Twitch Is Trying To Play Fallout 3 And Failing Miserably

Twitch Plays is at it once again, this time inviting the games community to try its hand at collectively playing the apocalyptic RPG/Shooter, Fallout 3. As you may have guessed, it's not going so well for the community's Vault dweller.

In case you've missed out on the insanity of Twitch Plays projects in the past, it's an exercise that's simple in premise but extremely complicated in execution. Basically, everyone has access to the stream and the ability to input simple commands to make things actually happen within the game. You might enter “LL” to have the character look left, for instance, or “F” to walk forward or “click” to fire a weapon. Even if one person tried to play a game this way, it would be pretty freaking difficult. But once you open it up to the masses to try at the same time, hilarity usually ensues.

What makes Twitch Plays attempts so complicated is that it's basically like trying to complete a series of simple tasks while having thousands of voices in your head screaming directions at you at the same time. That's not the easiest way to get things done.

All of this insanity began last year with Twitch Plays Pokemon, tasking the world with beating the first Pokemon title for the Game Boy. That game was far better suited to community control because options were far more limited and battles could actually be bumbled through easily enough, assuming anything about community play can be considered easy. It had the added bonus of being a fairly straightforward game that was played by a ridiculous number of people. Many players knew where they needed to go next and what needed to be done on the way, so it helps when everyone has the same objectives in mind.

As we discovered with Twitch Plays Dark Souls recently, more open games with complex mechanics don't lend themselves too well to this kind of structure. Even when control became more limited, players weren't able to get the hang of guiding their character through an already extremely difficult game like Dark Souls.

While Fallout 3 isn't exactly known for being difficult, the world is wide open and enemies can be a big problem if the character isn't being guided carefully. As you can see from the Twitch feed, there's nothing “careful” about the way our Vault dweller is moving about.

This is fun and all, but I wouldn't mind seeing Twitch Plays going back to something a bit more simplistic after Fallout 3, just to help the community feel like they've accomplished something again. Then again, with Fallout 4 about to launch, maybe it would be fun to watch everyone try and tackle a game that nobody has any prior knowledge of. I doubt we'd have to fear any big spoilers, as the community would likely run around in circles and die time and time again in the starting area.