Game Review: Fallout 4

The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me

Hello Enthusiasts,

Today I will be reviewing the forth game in Bethesda's Fallout series.

Now to begin, this game has some serious DLC, but I won't be including any of that here. I may end up doing a DLC review of this game later on, as each one adds so much.

So, to begin, a quick synopsis of the series for those who haven't pick up one of these titles before. Fallout takes place in an alternate timeline where America really took to nuclear power after WWII, to the point where it is the source of most of the power used. This alternate timeline also had a very retro feel to it, making the world a technologically superior future with a 1950's design. However, there was a war, and to make a long story short, all of the U.S.A. was nuked in 2077. Some people, like your character in Fallout 4, survived by being holed up in an underground vault. These vaults were brought to you by Vault-Tec, a company that was not only protecting people from radiation, but also experimenting with them. There is a lot more to the actual series' story, factions of people and various creatures, but to describe all of the key points of the franchise would be an entire post on its own.

In this installment of the series, the player was cryogenically frozen for hundreds of years, so you are the first character to actually remember a life before the bombs dropped. You are frozen in the same room as your wife and child, though in different pods. On the downside, you get the view from your pod of someone breaking into your wife's pod to kill her and take your son, Sean. You break out later, though you have no perspective of time with the being frozen and all, ready to set out and find Sean, all while learning about this new Boston/surrounding area.

Okay, so there's the breakdown of the story, but how does the game play? Well, it's an action-role playing game, with a massive map that I am still working to explore 100% (over a year later). The Wasteland, as it is affectionately named, is not a friendly landscape to wander through either, so exploring everything means doing a lot of defending yourself. To do this, there are a variety of weapons, from combat knives to 10mm pistols to a miniature nuke launcher, and everything in-between. I personally stick more to pistols and single-shot rifles, not a huge fan of the automatic weapons in most situations.

In terms of the changes made since the previous installments, it's best to break it down into modified mechanics and brand-new aspects of the game. Let's start with changes to aspects of the game that existed before. The gun play is a lot smoother than it used to be, to the point that it doesn't feel like the player has to rely on the V.A.T.S. (Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System). This game is also a lot more colorful than previous titles, which is a huge bonus in my mind; the old games were pretty monochromatic. One of the big area to change was the character you create, who can either be a man or a woman, and who can actually speak. On top of that, other characters can address you by name, and your companion can't die, though they can be immobilized if they take too much damage.

Not all of the changes to existing aspects of the game were great though, a few made the game feel a bit to simplistic, in areas where it didn't need that change. Conversations that you have with NPC's have, at most, four options for what you say, where the older games could have far more, which was a strange thing to change. The upgrade system has also been streamlined and simplified to have fewer options. While I personally liked the old system, I can see how it could feel overwhelming to a more casual player, so that change isn't too surprising.

Outside of the changes to the existing mechanics, this entry to the series added a couple of brand new things. There are, of course, new weapons and creatures, all of which I liked (despite some frustrations).There is also a whole portion of the game dedicated to building up and maintaining a settlement, which works both as your home and the home of others. This means adding buildings, stores, and crafting areas.There's also a weapon modification system in the game, which I love. It's not just about upgrading the weapons either, but instead allows the player to make a few different weapons out of the same basic component.

Speaking of modifications, let's discuss the power armor for a moment. Power armor has been in previous installments in this series, but it has never taken a front seat like it has here. The power armor is almost essential in parts of the game, and it is made much more fun by being able to customize the armor. Not only can a player add specific boosts or defenses to their power armor, but also some awesome abilities, like automatic healing or a jet pack. One change to the power armor that I've seen some negative backlash about is having to use an exhaustible resource to run the armor, the fusion core. These cores can be difficult to find and are not cheap to buy, meaning that a player will need to decide on when to use their power armor, especially early on in the game. Personally, I understand the need for this mechanic in the game. The power armor makes a player better in almost every way, it's practically a trump card for a lot of situations, so it makes sense to not be able to wear it to every little thing in order to keep the game challenging.

Now I could keep going on about the intricacies of this game for a lot longer, but this post is already getting pretty long, so I'll keep the rest short. This game is fun, suspenseful at times, and will take up a lot of your time. While there are some drawbacks to the game, such as never being able to make the people of your settlements happy, they are far outweighed by the positives. Bethesda needs to work on bumping up the graphics and shorten those load times, but they seem to be listening to their fan base on almost everything else, so I'm not too worried.

I give Fallout 4 a 9 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast