“Fallout 4” was released on Nov. 10, 2015, celebrating its 10th anniversary this past week. While still being a high-quality game on its own, many of the “Fallout” fandom consider this one of the weakest entries in the series. However, the gameplay and mix-up of series’ standards make this, in my eyes, one of the best games in the franchise. 

Before raving about the game’s best points, I’d rather address the biggest weakness: the story. This is one of the main reasons why the game is seen with low regard within the series.

The story does feel like “Fallout 3’s” story, but the roles of a son chasing his father are reversed here. It doesn’t feel unique compared to arguably the best story in the series in “Fallout: New Vegas.”

Another big gripe about the story is the illusion of choice that is given. You are able to choose a faction to join, but these don’t have the same impact as previous games.

Your choices feel like they all lead to the same sort of ending: detonating a bomb to get rid of what you thought was the biggest threat to the community you are in. It also feels like nothing much changes with your relations to locals depending on what faction you choose or disguise yourself as, besides a flurry of bullets being shot at you whenever you meet with the clan’s enemies.

Besides the story, the gameplay loop drops off sharply once you finish the main story. Side quests given are rehashes of previous rescue or looting missions, with little substance afterwards besides what you missed while playing through the main parts of the game.

Looking past these issues, there is a quality game that lies here that, while it may lack a solid plot and satisfying post-game content, happens to be one of the most fun RPGs I have ever picked up.

The gun mechanics took a step up from the game’s predecessors, losing the durability system where weapons needed repairs, but bringing in a new system that makes up for it. No matter what gun you find in a locker, on an enemy, or attached to some random mutant, you can take that gun and make modifications to it with different materials you find in the wasteland.

This finally made the miscellaneous junk category of items useful in my eyes, with these random pre-apocalypse home items turning a makeshift pipe pistol into a full-on sniper rifle. It gives more reason to explore every inch of the dungeons throughout the wasteland. 

The junk in the game doesn’t just provide weapon upgrades, but also materials to build a settlement. The biggest addition to the “Fallout” series from this entry was the addition of settlement building, a mechanic that involved gathering materials to create shelter for wanderers from the many dangers they face during their excursions in the wastes.

It isn’t as easy as just building a house, though. You have to build different resource generators, such as water pumps, power generators, farm land and even turrets for defense, all of which help bring up the happiness of your settlement and prepare them for possible attacks from enemies.

This mechanic solely added so many more hours to my playthroughs and made up for the lack of post-game content. Still, I poured much more time into exploring the various dungeons throughout the main story.

Each of the different buildings or areas you enter in the wasteland feels like a treasure trove, like there’s always something to find within to build your arsenal. The game is always happy to reward you for taking your time looking around every corner and every container with rare materials or better weaponry and armor.

Even if somehow the exploring gets tedious, you can speed through the main part of the dungeon to an exit that loops quickly around to where you came in from, giving players an easy way out instead of backtracking for another ten minutes. The dungeons never feel like a chore to fully explore.

Overall, for an RPG, “Fallout 4” had a gameplay loop that kept me fully engaged and wanting to find every nook and cranny on the map to find whatever insane mini-nuke launcher or plasma cannon that could make annihilating the enemies ten times more fun. This is what makes this game so great to me, and is why “Fallout 4” is one of my favorites in the series. 

“Fallout: New Vegas” may still take the crown as my personal favorite, but I don’t believe that “Fallout 4” deserves all of the hate it gets, despite its flaws. If you haven’t played any of the series, it’s a great jumping-off point if you ever find yourself interested. 

Categories: Arts & Entertainment