The Fallout series are games, that in recent events, me and a lot of other players have some issue with. From the awful launch of 76 to the ultimate backlash for fans to Bethesda for their bug filled games and lack of updated engine. I have fond memories with Fallout 4 so in recent events I decided to play through it again, this time with a more cynical eye. When starting the game I was greeted to a bug, my wife in the game had mysteriously disappeared only to pop right back into reality, wonderful. Overall the game was still a fun FPS but when completing the game I felt no real positive emotion, maybe from my countless playthroughs or maybe just the fact the ending doesn't bring too much of an impact, either way the ending was the weaker of the series. Going through the story feels like a chore and this was true before making this review so not much for replay value. I would say this game is worth the money since it is an older title now and the price is marked down, It's not an awful game it just seems passable. Does it deserve a recommendation? my opinion no, it's not strong story wise and it's not fun RPG wise so no, I will not recommend this game. Speaking of story, this games got one alright for how forgettable it is. The story reflects the story of Fallout 3 in which you go searching the wasteland for a family member, in Fallout 3 it was your father, in Fallout 4 it is your infant child Shaun. Since this game has a voiced protagonist the game only gives you one outlook and one opinion, you want to find him and when you do, it is a twist but a predictable one. It turns out that your son is actually running the evil faction know as the institute, and depending on which faction you side with, you either kill him or he dies anyways, I love choice. The characters throughout the game are your standard Bethesda NPCs with no charm or memorability, the dialogue wheel has been extremely simplified, giving your 4 options, 3 of which is saying yes different ways. The Fallout series was build off of witty and fun RPG game, except Fallout 3 as it was more of an FPS with RPG elements which was fine until Fallout 4 became a FPS with RPG similarities rather then elements. The game does well at an open world gameplay and the first person shooting aspect is not bad, although the enemies sometimes feel like standing targets that sometimes move to the left and right is there is no real challenge, even if you crank up the difficultly it just turns them into bullet sponges and not effect the AI. It is possible to completely forget about the story and do whatever in the game, although the side quests aren't exactly fun but you can play through the entire game without touching the main quest. The game can be completed by someone who hasn't played it before with some harder challenges for veterans, although the ladder part I find is very rare. In previous titles the visuals had a slight color tint to it, in Fallout 3 it had a green tint, in Fallout New Vegas it had a red tint, Fallout 4 ditches that completely with normal natural colors with is a nice change in my book. After 5 years of the game being out it still looks good, although characters pathfinders get messed up often, making them block doorways or not know where to even go. There are very few animations and the only well thought out ones for the player character was the one when the player picks the one no option as to opposed to the three other yes options, which isn't a compliment. The music is forgettable and I think it was designed to be, ever since Fallout 3 there has been radio stations that play music from the era Fallout is replicating that being the early 1900's, so the background music is composed as boring so players will switch to the radio, or maybe I'm giving Bethesda too much credit. The voice acting is not bad, while there were times where the delivery was off or you think to your self "that was the best take?", it's still professionally done. There were no real awful sound effects, a lot of it was just passable, it was gun sounds not a lot I can say. The Pip boy and map are the same as they are in every 3D Fallout game, easy to use and quite convenient, although if you play for to long items might be lost forever in your inventory but that's late game, as it stands the Pip boy, map, and inventory are easy to use. Whenever you get a quest it'll always have the Bethesda map marker so you know where to go and can follow it blindly and not take in the world you're in, not to say it's not important it can just be a little distracting. If you bought Fallout 4 for the replay ability and the RPG elements well, don't get your hopes up, the role playing aspect went out the window once a voiced protagonist came into the mix and there isn't any real difference between endings besides the Institute ending and that's about it. With an open skill tree you can make the ultimate killing machine and not have any real choice at the start. Subtitles were legible expect for one part that always happened to me, when Preston Garvey is explaining how to get rid of some Raiders in the early game he tells Sturges to tell you their plan, problem is the subtitles for Sturges never showed up, it was just the same line of "Sturges, tell him" at the bottom of the screen, only happened there. Oh crashes, bugs, glitches, is it a Bethesda title if it doesn't have all three? The community has excused these errors for long enough, I've had textures missing, NPCs T posing, random crashes, the works. I feel like Bethesda needs to actually fix these problems instead of having them as silly little jokes and "oops too bad" moments, sometimes their games including Fallout 4 are unplayable, in my play through recently I was met with a hour loading screen followed by a crash, fitting. Opinions on Bethesda aside, is Fallout 4 amazing? No, is Fallout 4 awful? No, it is just ok, the controls are ok, the music is ok, the story is ok, everything is mediocre execpt for the consistent glitches and the lack of any real replay ability. I give it three stars, it's not amazing and it's not awful, I still had fun playing in making something out of something lack luster, that is when it's not crashing.
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The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and Do Not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools.
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