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GAMES Fallout 4 (Series)
Fallout 4 (Series) Review
Posted: 16 months ago, last updated 4 months ago.
Author: Andrea Walney, @GeekDadGamer and Jo Robertson.
Overview
There are many individual stories to unravel, many of them concerning the evil corporation of Vault-Tec. It manufactured underground bunkers where the human survivors of the war live, and have been subject to cruel psychological or physical experiments. Your character is the sole survivor of one of these bunkers and is searching for their kidnapped son. How these stories develop is impacted by your actions as there are many paths you can take which means everyone's experience of the game is slightly different.
The Fallout Series started in 1997 as a PC turn-based adventure game and has developed into a vast multi-console open world experience. Other games in the series include:
- Fallout 1997 (Mac, PC)
- Fallout 2 1998 (Mac, PC)
- Fallout 3 2008 (Windows, Xbox 360, PS3)
- Fallout: New Vegas 2010 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
- Fallout 4 2015 (Windows, PS4, Xbox One)
- Fallout Shelter 2015 (Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch) (a spin off Time Management game set in the same universe)
- Fallout 76 2018 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
You can choose to play in either first person (through the eyes of the character) or third person with the character visible to you, and the gender and facial features are chosen at the start of the game. The main story involves finding out what happened to your son, which will involve some difficult moral decisions.
Gameplay involves taking on quests, crafting items from junk, managing your inventory, eating food, taking medication, and equipping weaponry. The quests are given by characters you meet, and usually involve finding someone or something, or clearing out a building of irradiated cockroaches or worse.
Combat is against both human and animal foes. Some creatures are affected by radiation and can make you sick by being close to you. Almost everything in the nuclear ravaged world is harmful to you, so finding clean water and anti-radiation syringes is an important part of survival in this game.
You can choose the level of difficulty for this game, so if you do not want to concentrate on the survival aspects and would rather get absorbed in the story elements you can do that. Exploring the wasteland is a lot more difficult when you are constantly watching your health levels and scrounging for scraps of food, but for hardened Fallout players this is all part of the challenge.
New to Fallout 4 is also base building. You can craft together settlements and buildings from junk you find lying all over the Wasteland. Fence in your home base to defend against enemy attack, or construct a fantasy building with no real purpose. Create castles or bungalows, you can be very creative with this.
Game Details
Release Date: 10/11/2015, updated in 2016
Platforms: PC, PS4 and Xbox One
Content Rating: PEGI 18
Skill Rating: 16+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Adventure, Role-Play (Action, Collecting, Creative and Shooting)
Accessibility: 28 features
Components: 3D First-Person, 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather
Lists
View our choice of games like Fallout 4. This game is good if you want to:
Duration
Play Style
Age Ratings
Content Rating
User-Generated Content: This game includes content created by other players, such as maps, outfits and items, that are not reflected in the game rating.
Skill Rating
16+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Still, it's important for parents and guardians to consider the maturity required to process the game content. The scale of the challenge is daunting but appeals to ambitious older teenagers. The cowboy outlaw theme can also connect with the desire for adventure provided players have the patience and perseverance to dig deep into the game world and discover different stories.
Costs
Fallout 4
 | Xbox One | £15.74 | – | Free Xbox Game Pass |
 | PS4 | £15.99 | – | Free PS Plus Extra |
 | PC | £15.99 | – | – |
| PS5 | Free | – | Free PS Plus Collection |
Fallout 4 VR
Fallout 4: Game Of The Year Edition
There are the following additional costs associated with this game:- In-Game Purchases: Additional in-game purchases are offered for items that enhance the experience.
There are community made free "mods" which can add some variety to the game, such as turning all cans into cats, new outfits, or adding flowers to the muddy wastes.
It's important to set up your accounts and devices appropriately. More information is on our Financial Resources page.
Accessibility
You can alter the look sensitivity. The game has a targeting system to let you aim at parts of the body, this slows down combat and makes it easier to aim. For this to be effective you do need to upgrade it during play.
The game automatically saves and you can toggle what will trigger those saves from the settings menu.
The cut scenes at the start of the game don't have subtitles, although the in-game speech does offer subtitles if you turn them on. You can also opt for a Dialogue Camera so you can see who is talking. The radio stations you hear in the game do not have subtitles and are sometimes required to complete side-missions.
The HUD and Pip-Boy can be altered in opacity and colour from the settings menu. The map in the game has a zoom option and you can customise the Head Up Display colours.
Diversity and Inclusion
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