Early 2023 review: I don't want to be too extreme about this quest and never before I used spoilers in reviews, but for what little it adds, it's not good. Not bad like many other unfinished, infinite "WIP" mods for Fallout 3, but not a standard at all. And I want to clarify in details why this is the first quest mod that I uninstalled after playthrough. First of all, voice acting. Even for 2012 it's not good, and I won't criticize quality of audio, I understand that not everyone can have good set-up but Simon as cringy as it gets. If you can't do brutal character voice, maybe there's no need to voicing at all, many good mod quests with well-written story don't have it all. And I think not many users would be complaining about that. Another voice actor is more bearable. Written dialogs are also pretty bad with little work on grammar and stylistic approach. Maybe just one good point from me that you have option to complete quest with speech check. And now for the main problem of the quest mod is quest itself. Why did author placed first guy outside Holy Light Monastery? He isn't in their faction, he doesn't acknowledge them in any dialog option, but he spends all his time near their monastery. I don't understand that decision. As for Thomas - why did he placed in Megaton? What is he doing right here? Why he has option to repair our stuff? No backstory, no personality, no writing. The main quest goes like this - Simon hires you to kill Thomas because Thomas "wants to accumulate donations from wealthy settlements and give all money to poor". And now you can kill Thomas, kill Simon, "fake Thomas's death" and tell Simon that you desintegrate him with fat man. It's not simplification on my part, that's what author wrote in dialog. And that's it. Until the very end I was hoping to see maybe some kind of twist like "role changer", and you would understand that Thomas is a bad guy and Simon just wanted to protect settlers from scam. But nope, in dialog with Thomas, author stated clearly that he is an ultimate good guy for the sake of being good without any character development. So, even for 2012 modding community of Fallout 3, this project looks very weak. You can find many more well-written or engaging story mods from 2009-2011 era than this bare bones work. Now that I look at Seddo4494's profile, I remembered playing his mods for Fallout 4 called "Radium-Inc" and "Fourville", and at least I know that he improved his skills with modding because these mods are pretty decent. Maybe "Finger of Blame" was just a "testing" mod for him way back in Fallout 3 modding years. But as it is, I really can't agree with other users in this section about praising mod just becuse it is "stable" and have "voice acting". Why do you need stable quest with voices, if acting is bad and story didn't even try to develop new interesting events in Fallout 3 universe? Should you try this mod in 2023? No, if you want some simple quest mod with better voice acting and actual new storyline and content, I suggest to use "The Secret Of The Mole Rat Maze" by Anarion9. Short, simple, stable and adds pretty new dungeon to explore with backstory that didn't reach for the stars, but could engage player for 1,5 hours. No endorsement, but glad that author improves his projects in Fallout 4 modding scene. And I really recommend to try his projects for Fallout 4 because they actually deserve your time.
Hey Seddo, here to say that you and guys like those behind Salt Lake Stories, Revolted, Echo The Employment Adventure, Red Scare, 3DNPCs, etc are the defacto storytellers of Bethesda games, that keep us players who love good stories interested in their games :) Thanks from my heart.
Short but good. Not long enough for a mod review video. Being voiced and all it was pretty good and the option of choosing between the two men was good. Maybe extending it a little and a backstory as Makski said. (:
7 comments
First of all, voice acting. Even for 2012 it's not good, and I won't criticize quality of audio, I understand that not everyone can have good set-up but Simon as cringy as it gets. If you can't do brutal character voice, maybe there's no need to voicing at all, many good mod quests with well-written story don't have it all. And I think not many users would be complaining about that. Another voice actor is more bearable.
Written dialogs are also pretty bad with little work on grammar and stylistic approach. Maybe just one good point from me that you have option to complete quest with speech check.
And now for the main problem of the quest mod is quest itself. Why did author placed first guy outside Holy Light Monastery? He isn't in their faction, he doesn't acknowledge them in any dialog option, but he spends all his time near their monastery. I don't understand that decision.
As for Thomas - why did he placed in Megaton? What is he doing right here? Why he has option to repair our stuff? No backstory, no personality, no writing.
The main quest goes like this - Simon hires you to kill Thomas because Thomas "wants to accumulate donations from wealthy settlements and give all money to poor". And now you can kill Thomas, kill Simon, "fake Thomas's death" and tell Simon that you desintegrate him with fat man. It's not simplification on my part, that's what author wrote in dialog. And that's it.
Until the very end I was hoping to see maybe some kind of twist like "role changer", and you would understand that Thomas is a bad guy and Simon just wanted to protect settlers from scam. But nope, in dialog with Thomas, author stated clearly that he is an ultimate good guy for the sake of being good without any character development.
So, even for 2012 modding community of Fallout 3, this project looks very weak. You can find many more well-written or engaging story mods from 2009-2011 era than this bare bones work.
Now that I look at Seddo4494's profile, I remembered playing his mods for Fallout 4 called "Radium-Inc" and "Fourville", and at least I know that he improved his skills with modding because these mods are pretty decent. Maybe "Finger of Blame" was just a "testing" mod for him way back in Fallout 3 modding years.
But as it is, I really can't agree with other users in this section about praising mod just becuse it is "stable" and have "voice acting". Why do you need stable quest with voices, if acting is bad and story didn't even try to develop new interesting events in Fallout 3 universe?
Should you try this mod in 2023? No, if you want some simple quest mod with better voice acting and actual new storyline and content, I suggest to use "The Secret Of The Mole Rat Maze" by Anarion9. Short, simple, stable and adds pretty new dungeon to explore with backstory that didn't reach for the stars, but could engage player for 1,5 hours.
No endorsement, but glad that author improves his projects in Fallout 4 modding scene. And I really recommend to try his projects for Fallout 4 because they actually deserve your time.
Thanks from my heart.
It might be a good idea too, to give credits to other modders, if you used parts of their work, just to avoid misunderstandings and anger, I think.
Apart from that, idea looks promissing :-D