Fallout 4

A Long Awaited Return to the Wasteland

It’s been 5 long years since the release of Fallout: New Vegas and an even longer 7 since Fallout 3. Since then, we’ve had leaks here and there about Fallout 4 and at E3 2015, Fallout 4 was officially announced to much excitement. If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know already, Fallout 4 is an open world action role-playing game made by Bethesda. Set in a post apocalyptic Boston in 2287, you emerge from Vault 111 210 years after a devastating nuclear war. I don’t want to get into details so I don’t spoil the story for those looking to experience the wasteland for themselves. The modern Fallout formula that we know and love has returned, and it’s better than ever.

Concept Art of the Nukes going off.

A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game

 

If you’ve played any of the modern Fallout games, you’ll instantly feel familiar with Fallout 4. The combat system is mostly unchanged, with some modifications to make it more enjoyable such as player activated critical hits in V.A.T.S and stronger shooting mechanics. Gun-play feels a lot better outside of V.A.T.S compared to other Fallout games which is very nice to see. The RPG elements while watered down a bit since Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 are still reasonably deep. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L system has been changed for the better in my opinion. You start by investing 21 points into either Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. From there, each time you level up you have one point to again invest in any of these or in specific perks based on the amount of points put into S.P.E.C.I.A.L. For example, if I was to invest 9 points into agility and none into intelligence, I could invest later points into lock picking or sneaking but if I wanted to invest it into hacking, I would first have to level up my intelligence more. I liked this system a lot even though it was confusing at first, I got used to it quickly. Base building, crafting, armor and weapon modding are all new additions to Fallout 4 and they’re fantastic additions at that. The weapon and armor modding in particular is really fun to play around with, renaming guns and modifying them using junk found throughout the wasteland. Base building and crafting I will admit, is not for everyone but i’m sure a lot of people will get a huge kick out of it and I can’t wait to see what the modding community is going to do with it.

Where. Is. My. Son. 

Fallout 4’s story is by no means amazing, but it’s still entertaining and enjoyable. The game starts with your custom created character (male or female) at home before the nukes go off. You’re greeted by Codsworth with a fresh pot of perfectly brewed coffee, your husband or wife and your son Shaun. You then get visited by a Vault-Tec representative who asks to register your family for a guaranteed spot in Vault 111. Shortly after, the nukes go off and you and your family run to the vault entrance and descend. After a series of events, 210 years later you emerge from Vault 111 to search for your son. I don’t want to talk about it anymore simply to avoid spoilers. The supporting cast is strong, characters are funny and unique. There are 14 different companions to explore the wasteland with ranging from trusty Dogmeat, to the undercover detective Nick Valentine. Voice acting is good and lip syncing is mostly fine, however at times it can be out of sync. The dialogue system is fairly bare bones, I wish it mattered when I chose one response over it’s complete opposite and had different outcomes, while this does happen sometimes it’s a lot more infrequent then it should be.

Baby Shaun in his crib in the pre-war section. 

Still A Bethesda Game

One area that Fallout 4 doesn’t particularly excel in, much like other Bethesda games is it’s visuals and performance. The same engine is still being used here and while it is a noticeable difference from Fallout 3 and Skyrim, it’s definitely not new gen stuff. Most of the time the game runs at a locked 30 frames per second on the PlayStation 4 but the frames can drop during some sections of the game. The game also suffers from some minor bugs and I only experienced a game breaking bug once throughout my play-through. Sometimes the textures can just look ugly and unnatural, otherwise they’re passable at best. Boston certainly walks away from the dull tones of Fallout 3 and is definitely a lot more colorful which is great to see. I truly hope that the next game Bethesda releases features a new and updated engine to fully utilize new gen hardware much like the Witcher 3 did.

The leap from Fallout 3 to Fallout 4 is definitely noticeable.

Verdict: Must Buy

If you have played and enjoyed any of the modern Fallout games or are just a die hard Fallout fan in general, Fallout 4 is a must buy for you. Any lover of RPGs can appreciate what Bethesda has put so much time into over the past 5 years. The biggest question of all, was it worth the wait? Yes, definitely and Fallout 4 is easily the best modern Fallout games and one of the best Bethesda games ever created. Fallout 4 was well worth the wait and is definitely one of the contenders for game of the year.

Positives

-Characters are unique and entertaining

– Strong gun-play and V.A.T.S

-Simple but lots of RPG elements

-Entertaining story

Negatives

-Bugs

-Performance and visuals

-Same old engine

Thanks for reading guys.

-Harry