Fallout 4: 10 Small Problems That Stop It Being Perfect
7. Infiltration Of The Institute Lacks Risk
Another fallacy of Fallout's intersecting storyline involving three of the game's four factions is that when they all converge at the Battle of Bunker Hill, there's no risk involved. If the sole-survivor has ran into every faction, you won't be engaged by any of them, and when you're attempting to play the Institute for the Railroad, everything loses its difficulty. The point is that when this massive battle happens, the player feels simply as though he is a spectator. Even if you attack all the units involved, they'll never retaliate, and after it becomes brutally apparent that you've sold the Institute out, what does Shaun do? Why, he intends to make you his heir apparent of course! It makes the whole thing feel a lot less gratifying, which is a shame because it should feel as though you're right in the hornet's nest, at least if you're choosing to side against the Institute. This may be a minor gripe if you always intended to side with one of the other factions from the beginning, but there's a distinct lack of risk and consequence right when these pivotal scenes are unfolding.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
