Video Game Reviews - Fallout 4

Developer Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher Bethesda Softworks
Distributor Ster Kinekor
Where we got our copy Self-bought
Genre FPS, RPG
Game modes Single Player
Players 1
Reviewed on

Available on

Desolation Morris

Published November 20, 2015

It’s no secret that Fallout 4 has been the focus of many gamers around the world. Pornhub even took a hit with a severe dip in user base…what that says about gamers in general? We have better things to do! We’d rather be saving The Wasteland than browsing the internet…well…sometimes anyway.

Fallout 4 is the sequel to Fallout 3 which was released way back in 2008. It was followed by Fallout: New Vegas in 2010 and since then Bethesda has promised us the moon and stars with Fallout 4. Does it live up to the hype? Did it actually deliver? They promised us base building, they promised us in depth exploration, they promised us FPS style gameplay! Let’s take a look if we got all that shall we?

Story

The story is typical of a Fallout game, you begin in your own home, prior to the war, create your character and then do a few orientation missions just to get the hang of things and you eventually make your way to the vault as the world inevitably “ends”. You’re soon tossed out into the wasteland and adventure ensues! The story follows you through your quest to find your son ‘Shaun’ (Editor’s note: Did Bethesda play Heavy Rain?) who was kidnapped by some guy called Kellogg on behalf of The Institute who it seems has nothing better to do than kidnap people.

I won’t give too much away but if you played any of the previous Fallout games you’ll kind of know what sort of story pay-off to expect. Moral choices are plentiful, the tiniest ethical choice has an impact and they directly affect your story in more ways than one. One player might experience things to be rather straightforward while another player’s choices might make things rather complicated.

The side quests and semi-main quests also have their own stories to tell and this is where Fallout 4 excels at fleshing out the game world for you. Companions are plentiful and many of these side quests lead to one. It seems everyone has a story no matter how short it may be. Even a pair of skeletons on the ground can convey some sort of story in Fallout.

There’s a lot to do and many quests are related to each other. You might hear tell in one quest of someone or something…and in another quest you actually have to deal with said person or thing.

You’ll be entertained for months…

Gameplay & Controls

It plays almost identical to New Vegas aside from the odd FPS tweak here and there. There’s a severe lack of being able to properly take cover and this pissed me off to no end. Often an enemy has the magic ability to hit you right through a concrete pillar while other times you seem to find it impossible to properly take cover for a good old fashion firefight.

Nothing is simply explained gameplay wise as the game drops you in the deep end to figure things out for yourself. It seems Bethesda sort of assumes you’d know what to do by now if you played the previous games. For those people who haven’t played previous Fallout games – I’m afraid you’ll have to resort to random button pressing and Google.

Once you’ve figured out everything though, things are rather smooth and effortless.

Guns and melee work about as well as you’d expect and with the help of the V.A.T.S system you’ll be sure to seldomly hit much of anything. Often aiming at one thing, even without V.A.T.S, results in hitting something you didn’t even aim for. This can be modified and improved with various perks and weapon modifications though, even some armor altering can steady your aim and improve weapon wielding.

Never-the-less you soon discover what works for you and what doesn’t. I went with the sniper build of character as usual and I’ve been having great fun not using V.A.T.S at all. Once I got used to the dynamics and physics of Fallout 4 I had no trouble at all exploring the plentiful locations and taking on all sorts of enemies.

You’re given Power Armor very early on and might avoid using it when you find out it runs off fast depleting Fusion Cores. I have to mention that I’ve been wearing my Power Armor full time and there really isn’t a shortage of Fusion Cores, which are the power source for powering your armor.

Building bases is also a new thing to do in Fallout 4 and this is large enough to be a game on its own. I’ve lost so many hours into building the perfect fort that I’ve forgotten what my wife looks like.

It’s well implemented and gathering resources just for building things can quickly become your sole purpose in the game without even touching the quests. Place some turrets, make some supply lines, plants some crops, what fun! It also goes hand in hand with the new and improved crafting system which in turn links to your perk tree. The right perk for the job leads you to be able to mod your weapons and armor with everything from jetpacks to night scopes for your rifles.

Weapon and armor modding has been focused on and can also keep you busy for hours on its own. Getting your weapon just right has become a big issue in Fallout 4 and the sheer amount of modifications available makes this more complicated than it sounds. It really comes down to your personal preference in the end.

Graphics & Sound

The typical haunting background music and old world tunes as usual do well to serve you with that eerie atmosphere. Voices are done well even though the animation for expressions and speaking could use some work. Characters appear a little plastic when compared to other Next Gen titles, when solely judging the character models on their own I could almost be fooled into thinking I’m playing Fallout 3.

General sound effects and random NPC enemy voices are done rather well too. Often you’ll hear the sound of a far off gunfight between random spawn NPC characters. This I quite like. The random ambience mixed with the high end graphics are quite pleasing. Radiation storms are terrifyingly real and the sound can properly terrify you with the proper sound system.

This game is beautiful with painstaking details put into every inch of it. The weather system functions well, affects your environment and the day night cycle is a boon to any sniper indeed. This being said however – it could look better than it does – Fallout 4 should look a lot better than it does considering the amount of time it was in development. Various graphical glitches go hand in hand with numerous animation glitches. While this is annoying it’s not hard to overlook.

Second Opinion PikeyZA Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: I am a Fallout fanboy. As in I have a pip boy on my desk and a Vault-Tec lunchbox. I’ve spending uncounted hours traversing the wasteland and ever since the moment I set foot outside of Vault 101 in search of the wonderous G.E.C.K unit I’ve been an unashamed addict. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a huge fan of anything post-apocalyptic, and RPG’s… oh and FPS games. Not to mention open world adventures. Basically I ejaculated as soon as my Fallout 4 download started. That’s the point I’m trying to get across. Okay, all caught up? Good. Let’s begin.

Fallout 4 builds beautifully upon the base that exists from Fallout 3. I loved New Vegas, but it felt very different not being a legitimate Vault Dweller, and I think it lost a bit of it’s charm due to that. Fallout 4 reintroduces the concept of being a starry eyed fluffy little bambi, who has to become a walking god of the wasteland in order to survive. And oh what a god you can become! I’ve recently hit level 37 and nothing beats the feeling of traipsing into a Super Mutant camp, forgoing any attempt at stealth, and popping their heads off one after the other while they scream obscenities at you and flail pathetically against your mighty T60 Power Armour. (Yes armour not armor. F*ck you ‘Murica.) The quest lines are absolutely superb, with the “Silver Shroud” and Nick Valentine’s back story being my absolute favourites so far. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve played them. Just epic. Other high points include base building (especially while running unlimited structures mod so you can go nuts) or watching BoS Paladins and Knights drop from Vertibirds and mow down everything around them. Oh, and the Junk Launcher, because that’s ALWAYS awesome. Gun play is great, although you’ll find yourself using the VATS system far less than any previous Fallout title, which isn’t a bad thing. It basically becomes a “Oh sh*t, where did you come from, arghhhh slow down so I can shoot you!” device for when something jumps out at your face.

There’s still some of the janky physics that make you can expect from Skyrim/Fallout titles, but it honestly adds a note of hilarity rather than making you angry about it. That may just be because I’m such a biaised little git, but I honestly believe it, so 😛

Performance wise the game is beautiful, despite the very occasional drop from 120fps to 60fps. (Lol suck it console nerds!) Check out this beautiful little screenshot I took if you don’t believe me…

If you haven’t bought it yet, then sort your life out. Your kids don’t need food THAT badly, and the car/rent payment can wait. It’ll be fine! THE WASTELAND NEEDS YOU!

Third Opinion NiteFenix I have been playing Fallout 4 on Xbox One and I agree with most of everything Morris says above except for sudden framerate drops as well as random places where the game just hangs for no reason. The loading screens is also an annoyance in how long it takes to load up levels, something which seems to have carried over from Skyrim days. I think for a Bethesda game they have made great strides in the graphics department, but reusing the same music from Fallout 3 feels a bit sloppy and if licensing is the issue for someone who makes millions if not billions off of sales then they really need to reevaluate their business strategy. Aside from my gripes I still highly recommend Fallout 4, if not for the stories, then for the base building which I have been stuck into for hours on end.

It's no secret that Fallout 4 has been the focus of many gamers around the world. Pornhub even took a hit with a severe dip in user base...what that says about gamers in general? We have better things to do! We'd rather be saving The Wasteland than browsing the internet...well...sometimes anyway. Fallout 4 is the sequel to Fallout 3 which was released way back in 2008. It was followed by Fallout: New Vegas in 2010 and since then Bethesda has promised us the moon and stars with Fallout 4. Does it live up to the hype? Did it actually deliver? They promised us base building, they promised us in depth exploration, they promised us FPS style gameplay! Let's take a look if we got all that shall we? Story The story is typical of a Fallout game, you begin in your own home, prior to the war, create your character and then do a few orientation missions just to get the hang of things and you eventually make your way to the vault as the world inevitably "ends". You're soon tossed out into the wasteland and adventure ensues! The story follows you through your quest to find your son 'Shaun' (Editor's note: Did Bethesda play Heavy Rain?) who was kidnapped by some guy called Kellogg on behalf of The Institute who it seems has nothing better to do than kidnap people. I won't give too much away but if you played any of the previous Fallout games you'll kind of know what sort of story pay-off to expect. Moral choices are plentiful, the tiniest ethical choice has an impact and they directly affect your story in more ways than one. One player might experience things to be rather straightforward while another player's choices might make things rather complicated. The side quests and semi-main quests also have their own stories to tell and this is where Fallout 4 excels at fleshing out the game world for you. Companions are plentiful and many of these side quests lead to one. It seems everyone has a story no matter how short it may be. Even a pair of skeletons on the ground can convey some sort of story in Fallout. There's a lot to do and many quests are related to each other. You might hear tell in one quest of someone or something...and in another quest you actually have to deal with said person or thing. You'll be entertained for months... Gameplay & Controls It plays almost identical to New Vegas aside from the odd FPS tweak here and there. There's a severe lack of being able to properly take cover and this pissed me off to no end. Often an enemy has the magic ability to hit you right through a concrete pillar while other times you seem to find it impossible to properly take cover for a good old fashion firefight. Nothing is simply explained gameplay wise as the game drops you in the deep end to figure things out…

Video Game Reviews – Fallout 4

2015-11-20

Desolation Morris

Life Destroyer!

Total - 9

Fallout 4 is an awesome game that will destroy your entire social life single handedly. The sheer amount of things to do and places to see make this a worthy contender for your next purchase. There's DLC incoming from 2016 and I simply cannot see this game not being a Game Of The Year.

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