“Fallout 4” is game of the year. While visually “Fallout 4” doesn’t have much more to offer than “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” or “Fallout 3,” the add-ons make it a much more complete game than either of the other major Bethesda Softworks hits. “Fallout 4” gives players a completely immersive experience where it is possible to put in thousands of hours over the course of multiple playthroughs, each time tapping into a new facet of the game.
Through the course of the game there are many factions that the player can choose to join including the Brotherhood of Steel, The Institute, Railroad and the Minutemen. The faction you choose to join influences the outcome of the story line, along with certain bonuses or items that you could earn with one faction as opposed to another. Although the idea of choosing a faction is something that remains constant from “Fallout 3,” the new factions offer a refreshing twist on the story of Fallout as a whole.
The point of the main storyline of the new game is to retrieve your son, who was stolen by the Institute from vault 111 in Boston after the nuclear annihilation of the surface. Some may think that the games are too similar since “Fallout 3” is based on finding your father.
While this is marginally true, “Fallout 4” is definitely different than its predecessor. One major area on the map that is incredibly unique is Diamond City, which is crucial to the story and is located inside of Fenway Park. Its contains a home that the player can purchase in game called “Home Base.” If that isn’t cool, I don’t know what is.
Major changes made include things like structure building at settlements the player controls, with a new perk allowing for trade between multiple settlements; extreme weapon customization, power armor customization; armor customization, and my personal favorite, modification (mod) support for consoles like PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One.
Mod support on consoles is a huge step forward for Bethesda Softworks and the video game world in general. Typically mods are only allowed and supported on personal computers (PCs). While “Fallout 4” is already an extremely well-made game, mods make any game better. With the option of things as menial as the Buzz Lightyear power armor mods or more useful mods like inventory search mods, the game gains something that not even “Fallout 3” had: infinite replay-ability.
Although previous Bethesda games like “Skyrim” and “Fallout 3” had a huge amount of replay-ability, Fallout 4 pushes that amount of replay-ability to infinity (and beyond with the Buzz Lightyear mod).
In short, “Fallout 4” is every gamer college student’s worst nightmare. Not only does it take a lot of time to achieve a high level in the game and complete it, but every playthrough of the game you can add on more mods to use, find items you had not in a previous playthrough and attempt to find all of the Vault Boy bobble heads spread everywhere throughout the Wasteland.
“Fallout 4” is the perfect game for “no life,” and I know that it is probably the only video game that I will enjoy playing for many years to come.