Four years after Skyrim, I was hoping for a more pronounced improvement. Initially, I experienced the mild disappointment of familiarity. The voice acting is much better, but still not perfect. The faces are better, but still not perfect. That's mostly down to the tech powering it-even some of the NPC animations will be recognisable to anyone who's spent enough time in Tamriel. Which is to say that it looks like an improved version of Fallout 3. Graphically, Fallout 4 looks like an improved version of Skyrim. Fallout 4, like its predecessors, isn't a survival game-even though, initially at least, resources can be hard to come by.

There's a lightheartedness that chips away at the tone, softening the death and decay. It's brutal and harrowing, but only up to a point. Bethesda's Fallout games are primarily about the atmosphere of the world at large, and Fallout 4 is no different. Journeying to one of the many undiscovered locations in your vicinity, you'll kill enemies, pick locks, hack terminals, collect loot and experience a standalone vignette that weaves into the larger story of Boston after the bombs.Īs always, then, the campaign is just the throughline for the many, many sidequests, miscellaneous events and unprompted acts of exploration you'll complete along the way. But for all the improvements, the moment to moment experience is broadly the same. As Fallout 3 was to Oblivion, so Fallout 4 is to Skyrim-the post-apocalypse of a futuristic world trapped in a '50s aesthetic, now available in Bethesda's Creation Engine and boasting some interesting new features. If you've played a Bethesda RPG before, this will be nothing new. Does it sound like an infuriating, dissonant mess, or the cool, emergent intersection of player-driven decisions. Whether you'll enjoy it or not, I think, depends on your reaction to the description above. Fallout 4 wilfully trades immersion for an enjoyable, freeform sandbox of possibilities. When you do, it can be wonderfully satisfying, but also-in the sense that you can be a huge stealth machine carrying an antique, irradiated sword-a little bit dumb. Its systems are intricate, and invite you to tailor them to your liking. It's a highly customisable RPG in a world that's packed full of things to do.

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