Fallout 4 Field Report (40 hours)
0After about 40 hours (with a level 35-ish main character) I have now reached one of Fallout 4's faction endings and thus completed a version of the main storyline. After the epic success of Skyrim from the same studio, this new game represents an unexpectedly modest and incremental improvement upon the Bethesda RPG formula and addresses none of the broader concerns I have with the open world genre after playing through more impressive games like The Witcher 3 and MGS5 earlier this year.
However, while there's no question that CD Projekt RED and Konami made a bigger impact on the gaming scene in 2015, Fallout 4 is still a worthwile experience in its own right and should serve as comfort food for millions of TES/Fallout 3 fans for months and years to come. The combat is fast and surprisingly ruthless (at least on Hard difficulty), the voice acting and character interaction are noticeably improved and the environments have at least as much variety as Skyrim but ironically also feel more busy and alive despite all that post-apocalyptic devastation. The addition of substantial weapon/armor crafting features leads to some fiendishly addicting busywork which creates further incentives for exploring the wasteland and stealing everything that isn't bolted down. While the base building and settlement management is poorly explained and only tenously integrated with the rest of the gameplay, it does at least provide a crucial sense of ownership and the feeling that one is making an actual impact on the world (something which The Witcher 3 in particular was sorely lacking).