Fallout 4 (Review), Part One

Please be warned from here on out that there will be MAJOR SPOILERS, so if you haven’t played the game, and intend to… DO. NOT. READ.

When you think of a video game series that has brought us great pleasure since early-generation gaming, it’s hard to come up with an empty, or even bare-bones, list. Even the freshest-faced gamers of today could name at least two or three series which began before the millennium’s turn, where GHz was just a magical computing concept of the future, point-and-clicks were all the rage (Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, you know), and online play was in its infant stages with Quake, Warcraft and Age of Empires (Nowadays, you’re virtually EXPECTED to play online as a gamer.)

To that end, let us begin by discussing the journey of Fallout, a creation originally by Interplay which began in 1997. Featuring eighteen different skills, perks, turn-based combat, and free-flow ability to play your character as unconventionally or even antagonistically as possible, it followed the journey of a vault resident who set out to save their vault. Given a choice to create your own dweller or pick one of three residents already available, you were tasked under time pressure to find a replacement for the Water Chip after a malfunction, which of course blooms into a massive quest that would ultimately mean saving the vault in more ways than one.

Now I’m not going to explain the entire story (there’s the Internet for that) but thanks to its being “a labour of love… with humor, style and brains to spare” and the “tightly integrated mix of combat, storytelling and puzzling”, it received extremely high praise across all major game reviewers and even today still manages to maintain high rankings in “Best PC game of all time” lists by several publications. All that praise and it apparently only pulled in moderate sales figures of 80,000 units… Goes to show that even high art won’t always be so quickly appreciated, but as I’ll point out soon, it would sow the seeds.

But I guess I must’ve missed the memo or I was just too young since I jumped WAY late onto the gravy train. In fact, it might’ve been a couple years after initial release that I got into New Vegas, on what must’ve been a slow release since nothing else took my interest. I picked it up for the PlayStation 3, and after what amounted to 200 hours later, on a multitude of characters, I got hooked, badly hooked. It became an addiction that I don’t even think Addictol or a Refreshing Beverage would’ve been potent enough to cure.

In fact, I wound up purchasing the PC version for cheap, and played it all over again, perhaps another 100 hours, finding the same amount of fun as I did all those years ago. With a great system that paid best rewards for best outcomes, a selection of intriguing perks, a whole number of skills to improve, quests influenced by said skills and vicious gun and melee-based combat, not to mention choice of dialogue, there was no way I could stop myself from playing. I’d even clock out just as the sun rose in the dawn, more often than not.

Fast forward another two decades from the original, and we’ve gotten to Fallout 4, released two months ago as a Bethesda creation that has become the latest in a massive, hotcake-selling series… Many even argue that it could be projected to be even bigger than another of Bethesda’s great adventure series, that of The Elder Scrolls. Given the juggernaut sales; the 12 million copies of Fallout 3, the $300 million worth of New Vegas games, and the $750 million worth of sales for Fallout 4, it may only be a matter of time.

I would pick this one up about a couple days after the Australian release, and you could imagine how annoyed I was that it released around examination time. But I stayed patient, and I finally got a chance to explore the wasteland once again, 5 years after New Vegas and nearly two decades from Interplay’s world-conquering creation. During that time, I must’ve played an excess of other role-playing games; on the Web, on console and on PC, and it had quickly become one of my favourite genres of games due to the fact that you could MAKE your own character.

Not just create them, but shape them. Not just direct them, but lead them.
They were no longer just a stock character, they became a reflection of yourself.

With all that in mind, it’s time once again to explore the Commonwealth and inspect every corner and crevice of Bethesda’s latest post-apocalyptic offering. Let us begin…

Graphics:
A crisp Commonwealth for certain, but the cogs certainly creak and crash.

Whether it’s the power of eighth-generation consoles or I’m easy to please, I cannot say, but as I continued exploring the various locations there were only rare times where I didn’t enjoy the graphics style of Fallout 4. Maybe the engine is showing its age, but it conveyed the idea of a post-apocalyptic wasteland well without a laundry list of problems. That’s not to say I didn’t encounter problems (in fact, I found quite a share of them) but we’ll get into that a bit later.

For now, I’d love to reflect on the rare occasions where as I explored Boston, the site for many a great tourist attraction as I’ll allude to, the sun would rise and bathe the sky in a glowing orange light, or I’d point my head to the skies watching the stars gleam like glitter. Other areas like classic RobCo games, interiors, and heads-up displays where applicable seemed to look quite appropriate for lack of better terms.

Areas like the Prydwen, the Brotherhood of Steel’s ginormous blimp aircraft, and the vaults buried underground could be considered the most impressive visuals in Boston, though I’m sure that’s a matter viciously up for debate. You would even be treated to well-detailed replicas of places like the Massachusetts State House, Fenway Park (now named Diamond City), the USS Constitution and Boston Public Library, to name but a few. I myself would love to know what your favourite locations were in the Commonwealth, so shout ‘em down below.

As I said above, everywhere you look and you’ll just know that it cements the pure destruction and devastation of post-nuclear war, and how ruined buildings, occasional settlements and general human struggle remind you of that every single time you explore.

When it came down to combat graphics, I was impressed by the visual spurts of blood and flesh that could result from devastating victories against enemies. In fact, more often than not, I would slam my Super Sledge or pump more shotgun shells into their heads just to watch it explode in a grisly, gruesome mess… Psychopathic teabagging in a sense? Maybe. But you’d better believe it was fun!

In fact, even with the 150 or so hours that I did eventually put into the game, I wound up discovering whole new locations that I’d never been to before, and of course finding myself visually impressed all over again. I can promise you, that, if by any chance you are an explorer of sorts, then you won’t regret exploring the Boston Commonwealth. Of course, that could be to do with gameplay that quickly becomes repetitive, as I’ll mention at a later stage.

Now unfortunately, I do have to make mention of the various glitches, stutters and even full-on crashes that I encountered in this adventure. There was one point in one journey of mine where a building didn’t fully load in, sending me on one of the trippiest experiences I can recall in gaming. I can’t say I remember where it happened, or when it happened, but I know that it DID happen.

There were also numerous times where certain parts of the game, like cars, boxes or other odd objects weren’t set or loaded in properly and as a result jerked with complete spasms and twists that made me think it needed an exorcist more than it needed a programmer. A box span like a sped-up breakdancer here… A car floated on an otherworldly plane there, and various other things that made no goddamned sense at all. In fact, one of those sudden spasms resulted in my death and the loss of an hour of gameplay.

Additionally, it is with regret that even months after initial release, and on hardware as powerful as the PlayStation 4, that one will find themselves going through occasional, but very jarring stutters (some that reduced my game to near slideshow-like speeds at one point) and even a few crashes to the XMB from time to time. I’m not going to say it pissed me off past points of no return, but I’m pretty sure that it’d be easy to lose your temper once it started happening (although it does right itself quickly, so there is that positive.)

That being said, I will say this: My dad and I have basically played the game into the ground, probably clocking up a good 300+ hours between the two of us, and I gotta say, it has still held up extremely well. A million times better than New Vegas at least, pardon the hyperbole. Maybe it’s because I waited a week while patches were released, or maybe I just got extremely lucky, but even so, I do believe it should be a pretty stable experience on an overall scale.

Sounds and Music:
Was it a Five Stars experience, a Wanderer of sorts, or should we Worry, Worry, Worry?

It should go without saying that if any game can look absolutely pretty, but sounds like a mutant hound in a blender, then the immersion is shattered. I guess, relating more to real life, if a pretty girl or attractive man you meet on the street sounds like a ghoul gargling saltwater, then immediately you’d recoil. So with that idea in mind, how did the sound and music of Fallout 4 pan out?

Well, by themselves I guess there’s not a lot for me to talk about, so I decided to lump in the dialogue as part of the group, and that is also the way I’ll begin this section of the review. Put simply, with making comparisons to Fallout New Vegas, you definitely get the impression that it’s a major step down in almost every conceivable way. It pains me to say it, but when you have mods for PC that re-tweak the dialogue interface merely a week into initial release, then it goes without saying that you’ve messed up somewhere.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve found several moments with playing the game, especially with my more recent character, where I got chuckles and even full-on belly laughs playing a sarcastic little bastard of a man, and even a number of responses to general questions that had a good sense of humour to them. But those moments felt few and far between in amongst all the repeatable quests said in the exact same manner and exact same tone, and I believe there were even cases where I would say something different only to be greeted with the same lines and tone regardless.

Even to change it up a bit, say you performed a milestone after rescuing the 50th kidnapped victim for a particular settlement or just in general, and they commend you on bravely risking your life daily to keep your fellow settlers safe. It would certainly add a new level of freshness to dialogue that had already grown stale by the time you finished the 5th kidnapping, hostile elimination or whatever quest you were sent out to that time.

So, the lines and dialogue could be a mixed bag of awesome and boring, but what also didn’t help matters was how vague the options presented were. You’re given a very lightweight version compared to New Vegas that represents a Dialogue Wheel, where a number of options can inquire further, be sarcastic, be angry/bitter or be a nice, noble-sounding hero.

Even then, it wasn’t always the case. An example I can think of was with Kellogg, the mercenary who murdered your spouse working to kidnap your son. After you encounter him for the final time, even a “sarcastic” response could be interpreted as pure, seething anger, which sure, you can understand given the situation, but when you pick an option intending to say things one way, and end up saying them another way, it could prove rather irksome. Let’s just say that I do hope a full-blown mod for dialogue reinvention, much like that on the PC, comes out for PS4.

Regarding the sounds, I don’t think there’s anything I really could point out that was wrong or didn’t sound right at any point. Guns sounded good and proper, with bullet sprays, shotgun blasts and pistol pops reflecting the impact and volume they’d have in real life.

The melee and unarmed weapons sounded on point like the Super Sledge, swords and all that. Explosives carried that certain punch to them, most notably things like the Fat Man with its mini nuclear bombs and all. Collecting caps, weapons and armour all sounded as they should.

And as far as the classic RobCo games went (more on them later) they sounded like they came back from the Atari 2600 or just a bit further, which was precisely the point. It’s a beautiful reflection on the games of old, and Bethesda should be commended for that at least.

Honestly, as far as sounds go in that regard, and several others that I’ll point out, I really have no complaints whatsoever.

For the music, well no doubt you’re going to get an eclectic mix of classics from bygone eras, with a majority of licensed songs from the Baby Boomer periods between 1946 and 1964, and even quite a few songs released around World War II years. If you have parents in their golden years, as I do, then you can bet that it’ll take ‘em back to the days of record players, transistor radios and rock n’ roll all over again. Not to mention, there’s a nice selection of classical music for more orchestral sorts.

Admittedly, I don’t really listen to the radio or even care much for the ambient music playing in the background, as I’m concentrating on doing my thing, but there were a couple of licensed songs that I grew to love, whether from memory or just straight-up catchy tunes. Personally however, I was rueing the fact that another ‘50s song, made popular by Trading Places, didn’t make the cut, and that was The Silhouettes’ “Get A Job”. Given the situation, I could’ve seen that as a great sense of irony, to go with the beat; given how the idea of being employed fruitfully in a nuclear wasteland is all but completely impossible.

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