Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition – PS4/5 Version, Reviewed on PS5 - RPG, Action, Shooter, Builder
Fallout 4 is a very strong entry in the long-running series, despite some changes to its gameplay compared to the previous entries. I have always been years late in playing any of the Fallout games, and have only played 3, New Vegas and recently completed 4. While this is a PS4 game, there is a PS5 patch available, and I played it on the PS5 system.
Story:
Fallout 4’s story remains a typical set-up for a nuclear post-apocalyptic wasteland, as the previous entries have done. The map is based on the Boston region of New Jersey and pits players in a mix of city and surrounding regional lands.
The set-up is fairly simple, as the game protagonist lives with their family in a nice neighborhood. Enter Vault Tech workers, who quickly usher you and your family away to an underground bunker, as an incoming nuclear strike is announced.
Once inside the “Vault” underground bunker, you, your spouse and your son are placed in cryogenic statis tubes. The plan is to stay in these tubes until the radiation above has cleared, and an attempt at rebuilding society can occur.
Needless to say, things do not go well. You are awakened from your cryo-sleep only to see your spouse murdered, and your son kidnapped by unknown wasteland raiders. You are put back to sleep, however your chamber releases you 10-years after this horrific event, which only happened moments ago to your protagonist character.
You are then freed into the large expansive Boston wasteland. You realize it has been 200 years since the bombing that put your and your family deep underground, and 10 years since your son was taken. How will you find your son? Who will you run into? Who will you help, and who can help you? The decisions are yours.
Gameplay:
The Fallout series relies on a complicated story full of hundreds of characters and thousands of options, with this entry being no different. The wasteland is full of colorful characters, or groups that are attempting to navigate the wasteland in their own way, with their own beliefs. Virtually everyone needs help, but finding who to trust is key.
While previous entries typically had more dialogue choices, Fallout 4 has streamlined the dialogue responses down to four “choices” which typically align with types of reactions, such as questioning, agreement, disagreement, or insulting. Depending on how you are playing your character, or how you personally feel on any given day, there is typically significant choice in doing most any action or completing a task. I did not find the lack of dialogue choices to be a significant impact to the experience, despite being used to prior entries’ methods.
Movement and landscape interaction is the same as prior entries as well, and if this is your first Fallout affair you may find the movement a bit “clunky.” The graphical engine is older, and does not feature significant updates from past games other than new creatures, enemy designs or ships/vehicles.
Despite the clunky movement, it is clear that there was an attempt to shift the series into a more “action/first-person-shooter” mode. The gunplay is smooth, fun and gives plenty of upgrades and customization. Explosions are common, and sneak attacks from mobs of mutant creatures or robots bring a nice change of pace even when re-exploring already completed areas.
A new element introduced in this series would be the “building” aspect, as your character opens up workshops and camps across the wasteland map, creating new “safe havens” for settlers to find and live. While some of the camp upkeep and defense is a bit tedious, it adds a wonderful element to gameplay all-around. Suddenly, everything from aluminum cans to lightbulbs to Jangles the Moon Monkey become items of great importance as the protagonist explores.
I found myself struggling to drop any “junk” as the components were as important as my guns and armor. While it may be a bit overwhelming at first, this building aspect allows virtually infinite creative freedom for gameplayers.
Fallout famously has “issues” with its engine, and while I did experience a handful of crashes, overall, this was the smoothest Fallout experience I have ever had. Mostly the game held up very well, only crashing in later game moments and typically only during fast travel.
Graphics:
Enhanced for the PS5, overall, the graphics are crisp and clean, and reminiscent of other previous Fallout experiences. While the character models and movements are not extremely detailed, the gigantic map makes up for the graphical limitations. An older engine does not impact the ability to thoroughly enjoy this game.
Fun-level:
Having played the most recent previous entries, I knew what I was in for, yet I still had a total blast radiating myself in the gigantic map full of non-stop discoveries. Despite spending enough time to complete most all of the story lines, there was still so much stuff I overlooked, or forgot to wrap up. Thankfully, the game map continues to refresh items and bad guys, and there is no level limitations, so experienced players can keep coming back for more.
Downloadable Content (DLC) Review:
I typically find myself avoiding most DLC purchases, unless they are packaged nicely into an edition of the game I have purchased. In this case, I did have access to all 6 downloadable content packs and played them all. Overall, I would hesitantly recommend the DLC as mostly worthy additions to the main game, however a few of them have some annoying moments and are not fully necessary to enjoy the regular game story.
- The Automatron DLC pack adds a new companion, and a related robotic-based questline, as well as workshop enhancements. Overall, I had fun with this questline, and it fit into the regular story seamlessly.
- The Wasteland Workshop DLC pack adds the ability to trap and tame wasteland creatures in your settlements, along with a few other items. The additions were fine, but did not add story.
- The Far Harbor DLC pack is a large expansion to the map and some workshop enhancements. The protagonist sails north looking for another runaway, and enters into a new region of fog, rain, danger and deceit. Overall, this DLC plays very much like the main story, and even can enhance story beats and character interactions. It adds more choice and consequences, and is mostly an enjoyable time.
- The Contraptions DLC pack is again mostly focused on workshop enhancement and ways to build additional items (mostly displays for Armor, Guns, etc).
- The Vault-Tech Workshop DLC pack adds a small questline which is tied to a new underground Vault location. This vault is gigantic, and gives the player freedom to build their own Vault-Tech living quarters.
- The Nuka-World DLC adds another large map expansion, and many story quests. Nuka-World is a theme park that has been taken over by wasteland raider groups. This story allows the player to focus on some of the more nefarious groups, or put them all out of their misery. Some of the quests in this DLC get a bit tedious, however there are many additions overall to the game from this content.
Final Score: 8.5
DLC Score: 7.0