Fallout 4: Living Up to the Hype

Platform: PC
Time Played: 30 hours
Main Quest: Unfinished
 

When it comes to any Bethesda game, you know what you're getting from the moment you pay up. Fallout is no different as it carries the legacy of its 3D predecessors (FO3/NV). Pushing no boundaries, it's a well-made game that offers a little bit of everything and is fun for about a hundred hours.

At first, I didn't know that my butler robot can pronounce a list of 1000 names. I created a female character with the name ROCKET JETPLANE (it's something I do in all the Fallout games), and set off on my wild Wasteland hunt for my son. Now, I can understand why a mother might be pissed off when her son goes missing, as my mother has illustrated a million times so I could rightly relate with the protagonist. I heard some people whine about them not being able to feel the protagonist's story. They should give the female character a go, in my opinion. Once I got a gun, I decided to try out the VATS aiming on a Radroach. In point blank range, I missed. My 10mm pistol barrel was pressed up hard against the roach and yet I managed to hit the floor behind it. Although this never happened again, I decided to be wary of the VATS system altogether which made my aim improve somewhat.  Once I went up to Level 10, I explored for real and found a group of Raiders huddled around a fire. I brought out my trusty Laser Musket (this gun is a ton of fun to use, you'll love it), and headshot one of the Raiders. The Raider instantly rose 20 feet into the air, headless and remained there in a standing position. Chalking this up to another Bethesda glitch, I headshot the other Raider and moved in for the loot. The 2nd Raider was not dead for some reason. Neither was she alive. She was just standing there casually with crossed arms and no head. Damnit, Bethesda.

Fast-forward 10 more levels, I am facing a giant Mirelurk the size of a water tower and it barely takes damage. After several deaths, I went back to the Red Rocket Station where I tried to craft up a settlement and gave up halfway. The crafting UI sucks. In fact, the entire game's UI sucks. Bethesda just ported the console controls into the PC and called it a day. Back to our story, I found what I was looking for in my garage. It was the power armour I jacked while fighting a Deathclaw for the Minutemen at the very start. I checked if it needed repairs since power armours are the only thing that need repairs in this game, thankfully. Then I loaded up the fusion cores which fuel the OP power armour and went back to the giant Mirelurk to show her who's boss. I was prepared with my 500 ammo minigun, a flamer and a missile launcher.

I died 3 times.

This game does not hold your hand at any point unless you take the VATS waypoint perk (V.A.N.S). Even 30 hours into normal difficulty, I had problems facing certain enemies and had to rethink my approach. If this was any previous modern Fallout game, I'd be going in with an OP gun and killing everything in sight. Not this time around.

At around level 23, I put all the points in the Gun Nut and Science! perks so I could get OP weapons. After mixing and matching several mods to carry 5 different weapons due to ammo scarcity I was encumbered. Now you have to carry everything thanks to the new crafting system. Every man's junk is your treasure now, ROCKET JETPLANE.

Looking around in Diamond City, I found a bald kid selling purified water. My mum always told me not to buy water from balding people in a nuclear wasteland but I did anyway. He threw a quest at me along with a bottle of water. Now, here's what I really hate about the game. When he asked me to pick rubbish out of the water, I had basically 4 replies. Yes, No, Give More Caps [Charisma Check], Sarcastic. Yes. That's it. A dialogue wheel which is a dumbed-down cousin of Mass Effect's. God knows what Todd Howard was thinking when he said yes to this but he did. I, of course, asked for more caps from a balding orphan selling me water. I got my caps. Hell yeah, Charisma. If you're thinking about negative karma points, don't worry. They removed that as well. Hail Capitalism!

One wonderful part about the game is that the loading screens let you water your garden, feed your dog, walk your dog and think about your virtual dog in Fallout 4.  The numerous loading screens really give you time to mull over the personalities of your companions or anyone in general. Dogmeat, being utterly stupid, was hated by me at first. After going on for a while, I realised that Dogmeat is actually kinda like a dumb dog. My dumb dog. I love you, Dogmeat.

The vocal part of the internet has been extremely critical about AAA titles. Fallout 4 was also under heavy fire. It's sad that a lot of people find more happiness in dissecting a game with their pitchforks rather than trying to enjoy it and in turn, having a wonderful experience.

Protip: Get ENBoost and Fallout 4 Configuration Tool for a better gameplay experience. 

Rumman R Kalam is a Sub-editor at SHOUT and when he's off-duty, he likes to be a goat with opposable thumbs at Rantages.