Fallout 4 Draft review

Fallout 4 Review

Genre
Fallout 4 is an open world action role playing game which is rated 18 by PEGI due to the violence, blood, gore and bad language in the game.

Storyline

The player is a sole survivor of vault 111, who emerges 210 years after the great war which started and ended in 2077. There is a little prologue prior to this where the player creates their character and they are shown what pre-war living looks like along with their wife and kid before they are rushed to Vault 111 for protection from the nuclear warnings. The setting of the game takes places in Boston, Massachusetts. There are various landmarks in the game from Boston such as the Paul Revere Monument and the Massachusetts State House (Seen Below). Vault 111, where the player first emerges from is next to Sanctuary Hills, which is where the player lived with their family before the Great War. This is most likely the first place that the player will discover in the game and when they will begin to realise how bad the Great War was.

Massachusetts State House in Fallout 4

Gameplay
The gameplay of Fallout 4 is very similar to its predecessors, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. There is the option for the player to toggle freely between a first and third person view of their character, a split piece armour system which allows the player to pick and choose different armour pieces and wear them together, a very in depth crafting system which allows players to turn any lootable object in the game into raw material, players can also salvage materials from their loot such as weapons and then use those materials to improve their armour or weapons etc. , a dynamic character dialogue system which allows the player to chose their decisions which makes their own pathway through the story and a brand new base building system.

Weapons crafting/mod interface in Fallout 4

Early on in the game the player will acquire a Pip Boy which allows them to access a menu where they can view their statistics, mark locations on the map, see objectives/requirements for quests, manage their character’s appearance and items. Furthermore, a cool feature that Bethesda decided to add in is that throughout the game the player can find retro themed game cartridges that can be picked up and played on their Pip Boy.

                                    A Pip Boy in Fallout 4

Inventory in Fallout 4

Another returning feature in Fallout 4 is the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System or V.A.T.S system. This allows the player to slow down time when they are in combat to make the gameplay more tactical and immersive as the players decisions matter, they can choose to melee/shoot certain parts of enemy’s bodies which each have different outcomes. For example, shooting an enemy’s weapon has a chance to disarm them, shooting enemies legs can slow their movement and headshots can instantly kill enemies. However, only a certain amount of moves can be made each turn depending on the character's statistics. V.A.T.S System in Fallout 4

A new feature in Fallout 4 is the base building, which allows the player to make settlements run by NPC’s they meet in the story and build structures in certain areas which can have various uses such as storing the player’s power armour collection. The settlements have to be powered by electricity using a unique electricity mechanic with power generators which allow the settlements to have lighting, the use of vending machines etc. Settlements also have to have a steady income of food and drink using water pumps and various crops all of which the player will have to set up. The player can also choose to set up defences around their settlements such as turrets and fences to protect them as they can be raided/destroyed by AI.

Another new feature in Fallout 4 is that there is no level cap in the game. Which allows players to truly indulge themselves in the game. Even after the main story has finished players can continue playing as their are an endless amount of unique side quests.

Platforms
Fallout 4 is available on 3 different platforms which are; Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Microsoft Windows. The game is also the first Fallout to have Native Mod Support on consoles as During the E3 2015, at the Xbox Conference, Todd Howard went on stage to tell the audience that Xbox One will offer mod support following the release of the G.E.C.K for PC in 2016. Sony's PlayStation 4 will support mods sometime in the future. There have also been 3 DLCs announced for Fallout 4, Automaton, Wasteland Workshop and Far harbor which will be available on all platforms and are due to release early 2016.

Target Audience
Fallout 4 is rated PEGI 18 due to the violent nature, blood, gore and bad language in the game. So this means that the target audience for the game are young adults aged 18+ and people who have previously enjoyed Fallout games or enjoy open world action RPGS.

Personal Recommendation Of The Reviewer
Overall, I think Fallout 4 is one of the best open world RPGs out there. The graphics are amazing, the voice acting is great with tons of different dialogue and encounters, the combat is mostly good despite the hand to hand combat with enemies feeling a little sketchy and unfinished, the base building system is something fresh for the fans and I think it really allows players to truly immerse themselves in the Fallout world. The main storyline of the game is gripping and kept me on a cliffhanger the entire time always wondering what was going to happen next. Furthermore, the game itself is almost never ending with the sheer amount of side quests, endless character + weapon customisation and there is no level cap so the grind can't really ever stop for the player. Because of all this, i fully agree with all of the ratings for the game from big magazines such as Gamespot and IGN.