Fallout 4

At the time of writing this review, I have put 326 hours into Fallout 4. First off, while I knew well about Fallout 3 and New Vegas before Fallout 4, Fallout 4 was the first Fallout I actually played. I chose to start on Fallout 4 because it looked to me to be the most accessible Fallout to new players of the series. I still stand by this. When Fallout 4 first released, most seemed to like the game. I kept hearing positive things about it whenever online or at school. I only knew one person who didn't like it and everyone seemed to be in agreeance that his decision was strange. However, now it's very common to hate on this game, or really anything Bethesda puts out. It feels like the hate for this game is more about the hate of the company rather than the game itself. That will not be this review. This review is on Fallout 4, not Bethesda as a company. Coming off a few years after the release of Skyrim, Fallout 4 is one of Bethesda's biggest steps up, graphically. Plenty people look at this game and they criticize the visuals. However, if you look at how this game looks compared Skyrim on launch, the colors and lighting in Fallout 4 is vastly superior. Then if you compare the visuals of the game to past Fallout games, the difference is night and day. Now, graphics hardly effects how good a game is, but that is a common criticism of this game I wanted to address. While the game doesn't look as impressive as other games of that year, it's visuals are impressive for a Bethesda title. The gunplay is the best of the series, possibly only beaten by Fallout 76, but that's only because Fallout 76 and Fallout 4's gunplay is almost exactly the game. The guns actually feel powerful, weighty, and most-importantly, like guns. In the older Fallout games, the guns felt far more like pea-shooters made of cardboard. For a game franchise that has so many guns and a lot a combat, it's important for the weapons to feel good. Fallout 4 masters this. Every fight feels fun, challenging, but not too challenging. However, while the shooting feels good, the weapon designs are hit or miss. Guns like the revolver, double-barrel, and hunting rifle looks great, but the assault rifle is an abomination that shouldn't exist. Like the past Fallout games, Fallout 4 is an RPG, with a leveling and perk system. However, in Fallout 4 they did without the skill tree of passed games, adding the skills to the perk system instead. This is largely simplified in comparison to past games. In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, it felt almost like a dice roll based on your skills when firing your weapon whether you even hit what you're aiming at. In Fallout 4, you hit it, but how much damage you do is affected by skill perks. Some people might like this new system, some people don't. I will say, personally, I liked the skills lists of old, but this change is more approachable to audiences new to RPGs. One criticism most have with this game that I do agree with is the dialogue system. This game having a voiced protagonist limits its dialogue system far more than past Fallout games. Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas had so many options and decisions to make through its dialogue system alone. That's not really an aspect in this game, only few decisions in dialogue matter in this game. I feel that with a silent protagonists with large dialogue trees like in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, this game couldn't been much better with far more branching paths. Even Fallout 76 has more in the way of dialogue options, so hopefully Bethesda learned from their mistake. Being that Starfield also went back with a silent protagonist, I think they did, thankfully. Boston makes a great open world in this game. There's so many places to explore and locations to find. While it doesn't have the beauty of West Virginia, or the western culture vibe of the Mojave, the Commonwealth is great as its own way. The world-building is immaculate with deep lore. Some locations has lore that links to the lore of other locations throughout the map. Raider terminals describe the relations between different raider camps around the map. Every location feels interconnected and part of a larger world, making it feel like it really used to be a living, breathing place. This is actually a criticism I have of Starfield, being its planets are randomly generated, they cannot create these interconnected locations on the same scale. Lastly, Fallout 4's story, while not as good as New Vegas, I admit, still offers more varied options, factions, and endings than Fallout 3. Fallout 3's main questline is actually quite linear and simple, you look for your father, join the Brotherhood, and fight the Enclave. Fallout 4 is a power struggle between three factions and you must pick one to win. This is actually far more similar to New Vegas's main quest structure than people will admit. People will claim that they think that Bethesda hates Obsidian and New Vegas. To be honest, I think Bethesda knows how much people like New Vegas and used New Vegas as a sort of template for writing the main questline of this game. The only issue is that Bethesda writers aren't as skilled as Obsidian writers and they tried to find a way to justify the Institute being evil, while Obsidian never really justified Ceasar's Legion, they're just crazy evil larpers who enslave people. That being said, I actually do still like the story of Fallout 4. While the motivations of the Institute don't really make that much sense, I do think there were some smart and interesting stuff done with this story and some things could've been better if more expanded upon. I like the idea of the sole survivor finding that their son is now an old man, and having to come to terms on missing out on his childhood. I like the idea of MIT students creating a secret research society that are ultimately more sophisticated now than America was before the great war. I like the story of the Brotherhood going bad again after the death of Lyons. There's the makings here for a great story, but I feel like they missed the mark on trying to make the Institute "Misunderstood" antagonists. Just make them mad scientists and have fun with it. They didn't need to try to find away to justify the horrible things the Institute was doing. Ultimately, despite the few criticisms I do have, I truly believe Fallout 4 is one of the best Fallout games ever made, coming only second to New Vegas, and that's only because New Vegas is superior in story alone. If Fallout 4's dialogue and story were better, I truly believe it could be better than New Vegas and while I think it cuts close with superior gunplay and an amazing world, it's not close enough. I give Fallout 4 a 8/10, a solid, well-put together game for Bethesda, it's visuals were big for Bethesda at the time, gunplay is among some of the best of the series, Boston makes a great map with a lot to explore, it's easy and accessible to new-comers to the franchise, and the story questline, while not the best written, I think is one of the better and most non-linear from Bethesda. However, I believe the game is hugely held back by it's limited dialogue system. With more dialogue options, I believe it could've even fixed the problems with the story.