![]() The good news is if you loved Fallout‘s combat before, you’ll feel right at home. ![]() Bethesda has tried to make it a tad more action-oriented with “critical shots” that can be used every so often, but it feels like a half-measure. Often times I’d waste ammo shooting directly at a foe’s head doing little damage, only to switch back to V.A.T.S. aiming system, which pauses your game and allows players to target specific body parts, is still king. While it is still possible to engage in active combat with an ADS mechanic, the V.A.T.S. The main narrative clocks in at roughly 15 hours, but players could likely spend well over 100 in a single playthrough and still not find everything.ĭespite the puffing up of id Software’s involvement with the combat systems though, it’s relatively the same song and dance. It’s very rudimentary, but it’s a marked improvement. The companion system has been enhanced slightly, as it is now possible to issue basic fetch or interaction commands by clicking on their person, and clicking on an object - you can also send them to a desired location after parting instead of leaving them to their own devices. The map is so huge and so diverse that there’s a new secret boss or location waiting at every turn, and the addition of 12 total companions helps mix things up a bit. Small additions like playable retro games make discovery that much more meaningful, along with all of the coveted bobbleheads and comic books strewn about the overworld. Just like in the past, most of your excitement will come from roaming around the wasteland on your own, discovering new abodes and secrets, which is far easier to do in Fallout 4. ![]() For those who are curious, yes, faction-divergent storylines and endings are possible. Again, Bethesda’s writing team never fully commits to this concept, and it’s kind of just there, with a few “gotcha” moments meant to elicit a response with mixed results. Eventually, you’ll come across forms of synthetic life, which serves as the crux of a core piece of the story. Players will start off doing odd jobs for various wastelanders, recruiting new companions and making enemies along the way, with a few twists and turns at the tale’s midpoint. Without spoiling anything further, the main narrative is generally weaker than most of the side storylines, which isn’t anything particularly new with Fallout. Even then, concepts are reexplained with reckless abandon. On the other side of the coin, since the world your avatar (male or female) experiences is new, there is no need to play past games in the series outside of knowing the ins and outs of a few bits of lore fluff here and there. Often times you’ll encounter residents who are confused and “can’t believe” that you’re from the old world, but those conversations quickly devolve into the matter at hand or another questline. The slight twist of unloading your character 200 years into the future makes for an interesting premise, but it never really fully commits. Upon waking up, you’re off on a Mel Gibson Ransom-esque quest to find your son. You’ll have a brief opportunity to take in pre-apocalypse life with your family (the day the bombs dropped, on October 23, 2077), then it’s off to the Vault, where you will stay, frozen in hyper-sleep, for 200 years. With Fallout 4, Bethesda returns to the “where is my family member” storyline that began with the great search for Liam Neeson back in 2008. New Vegas thankfully was a step in the right direction to help make the world of Fallout much more compelling, and as it turns out, Fallout 4 lies somewhere in the middle of Bethesda’s effort and Obsidian’s contribution. So when Fallout 3 first dropped from Bethesda years later, I was taken aback by a lot of the concessions that were made to transfer the experience to a fully realized 3D world. My first introduction to the Fallout series was in 1997, with Interplay’s wonderfully open and unique strategy RPG titles.
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