Did I miss Out is a series I write where I go back and visit some of the biggest games that I did not play when they originally came out. I try to determine if I missed out or I missed a bullet.
Not sure If you know of a little company called Amazon? Well earlier this year they put out a critically acclaimed series based on a little video game series called Fallout. I watched the series and was blown away by the terrific job Amazon did with the IP, but also with the world of Fallout itself. How does humankind survive from the brink of destruction after nuclear war destroys a majority of the planet? Like millions of others, I contracted Fallout fever. After the series came out Fallout 4 was the best-selling game in Europe at the time. A game that originally came out in 2015 was topping the charts in 2024. At this point I have never played any Fallout title on any system. As an Amazon prime member I got a few freebies in the form of Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout 76. However, the game my son calls the “best of the series” is what I was interested in playing. Queue Steam summer sale where I picked up Fallout 3, Vegas, and 4 at a super cheap price and now I owned all of them. So I downloaded Fallout 4 and the accompanying DLC and started my journey in the wasteland.
Story
For anyone who does not know the basic premise of Fallout you typically play as a vault dweller; someone who survives the nuclear fallout by living in a vault way underground. It is usually a couple hundred years after the war and some reason brings you out from the safety of your comfy vault to the treacherous surface of the nuclear wasteland that now is America. Fallout 4 allows you to create your character, with a pretty good character creation screen. Depending on the gender you choose you will be the Husband or the Wife in the story line. Like I do with any game that allows me to create a character I try to model one after my wife. Half because she is my muse, and half to troll her with a video game version of herself. Now that my Latina character has been generated, she is the mother of this nuclear family (pun intended) living in the suburbs with a husband and a newborn baby “Sean”. You find out your family has been selected for Vault 111 in the event the recent troubles abroad result in nuclear war. Surprise! It does. It is not long after creating your character that you are being whisked away to the vault as the air raid sirens blare. You reach the elevator to the vault below just in time to see a nuclear missile blow up in the distance killing millions and destroying your city. Once in the safety of the vault you are fitted with Vaultec blue and yellow vault suits, and you and your family are put into cryogenic slumber. Fast forward some time later and you are awoken as the cryogenic sleep is disabled and you start to regain consciousness. You see a group of seedy characters outside your chamber and opposite the chamber of your husband and your infant son. You watch in horror as they open your husbands chamber and try to rip the baby from your husbands’ grasp. He resists in vain as one of the thugs puts a bullet in his head and they succeed in the kidnap. Cryogenic sleep is reactivated and try as you might to get out, you are put back to sleep. When you finally awake you are alone and must work through the empty halls of the vault until you reach the elevator for the surface. What an introduction?! Nuclear war, cryogenics, and kidnapping all within the first hour of the game. The game starts with your search for your son as the main storyline along with a ton of side missions to do along the way.
Gameplay
Fallout 4 is an action role playing game with its own levelling system and characteristics called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. It stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Levelling your character by completing missions and fighting enemies allows you to add points to perks that fall under those categories. Want to be able to pick locks that are more difficult? Upgrade lockpicking under perception. Want to get better prices from venders? Add a point to the haggling perk under charisma. The game can be played in either first or third person depending on your preference. Everything in the game is managed from your Pip Boy a wrist attached computer device. Your inventory, characters attributes, quests, and maps are found in your Pip Boy. Your character must use guns, grenades, and melee type weapons to battle the many enemies of the wasteland. Weapons have different attributes or do more damage based on the enemy you are attacking like many RPGs. The gun play takes a bit to get used to especially if your playing in third person. Fallout has this unique mechanic called VATS which acts as a targeting system. It shows your target broken down by the main body parts and the chance of hitting. Successful hits stack a critical meter; when full you can deliver a extra powerful punch to the enemy. There is also different power armour you find throughout the wasteland. Power armour is like this Robot suit you can throw on that gives you more of an edge fighting baddies and resisting radiation. The game requires you to fuel the suit with fusion cores which is a creative way of not making it to over powered. There is also a pretty robust crafting system where you can modify armour and weapons using materials you scavenge from the world. There is also a whole base building mechanic where you can built outbuildings and fortify them with defenses. As a new player to the franchise I found the gameplay unique and engaging. It kept pulling me in wanting to learn more about the many nuances of the game.
Graphics
For a game approaching 10 years old it still looks really good. The attention to detail the developers put into the game is phenomenal. When I am playing Fallout 4 I really feel like this is what a nuclear ravaged New England would look like. From the decrepit abandoned homes in the middle of nowhere succumbing to nature to the sprawling towns and cities crawling with mutants its all brilliantly done. The game has this quirky aesthetic where the world has mid-century modern look, but with Robots and advance technology. It is like if they took the reality of 1950s USA and the science fiction of that time and blended it together. Really creative stuff. My favourite spot in the entire game is Diamond City. The Wastelanders have converted Fenway Field in Boston into a refuge for residents and travelers. Where once a baseball diamond stood now is a shanty town of shops, taverns, and homes. The detail to the characters in the game is also really well done. An example is detective Valentine who is an early model synth. Synths are these humanoid robots. His skin is pale and zombie like and where its missing you can see his robotic innards. A lot of care went into the character design in Fallout 4.
When it comes to Fallout 4 I can say whole heartedly I missed out. This was a fun but challenging game set in this amazing fictional world of the Fallout universe. I would highly recommend this one to any fellow gamers out there who like me never played a fallout title.
Like always thank you for stopping in reading my blog post. Be safe out there gamers.
Fallout 4 is the intellectual property of the Bethesda Softworks.
This article is subject to Fair Use (US Law) and Fair Dealing (Canadian Law) as it is informational in purpose and is a critique of the product. All rights and credits go directly to the owners. No copyright infringement is intended
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