Fallout 4 Review and Some Tips

Does It Live Up to the Hype

Perhaps one of the most anticipated new releases in years, Fallout 4 has been teased and talked about like no other game. Even when it was in the development stage rumours were flying about any new update to the game like the location, the main character and any other game mechanic.  Now its finally here and people are deciding if it live up to the hype or not.

First of all your character is the "Sole Survivor" who was the only one to survive his vault experience except that your infant son survived as well but only because he was kidnapped for some reason.  That is left for you to find out. That being said lets find out what set this game apart from its predecessors.




Crafting

Fallout 4, more than any other game in the series shows maybe the biggest difference between it and the last release, New Vegas.  This could be a bad thing since New Vegas was the favourite of many people.  So, what are the major differences between the two?  First of all is the crafting system where you can craft improvements to weapons and armour.  Making improvements to your gear is based on what level you have of the associated perk, of which there are 3 levels.  On the whole the weapons are low power so modifying them is essential.

Crafting requires raw materials as well as the weapon itself.  The raw materials are obtained by picking up every object in the environment around you.  In previous Fallout games most of this junk was ignored but in Fallout 4 its all useful stuff right down to ashtrays and dinner plates.  Scrounge and keep everything you can carry.

Pro-tip:  Don't wait for a better gun to come along.  Modify your guns right away as much as you can.  Your 10mm goes a long way.

Building Settlements

As if you didn't have enough time to burn on this game you also have the option of building settlements.  Within settlements you can build buildings, defences and attract new settlers.  There are a huge amount of customizations you can build into your settlement.  Assign settlers for food and water production or set them to defence.  Modify your settlement however you want so long as you have the raw material there are almost endless possibilities.

Pro-tip:  Save pieces of armour from fallen enemies.  Bring it all back to your settlement and equip your settlers with it.

Enemies

Just like in previous games Fallout 4 is full of Raiders.  They seem to be the favourite cannon fodder of the series and there are a lot of them in this game.  The other things that you should be prepared for are ghouls, lots of ghouls.  The majority of abandoned buildings are full of ghouls and you have to be prepared to fight when they see you.  Once you make yourself noticed every ghoul within shouting distance will come running and swarm you without remorse.  Of course there are an assortment of other enemies to contend with like super mutants, mirelurks, and the newest one, "Synths".  Synths are creepy looking cyborgs that carry unique weapons.  They can quickly overwhelm you if you are not careful.  They are a little tougher than Raiders and a lot more aggressive.

Pro-tip:  Ghouls usually appear as dead bodies first.  Use VATS to identify them and kill them before they can get up.  You can do the same thing with land mines too.

Gameplay

The gameplay is much the same as the previous games with slight changes.  When you are crouching there are three different statuses that are shown: hidden, caution and danger.  Each one has brackets around the it that move depending on how close the status is to changing.  If you are being too noisy and are close to being detected then the brackets will start closing in.  The VATS. system has changed as well but not too much.  When you pull up VATS you will notice that the game does not pause but that time just passes very slowly.  Enemies can still shoot you so you have to decide what you are doing a little quicker.  It is also harder to hit enemy limbs and heads while in VATS.  Another change that people might like is when looting bodies or containers when you hover the reticule over the container a list of items will appear that you can take but it doesn't require you to bring up your inventory or pause the game.  Other than those changes the gameplay feels much the same as the previous games, very smooth and very realistic.

Pro-tip:  Any type of cover will help deflect attacks and make enemies miss, even chain link fence.

Overall

Fallout 4 is a very worthy sequel in a long line of great games.  Bethesda has made improvements and added more flavour to a game that was already packed with detail.  There are new enemies, new weapons and new armour.  If you are into adventuring then there is a lot for you to do with its very large environment.  If you are more of a builder then you can build your settlement and do the tasks associated with that. It really is a game that gives you a lot of freedom to explore and do what you want.  You can also still get companions to tag along with you and 3 of them you will get access to very soon into the game, including your dog, "Dogmeat", who is an essential and highly useful companion to have.  You can even give Dogmeat wearable dog armour.

Pro-tip:  Allow Dogmeat into combat first, he will flush out enemies, make them appear on your radar and even grab hold of them to make easy targets.  Don't worry, he heals himself.

There isn't much bad to say about Fallout 4, it really packs a lot of stuff into one game.  The lack of ammunition may be something people will complain about but it makes it a little more realistic. There is however a pretty large gap between when you exit the vault and when you find the first friendly town where you can barter but the designers may have thought it would get people used to scrounging and hoarding.  Other than that its a pretty fantastic game that should take any hardcore gamer a long time to run through.