Fallout 4: 12 Early Reactions You Need To Know

Fallout 4's worldwide release is imminent, but the gaming press have been lucky enough to have their hands on it for about a week prior to that, and are now dropping their impressions with the lifting of the embargo. Well, fans can breathe a sigh of relief that the game is scoring well with critics, sitting at around the 90 mark on Metacritic so far, making it easily one of the year's best-reviewed games. Yes, the game is a success by the sounds of it, but it's worth considering that most reviewers were thorough enough to delve into the aspects of the game that it works in spite of, those less-polished elements that prevent the game from perhaps being a true masterpiece in the eyes of some. From what's great, to what's bad, what's familiar and what's just really weird, the dozens of reviews flooding the net now give a pretty strong picture about what sort of game Fallout 4 is, and if you've not quite got your mits on it yet, it seems like you're largely in for a treat (with a few qualifications, of course). Here are 12 early Fallout 4 reactions you need to know...

12. It's Very Similar To What Came Before (And That's Mostly OK)

One common thread that has come up among critics is that Fallout 4 isn't much of a departure at all from what came before: "Bethesda plays it surprisingly safe with the formula" (USGamer) and "this is more of the same, even if that 'same' has been pushed to new heights" (Videogamer). Sure, nobody should've expected a radical overhauling of the game, but even so, it's been earmarked as clinging closely to Fallout 3's mostly successful schematic. This caused a few to refer to it as "over-familiar "(Rock, Paper, Shotgun) and "archaic" (Forbes), but on the whole most conceded that the familiarity was acceptable considering the game's scope in other areas and the overall heft of the massive adventure. But yes, if you're anticipating a game-changer for the franchise, you might want to brace yourself...