For many readers out there, I would need to say nothing more than “Fallout 4. Buy this game”. Indeed, this game franchise has gained a massive following ever since the release of Fallout 3 in 2008. I can also say that no game has ever made me want to wish for an impending nuclear apocalypse more. This is not the intention of the game at all, continually trying to prove to you the horrors of the wasteland that remains. Dan Scanlon reviews Fallout 4.

The game opens with player autonomy: you are in control of your own custom-created character, with a multiplex of different options to personalise them as much as you want. The character creation may not be as in-depth as previous games from Bethesda, but the developers of Fallout 4 have managed to streamline the creation process, enabling players who might want to customise their character superficially, to do so, without getting lost in long lists of sliders. Your character progresses through their daily routine as much as is needed to set the scene before the nuclear Armageddon, and then you are quickly thrown into the post-apocalypse, to begin your own journey through what remains of the United States. At this point the game lets you off the leash, free to explore the city of Boston and the surrounding area as you choose.

The world is packed with locations to explore, with much of the setting providing both exterior and interior environments. Similarly to Fallout 3, the game suffers from blending of textures used for the surroundings, but this is remedied by the addition of a wider colour palette in Fallout 4 compared to its predecessors. Moreover, there are a number of unique regions the map, such as the ; an area of intense radiation to the south-west of the map, which can only be explored once you have scavenged weapons and armor strong-enough to withstand the harsh environment. In addition, this area is procedural-generated, (meaning that it extends endlessly in theory, until conditions become too unforgiving for your survival).

Exploration is enjoyable, with numerous random encounters which can occur, and one new feature is settlement development, providing you with in-game currency as well as virtual good karma. Additionally, an improved crafting system has made almost all in-game items useful, ensuring that good scavenging provides worthwhile rewards to the player.

Overall, Fallout 4 is a game of extremely high quality; feedback from previous has been taken into account in many areas, which along with the additional features available, has made this game a must-play in my opinion. This applies even more if you have not played the other games in the series, since everyone should take this opportunity for some enjoyable preparation for the nuclear apocalypse, because war…war never changes.