Summary [9.5 out of 10]

A return to the Fallout series that feels more like a continuation than a new iteration, Fallout 4 gives players more of what they loved in previous games with a little bit of new material and tightened controls.

One might assume from the above that Fallout 4 is a retread of past installments but it really isn’t. There is plenty here to recommend and if you liked the previous Fallout games then you will love this game. It doesn’t really innovate from a fundamental standpoint but it brings enough new to the table to feel fresh and rewarding without taking away any of what makes this series great. Fallout 4 is the best version of the series hands down. It just feels a lot like previous entries because of it. If you are a Fallout fan, though, this is in no way a bad thing.

What It’s Like:

Fallout 3 and New Vegas: This is pretty obvious given it is the next game in the series. It takes aspects from both games and uses them to great effect here. If you like these you will like this. Pretty simple.

The Great:

Variety: As has become the Bethesda hallmark, there is a ton to do in Fallout 4. From a story standpoint you have faction missions that send you all over doing different things, then you have side quests that require different skill sets and different sorts of gameplay, and then you have the crafting and settlement building that opens things up to a whole new level. It is fair to say that a lot of this is not entirely new given that it is mostly the same sort of thing players did in Fallout 3 and New Vegas but I hold that there is enough new about it to keep it fun. Also, when you do something this well it is not a great idea to change it up too much. And the shelter building is a new element that gives you a lot of options but generally doesn’t force you to do very much of it if you are not into it.

Controls: Controls are another thing that the Fallout series has fine tuned but with Fallout 4 you get first person shooter mechanics good enough that you are not always having to go into V.A.T.S. to shore up kills. This is kind of a big deal because there is a greater sense of urgency in the game now as you are running and gunning a lot more and it is actually a viable option. The button mapping makes the sort of sense you get to with two great games in front of this one and it is rare that you feel out of control. There is always the blind panic when a suicide bombing super mutant is bearing down on you but if you keep your wits about you, the controls are there and precise enough for you to sort things out. There is no option to help you clean up if you shit your pants though.

Replay: Because of the faction system requiring you to take an eventual side and the fact that there are a passel of emergent quests scattered throughout the game there is a ton of replay available here. There is plenty enough to do to keep your main busy for hours and hours but if you decide to roll an alt and take to the wasteland with fresh eyes you will find a multitude of options to make your adventure unique.

Combat: As mentioned above in the controls section, the combat here is tight and well implemented giving the player the option to play live or jump into V.A.T.S. and choose your shots a bit more slowly. V.A.T.S. is not a mid combat pause button in this installment, however. Things slow down and give you some time to target and figure things out but you are still getting shot or hit or run up on. While you could choose an either or approach, blending live combat with V.A.T.S. is the best way to go and it is easy to do without sacrificing the challenge. This is an impressive feat.

Side Quests This is probably a redundancy at this point but the side quests here outstrip the main quest such that you can spend your time quite happily just doing these without dealing with the main quest at all. This is nothing new given that Fallout and Elder Scrolls are known for this but it is still nice to see that Fallout 4 continues this legacy and does so very well.

Voice Acting: The voice acting can be a bit questionable in this series (and the Elder Scrolls games) but Fallout 4 really nails it. The voice acting here embraces the ‘frozen in the fifties’ style the series goes for and helps to make its unique characters feel authentic. There’s not a lot of stunt casting here with film and TV actors but just a solid collection of talent that puts in great work.

The Good

Graphics: While the vistas and locations are gorgeous the graphics are not particularly bleeding edge. It looks really good but some of the facial animations still look wooden and character models come off a bit stiff. Again, it generally looks really good but it is not the best looking new gen (isn’t it current gen by now?) game out there. Still it is very pretty.

Story: I don’t want to say a lot about the story aside from your survivor character is on a hunt for his or her son who has been snatched by marauders but there are some cool things going on here that we haven’t seen before but at the same time your son is kind of a macguffin that could as easily been your father from Fallout 3. It is sort of weird to be going back to that particular well but the main story is not the big draw for this game. It isn’t bad, it just isn’t great.

Perk System: The perk system is not perfect and you’ll find some complaints below but there is a pretty large variety of perks that offer useful tweaks that allow you to play the way you want to play. This allows for unique character builds that support the way the player wants to go about things. Fallout 3 and New Vegas had a lot of these same qualities and perks but there are plenty of new perks here and with no real level cap it is possible to get all of them if you play long enough. Some work could be done on this system for the next iteration but as it stands it gives the player a lot of options to play the way that suits them best.

Customization: Going hand in hand with the perk system, the customization offered in this game is huge. You can customize pretty much everything in the game with deep systems for weapons, armor, explosives, food, drinks, clothing, shelters, crops, medicine, and tools. If you were so inclined you could get away with focusing mostly on this and you would have a game unto itself. This also gives the play a use for all the shit you find out in the wasteland. Rather than just selling junk at traders you can use all of it to craft or modify everything of use you carry. You couple this with the already impressive roster of armor and weaponry and you have a ton of reasons to explore and collect.

The Bad

Tying crafting into perks: This might seem like some nitpicking but one place where the perk system stumbles is that in order for the player to get the most out of crafting and building they have to invest perk slots into specific aspects of crafting. If you want to make explosives then you need to spend a perk on that and then upgrade to make more advanced explosives. If you want to make or modify armor there is a special perk for that and levels to upgrade. This is not dissimilar to other perk systems in Fallout and Elder Scrolls but it feels like some of these crafting perks should have been combined to allow for a better perk spread for other gameplay elements. It is kind of frustrating to not be able to upgrade lockpicking or gunslinging because you really need to craft something for a quest.

 

Conclusion [9.5 out of 10]

Fallout 4 did not blow me away with innovation but it gave exactly what it promised: more Fallout. With compelling quests, a ton of things to loot, a robust crafting system, satisfying combat all wrapped in a satisfying atmosphere there is very little left for one to ask. The game looks good, has great companions and solid FPS controls and plenty to do. If you are a Fallout fan it is hard to imagine you aren’t playing already but if you are on the fence on this one you should jump off that fence and into this game because it is the total package that will not disappoint so long as you aren’t expecting it to reinvent the wheel.