Fallout 4
Review

Fallout 4 (2015) is an open world role-playing and shooting game. Set in a post apocalyptic world called The Wasteland, you explore a large map, interact with inhabitants, collect useful items to sell or craft with, build your own settlements, and defend yourself from dangerous foes.

There are many individual stories to unravel, many of them concerning the evil corporation of Vault-Tec. It manufactured underground bunkers where the human survivors of the war live, and have been subject to cruel psychological or physical experiments. Your character is the sole survivor of one of these bunkers and is searching for their kidnapped son. How these stories develop is impacted by your actions as there are many paths you can take which means everyone's experience of the game is slightly different.

The Fallout Series started in 1997 as a PC turn-based adventure game and has developed into a vast multi-console open world experience. Other games in the series include:

• Fallout 1997 (Mac, PC)
• Fallout 2 1998 (Mac, PC)
• Fallout 3 2008 (Windows, Xbox 360, PS3)
• Fallout: New Vegas 2010 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
• Fallout 4 2015 (Windows, PS4, Xbox One)
• Fallout Shelter 2015 (Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch) (a spin off Time Management game set in the same universe)
• Fallout 76 2018 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

You can choose to play in either first person (through the eyes of the character) or third person with the character visible to you, and the gender and facial features are chosen at the start of the game. The main story involves finding out what happened to your son, which will involve some difficult moral decisions.

Gameplay involves taking on quests, crafting items from junk, managing your inventory, eating food, taking medication, and equipping weaponry. The quests are given by characters you meet, and usually involve finding someone or something, or clearing out a building of irradiated cockroaches or worse.

Combat is against both human and animal foes. Some creatures are affected by radiation and can make you sick by being close to you. Almost everything in the nuclear ravaged world is harmful to you, so finding clean water and anti-radiation syringes is an important part of survival in this game.

You can choose the level of difficulty for this game, so if you do not want to concentrate on the survival aspects and would rather get absorbed in the story elements you can do that. Exploring the wasteland is a lot more difficult when you are constantly watching your health levels and scrounging for scraps of food, but for hardened Fallout players this is all part of the challenge.

New to Fallout 4 is also base building. You can craft together settlements and buildings from junk you find lying all over the Wasteland. Fence in your home base to defend against enemy attack, or construct a fantasy building with no real purpose. Create castles or bungalows, you can be very creative with this.

Our examiner, Andrea Walney, first checked Fallout 4 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 3 months ago.