By October of 2008, I had been a Microsoft “Xbox 360” owner for barely five months. And during that time I had the opportunity to play some open world games (“Grand Theft Auto IV” and “Saint’s Row” to be precise), dove into an even more beautifully rendered boxing ring with “Fight Night Round 3”, and had the chance to race around the world in “Forza”. But all of the games mentioned had a certain level of anticipation to them that would make the experience either better or worse depending on the game’s quality.
Things were picking up as the holiday rush of games was upon us – and 2008 was a true gem of a year when looking back. Bethesda Games’ “Fallout 3” was one of the main reasons why 2008 proved to be one of the most important years in gaming during its seventh generation. Rather than take what was the core foundation that made the first two “Fallout” games successful, Bethesda Games, after purchasing the franchise’s license, created the series’ next numbered installment from scratch. The end result was a critical and financial success that made part-time and simply intrigued “Fallout” players like myself into true fans.
Obsidian Entertainment was able to get involved in the seventh generation “Fallout” experience by releasing a successor to “Fallout 3” – titled “Fallout: New Vegas” – that had no direct ties to the previous game other than being the same fictional universe while utilizing a modified version of the same engine during the player’s journey west into the Mojave Wasteland. Like “Fallout 3”, “New Vegas” garnered much acclaim from players and critics alike and became another hit. So it surprised no one that “Fallout 4” was in development. But what did surprise many was the quick turnaround from the announcement of “Fallout 4’s” existence and when it was released some five months later. After becoming a fan of the series thanks to the copious amount of hours spent playing the first three numbered “Fallout” games (I actually went back and played the first two “Fallouts”) and “New Vegas”, I was nothing short of hyped for what promised to be another epic experience in an apocalyptic wasteland.
Did I Complete “Fallout 4”?
Similar to many open-world role-playing games (RPGs), “Fallout 4” gives one a sense of freedom to explore and dictate what he/she wants to accomplish. But the point of every RPG is the story; which in this game’s case kicks off with a prologue of sorts as the player is allowed to craft both a man and female character (husband & wife) to unknowingly send one into the Commonwealth after the bombs drop and destroy almost everything. It’s through the game’s main story that the player is given a chance to explore the vast wasteland that was once the thriving city of Boston (and beyond) with the goal of finding a child stolen from the embrace of his mother or father (depending on what gender the player decides to play as).
For those experienced with the previous two “Fallout” games, “Fallout 4” is close to familiar territory as you can get; though there are noticeable gameplay modifications that can change the way one will play. I mostly stuck to what helped me make it through the Wasteland and Mojave – building up my character’s endurance, health, money (bottle caps), medicine to heal my wounds and rid myself of radiation poisoning, and, most importantly, heavy artillery. The hours spent with “Fallout 4” reached the triple digits as they did when playing the previous iterations, ending in me not only seeing the endings available, but also me witnessing what would happen by siding with every faction available before that rare (at the time) platinum trophy popped on my screen.
Did “Fallout 4” Live Up to the Hype?
As noted in the previous section, “Fallout 4” had the initial promise of being everything the seventh generation “Fallout” games were, but better. Jumping into “Fallout 4” was incredibly easy as the initial hour focused on crafting your character’s body and specialties before sending them on him or her merry, bloody way. It’s after the first major story point of the game that players are given the chance to witness some of the tweaks to the standard “Fallout” gameplay that made “3” and “New Vegas” what they were. After acquiring the all-in-one map, inventory keeper, cassette tape player and skill tree (S.P.E.C.I.A.L.) in the “Pip-Boy” computerized wristwatch, the player can utilize the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.) in combat. Unlike the last two “Fallouts”, V.A.T.S. doesn’t stop time completely, but only slows it down so the player can hit a specific region on an enemy (the higher the percentage, the more likely the attack will land and do significant damage to the point of crippling an enemy); creating “bullet time” effects during each successful or unsuccessful hit. With enemies now moving during V.A.T.S. combat doesn’t feel like a surety. Percentages change as the enemy advances or retreats, and the player can actually be hit while in V.A.T.S. (which wasn’t a factor in the previous games).
Also changed when it comes to V.A.T.S. is the usage of “Critical” hits. Once completely random, “Critical” hits can now be triggered in the heat of combat. After killing enough people, a bar located at the bottom of the V.A.T.S. screen fills up until it’s ready for use by the player with the tap of a button. Combat outside of V.A.T.S. has too been modified for the better; actually feeling like a competent first-person shooter rather than some clumsy attempt at copying “Unreal Tournament”. The game’s guns and melee weapons have obvious weight and recoil to them, and a cover system that functions easily and effectively by simply placing a character against/behind any wall with a weapon unholstered makes gunplay a much better experience compared to the previous “Fallout” games.
Another change when it comes to gameplay is how one customizes his/her character to journey through the Commonwealth. First there’s the game’s skill tree, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (the game’s seven traits for every character – strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, luck). After gaining enough experience points from completing various tasks such as missions, killing enemies and even picking locks, the character levels up while the player is given a point to distribute among these seven skill branches to attain certain attributes that can make for the character you feel best suits your needs. Want a muscle-bound behemoth that swings a super sledgehammer with the greatest of ease? Focus on the “Strength” and “Endurance” categories and you’ll have a living tank ready to eradicate almost everything in no time. “Agility” and “Luck” can turn a character into nothing short of a ninja ready to sneak up and kill sleeping adversaries be it humans or Deathclaws. The skill tree might feel a little dumbed down compared to its predecessors, but it works incredibly well if you plan ahead and decide how you want to play the game early on.
How special are you?
Enemy A.I. has been changed to reflect more of what you would’ve expected years ago, but was obviously hampered by hardware limitations. Mole rats and radscorpions now borrow underground before popping out to attack. Super mutants and raiders go out of their way to support fellow fighters and hastily pick up fallen weapons if said item is superior to the one they’re using. The more humanized enemies will use health items when need be just like their playable adversary. And Deathclaws are still the most fearsome things to face with or without power armor. There are also “Legendary” enemies that have the ability to “mutate” and restore his/her/its health to full for another round. These latter enemies will drop “legendary” weapons that are typically better or modified versions of other items the player will most likely come across. Thanks to the enemies seen throughout the game, “Fallout 4” delivers quite the challenge even when your character starts reaching higher levels.
One major difference from “Fallout 3” and “New Vegas” is the lack of weapon and armor degradation. In the older games, weapons and armor would decay over time thanks to usage in combat. This is no longer the case as a player can use the Vault suit attained at the game’s beginning throughout if someone wants to (though it might not be the smartest thing to do). One of the main reasons for the change is the ability to customize weapons and armor like never before. Almost every piece of loot has a purpose in “Fallout 4” including turning run of the mill items like aluminum cans into modification pieces that can make a certain weapon or armor into something you’d want to keep in your inventory for a long time. Power Armor has also been modified in the way players can use the metal monstrosity. Instead of simply being able to put on Power Armor and do as one pleases, the special covering is actually powered by fusion cores that need to be replaced once they run dry (an automatic action performed by the game). Though this change takes away the fun of using Power Armor whenever you want, it does add a nice bit of strategy and potential challenge for those who didn’t hunt every nook & cranny for that stray fusion core. Also, Power Armor actually does degrade over long usage in battle and must be repaired via special workstations.
Companions also make a return in “Fallout 4”. There are thirteen potential seconds that can accompany the player in his/her quest. Get to know a companion better and/or do things his or she likes and even more quests can open up that can change the way the companion reacts to the player and the world. Sadly companions can be pretty stupid at times; chasing an invisible enemy or even running off for no apparent reason. For some odd reason, the player can’t see how much a companion can carry unlike “New Vegas”, causing inventory switching to be annoying at times. But at least there’s love.
One of the most emphatic changes to the “Fallout” franchise comes with “4’s” dialogue system. For the first time “The Vault Dweller/Lone Wander/Sole Survivor” is able to speak instead of being a muted speech bubble that “voices” his/her opinions and decisions. The initial worry that a voice-acted protagonist would take away from the immersion of “Fallout” was hastily dashed by the performances of Nate (Brian Delaney) and Nora (Courtenay Taylor) – the given names for the main characters that can be changed and actually spoken by one character so happy to see him or her when the story truly gets started. But the voice acting greatness comes at a price. In this case it’s the addition of a dialogue “wheel” where the player is given only four options to choose from when asking or responding to questions. The end results, most of the time, feel stoic and generic due to pre-determined answers that will be given usually if you pick two responses that are noticeably similar in nature. While the dialogue options do speed up unnecessary conversations, it feels more limiting than it should for a game that embraces choice and exploration be it through a half destroyed building or by simply talking to non-controllable characters. Thankfully, charisma still plays a factor in how well you can convince people to perform certain tasks or provide secrets through the obvious color changes in the wheel.
Completely gone is the “Karma System” seen in previous “Fallout” games. One of the most interesting aspects of the older games was the ability to see how your character’s actions affected the world, and the response he or she got from the people who witnessed or simply heard of your character’s escapades. Depending on what the player did or didn’t do reflected on how others treated the character. The sense of morality that came with the “Fallout” games is no longer visible outside of the main storyline; and even then it feels more muddied than black & white.
What isn’t lacking or disappointing is the Commonwealth itself. With unusual blue skies overhead (unusual in a post-apocalyptic world; especially a “Fallout” game), tattered buildings to the point of obliteration, rusted cars and a variety of containers littering the streets, the world feels denser than “3” and “New Vegas” combined. This feeling intensifies as one moves from the initial holdings of Vault 111 into a New England area ravaged by atomic bombs that grew more dangerous thanks to super mutants, radioactive creatures and homicidal humans alike. There are underground transit systems just waiting to be explored (and cleared of ghouls both feral and radioactive). Enterable buildings can house anything from raiders hoping to ambush unsuspecting individuals simply looking to save a random woman screaming from the inside, to nothing but items waiting for pillaging. While there are times building interiors will look alike, those moments come few & far between. My early time with “Fallout 4” featured my character exploring the world before him to my benefit and, in more times than I’d like to admit, my detriment. The Commonwealth’s vast majority is grand and everything one could’ve hoped for coming into a new “Fallout” game.
One of the main reasons for exploring is meeting new people and, potentially, gaining new quests that can flesh out the world and make it for a grander experience. While there are times these extra missions feel unnecessarily repetitive and long-winded, the want to see what could happen if you go about doing something differently to witness what comes of it convinces players to keep trying (though there are specific faction-based missions that only exist to pad experience – looking at you, Minutemen). And then there are the standalone side quests that feel just as impressive and fun as the main story missions.
Sadly, one of the biggest faults with “Fallout 4” is the main story. What starts off as a revenge tale slowly descends into absurdity as the player is forced to choose between siding with a faction over The Commonwealth’s fate and immediate future. Midway through the story it becomes obvious why Bethesda introduced so many things to keep a player busy – the story is incredibly short and lacking a certain edge one would expect from the franchise. The big reveals and decisions aren’t as profound as one would hope, and results in a sense of apathy by the final missions depending on what faction you sided with in this battle to the death that, for some odd reason, can’t be avoided even though this game doesn’t feature an obvious antagonist or puppet master as seen in the last two “Fallout” games that gave the player great satisfaction in killing. And then there are the conclusions that are barely endings at all, but just obvious open-ended rhetoric to set up future downloadable content. While the endings to “Fallout 3” and “New Vegas” weren’t masterful, they at least felt like true conclusions to a journey while attempting to evoke an emotional response from the player. “Fallout 4” doesn’t have that quality sense of finality.
Last, but certainly not least is the addition of “Settlements”. Players are given the opportunity to not only “live” alongside NPCs, but also build upon the areas they currently occupy. Junk items like the aforementioned aluminum cans become essential resources in crafting shelter, farmland, defense systems and even electrical towers; actually giving everything the player loots a reason to exist other than being excess weight for cheap sales. Settlement building can become a game within the game for the highly skilled, creative, and, most importantly, patient. While creating a settlement can be intriguing at first, the lack of information and a true tutorial makes the experience daunting initially. The task of constructing is made even worse by the tools provided. For some reason, the game actually has the character move around while he/she is “building”, causing frustrating problems when a character has, say, gotten stuck behind and between barriers that have to be deconstructed that you don’t want to take down. Depending on what area you’re working with, pieces might not fit or come together as planned. There are also “Happiness” and “Size” meters that change depending on how satisfied the residents are by having enough food, water, beds and defense, and how much stuff is in your settlement before you can’t build anymore respectively. The hope of getting “100” on the Happiness meter can be glitchy at times, and size limiting just feels unnecessary.
And you can’t have a Bethesda game without the abundant glitches. While “Fallout 4” doesn’t suffer from the same amount of problems seen in “Fallout 3” post-launch, the game still features a staggering number of instances that can hinder one’s good time. I, like many others, suffered from the settlement Happiness Meter glitch that saw my original settlers become disgruntled for no reason. Thankfully, I was able to get the trophy for being a “benevolent leader” with some sheer ingenuity and tricking the very same system made to force my creative mind. Just like previous Bethesda offerings, “Fallout 4” glitches can range from beneficial (like the infinite caps glitch I discovered while playing a certain side mission) to plain detrimental (NPCs responsible for advancing missions disappearing or just not reacting to the “interact” button). While there weren’t many terrible glitch experiences in my play through, others haven’t had the same benefit. There are other performance issues including jerky animations, lip-synching being off, sounds dropping in and out, and framerate drops that can trick you into believing the game has completely frozen for a second or two.
“Fallout 4”, in a lot of ways, is exactly the experience one should expect from a Bethesda-headed game featuring suitable innovation and a “wow” factor similar to what made “Fallout 3” so impressive, yet is terribly unpolished and not optimized due to the limitations of an outdated engine.
Should You Play “Fallout 4”?
More than likely if you’ve played and enjoyed “Fallout 3” and/or “Fallout: New Vegas” you’ve probably already started playing or plan to play “4” in the near future. But what about those who have my mindset when “Fallout 3” came out and don’t know what to do? While “Fallout 4” lacks a truly memorable story, has quirks both big and small, and features an entire mini-game that can add hours of creative enjoyment or none at all, “Fallout 4” still feels like an exceptional experience that, while not the “game changer” “Fallout 3” was, is still worth trying for a few hours. If you can get over the difficulty hurdle that is the norm for every “Fallout” and still want to play more, you’ll probably enjoy what “Fallout 4” mostly offers. But that doesn’t take away the feeling that as enjoyable and addictive the game can be, “Fallout 4” is inconsistent in its quest for greatness be it because of the story or the core game play’s functionality – falling short in attaining unadulterated success where it shouldn’t have considering the competition both in the franchise and beyond. And for reading, I present you some bottlecaps.
