Anthony's Film Review - Fallout 4 (Video Game, 2015)

Fallout 4 practically matches, if not exceeds, the awesomeness of its recent predecessors...

After the great success of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, I could not imagine another Fallout game that could top those two. If anything, I predicted the next Fallout game would be very much like those two, except for a new setting and story. Fallout 4 does just that. It has pretty much the same wonderfully designed gameplay in the context of a new adventure to experience. After the previous Fallout games taking place in California; Washington, DC; and Las Vegas, the player now gets to explore the wastes of Boston and its surrounding areas.

If you've played at least one Fallout game before, you know the premise. Starting in the 1950s, the United States goes through an alternate history that is essentially a Cold War lasting over a hundred years. The nation is in a constant nuclear arms conflict, with the mindset and culture of the U.S. remaining locked in the 1950s. Eventually, in the year 2077, a nuclear apocalypse occurs, with the United States being obliterated by nuclear attacks from abroad. Fortunately, the manufacturing company Vault-Tec has produced fallout shelters for eligible Americans to be housed safely. What's cool about Fallout 4 is that, unlike the previous Fallout games that begin sometime after that one fateful day on 2077, the story begins on that day itself.

When the game begins, you see a married couple in front of their bathroom mirror. You the player decide whether to play as the man or the woman, before you customize the character's appearance and, a short time later, pick out the character's strongest character attributes. Then, the story proceeds with a chilling development: news of nuclear missiles hitting the United States, and an emergent call from authorities in your neighborhood to evacuate immediately. From there, your spouse takes your infant son Shaun and runs out of the house, while you follow. The family proceeds just in time to the entrance of Vault 111 nearby. You and everyone go through the motions to get settled in, before realizing that the last thing that happens is that everyone gets cryogenically frozen.

Another scary thing happens. You wake up in the cryo chamber, but are still trapped in it, as someone opens your spouse's chamber, kills the spouse, and takes away baby Shaun. Then you are frozen again before waking up and getting out of the chamber sometime later. Now it's time to figure things out. You wander through Vault 111 to find a way out, discovering that it's not only deserted but also the vault had been used for scientific study of the effects of freezing on human physiology. (If you've played Fallout before, you'll know that each Vault is secretly used for unethical biological or social experimentation on unsuspecting humans.) Once you get out of Vault 111, you embark on a long journey to find your kidnapped son.

Across this wasteland, you explore many kinds of ruins, pick up all sorts of items (weapons, ammo, health items, scrap materials, etc.), and fight to stay alive. You will encounter some giant mutated insects, Ghouls that have resulted from overly irradiated humans, the viciously violent Raiders, the big green Super Mutants, some malicious robots, and the dreaded reptilian beasts called Deathclaws. In between deadly encounters, you will also meet a wide variety of characters to talk to, whether they are friend or foe and human or nonhuman. This is where many side quests occur alongside the main quest of finding Shaun. As you complete tasks and kill enemies, your character's level increases, and you can select new abilities called Perks to enhance your character in a variety of ways.

These gameplay features are what you can find in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Yet, Fallout 4 does include something new for players who are also visually creative: settlements. Several locations in the game are designed as settlements where you can construct communities. Using scrap materials that you accumulate from your travels, you can set up farms, build simple shelters, large houses, power generators, devices for providing water, pieces of furniture such as beds and couches, a variety of decorative items, and much more. For the most part, growing and maintaining settlements isn't essential for playing through the game, so you can brush over them if you like. Otherwise, it's there for players who also like construction and artistic expression.

Let's go back to the broad world of Fallout 4. Like I said, this game takes place in and around the ruins of Boston. You can expected to see ruined and destroyed buildings exhibiting Boston's characteristic architectural design. Other places to see include college buildings, military installations, ruined skyscrapers, various factories, a comic book publisher, a mental asylum, a few hospitals, and other Vaults that are abandoned or still in operation. There's also a baseball stadium that is converted into a small town (presumably, it's Fenway Park). Then there is one mysterious place whose location is unknown: The Institute, which constructs robots called Synths that are so lifelike that they are practically indistinguishable from real humans. As an allusion to the movie Blade Runner, the notion of Synths has generated fear in some people about Synths replacing humans and also philosophical discussion about whether Synths should be treated like any other human being.

This leads to a few major factions that are presented in Fallout 4. For example, there is The Railroad whose mission is to rescue Synths and give them a new life. Obviously, this group is inspired by the real-life Underground Railroad that provided safe passage for black slaves escaping north. In contrast to The Railroad, there is the Brotherhood of Steel, which has appeared many times throughout the Fallout series as a group that advocates technology and knowledge, but the Brotherhood chapter in this setting may have a thing against Synths. A third faction is the Minutemen, whose mission is to protect and defend the Commonwealth and who are working to recruit more Minutemen across the region. You can do missions with each of the game's factions, but at some point late in the story, you're going to have to make a choice and decide where your loyalty really lies.

Finally, there is the icing on the cake. Once you reach the late part of the main story, you will finally make the discovery of what happened to your son Shaun. This is where things will get very emotional, with a mix of astonishment, wonder, intrigue, and even some sadness. From there, the choices you have to make will be tough. There will be consequences no matter what you decide. The real question is which path you will feel most comfortable living with. Basically, the final segment of the story is perhaps the best part, and it shows how skillful and thoughtful the writers were with laying out the plot.

Fallout 4 is another big winner in the Fallout series and among action role-playing games. It provides an exciting and immersive experience in a virtual world that is breathtakingly realistic. There's heart-pounding action, memorable characters, intriguing plotlines, realistic graphics, and so much more. Surely there is something for many game players. Overall, even after about five years since the previous Fallout, Bethesda Game Studios still haven't lost that flair in making an incredible game. If they want to make another Fallout game, they can absolutely go ahead. The fans will surely love it.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Fallout 4, visit the Internet Movie Database and Moby Games.