Back to the Future
After months of anticipation, Fallout 4 is finally here! It’s a big, bold, and beautiful game set in a dense and detailed world that delivers on almost everything I hoped it would.
I’m currently 27 hours into Fallout 4, I’ve completed the main story (although only one of the four paths to the end), and I’ve tackled a substantial amount of side content. I feel like I have experienced a good deal of what Fallout 4 has to offer, from the main story and side quests, to combat, crafting and exploration, but I know there’s even more out there. The Commonwealth holds so much to see and do and has so many stories to tell.
Surface Survival
Upon creating a suitably handsome and hairy avatar that bore a deluded resemblance to myself, I, along with my wife and child, was rushed into Vault 111 as the nuke fell on our picturesque neighborhood of Sanctuary. After being cryogenically frozen, and witnessing my son’s kidnapping, I emerged from the vault some 200 years later. The harsh light of the wasteland welcomed me and I was struck with the same excitement and awe as when I emerged from Vault 101.
Heading out into the wasteland before me, I encountered Preston Garvey and his troupe of survivors in nearby Concord, and soon found myself donning a suit of power armour, grabbing a mini-gun and taking on a Deathclaw. All this within the first hour seemed like an unconventionally pacey and explosive start for a Bethesda game, but this moment was but an example of Fallout 4’s diversity.
This variety is fantastic, but initially completely overwhelming. Fallout 4 presents you with so much all at once that getting to grips with everything really takes time, and this can result in a significant learning curve. My first several hours were, at times, very trying, and left me frustrated multiple times, I found myself replaying the same section over and over again, often with no stimpacks and very little ammo, until I finally managed to make progress.
Resources are scarce and enemies are more lethal this time around, so, especially in the first half a dozen missions, rationing and tactics are essential to survival. It wasn’t until I had crafted powerful enough gear, leveled up into the early teens, and got my head around every aspect of the game, that I really felt it all click into place. Fallout 4 is undoubtedly harder than either Fallout 3 or New Vegas, but because of this it’s vastly more rewarding.
A Wasteland Full of Life
Fallout 4’s Commonwealth is the game’s most fascinating character. Boston is filled with colour, detail, and personality, from ramshackle settlements like Diamond City and Goodneighbor, to rural towns, irradiated wilderness, and the bizarrely tranquil shores of the East Coast. Boston, and it’s surrounding areas, constantly astounded me as I ventured forth to the wastelands furthest reaches. Every inch of the world feels meticulously crafted yet simultaneously organic and cohesive.
As I wandered The Commonwealth, I encountered all manner of bizarre goings on, seemingly random events that often took me off on a tangent and told me a distinctly Fallout tale. These side quests offer a refreshing variety of tones, from humourous tales of wimpy radio hosts and Russian mobsters, to the unsettling horrors that lie within Salem’s Witchcraft Museum and Swan Pond. It’s this plethora of experiences that make Fallout 4 so consistently engrossing and engaging.
Fallout 4 at it’s core is very familiar; I knew, to an extent, what to expect, but it’s in it’s subtleties that it supersedes both it’s predecessors, and other post-apocalyptic open worlds. Fallout 4 is a beautiful game; gone is the brown tint that tainted Fallout 3’s landscape, instead this world is alive with colour, it’s vistas vibrant with rusted reds, luscious greens and blue skies.
My World is Blood and Fire!
Fallout 4’s combat has been greatly improved, gunplay is solid and responsive, and the iconic V.A.T.S System is back and better balanced. This time instead of stopping time, it slows it down, still giving you a tactical advantage, but removing the stop-and-start gameplay that became a crutch for players in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. It’s still not without it’s fault; regardless of weapon or perk stats, my accuracy in V.A.T.S seemed to fluctuate wildly at times.
Coinciding with this combat is a deep but intuitive weapon and power armour customization system. Every weapon can be upgraded in a multitude of ways; from more accurate scopes, bigger clips, and less recoil, to gun renaming and one-of-a-kind weapons that possess special attributes. This new system allows a great deal of experimentation and specification to engineer a fully personalized loadout.
Additionally, as you explore the wasteland you open up allied settlements which can be developed into fully fortified strongholds via a robust building mechanic. It’s a mechanic that I’m yet to get stuck into, but the Minecraft and Rust fans among you will no doubt spend hours building all manner of fantastical abodes.
Companions also make a return, and although I chose to go it alone in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I found them to be of much more use in Fallout 4. If I found myself outmanned, I’d recruit Dogmeat, Preston, or Piper to fight alongside me and even out the odds. Missions don’t have a suggested level indicator on them, so several times I found myself taking on enemies that greatly overpowered me, in these missions, companion’s unique perks and extra fire power can be your key to success.
War, War Never Changes
Fallout 4’s main story provides a compelling through line, as you discover the mysteries of The Commonwealth, and uncover the many issues a post-apocalyptic world faces. Four main factions; The Minutemen, The Brotherhood of Steel, The Railroad, and the mysterious Institute, all have their own agenda, philosophy and vision for the future.
Initially you can work with all of these factions and keep your allegiances vague, but as the story progresses, a pivotal twist is revealed, and as everything starts to converge, you must choose your side. These final hours will force you to make compromises as moral decisions become increasingly more impactful. I even found myself changing from my initial focus on combat perks to a build with maxed out charisma to accommodate this choice making.
Fallout 4’s ending (at least the one I was met with) was both satisfyingly epic and poignantly personal. Deciding whose vision is best for the future of The Commonwealth is a moral challenge; friends will become enemies, enemies may become friends, your ethics will be questioned, and your perception of this morally grey world will mutate.
Fallout 4 is everything I want it to be, and despite the occasional awkward design choice or bug, it’s an extraordinary achievement that encompasses everything that Fallout, and open world RPGs, should be. With a level cap of 50 and whole areas of map completely unexplored, I feel like I have so much more to discover in The Commonwealth, so if you’ll excuse me I’ve got Super Mutant Behemoths to slay and allied survivor groups to aide. See you in the wasteland wanderer!