Our quick take
Fallout - 4.0 / 5
One quick note on the storyline: we liked it and even preferred it to that of Fallout 3. The reason is straightforward - it takes itself far less seriously and rather than giving you a role to fit into (growing up with your father in a vault) there’s far less to go on, which in turn helps to make the character yours. There’s even a touch of the who-dunnit/mystery about the story (when you see the opening cutscene you’ll see what we mean) - but to its credit, it never dominates proceedings. The forming of your character runs very much the same as in Fallout 3, introducing variations on a theme; a Rorschach inkblot test, rather than the G.O.A.T. - however as you travel around the wasteland you’ll notice lots of other little touches to both the environment and innovations in the gameplay mechanics that have been tweaked to produce something that’s familiar and yet different enough to make you feel it is worth the purchase. The first thing to strike you as you walk out into the wilderness, is what appears to be improved visuals despite the graphics engine used for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas being the same. Seeing as the Mojave wasteland has not been affected by the nuclear devastation you’ll also see clear blue skies, which in turn makes the surrounding area a lot more interesting - gone are the often dreary visuals of its predecessor and in its place (although still often pretty barren) is a far more vibrant world. And this vibrancy, to our mind, is the first improvement. Signs blow in the wind, dust clouds come and go and this all helps to create a far more immersive environment. This change also extends to the society in which you find yourself, the characters you meet give the illusion of having a far greater interest in their town/settlement, meaning your actions feel as though they have a far greater consequence - which is precisely what they do have. This is due, in part, to the return of traits from Fallout 1 and 2 (bringing special abilities along with certain drawbacks. An example of this is the four eyes trait: plus 1 perception when wearing glasses, but minus 1 without) and also the in-depth reputation system.
Another excellent addition is the way the work benches, and now campfires, add to the crafting of weapons and ammo as well as chems. The detail is staggering and although initially a bit daunting it doesn’t turn out to be too complex - just different. An example of this is the way guns can be broken down into constituent parts in order to make, perhaps more vital, ammo. There’s even a designated position on the D-pad for changing ammo types without going into your Pip Boy, yes it’s one less slot for a weapon, but vital for choosing the right ammo - such as hollow point or armour piercing - against certain types of enemy/armour. There’s also weapon modding, which adds even more complexity to proceedings.
There’s also been a bid to make the fighting slightly more FPS-esque by way of a down the barrel aim mode, which uses the gun’s sights. This, although interesting at times, was a little difficult to use when facing multiple enemies and felt a bit clumsy, subsequently we ended up using VATS the vast majority of the time.
To recap
It has to be said that we haven’t seen everything that the game has to offer (quite possibly bugs included), that would clearly take months - of which we don’t have - however in our time with the game it remained as immersive as ever, and although very similar to Fallout 3, Bethesda has just about done enough to get away with it
