Fallout 4 Coverage From a Complete Fallout Newb

The entire internet is currently covering Fallout 4. From reviews to streams, memes, and videos, and more commentary than any game we’ve seen in a while, it’s hard not to trip over and grow tired of the game after only two days. That said, I do feel inclined to include myself in the mix. My angle is a bit different. I have never played a Fallout game before, unless you count 30 minutes of playing New Vegas or 30 minutes at E3 2008 playing Fallout 3. I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m going into this without rose-tinted glasses, nostalgia, or any preconceived ideas. With this ignorance will come a fairly unbiased stream of thought focusing simply on Fallout 4. I will also be playing with my wife along side me, and she’s only experienced games since marrying me 8 months ago.

Note: Coverage will contain minor spoilers that you will likely have already seen in trailers, reviews, etc. If I’m going to mention a slight story spoiler I will use  (Slight spoiler) (End Slight Spoiler) tags.

Entering Vault 111

Character creation was a bit overwhelming. From what I know of Bethesda they have never been very good at faces. I think Fallout 4 character creation gets the job done. I stuck with a fairly default templated look.

Stat allocation was a HUGE point of anxiety for me. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, luck) is way beyond my newb abilities. Graev was trying to explain over text messages how the whole thing worked regarding perks and character builds yada yada. After 30 minutes I eventually just went with something like: 1-8-2-6-6-1-5 (something like that). I know I want to use guns, and Graev told me I should have 6 charisma and 6 intel. Whatever. I don’t care anymore. I’m not going to meta game this. I just want to play! 😛

Upon entering the game for the first time I felt a need to look around and interact with everything. Much of the world could be “examined” by “activating” the item whether it be a Baby or a coffee cup; typical Bethesda style here.

What came about rather quickly was an impending sense of, “uhhh something is going to happen.”  Bri grabbed my arm and was sort of disconcerted and kept saying, “I don’t like how this feels. Something is going to happen I just know it!”

(Slight Spoiler)

Things became especially anxious when both my character and his wife went to the baby’s room and Codsworth the robot yelled for us both to return to the living room and watch the news of the impending nuclear detonation.

Rushing to the vault felt scary. Descending into the vault also felt incredibly dramatic. When I got there I felt a little confused, and I assume that’s how they wanted the player to feel. I saw the pod for decontamination they wanted me to get into and I actually thought, “oh that makes sense. Cool I’ll get in here then go to my habitation area.” Then before I could realize what happened I was frozen in cryostasis and I realized I had been tricked. Having never played a Fallout game before I had NO idea that Vault-tec was shady, and I had no idea they ran social experiments. I texted Graev like, “OMG I’m frozen halp!” and he laughed. Apparently Fallout veterans knew this would happen, but as a Fallout newb I was shocked and then mortified when they shot my wife and stole my baby. I was happy that a game was able to surprise me like this but not happy that it happened.

(End Slight Spoilers)

When exiting my pod and trying to figure out what happened to everyone I was confronted with my first bit of combat. Bri jumped and clinged to me screaming, “COCKROACH!” I began punching and, when I quickly found a gun, unloading a clip into those little buggers. She made me shoot them a few more times to make sure they were dead, and I had to assure her that the game wanted me to take their meat. She still doesn’t understand why I need the rad road meats.

Reading all of the text on the terminals was a little tedious and times, but I liked how I was being set up with a basic understanding of how something went wrong. The all-clear never came. There was a mutiny, things got out of hand, but in the end I’m still in the dark. (Slight Spoiler) Who was it that came in and stole my baby? (End Slight Spoiler) Was it an internal job? I’ll be pissed if these things are not resolved.

Exiting Vault 111

I left the vault hoping to find some answers. The world was, as expected, a wasteland. The quest wanted me to go home, but I was also anxious to get back there too! I wanted to see my robot friend Codsworth again, and I wanted to see if maybe I could find some supplies in the houses.

Having seen trailers I knew that I would see Codsworth again. What I wasn’t expecting was for him to scream, “MR. DOUG!” He said MY NAME! My name I told the game to call me, he actually said it! That poor robot was sitting around for over 200 years waiting for me to return.

There’s already WAY more story than I expected. My wife enjoys the story parts of the games she watches me play, which is why she’ll watch Assassin’s Creed but not Skylanders or something like Mario. I wasn’t expecting her to want to watch Fallout 4, but I think she’s hooked already.

So far so good on the game in general. I’m playing on the PS4 and I haven’t had any issues. Graphics look great. Gameplay runs smooth. 60 FPS this vs 30 FPS that… whatever. It runs well, it plays well, I’m having fun, etc.

Next Stop: Boston!