Fallout 4 Review

After years of waiting and built up anticipation, Bethesda has delivered their next installment of the highly praised Fallout series. Players once again venture into the Wasteland, taking up the role of good old uninspired character #2287 as he embarks on a quest to find his kidnapped son. At least, he was... until he realized that doing pretty much anything else was far more interesting and profitable.

The Wasteland is an unforgiving place, filled to the brim with dangerous mutants, robots and fellow humans. If this is your first time venturing into the world of Fallout, like it was for me, it may prove difficult to get a good understanding of how things work. However, after I began to understand the unique perk system, the game became much more manageable and enjoyable.

There are seven stats in Fallout 4, strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. Each stat can be leveled up a total of 10 times, and each time a stat is leveled up a new perk is unlocked, which can be upgraded as well. This allows for a form of progression that can go in so many different directions, giving the player a real sense of accomplishment when they max out a perk or stat.

As I was exploring, not only did I gain a better understanding of the game, but of the world itself. I learned so much about the world and history of Fallout during my time playing. I learned about the Brotherhood of Steel and their quest to be the biggest group of racists in the Commonwealth. I also learned of the Institute, a shadowy organization of scientists that has been terrorizing the Wasteland for decades.

However, the most intriguing part of the world is the myriad of charact

ers and locations that drew me in so effortlessly. All the side quests told interesting stories that were interesting to experience. Colorful characters ranging from 1950’s-esque greasers to mutant super hero loving nerds kept me enthralled for so many hours. Which is why I was disappointed after returning to the main story and realizing it was very lackluster. The biggest issue I had when going through the story was the lack of character variety, there are less than a dozen relevant characters in the main story, and I grew tired of them all very quickly.

Warning: Heavy spoilers ahead. If you plan on playing Fallout 4 at any point or haven’t finished the main story, don’t read on.

Now, you would think that after Fallout 4’s fantastic opening act, wherein the main character, along with their spouse and infant son, are cryogenically frozen, the story couldn’t possibly lose momentum, right? Wrong, while it was surprising to see the main characters spouse killed and his son taken by some strangers, it was just that, surprising. It wasn’t emotional, impactful, or even remotely upsetting. Why? Because all this happened about five minutes into the game and I had no understanding or attachment to them.

In addition, you would think that having seen his wife killed and son taken, the main character would have shown some signs of trauma that lasted more than 30 seconds after the fact. I actually forgot what the main story was about due to how uninteresting the start of it was. But as the story progressed it started to get more intriguing. We eventually find out that our son was taken by the Institute and, with the help of one of the three available factions (Brotherhood of Steel, the Railroad, or the Minutemen), we construct a teleporter to get us inside the Institute to rescue our son.

However, when I arrived I was greeted by a twist that I hadn’t expected. As it turns out, my son had not only been taken by the Institute, he was raised by them for 60 years and was now their leader. Also he’s dying, so there’s that.

This marks the beginning of the end of the game’s story, where the Brotherhood, the Institute and the Railroad are locked in a three way conflict, with you at the center. This is both one of my favorite and most hated parts of the game. On one hand this lends some real legitimacy to the conflict that had been growing between these groups over the course of the story and forces me to make some tough choices.

On the other hand, I am forced to completely annihilate two of these factions in order to complete the story, which sucks considering how I like all three of them. Why isn’t there an option that allows me to orchestrate a peace treaty between them? I get that the Brotherhood is a bunch of ignorant racists and that the Institute views the synthetic humans that make up the Railroad as their property but this is just ridiculous.

Anyway, after making your choice (I went with the Railroad), you destroy the home bases of the other factions in a surprisingly anti-climactic explosion and are treated to an ending cutscene that gives the main character more personality than the entire main story. Congratulations, you beat Fallout 4! Now go do all those other side quests that you haven’t looked at in weeks.