Reviews VideoGame / Fallout 4

Lots of Improvements: Some Missteps

Story

Without spoiling anything, all I can say is the main quest's plot isn't exactly bad, but it's not quite as engaging as I hoped it would be. That said, it's much better than what Bethesda did with Skyrim in terms of characters and player choice, and many scenes benefitted greatly from the more cinematic dialogue cameras. One thing I really enjoy is that each faction you side with has a different effect on the story and the state of the world after you complete the quest, so it's actually a good excuse for replaying the game.

As for stories surrounding characters and locations? One of Bethesda's best works by far. For example, there's a few Raider hideouts throughout the Commonwealth, and you can access terminals and notes that link them all together. Depending on which ones are still active and which ones you clear out, you actually get entries acknowledging it. Little touches like that really make the world of Fallout 4 feel alive.

Visuals

Aside from some lower quality models and textures here and there, Fallout 4 looks really nice. Some people are put off by the more colorful graphical style, but I think it's a nice change of pace from the perpetual green hue in Fallout 3.

Gameplay

Gameplay as a whole has been streamlined quite well. We finally have a grenade hot-key, the ability to use melee attacks with a weapon, the ability to sprint, and VATS has somewhat of a bullet-time effect. Combat is more active than previous games thanks to more intelligent enemy AI and a generally higher overall difficulty. It really gets fun once you have access to weapon mods, which opens up a ton of different playstyles and adds a sense of growth beyond just your level number.

Dialogue

Dialogue is hit or miss. Your choices do not express exactly what you're going to say, so if you like to choose "sarcastic" a lot, you can vary from merely teasing someone to being a complete asshole. Unlike in previous games, speech checks VERY rarely allow for skill/SPECIAL checks, so your character will still be clueless/be talked down to by scientists despite having max Intelligence.

Conclusion

Fallout 4 is a flawed, but still very enjoyable game. I've already invested about 100+ hours into the game, and I expect that number will only grow as DLC and mods come out.