Systems: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Seris S/X, Linux
Release Date: November 5, 2015 - April 25, 2024
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Time Spent: 47.2 Hours
There's been a lot said about Fallout 4 in the nine years since it was first released. A lot of what I can half-recall seems meme-related. Stuff about Preston Garvey accosting you with another sob tail of settlers in need of help. Stuff about settlement management. Stuff about the game being broken in all of the best/worst ways that is common to Bethesda releases. Stuff about someone being a replicant or not. Stuff about the Ghouls not being disgusting enough. Stuff about power armor. Stuff about it not being Fallout: New Vegas. But in the wake of the Fallout series on Amazon, I too jumped into the waters of Fallout 4 and after 47.2 hours, I just wanted to jot down a couple of thoughts I've had since I entered the Wasteland of Boston, Massachusetts.
My three biggest gripes with Fallout 4 are the settlements, the crafting, and the power armor. I'm going to be going over these as if you already know what I'm talking about when it comes to Preston Garvey's Minutemen, how crafting (generally) works in video games, and what power armor is, although I'll probably go a bit deeper in depth on power armor in regards to this and previous Fallout games because that's where my issue lies.
I get it, as far as a game mechanic goes. You liberate or help a group of people and they form a settlement. Or as is often the case that I've come across, is that a pre-existing group of people already living their lives in shacks/houses with a garden. Still, after you complete a story mission for them. They decided to join the Minutemen (or allow themselves to be under the protection of the Minutemen), and then they become a row in your spreadsheet of settlements that you now have to manage. It honestly reminds me of Fallout Shelter, and how you have to keep track of your vault dwellers' happiness levels, and manage the energy to food to water output while also making sure that everyone is armed and that defensive capabilities are in place. I only recently had a notification pop up telling me that the settlement in Hangman's Alley was under attack, and this was while I was in Sanctuary Hills. My general reaction was, "Tough shit." Because that's a couple of hours run in-game (to say nothing about it being a 6.5-hour walk in the real world) and even if I were to fast-travel, I don't think it would be instantaneous. The point is, I'm not a fan of this level of micromanagement in this type of game. In Fallout Shelter, sure, because there it would make sense.
My second issue is crafting. Now, I don't know how crafting specifically is introduced in the base game before any DLC is added on, but with the GOTY version that comes packaged with every little bit of DLC, you know how to build everything imaginable for whatever reason. I don't know if that's normal, or if it's something to do with the DLC being active, but seeing how much stuff you can build is a little overwhelming. Maybe it was a "people got upset when Dogmeat died so we made Dogmeat unkillable" mindset and Bethesda just decided to give players access to build a fucking windmill out of plane parts. It would make more sense to have the player learn how to build different items by finding/earning blueprints so they're not inundated with a clunky menu to build anything they can out of scrap. And let's throw a cherry on the top of this just for the sake of it. The building and placing items mechanic feels more suited toward mouse/keyboard controls, especially when it comes to the logic gates. Like maybe if the whole game was you playing an omniscient being whose sole purpose was to construct settlements, that would be its own game, but in this type of first/third-person perspective, it just feels like too much.
Lastly is the power armor. In all of the previous Fallout games I've played, power armor has typically been a late-stage suit of armor that you work toward. From rags to leather, to metal, to combat/military grade armor and eventually to power armor. It's always felt like something that you earn as you make your way through the game and are in the last quarter before finishing the main questline. And I love that! I love the progression of starting out with a mix of random bits of gear that doesn't match and eventually ending up with gold-tier legendary weapons and armor. In Fallout 4, they give you your own suit (I mean, you do have to retrieve it from the roof of a building) that you then use to promptly take out a wave of bandits followed by a marauding deathclaw. Or in my case, just stand at the top of a hole in the street and unload on the deathclaw anytime it comes into view because it fell down a sodding hole. Sure, this scripted battle was supposed to make you feel like a badass in your new badass armor, and while my experience was the exact opposite, it still felt like this shouldn't've been a thing this early on in the game. And then I find out that power armors require a fusion core (which does make sense, yes), but in order to counteract giving players power armor this early in the game, the fusion core batteries drain out while you're using the power armor.
I genuinely wonder if the meeting went something like this:
- Executive: Where are we on the power armor? When does it come into the game?
- Developer: We have the Sole Survivor coming upon it during "Tour of Duty" in the Brotherhood of Steel questline.
- E: So you don't get to use power armor before that?
- D: I mean we've introduced it, but you're supposed to run away because you wouldn't normally survive the encounter against someone in power armor that early on.
- E: We were thinking that it'd be cool to get the power armor earlier, so your Sole Supervisor could use it earlier in the game.
- D: I mean, we could do something like that, maybe at the beginning of the Brotherhood of Steel quest, sometime after the Sole Survivor arrives in Boston.
- E: That was on page........
- D: Um... that's page 62.
- E: Yeah, we were thinking having it be part of ummm, what's it called. . . Oh, heh heh. "When Freedom Calls."
- D: "When Freedom Calls?" When you help Princeton? But that's still in Act One. That early?
- E: Why not? Think how much fun it'd be to have power armor that early. People love power armor.
- D: But that would imbalance the rest of the game. There wouldn't be any reason for the Sole Survivor to not wear the power armor.
- E: Yeah, do that.
- D: I mean, I guess we could have some kind of time limit to the power armor, maybe so that it has to recharge or...
- E: Mmm hmm, yeah.
- D: ...maybe a durability mechanic so that it needs to be repaired...
- E: Better! It consume resources!
- D: ...but the player base isn't going to like how...
- E: We like where this is going. We'll let you workshop this while we're out to lunch. Oh, and change Princeston's name. This isn't New Jersey.
- D:.. huh?
That's my theory.
There are a handful of other aspects of the game I'm not overly fond of and at this point, I think it would take a lot for me to fall in line with the game's way of thinking. Things like there being too many different types of ammo, all of the different types of materials needed to craft every little thing and upgrade. I'm annoyed that there isn't a button to specifically bring up the map, rather than having to bring up the Pip-Boy and scroll through menus to get to the map. I don't like that the majority of the buildings and houses are boarded up and inaccessible. How else am I supposed to raid kitchens to find oil to build up the turrets?
Obviously, I've been enjoying the game though as I've put in just over 47 hours. I like the act of exploring, seeing how people have inhabited this take on the Fallout world, and leveling up (albeit somewhat slowly it feels like, but that's probably my own fault for doing more side quests as I come across them as opposed to the main quest). I'm also very curious as to the reason for why your child is taken from the cryo chamber, so you could say I'm somewhat invested in the main story line. But only just. I personally don't mind the skill tree and I like the visual aesthetic which is essentially just a brightly lit Fallout: Shelter. I don't see myself quitting anytime soon unless there's some kind of game-breaking bug related to the Next Gen Update and the Steam Deck that hasn't surfaced yet.
So until then, I'll keep enjoying the Commonwealth Wasteland while politely ignoring the cries of help from my settlements that are a five-hour walk away.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
P.S.
Just to note, for the most part, I've held to my "don't want to fast travel" MO, although I did recently break it after acquiring a suite of power armor from somewhere on the eastern edge of the map and I wanted to make it back to Sanctuary Hills where I had safely stashed all my found fusion power cores. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it back before the power ran out, and I guessed that the game might be more forgiving towards power consumption. And less likely to get distracted by map markers.
Yes, I am 100% hoarding most/any power armor I come across. I know of two shells that I need to go back and pick up if they're still there. At the moment, there are four suits just hanging around Sanctuary Hills minding their own business.
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