Fallout 4 Review - A Wasteland You'll Fall In Love With

Rating: ˜…˜…˜…˜… Not long into playing Fallout 4, you'll become acquainted with the feeling of struggling for survival in the mazey bombed-out ruins of Boston, and find yourself creeping amidst ramshackle raider outposts, hollowed-out buildings doubling as super mutant camps, and mutated dogs ravenous for your flesh. As you meander through the hostile husk of Boston, you find some stairs down a side-street that lead you out of the hostile streets onto the roof of a tall building, which opens out onto a spectacular panoramic view. The sun's setting, the ruined - yet still vertically impressive - city sprawls before your eyes, and an incredible sense of danger and adventure sweeps over you as you take a deep breath of satisfaction (then begin spluttering and gasping from the noxious, irradiated air in your lungs). Being on that rooftop and seeing the rich, rewarding world of Fallout 4 all around you of those €˜sublime€™ video game moments - embodying the wasteland fantasy that millions of people were seeking in one of the most anticipated games of the year. At its best, Fallout 4 transports players to that special place of post-apocalyptic beauty. Ironically given its moribund state, the Boston Wasteland really feels alive, brimming with opportunity and adventure in every direction you go. It may not be the biggest open world out there, but it€™s among the most packed with possibilities. You don€™t need to pick up quests or head into urban centres to find adventure; just spin a bottle, wander off in the direction it points, and you€™ll soon find some vast factory complex, abandoned town, or other intriguing landmark that€™s bound to contain myriad opportunities for adventure. The condensed world is brilliantly designed, with a striking contrast between traversing central Boston and the rest of the wasteland. In the rural regions of the map, you can get from A to B relatively quickly, avoiding hostile encounters if you so wish. In the shell of central Boston, however, progress is slow, tactical and tense, as you scurry from cover to cover hoping not to get caught by a random sniper€™s bullet.

Should you find yourself in a combat situation (which you€™ll no doubt be seeking out with typical gamer bloodlust), then you€™ll quickly notice the vast improvement in gunplay in Fallout 4 over its predecessors. Bethesda€™s cooperation with Doom developer id Software clearly paid off, with shootouts feeling visceral, crisp and satisfying. Unlike in previous Fallouts, you don't have to rely on VATS to enjoy the combat. The new sprint button is a long-overdue addition, shooting enemies feels less €˜HP-based€™ and less RPGish than before, and the new slow-mo VATS flows nicely to and from the real-time action. These elements combine for a cinematic, suspenseful experience - one that€™s not notably inferior to a full-on FPS. How good you are at handling yourself in a gunfight is, of course, largely dependant on how you develop your character using the new and simplified Perks system. This is where Fallout 4 really shines as an RPG The central narrative in Fallout 4 - that of the player coming out of a 200-year cryosleep to go in search of their missing son - is "Yeah... fine" in itself, but it's hard to care much for the newly-voiced protagonist, who just sounds like too much of a generic Mr. Nice Guy to be feel like you can play a truly nasty character with any conviction. The female voice is actually much more convincing, striking a confident tone that leans neither towards good nor evil.