War never changes, you say? Well why the hell not?
Like its cryogenically preserved protagonist, Fallout 4 feels like a game out of time. There are probably millions of 1s and 0s in the code that would argue this point, but playing the game now, five years after predecessor Fallout: New Vegas, you can't shake the feeling that so little has changed.
That's not the most horrid sin a game can commit, but the familiarity is hard to swallow during a 12-month period that's seen games like Dragon Age: Inquisition, Destiny and The Witcher 3reinvent what an open world role-playing game can be. Mechanically Fallout 4 feels like a heavily modded version of its older self. Not a good look in late 2015.
It's not for lack of trying. The game spills over with new systems that let you customize your post-apocalyptic journey in a variety of ways. Companions join you for much of the adventure — if you want them around, that is — and every bit of gear you collect can be modified with parts that you build using scrap collected from around the ruins of Boston.
IMAGE: BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
The redemption of Fallout's ceaseless scrap hunt goes even further with settlements that you can reclaim, populate with human survivors and build. Physically build. A new mechanic allows you to construct the basics of life — shelter, food/water, jukeboxes — in specific locations, after you've reclaimed the territory from the post-nuke wastes.
You're more than just a survivor; you are an agent of change in this world. Tour through your settlements and you can see that change firsthand. Settlers arrive to work the land as infrastructure, the infrastructure you create, rises around them.
Unfortunately the practical execution here is lacking, mostly because of how dated the bones of this game are. Nowhere is this more evident than in the building tools. If you just want to drop a prefab wooden house into a vacant, flat space, great. You're good to go. But that's not the promise of Fallout 4, is it?
This is supposed to be your wasteland to customize, but when you dig deeper into the building tools, trying to piece together discrete wall/floor/ceiling tiles or — heaven forbid — build on a surface that's less than flat, the cracks show. Flat tiles hover unconvincingly above uneven surfaces after you place them. Wall corners can't be inverted. You're constantly wrestling with the "snap-to" feature that's supposed to auto-connect adjacent tiles.
Companion management is a similar headache. To give someone who's with you an order, you need to get close and talk to them. That's just not possible in most combat situations, and it turns companions into more of a diversion than anything else. There's also no easy way to locate companions that aren't traveling with you or see how your relationships stack up. Something as simple as an extra menu would have solved that.
IMAGE: BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
As welcome as these new additions are to the Fallout universe, they also feel like fan mods in the way they rely on existing systems to solve problems. Companion management is a tool of the game's existing dialogue mechanics. Settlement building layers new elements into the world without taking terrain into account. This stuff is great, but it feels tacked on.
Making matters worse is the game's generally uneven performance (based on my Xbox One review playthrough). The frame rate hiccups along, running smooth one minute then stuttering and halting the next. Load times are excessively long, sometimes for no good reason; two minutes to load an interior that consists of two small rooms? Why?
These shortcomings are all the more frustrating when you step back from them and bask in the massive, beautifully detailed world that Bethesda Softworks built.
This is a Fallout game to the core. The thrill of exploration and discovery is at the heart of the experience. It always feels like there's more to find, more to uncover.
That's because there is. The game bombards you with information — random radio broadcasts, readable "holotapes," passers-by in need of help — and leaves the choice of who to help, who to hurt and who to ignore in your hands. That's old hat for these games, but this is still a whole new world with a whole new cast. The base joy of soaking it all in remains as powerful as it's ever been.
Being able to customize your gear even injects new purpose into your explorations. While crafting itself isn't explained very clearly, there's now real value in all your scavenging. Everything you collect, right down to battered clipboards and burnt textbooks, has a use as scrap for the parts heap. Exploration has always been important in Fallout, and now it helps propel your progress in a completely new way.
The story has matured too. What starts out as one parent's journey for their kidnapped son — you can be the father or the mother, it's up to you — eventually snowballs into a far-ranging conflict that threatens every living being in the nuke-blasted remains of the Boston region.
IMAGE: BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
It's a familiar scene: artificial intelligence, embodied in Synths built by a mysterious scientific organization known as The Institute, is society's newest minority. The ones that look like robots are easy enough to target, but newer-model bio-mechanical Synths mirror humans inside and out. Humanity is still on the ropes 200 years after the bombs fell, and the reason why is pretty obvious: We never forgot how to hate.
The tech-hoarding Brotherhood of Steel stands in opposition to The Institute and its insular ways. The Railroad, meanwhile, simply wants to liberate Synths and give them the same freedoms that humans enjoy. And standing at the center of these tidal forces is you, freshly unfrozen after a 200-year nap. Your decisions influence which of these interests comes out on top.
Fallout 4's big win doesn't just come from making these choices matter; they also feel real. As an occasional ally to all three competing interests, you get an inside glimpse at their differing perspectives. No one is truly evil. Everyone's out to save the sum total of humanity, if not the individuals in one location or another.
The moral journey you embark on in Fallout 4 is rife with pitfalls. Close allies and friends are easy to find, but this isn't a game where you sway competing philosophies. Sometimes, people have to die. Even comrades. It's a slow burn, but the game frequently challenges you to think and decide what's right from your own perspective once the pieces fall into place.
IMAGE: BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
I made some big decisions in the final 10 hours that led me to stick with friends. I liked working with them and I appreciated their larger goals, but I didn't agree with some of their methods. That should have been a warning sign. My game ended in a way I wasn't happy with because my friends turned out to be selfish (if altruistic) dicks. I could have gone another way and murdered those friends, but that would have just been another flavor of dissatisfaction.
That's not a knock on Fallout 4. The story's big ending isn't supposed to leave you happy. The choices you make determine the winner, but this isn't a case of good vs. evil. Whoever wins inFallout 4, someone loses. And it's always going to be someone close to you. You have no idea how powerful that is until you're making those final choices yourself.
All of which makes it an even greater shame that Fallout 4 is such a mess from a technical perspective. Story aside, this is just another Fallout game. That's great and everything; I'll put another 60 hours into a fresh playthrough at some point, no question. But you deserve more than just another game. You deserve a better one. And Fallout 4 doesn't quite get there.
Fallout 4
The Good
Huge, dynamic world to lose yourself in • Impactful story • Great writing across the board
The Bad
New gameplay mechanics feel half-baked • Technical issues abound
The Bottom Line
Fallout 4 is another Fallout game, but it's not the better one we were hoping for.
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