I finally finished the main story in ‘Fallout 4’. After hours (actually the in game counter tells me its been roughly a solid week) of exploring, killing mutants and raiders, saving settlers, treasure hunting, scavving, settlement building, equipment modding, and making friends, the story is over. Not the game. The game is designed to go on forever, but the main storyline is finished.
So how does it compare to the previous titles ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘New Vegas’?
I won’t be covering the even earlier games in this as they are an entirely different breed, but ‘4’ is meant to follow the trend of the PS3 games.
STORY
BEWARE, THIS SECTION CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS!
This is what we play Fallout games for. The story. And more so the ability to shape it around our character. We meet countless characters and groups throughout the games, and in completing missions for, with, or against them shapes the world.
The ending is meant to reflect everything we have done and wrap it up. The adventures of these Wasteland Wanderers are the turning points in apocalyptic history.
Although with each game the story gets more incomprehensible seeing as there is no way to carry over your choices from previous titles. Did the Lone Wanderer restore or destroy the Washington Wasteland? Did the Courier help the NCR or the Legion to take control of New Vegas? We don’t know. We only know what happened when we personally went through it.
The only characters that are able to reappear in following games are ones that were invincible for whatever reason. E.G. MacCready and Maxson appear in ‘Fallout 3’ as children. As Bethesda has a no child killing rule, they were both safe to be seen as adults in ‘Fallout 4’.
So what happens at the end of ‘Fallout 4’? After all these missions affecting the Minutemen, the Railroad, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Institute, the Atom Cats, raider gangs, Diamond City, Goodneighbour, about 30 settlements, your 13 companion characters, and various other friends and enemies along the way, you’re curious to see what the future has in store for them.
But unlike the previous games, there’s no epilogue. After you complete the final mission in which you destroy at least one faction, there’s a cutscene that is exactly the same for everyone. The only difference being that a male or female figure appears depending on what gender you chose to play as. There’s other slight differences if you sided with the Institute rather than anyone else, but beyond that, it’s all very generic.
And this basically sums up what is fundamentally wrong with the game when compared to the other two. Role playing has taken a back seat.
RPG
The Fallout games are known for being immersive RPGs. You explore vast landscapes, meet a variety of characters, and as you build your character, you shape the world around you. It’s what has had us all hooked and so excited for ‘Fallout 4’.
But ‘Fallout 4’ lets us down on a number of levels.
The map is larger than any we have seen before, although I think a large chunk of that is the Glowing Sea, which is very barren and you’re encouraged to not spend much time there due to the deadly radiation. But bigger is not necessarily better in this case.
In ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘New Vegas’ as you explored you’d find a few dusty, beaten up, post-apocalyptic places as you would expect, but every so often you’d find something that caught you off guard. I mentioned MacCready before. In ‘Fallout 3’ you met him in Little Lamplight, a settlement in a cave whose entire population was children. Elsewhere you’d be wandering about and stumble upon Oasis, an amazing lush green home to hippies who had managed to keep some small part of Washington alive. In the mountains of ‘New Vegas’ you’d discover a haven that was home to a group of friendly Super Mutants and Nightkin, just trying to live in peace and stay out of the way of humans who might see them as a threat.
‘Fallout 4’ doesn’t seem to ever let up from the grey, brown, mucky, rusty abandoned warehouses and swamps, that are infested either with feral ghouls, super mutants, raiders, or mirelurks. If you’re lucky you’ll see some protectrons or bugs instead. The Institute is the obvious exception, looking more like Abstergo industries than anything that has ever been seen in a Fallout game, but once you’re out in the cold again, you’re back to the repetition.
But this could be forgiven if the role play aspect of the game was more like the older titles. In ‘3’ and ‘Vegas’, almost every quest had different options for if you were a good guy, a bad guy, or some sort of grey in between. Sometimes there were additional options if you were maybe a stealthy type, a scientific type, a demolitions expert, a sweet talker, or had some other proficiency.
‘Fallout 4’ sometimes gives the illusion of these kinds of choice, but more often than not your options are ‘do the right thing’, or ‘do the right thing but make a sarcastic comment about it’. There are a few quests where you choose to side with one group or another, but once the mission is over, the repercussions seem to end there. Generally, doing the right thing involves going to a location and killing everything that moves.
I think the only time I felt a need to use any stealth in the game was when I wanted to steal a part to help the Captain of the Constitution, without upsetting the people holding it. But that ended up to not matter later anyway.
The number of times I hacked a terminal to later find the password lying around on a desk nearby got a little frustrating.
I really think the game would have benefited in several areas from giving the player more options on how to solve situations. In the Covenant settlement quest, I was forced to kill a couple of women who had previously been nothing but lovely. It’s obvious that a few of the settlers were shady, but that shouldn’t meant that the whole town should have been wiped out. On a grander scale, the questlines often reach a point where one faction wants you to destroy one of the others. It doesn’t always make much sense that some sort of peaceful arrangement couldn’t be found instead.
At least there’s an option to give an evacuation warning before you destroy the Institute. But as far as I’m aware you don’t meet any of the escapees after you do so.
Companions
Each companion has likes and dislikes and they can grow to admire you or in some cases become hostile. Some also have accompanying quests. Becoming admired by a companion rewards you with a unique perk.
For most companions, all you have to do is keep them around for long enough. Every so often they’ll say that they want to talk to you. When they do, they’ll start telling you their life story. Some like Strong are much more difficult to impress, and others like Danse require you to complete a quest before you win the perk, but overall it’s the same set up.
I found this a lot less interesting than the companion quests in ‘Vegas’. In ‘4’ you have these companions telling you that you are their best friend, while for your part, they’ve been little more than a shadow who for some reason feels the need to bear their soul to you. I enjoyed Curie’s journey the most I think, and I warmed to one or two others, but for the most part, the heart to hearts felt uncomfortable and forced.
Radiant Quests
The bane of the completionist. You’ll be minding your own business, building some shacks, modding a gun, then a settler wanders up and asks for help. “Sure” you say. The settler informs you that a nearby building is full of feral ghouls and they keep wandering over here and harassing the farmers. You think to yourself “I’m pretty sure I wiped those ghouls out days ago”, but you run over there and find they’re all back. So you wipe them out again hoping this time, they’ll stay dead. The settlers thank you. You put up a few guard posts, build some turrets, and kit out the population with high spec armour and weaponry. Next time there’s a problem, they’ll be ready. A few days later, the same thing happens again. You think “Sort it out yourselves. I have bigger problems to worry about”. So you leave it. Next time you come back to the settlement, all the turrets and power generators are destroyed and the crops have been burned down. You can not win.
I liked it in ‘3’ and ‘Vegas’ that cleared areas stayed cleared. It gave a sense of accomplishment. I can understand if maybe every so often raiders move into empty buildings and set up camp, but some of these threats should really be a one time thing, and having strong settlements nearby should keep the surrounding area safe too. (How come what seems like 90% of the human population in the Commonwealth are raiders? There’s barely anyone left to raid!) I set up the defensive structures precisely so I wouldn’t be needed in case of attack, but it seems that any attack you aren’t present to personally help out with is automatically failed.
Not all Bad
I’ve come down pretty hard on the game here, but you know, I did complete it. I went through the whole thing, doing almost all of the side quests and exploring most of the map. I’ve clearly been enjoying it.
But it has to be said, it’s missing a lot of the stuff that made the previous games great.
The settlement system is something I’ve really enjoyed, although I wish settlers would do a better job of scavving materials for me. Perhaps being able to send them to purchase supply shipments regularly for me, instead of doing it myself.
I’ve quite liked modding armour and weapons, although much of the time it seems as though there is one clearly best option to choose. E.g. One mod will improve damage but reduce accuracy. One mod will improve accuracy and reduce damage. One mod will improve both. Given the option, you’ll always go for the third.
I do enjoy the Fallout world, with its glimmers of hope in an otherwise dreadful apocalyptic waste.
And even after all this, I’m still looking forward to getting back with Nick Valentine and heading out to Far Harbor.
