeed. There are plenty of examples of role-playing games that pull off something similar to what was going for, and by looking back at all these games, it's possible to see howthe concept of the Sole Survivor could be improved in future projects.

Unlike the other games in the core series, starts before the nuclear war that destroyed the world. As such, it establishes the Sole Survivor as someone who was around in the «regular» world and makes them a fish-out-of-water in the post-apocalypse, which does help them become a player stand-in. But it does a bit more than that. The time players get to explore the Survivor's home lets them know about their connection to the military, family life, and the partner they have been married to, taking way too much of the character's narrative out of the player's hands.

Fallout 4's Sole Survivor should have been an interesting protagonist but falls short, surprisingly due to their connection to the main plot.

also has established relatives and a place of origin, but it lets the player see their character grow up from infancy and make core choices throughout their development. In the case of something like the Courier in, the player has little to no idea who they are or what they are like until they start making decisions. In both cases, the game sacrifices the streamlined narrative opts for in exchange for more player choice a