Fallout 4 (PC) Review

2077 was the year that the Great War started, only to end two hours later, when the last A-bomb fell on earth’s now irradiated soil. Anyone coming from any iteration of Fallout’s alternative universe already knows this, but this will be the first time that the main character will start the journey a couple of minutes before this horrifying event - that is, if the player finds the courage to interrupt the main title’s majestic theme and press the ‘New Game’ button. This leads to the protagonist and his wife/her husband looking at the mirror, in what seems to be quite the flexible facial creation sequence. More importantly, these few moments in the colourful, ‘60s-inspired pre-war era, succeed in creating a wonderful contrast with the strain of total nuclear annihilation, especially while watching the two main characters running towards Vault-Tec’s underground shelter, and reaching it moments before Armageddon. Both metaphorically and literally, it all starts with a bang. It’s impressive. It’s cool. It’s awesome - and this time around the main character will have to deal with a task far more imperative than finding a functioning Water Chip or a missing father, and that is none other than the rescuing of its own baby boy.

Exiting this high-tech hole, and taking the first step into the strangely beautiful, post-apocalyptic Commonwealth Wasteland, will lead to the realisation of two things: first, that the criticism about this having the look of a marginally upgraded Skyrim was correct, and second… that it doesn’t really matter. Why? While this isn’t as “next”-gen as it should be, that stops being a problem after gazing upon the war-ravaged, yet highly-detailed Boston forests and settlements, the misty Glowing Sea and its yellow landscapes, or a charging Deathclaw; the towering, nightmarish inhabitant of this hostile environment. Also, unlike the monochromatic realms of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, this uses the whole darn palette, and the result is very satisfying.

This isn’t a technical masterpiece, and why should it be? After all, both The Elder Scrolls and the Fallout series were mainly focused in being engrossing time sinks. Furthermore, those expecting another pseudo-gargantuan world can rejoice, since, instead of a big region with lots of forgettable dungeons sprinkled around, there’s a POI every 10 or so steps; unique, and obviously handcrafted, with each one telling a small story using visuals or found notes. The only serious flaw here is how easy it is to get lost in all that exploration and questing, and in essence forget about your child. Yes, the concept of the original still reigns supreme after all these years.

Gameplay-wise, this is still more about exploration, questing, and fighting, rather than actual roleplaying, with gunfights being simply the best in the series, mainly because this time around this is a “pure” first-person shooter, as bullets go where you want them to go, with no behind-the-scenes dice-rolls affecting aim. The V.A.T.S. system which used to let you freeze time and point at specific parts of an enemy’s body has been reworked, slowing down time, feeling less like a godly power, and more like a nice supplement to manual aiming. Another improvement is that the extremely useful Power Armor is no longer a piece of equipment, but a bipedal, human-sized walking tank that needs specialised fuel to work, turning the use of it into a tactical decision. Exploration has also gotten a very useful re-tweak. Collecting loot is now much faster since there’s no need to open a container to look what’s inside. Finally, most items, and especially the useless junk that tend to litter all Bethesda titles, can be scraped into useful components for modding the equipment… and building towns, because it’s now possible to create communities in various parts of the world, and populate them with settlers.

While simplistic and far from an essential part of this adventure (despite many quests revolving around rescuing settlers and rebuilding their humble homes), this very… The Sims-like pastime can be quite the addictive time-muncher, making anyone forget to kill some Super mutants, and instead focus in creating beds, water purification devices, small farms, or robotic sentries (amongst others). These settlements act as your Home Away from Home, and after much work they can help in a practical way, as they let one call for reinforcements. Even better? One can build artillery canons within these and bomb the opposition away! Needless to say that all these will be done with the use of the worst user interface imaginable.

Yes, the UI sucks, and many of the controls can’t even be changed; controls that were mostly made with a gamepad in mind, which is typical post-Morrowind Bethesda behaviour. On the bright side, there are fewer bugs and glitches, which, if nothing else, shows that the developer has finally learned a few lessons from past mistakes. Furthermore, while not the most polished of games, it all runs pretty smoothly, with only a few hiccups and frame rate drops, although the loading times when entering an indoor area can be quite nerve-breaking - and a perfect opportunity to turn on the in-game radio stations, and enjoy calming classical orchestrations, or fantastic golden oldies from the ‘50s, played by the most hilariously socially awkward and absent-minded DJ.

Of course, the meat and potatoes of any RPG, and especially an open-world one, are its quests, which, thankfully, are quite good, although, like Skyrim, they hand-hold a bit more than needed, with a marker pointing out the location of each subsequent step, with very few missions that break that rule, requiring a little more effort. The biggest issue with Fallout 4, however, is none other that it is probably the least… well, RPG in this series or role-playing games. This is without a doubt the weakest Fallout when it comes to story, writing, tone, and, most of all, choice. The most famous example is the - now fully-voiced - dialogue sequences, which let you pick among: ‘Yes,’ ‘No but actually Yes,’ ‘Yes but Sarcastic,’ and ‘Let me think about it.’ It’s nice that the humour has kind of taken a back seat, especially when compared to the circus that was Fallout 3, but the world has stepped even further away from the tone of the 1997 original. The post-apocalypse is not a cruel, grim place. It’s a dirty funfair, and one that’s very, very easy to traverse. At least, like most funfairs, it is… well, fun.

No this isn’t a true RPG. Take Perks for instance. Now a vastly different system, which lets you pick a perk each time you level up as long as your Stats let you do so, these handle your fighting and exploration capabilities, with very few (if any) changing the way you interact with the world. This also shows way too much too soon. In the very first hour the player will find a functioning Power Armor, and destroy a freaking Deathclaw, whereas in past games you had to work really hard to do either task. And as mentioned above, it’s all stupefyingly easy, even on Hard. You’ll never feel that threatened, which is a big no-no in such a setting. What’s left to do then? Well, you can start again on Survival mode, and spice things up quite a bit. Damage is severely increased, meaning that one can die with just a few well-placed shots; healing isn’t instantaneous, and drugs actually make your character prone to disease. Not to mention that you now need to sleep, eat, drink… and can only save by using a bed.

You are forced to pay attention to your every step, plan your moves, and calculate your chances of survival when meeting up with a group of enemies, even if that’s just a bunch of lowly raiders. This immerses you into the game world completely, so it’s easy to say that since playing on Survival completely transforms the experience it is the recommended setting, but no. Apart from some very unbalanced mechanics that force you into a constant loop of sleeping, taking meds, and drinking water, which can drive you crazy, after reaching level 20 or so, you’ve practically reached a point where you know exactly what needs to be done on each occasion, and as such the whole thing becomes extremely repetitive. Thus, the recommended “mode” would actually be your own set of self-imposed restrictions. Play with no quick saves, don’t upgrade weapons, only heal through food and drinks… you get the idea. So, in conclusion, what is Fallout 4: it’s an addicting but also repetitive, open-ended yet restricting, engrossing but quite flawed experience. In other words: a Bethesda game.