I remember playing Fallout 3 for the first time and getting to the end with Fawkes as my companion, and getting extremely pissed that he refused going into project purity, no one needed to be sacrificed, he could simply turn it on with zero issues to himself, he knew that, he even offered to go into heavy radiation before to spare the player the extreme radiation.
But nope, at the end suddenly the player needed to die, the player who helped set him free.
Yeah, thanks for that…
Never understood why the player was shunned.
Apparently, a game-breaking glitch would occur if he did. Bethesda, in it’s infinite wisdom, wrote dialogue to make him refuse rather than fix the glitch.
I had a really similar experience playing cyberpunk weirdly. Like, you think you’re being clever by doing something that logically should save you based on the established rules of the world, then the writers decide to pull the rug out right at the end and say “nope, sorry we’ve got a thematic ending in mind and you have to die no matter what”. Really left a sour taste in my mouth.
This is what really upset me about the ending of Emily Is Away.
Emily throughout the game asks me why I did things I, the player, did not agree to do (I agree to go to a party with Emily and in the next chapter she’s asking me why I hooked up with her??), and at the very end they really hammer home how much your relationship with Emily has deteriorated by letting you pick a dialog option asking about your future together, and then making you watch your character type it out, delete it, and ask her about the weather instead.
Taking away player agency is bad enough, but trying to make an emotional moment centered around it? Fuck off.
Didn’t
Spoiler
Some DLC or update allowed certain companions to turn the project purity on for you?
Fallout wikia says
Broken Steel Fawkes is one of three companions that can be sent into the irradiated chamber in the Jefferson Memorial to activate the purifier during Take it Back!, along with Charon and Sergeant RL-3. His response to agree or refuse depends on if Broken Steel is[11] or is not[12] installed.
If Broken Steel is installed and Fawkes is an active companion during Take It Back! and is sent to start the purifier, he is referred to as a hero in the epilogue, then when the game resumes, Fawkes will be waiting in the infirmary at the Citadel.
unironically still the best modern fallout
And yet F:NV has the best writing of those 3 examples.
