Fallout 4 is not an MMO, yet the response to this game is so high – even on our site – that we decided to test it. 

The end of the world is near, the atomic war is at the door! This oppressive atmosphere sets the stage for the RPG Fallout 4. Unlike its predecessors, you do not start after the bombs have fallen, but before they do.

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Release: November 10, 2015
Genre: Post-apocalyptic RPG
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Players: Singleplayer (1)

You can create your own hero as either a father or a mother before the bathroom mirror and decide on his or her appearance down to the smallest details – a small note: If you change the appearance of both parents, you even influence which facial traits the child will have! Shortly after this morning “grooming” and after spending some time with the family, the alarm sirens ring!

You quickly head to the nearby bomb shelter Vault 111 with your child and spouse, just as the bomb detonates… About 200 years later, you awaken from deep sleep to find yourself in a devastated world.

Survival in the Post-Apocalypse

In this, the objective is survival. While you wander through the rubble of the once-civilized world from either a first-person or third-person perspective, not only friendly people await you. Dangers lurk everywhere, such as horrific mutants, killer robots, or gangs of raiders. Combat occurs in real-time, which feels significantly more action-packed compared to its predecessors Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. By accumulating action points, you can activate the VATS system. This is a targeting system that allows you to aim at enemies’ body parts. When activated, time stops. However, it is presented in a slightly altered form. The action is not paused but slowed down. Therefore, you have to react quickly even within the VATS system, because ghouls, for example, can still jump at you and deal damage, even in slow motion.

Another change compared to the predecessors is the absence of a karma system and a repair system. Weapons and armor no longer degrade. The special skills that were previously divided into perks and S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills are now consolidated. Does this make Fallout 4 less of an RPG? No. It plays a bit faster and feels more action-oriented, but role-playing elements are still sufficiently present. For example, when picking locks or hacking computers.

Additionally, you talk a lot with NPCs, who have quests ready or provide you with useful information, and are available for trade. During these dialogues, you can ask deeper questions depending on attribute values like charisma and intelligence. All conversations are very well-voiced, which applies to both the German and the English versions.

The dialogue system has also undergone a change compared to its predecessors. Instead of selecting whole sentences, you now choose individual words that the hero articulates. Correct, the protagonist can now speak! This gives the game a somewhat more cinematic approach. By the way, you are not alone on your journey. Along the way, you can find willing characters who are eager to accompany you. However, you can only have one character in your party at a time.

Plenty of Adventure

The quests in the game lead you through the vast game world, where you can also join various factions. For some of these, you even need to establish outposts or expand settlements. To do this, you collect resources that can be found in the world. Through these, you have access to buildings, generators, shops, watchtowers, and more that you can then build in a certain area to attract new settlers.

Building these outposts, however, can prove to be quite fiddly, which applies generally to the controls. Lists and menus dominate the view, which is not very comfortable and especially gets on your nerves when searching for specific items. However, Fallout 4 impresses with its immense freedom. In the post-nuclear, open game world, it is possible to go anywhere.

However, you must also be prepared for the possibility that a giant scorpion might send you straight to the grave. Nevertheless, during these wanderings, you experience the most exciting moments in the game. An abandoned house in the wilderness might hold a secret. The cellar door is locked, and after you pick the lock with a lockpick and the appropriate skill level, you find skeletons inside.

Apparently, a family tried to take refuge there before the atomic strike. However, in the attic, you discover a ghoul that attacks you with a scream! Of course, you can also expect plenty of quests that drive a thrilling story forward. However, these missions do not quite offer the variety that one would envision after the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This game has simply set new standards. The tasks in Fallout 4 seem comparatively a bit bland, familiar, and less surprising. However, this does not mean that they are not fun. On the contrary. However, there is a slight lack of something special, the quests that stay in memory and that you want to talk about with your friends.

Visually, Fallout 4 can at least fully convince when it comes to landscapes, the atmospheric lighting effects, and the monsters. However, it does less well with human enemies and NPCs. These look wooden, as is typical in Fallout. Based on the loading times that occur when entering a building, one can see that the underlying engine of the game is aging. The performance is not as smooth due to the new effects like Godrays and the new lighting system, and generally, there should no longer be loading times even when entering single-family homes nowadays.

The role-playing elements with the special skills that you unlock upon leveling up and the regular skills that improve automatically through use are convincing once again. Therefore, Fallout 4 has indeed become a worthy successor that offers a lot of fun but also some changes that especially die-hard fans must come to terms with.

Conclusion

Andreas says: Fallout 4 is a fantastic game. Of course, there are also criticism points, such as the engine, which simply needs to be replaced, the uncomfortable menu navigation, and the quests that simply lack that certain something that would make them outstanding. But the atmosphere is convincing, and there is simply an enormous amount to do in the post-nuclear world. And especially these stories you can experience alongside the main storyline make the RPG something special. Therefore, I can recommend Fallout 4 to anyone who wants to experience adventures in the post-apocalypse.

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