[Introduction]
Would you believe me if I told you that Fallout 4, like Fallout 3 and New Vegas before it, is an open world ARPG? Probably, because there's something of a pattern emerging at this point. It also takes place in Boston and its surrounding suburbs after the whole place contracted a mild case of armageddon. As it happens, much like the real Boston, Fallout 4 is pretty inoffensive. This is a statement I'm confident in, because the name Boston applies to like two dozen places in the real world, and Fallout 4 is perfectly serviceable, if also perfectly mediocre.
[First Impressions]
Your usual fare. You're in a vault, something happens, you leave the vault.
Except not really. Offering a change of perspective from every other Fallout game out there, you actually start out as a citizen of the US of A, eating sugar bombs, drinking coffee, reading Grognak the Barbarian and delegating childcare to a robot armed with a flamethrower and a buzzsaw.
Anyway, you leave the vault and 5-10 minutes later you're wearing power armor and shooting a deathclaw with a minigun.
Initial pacing is... weird.
[Development]
Fallout 4 became a thing at least partially because Todd Howard was "excited about showing the world before the bombs fell." It's hard to overstate how much potential was wasted in that regard, because we spend all of 5 minutes in the world before the bombs fell and promptly get sent right back to the post-apocalyptic setting.
In lieu of going back in time, I want to do the same thing. Let's go back to 1997. Numerical Design Limited creates the NetImmerse engine after years of involvement in the games industry. Among the games developed using this new engine is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind in 2002.
The engine eventually evolves into the Gamebryo engine around 2003. Among the games developed using it is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2006. It's also used for Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
Gamebryo, in turn, is used as the foundation in the development of the Creation Engine in 2011. Among the games it was used to develop are The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and, of course, Fallout 4.
Long story short, there's an argument to be made that this game runs on a 24 year old engine which has just been patched up to still sorta hold together on modern systems. I don't know if this explains the notoriously buggy nature of Bethesda games, but it's food for thought.
On a positive note, the game was intended to be mod friendly from the get go. Presumably Bethesda saw what happened with all their other games and accepted the inevitability that people would mod the hell out of this one too. They went an extra mile, actually, because PC mods can be applied to Xbox One copies of the game as well.
On a blander note, considerable effort went into creating a mobile app which effectively gives players the option to use their phones as Pip-Boys. This appears to have been little more than a gimmick.
On a downright negative note, Bethesda also finally monetized mods for Fallout 4 through the Creation Club in 2017. They can deny it all they want, but the content available for purchase in the Club are paid mods in all but name.
[Game Mechanics]
If you've played Fallout 3 or New Vegas, there's gonna be a lot of familiar elements.
You explore, you kill enemies, you complete side quests and, optionally, complete main quests. You have your Pip-Boy inventory/stat/map system which works as handily as ever, with the added functionality of being able to sort by item weight and value and such. You level up, select perks, rinse and repeat. During your wasteland hijinks, you'll acquire an assortment of lethal weapons and a variety of armor to help you kill and not get killed respectively.
In lieu of the overall similarities, there's not much sense in repeating myself beyond those basics. Instead, let's focus on what's changed. Perhaps the most immediately impactful change is that your weapons no longer deteriorate, so there's no need to haul an arsenal of spare assault rifles to repair your best one. Another change you'll notice very early on is that you level a lot faster, likely because the level cap has been raised from 30 (Fallout 3) and 50 (New Vegas) to... 65,535. Chances are you'll never reach the cap though, because you need 161,062,092,626 exp to get there.
The perk system has also been changed, and arguably for the better, at least in the sense that it's easier to read now. I guess a better description is that it has been streamlined, not so much improved. There's certainly some contention about it, but personally, I rather like it. It's immediately visible to the player which perks are tied to which stat and how many points in a given stat you need in order to unlock access - similarly, it's also easy to tell what the level requirements for the perks are.
Another big change is crafting. Now, crafting has been around since Fallout 3, but it was rudimentary at best. New Vegas expanded on the concept significantly, and now Fallout 4 has gone all-in. Crafting is a central mechanic now, to the point that junk items aren't really junk, but resources. You're gonna be picking up a lot of desk fans, alarm clocks, aluminum cans and duct tape when you explore the Commonwealth. On the one hand, it adds worth to otherwise worthless items and allows the player to actually improve their own equipment in a meaningful way; on the other hand, there's a slippery slope that leads to grinding, and this is the closest we've gotten in the franchise so far.
Armor has changed as well. For example, combat armor used to be an item that represented the whole suit of armor. Not anymore! Now combat armor is a modular set that you have to acquire, equip and upgrade piecemeal. However, certain outfits still represent whole suits of armor and don't allow players to equip additional armor on top of that.
And speaking of armor:
Power armor is now proper power armor.
It's no longer something you equip from your inventory. Now it's an exoskeleton you mount modular armor elements onto. You're not wearing it; you're piloting it. It has weight, it has momentum, it feels powerful and properly communicates the notion that it's more of a one-man infantry fighting vehicle than a suit of armor. Its importance and raw awesome factor is diminished by the fact that you acquire it before you even get your hands on a weapon that doesn't look home-made, but I can barely muster the energy to care about that because it's just so cool. I'm 100% biased, and I don't care. It barely even matters to me that power armor now requires a fusion core to fuel it for some reason. It makes no sense, because it was previously established that the fuel cell lasts literally hundreds of years, but now it burns out in less than a day. This discrepancy is never explained, but don't sweat it: you'll find tons of cores.
There's also an actual weather system now. It's largely cosmetic and doesn't really warrant much attention, but do be aware that there are radiation storms now. They're very scenic and very radioactive.
Oh, and the game features a settlement construction system.
It's almost entirely pointless and very finnicky, but it's there if you feel the need to play The Sims while you're playing Fallout 4.
[Graphics]
The graphics are fine. They do the job.
That said, there were more than a few people who were unhappy with the appearance of Fallout 4. A common criticism was that it was too colorful, too cartoony, too cheerful or some variation or combination thereof. It's true that the game is markedly less grim looking than its predecessors. A notable exception to this is during the aforementioned radiation storms. While those are hitting your general area, it starts feeling more like you're playing a Tiberian Sun ARPG. The same is true for the southernmost reaches of the map, down in the Glowing Sea. It's aptly named.
Other than that, my main issue with the visuals is the faces. Some are worse than others (looking at you, Mama Murphy), but as a rule of thumb, you'll want to get used to people looking like they're visiting Boston from the uncanny valley. Lip sync is notoriously bad, which really shouldn't be much of a problem to sort out in a game this new from a company this well-known with a budget this big.
[Story]
It's fine.
It's not fine, no matter how hard I've tried to convince myself. The story is bad.
Remember how Caesar, Mr. House and the NCR all had their own motivations in New Vegas?
Remember how the Brotherhood and the Enclave were in an ideological struggle in Fallout 3?
Yeah, there's none of that in Fallout 4. Not really. The factions are largely bland, including the Brotherhood of Steel. I'm a huge Brotherhood fanboy, but there's no bias strong enough to ignore the reality of the shitty writing in this game.
The Brotherhood has one goal: destroy the Institute. That's it.
The Railroad has one goal: free synths.
The Minutemen are a bit more nebulous: defend the Commonwealth, whatever that entails.
And then there's the institute. We don't even know what their goals are or what motivations might be behind them, because we're never told. In fact, you can ask, but the response basically amounts to something along the lines of "you wouldn't get it."
Remember how Caesar's Legion did horrible, horrible things? Slavery, forced sexual segregation, cultural genocide, actual genocide, the list goes on. But if you approached Caesar, he'd tell you exactly why he believed all of those things were necessary for the betterment of humanity and the survival of the species in a horrible post-apocalyptic world, even how it would prevent another apocalypse.
The Institute does horrible things too. Involuntary human experimentation, murder, kidnapping, not to mention replacing people with synth infiltrators and releasing so many super mutants into the Commonwealth that they're a sizeable faction unto themselves. You can even throw slavery in there, depending on your views on synth rights. We're operating on Saturday morning cartoon villain levels here, and none of it is ever explained or justified.
On the contrary, the Institute actually sometimes seems to be oblivious that it's doing anything wrong. If you tell them that the Commonwealth could use their help, you get this response:
"Oh, we've tried that. Surprised? The Institute once tried to help create a stabilized Commonwealth government. It ended in bickering, infighting... it was a disaster. No, we look after our own now. Ultimately the Commonwealth has nothing to fear from us. Whatever you've seen or heard, I know I can convince you of that. Just... give me time. I know there's more for us to discuss, but..."
This response ultimately omits the tiny detail that the project to form a Commonwealth government was forcibly terminated by the Institute when they sent a synth to kill everyone involved, at which the synth succeeded. And yet they continue standing by this baffling notion that they don't understand the hostility from the Commonwealth, because the Commonwealth has nothing to fear from the Institute. I know I've already said this, but just to reiterate: this is never explained.
Anyway, that tirade aside, the story is simple. Mediocre, really.
You are DAD or MOM together, you have SON (Shaun). When the bombs hit, you go to the local vault and get frozen for a few years. SON gets stolen, your spouse gets killed and you get frozen again. You eventually get unfrozen for good, briefly mourn your significant other, and then set off to find SON.
In your effort to find SON, you make your way across post-apocalyptic Boston, where you occasionally get a chance to act like a fish out of water, but largely get some unsatisfying dialogue with various NPCs where every conversation gives you 4 options. These are mostly No, Yes, No (Yes) and Maybe. Every now and then you have access to sarcastic responses, which, while funny, only serve as temporary distractions from the fact that the dialogue options in Fallout 4 almost all suck.
There are a few good encounters and some solid characters. Danse and Hancock are both pretty funny, but speaking of Hancock, here's another gripe:
Hancock is a ghoul.
The Brotherhood hates ghouls and advocate killing them on sight.
If you bring Hancock to the Brotherhood, the worst you get is a few snide remarks from some of the NPCs there, and that's about it. Sometimes Hancock talks back, which is met with passive aggressiveness at most. The same is true if you bring any other companion around who the Brotherhood ought to try to kill on sight.
Not to beat a dead horse here, but remember how bringing certain companions into certain areas or performing certain actions with them tagging along would have consequences? None of that in Fallout 4. Now it's just "your companion liked that" or "your companion disliked that" and nothing else. Sometimes they REALLY liked or disliked something you did, but it doesn't matter.
None of this matters. I'm almost inclined to argue that you should just ignore the story altogether and focus on the gameplay, but it's not quite that bad. It's close though. There are some saving graces.
[SPOILERS]
You find SON. He's actually the leader of the Institute. He has nothing memorable or really significant to say about the fact that the Institute kidnapped him, killed one of his parents and kept the other on ice for a few decades. He does nothing of note except eventually contract a terminal illness and die. This might simultaneously be the single worst NPC and the greatest waste of potential in a narrative in any Fallout game ever conceived.
If you side with the Brotherhood, you blow up the Institute and the Railroad.
If you side with the Railroad, you blow up the Institute and the Brotherhood.
If you side with the Minutemen, you blow up the Institute and maybe the Brotherhood.
If you side with the Institute, you blow up the Railroad and the Brotherhood.
Here are some cool bits you might come across:
There's a modified protectron that got turned into a mobile brewery. His name his Drinking Buddy and I love him.
There's an occult museum which features a tense encounter with a deathclaw in close quarters. Depending on how you end the associated quest, you might get a deathclaw buddy.
You can encounter a robot which will try to determine whether you're a communist spy. If you tell it to go fuck itself, it'll conclude that you're 99.7% likely to be an American citizen.
You might find a guy brewing something at a still. Keep your distance though; it explodes.
Two guys arguing over what constitutes a sandwich.
If you find a mob of named feral ghouls, don't worry: those are your old neighbors.
There's an entire questline dedicated to helping a crew of robots in various states of madness and disrepair. Helping how? Helping them to get their ship flying, of course. It's presently stuck in a building. The reward is a cannon, more specifically one of the 24-pounder guns on the USS Constitution.
Another questline is centered around the Cabot family and figuring out how they've lived for over 200 years without being ghouls.
And finally there's a suspiciously idyllic community where nothing unusual is happening at all. It's just a nice place for nice people to live nice lives.
Naturally, this is not an exhaustive list.
[Pros]
- Power armor in Fallout 4 is the best in the franchise, and certainly among the best in any game
- Gameplay is perfectly serviceable
- Outstanding mod support
- Genuine attempts at improving upon the Fallout formula
[Cons]
- The story is mostly bland; it's okay at best, straight up awful at worst
- Side quests are largely less interesting than in previous titles
- Environment is smaller and less interesting than in previous titles
- Facial animations are uncanny valley material and sometimes out of sync with dialogue
- While genuine, attempts to improve sometimes fall flat
- Buggy
[Conclusion]
I won't lie: the score is only as high as 6 because I love the power armor in Fallout 4. I love it a lot, so much so that it's pretty much the central reason that I enjoy playing the game at all. It could have been so much better if Bethesda had drawn more from the experience of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but they instead opted for a vast decrease in writing quality. There is so much potential here, and I really think it could have been the best Fallout game ever made. It just... isn't.
I've still put over 300 hours into the game though, so maybe I'm just bitter.
Another settlement needs your help. Moral compass optional.
/DUX
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