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My take on Fallout 4.
10 years ago
General
So, I've clocked about 27 hours in Fallout 4 so far... here's my take on Bethesda's new game. I'll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible here.
Whats Good:
- Power Armor actually feels powerful now. There's been a lot of people complaining that you get a suit of power armor right at the start of the game now. However, the thing they don't seem to take into account is that power armor works completely different in Fallout 4 than it did in 3 or New Vegas. Its less like a really strong suit of armor and more like a vehicle. When you're using Power Armor you can take a ton of extra damage, your rad resistance goes up a lot (even more if you've modded it with a lead lining), your carry weight is buffed, and you can jump off anything and not take damage. In addition, you can use power attacks with melee weapons.
Here's the catch though. Power armor requires, well, power to use. Fusion Cores are the fuel for power armor in Fallout 4, and when they run out you go from Iron Man of the Wasteland to a guy in a heavy tin suit. You're stuck at walking speed because, well, you're moving a stupidly heavy suit on your own now for one. Speaking of which, your strength bonus goes away AND the weight of the armor is added to whatever you're carrying. Also, no more power attacks. Sure you can tank it up, but you either have to abandon the armor or find a fusion core to restore it's power... and those cores aren't exactly cheap or common. You can find some in leftover power armor across the wasteland, or you can go into old buildings, find fusion core reactors, and steal the cores. In addition, each piece of the armor has it's own health that can and WILL get torn up! If you use it for too long parts will wear out and break, forcing you to find a power armor repair station and spend scrap parts to repair them.
One other thing, if you get out of your armor... well... any human or ghoul enemies nearby (non-feral ghouls mind you) can get IN your armor and use it against you, as my friend
found out to her detriment. Also, the release is on the inside, so if someone swipes it and you kill them you can kiss that particular suit of power armor goodbye! Though... you can steal all the bits, find a new suit, and put them on it.
Point is, getting the power armor early isn't like unlocking god mode from killing the first boss (oh by the way, the first boss is a Deathclaw you kill using the armor), its more just to demonstrate how the power armor is different now. The core you put in it will probably be around 50% by the time you finish that mission, and if you keep going in it then that core WILL drain very quickly! The armor is meant to be used for the harder fights, the ones where you'll need an edge, not for stomping around the Commonwealth like Tony Stark got sent to an alternate Earth (again).
To summarize:
Power Armor Pros:
- Big bonus to carry weight.
- You can survive any fall.
- You can do power attacks with melee weapons.
- Can be customized to enhance various attributes (leg hydraulics to further increase carry weight, a lead lining to increase radiation resistance).
- Can be painted to further enhance (several color schemes are available).
Power Armor Cons:
- Power armor requires rare Fusion Cores as fuel. Without fuel speed and carry weight are reduced significantly, and you can no longer perform power attacks. Fusion cores are hard to find and very expensive to buy from vendors.
- Power armor parts have their own health and can become damaged and broken in fights, requiring repairs at a power armor station via scrap (usually steel).
- Stealth is, of course, damn near impossible in power armor.
Dogmeat will live! ... also he's damned useful.
So, yeah, this is something I was overjoyed to hear. Dogmeat, your faithful canine companion, can not only not be killed (if he takes critical damage in battle he's simply unable to fight until the battle is over or you stick him with a stimpak), but he's a hell of a fighter now! He'll grab enemies by the leg or throat, holding them immobile so you can move in for the kill, he's able to sniff out weapons and nearby treasures, and infact he's even of great help during the story mission. If you have Dogmeat with you during a certain part, you can actually use him to track down a person you're trying to find. He's a helpful little pooch.
Oh, and if you make a doghouse in one of your towns and then send him there when you're not using him, he'll use the doghouse. http://i.imgur.com/RJULL4q.jpg This is officially the best thing ever.
The other followers are nice too, but so far the only one I've used besides him is the newsgirl.
Your character has character, and people will call you by name!:
This one had some people worried. Unlike previous Fallout installments, your character has their own personality outside of your direct control and their own voice.
How it works is this: The main characters are a husband and wife, along with their baby boy. When you choose male or female character, what you're REALLY choosing is whether you play as the husband or the wife. One goes on a grand adventure through the wastes, the other gets an ounce of lead in the brain at a story point a bit into the game. Ouch.
Here's the neat thing though... The characters will refer to you by name, as in their voice actors will actually use the name you gave the character... assuming it's something fairly common like 'Nicholas' or 'Rachel' or so on. They can't call you something rather unusual or unknown, they could only fit so many names in, but I just about shit when Cogsworth the Mr. Handy Butler turned to my character and said, out loud, "Good morning Miss Stephanie!".
Customize ALL THE THINGS!:
Multiple bases, customize all weapons you find with various mods, customize your power armor and even give it a new paint job, customize your armor with extra armor kits over your vault jumpsuit or other lesser armor sets, make your own food, make your own chems, stims, etc. They took the workbench and such from New Vegas and went apeshit with them... speaking of which...
Junk finally has a use!:
Remember all the junk items you'd find lying around? The chess boards, the plates and dishware, the random useless objects that'd just get in the way when you were looking for ammo, chems, stims, and caps? EVERYTHING HAS A USE NOW! Those plates and mugs (sorry Muggy, no mugs for you) are ceramics that you can use as components to build power supplies for your bases. All those bits and bobs of metal you find around are used as steel to reinforce your defenses and build barricades. The blood packs that were formerly useless without that vampire perk? Combine them with some abraxo cleaner for an antiseptic and some steel for the syringe and you've got a stimpak my good man! The only catch is that your inventory will fill up FAST... but just go to one of your bases and drop them off at the workbench (you can press one button to deposit all your junk items in one go). As a bonus, if you have multiple bases you can set up supply lines to have them share what's in the workbenches! No need to run back and forth (you will need the first Local Leader perk to do this mind you).
But with the good...
What I don't like...:
Yeah, as good as this game is so far there are some complaints I have... so lets get this over with.
Is Bethesda afraid of beta testing?:
Yeah, its buggy as all hell. I get a lot of latency spikes (which is really odd in a non-online game), on occasion the game will freeze up momentarily, or almost crash and cause the screen to go blank. Hell, once I got surprised by a Yao Guai and my character must've been really surprised because the next thing I knew she was about half a mile up in the air! At least I got a nice view before gravity kicked in...
So yeah, Bethesda needs to get to work patching this bitch. Maybe when we get the DLC rolling out it'll come with some stability patches.
... maybe.
Some of the plot points are really silly:
Well, okay, one of them really, but its a big one. The minutemen you join up with are going to your former town of sanctuary... because a chem addled 'psychic' granny told them to. I'm with the other guys here, that woman is bonkers. She got it right mind you, but she's still pretty bonkers.
Bloodbugs:
Giant. Mutant. Mosquitoes.
Seriously. Its every nightmare I had about going to Michigan in the springtime as a kid amplified to the nth degree. There isn't a flamer big enough in all the wasteland.
There are some really cheap deaths: Especially early on. You really need to stay on your toes in this game. I can't count how many times I've been sneaking into a raider or a super mutant base only to hear someone spot me and then a faint whistling sound right before a missile flies right up my bumhole and blows me all the way to New Vegas. Mines also seem to be a ton more powerful now too, and don't get me started on the new 'Super Mutant Suiciders'. Get this, some super mutants are carrying a mini nuke and if they see you they'll start the timer, run up, and give you a hug as a compact nuclear device blows you and them straight to hell. Keep something like a tommy gun handy for these guys, the only way to keep them from detonating is to put them down.
Not amazing, not awful, but worth pointing out:
Pistol-whip!:
I am SO damn happy Bethesda added this. By pressing the Right Bumper on your 360 controller (or whatever keypad thing it is) when you have a ranged weapon equipped, you can smack an enemy across the jaw with it. This is really useful for dealing with the flying insect monsters (bloatflies, bloodbugs, stingwings) who are really speedy and good at dodging bullets, and also useful for smashing radroaches without having to waste ammo. As an added bonus, you can temporarily stun enemies with it sometimes, allowing you to smack a raider or ghoul, then unload into their chest while they're still reeling.
Perks reborn:
Perks and abilities are totally redone now. When you level up you can either put a point in any one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats, or you can unlock a perk based on your special stat's level and your own level. Some nice examples are:
Strength/Strong Back: Always useful, but especially in this expansion. This perk has four ranks. First two give a cumulative +25 max carry weight, the third allows you to run while overencumbered by spending action points, and the fourth lets you fast travel while overloaded with loot. Really important when you're working on building up your base.
Perception/Locksmith: Of course this one is vital for any wastelander. The Locksmith perk will allow you to pick higher level locks for the first three ranks (you start out able to do Novice). Once you get the fourth rank your lockpicks will NEVER break.
Endurance/Ghoulish: Want to play a ghoul? Here you go! The first rank makes it so radiation will heal you instead of hurting you, second one makes you regenerate lost health faster, and the third one actually makes feral ghouls want to help you! They think you're one of them! This perk can also make a certain story mission a lot easier.
Charisma/Local Leader: This one is essential if you're planning on building up your Minutemen outposts. The first rank lets you make supply lines between bases, allowing you to use the same scrap parts pool at any linked bases. The second rank lets you build and assign vendors to the towns and outposts you make, which will both make your villagers happier and allow you to barter at any base.
Intelligence/Scrapper: The scrapper perk is also super-useful for any customizing. It lets you salvage weapons and armor for parts! The first rank just gives you common items like screws, bits of metal, and such, while the second rank lets you find rare parts like crystal, radioactive materials, and more.
Agility/Ninja: While the agility tree has the more useful gun-based abilities, the Ninja one is neat because it increases damage from any sneak attacks by a huge amount. At the highest levels your melee sneak attacks do a whopping TEN TIMES normal damage. Thats enough to even worry a Deathclaw!
Luck/Idiot Savant: This one is just goofy. It gives any (and I mean any) thing you do a chance to award bonus experience... but here's the catch. The chance is INVERSELY PROPORTIONATE to your intelligence score. In other words: The dumber you are the more XP it gives you! Most of the Luck perks are the 'shits 'n giggles' type.
Bobbleheads and Magazines:
Since the old ability scores are gone, these guys do something totally different now. The main bobbleheads for the S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats are still the same, but the others are all specific for whatever ability they used to help. The Science one will now give you an extra chance at any hacking attempt, the Barter one gives every vendor a permanently 100 cap bonus to trade with, and so on. In addition, the magazines are their own unique perks! Find an issue of Guns 'n Ammo to permanently gain a +5% bonus to all ballistic weapon damage, a copy of the Surgeon's Journal will make it easier for you to cripple your enemies, and so on. Oh, and each magazine has a unique cover. was very excited to find an issue of 'Grognak the Barbarian' where he went to the (I'm serious) 'Jungle of Bat Babies'.
Whats Good:
- Power Armor actually feels powerful now. There's been a lot of people complaining that you get a suit of power armor right at the start of the game now. However, the thing they don't seem to take into account is that power armor works completely different in Fallout 4 than it did in 3 or New Vegas. Its less like a really strong suit of armor and more like a vehicle. When you're using Power Armor you can take a ton of extra damage, your rad resistance goes up a lot (even more if you've modded it with a lead lining), your carry weight is buffed, and you can jump off anything and not take damage. In addition, you can use power attacks with melee weapons.
Here's the catch though. Power armor requires, well, power to use. Fusion Cores are the fuel for power armor in Fallout 4, and when they run out you go from Iron Man of the Wasteland to a guy in a heavy tin suit. You're stuck at walking speed because, well, you're moving a stupidly heavy suit on your own now for one. Speaking of which, your strength bonus goes away AND the weight of the armor is added to whatever you're carrying. Also, no more power attacks. Sure you can tank it up, but you either have to abandon the armor or find a fusion core to restore it's power... and those cores aren't exactly cheap or common. You can find some in leftover power armor across the wasteland, or you can go into old buildings, find fusion core reactors, and steal the cores. In addition, each piece of the armor has it's own health that can and WILL get torn up! If you use it for too long parts will wear out and break, forcing you to find a power armor repair station and spend scrap parts to repair them.
One other thing, if you get out of your armor... well... any human or ghoul enemies nearby (non-feral ghouls mind you) can get IN your armor and use it against you, as my friend
found out to her detriment. Also, the release is on the inside, so if someone swipes it and you kill them you can kiss that particular suit of power armor goodbye! Though... you can steal all the bits, find a new suit, and put them on it.Point is, getting the power armor early isn't like unlocking god mode from killing the first boss (oh by the way, the first boss is a Deathclaw you kill using the armor), its more just to demonstrate how the power armor is different now. The core you put in it will probably be around 50% by the time you finish that mission, and if you keep going in it then that core WILL drain very quickly! The armor is meant to be used for the harder fights, the ones where you'll need an edge, not for stomping around the Commonwealth like Tony Stark got sent to an alternate Earth (again).
To summarize:
Power Armor Pros:
- Big bonus to carry weight.
- You can survive any fall.
- You can do power attacks with melee weapons.
- Can be customized to enhance various attributes (leg hydraulics to further increase carry weight, a lead lining to increase radiation resistance).
- Can be painted to further enhance (several color schemes are available).
Power Armor Cons:
- Power armor requires rare Fusion Cores as fuel. Without fuel speed and carry weight are reduced significantly, and you can no longer perform power attacks. Fusion cores are hard to find and very expensive to buy from vendors.
- Power armor parts have their own health and can become damaged and broken in fights, requiring repairs at a power armor station via scrap (usually steel).
- Stealth is, of course, damn near impossible in power armor.
Dogmeat will live! ... also he's damned useful.
So, yeah, this is something I was overjoyed to hear. Dogmeat, your faithful canine companion, can not only not be killed (if he takes critical damage in battle he's simply unable to fight until the battle is over or you stick him with a stimpak), but he's a hell of a fighter now! He'll grab enemies by the leg or throat, holding them immobile so you can move in for the kill, he's able to sniff out weapons and nearby treasures, and infact he's even of great help during the story mission. If you have Dogmeat with you during a certain part, you can actually use him to track down a person you're trying to find. He's a helpful little pooch.
Oh, and if you make a doghouse in one of your towns and then send him there when you're not using him, he'll use the doghouse. http://i.imgur.com/RJULL4q.jpg This is officially the best thing ever.
The other followers are nice too, but so far the only one I've used besides him is the newsgirl.
Your character has character, and people will call you by name!:
This one had some people worried. Unlike previous Fallout installments, your character has their own personality outside of your direct control and their own voice.
How it works is this: The main characters are a husband and wife, along with their baby boy. When you choose male or female character, what you're REALLY choosing is whether you play as the husband or the wife. One goes on a grand adventure through the wastes, the other gets an ounce of lead in the brain at a story point a bit into the game. Ouch.
Here's the neat thing though... The characters will refer to you by name, as in their voice actors will actually use the name you gave the character... assuming it's something fairly common like 'Nicholas' or 'Rachel' or so on. They can't call you something rather unusual or unknown, they could only fit so many names in, but I just about shit when Cogsworth the Mr. Handy Butler turned to my character and said, out loud, "Good morning Miss Stephanie!".
Customize ALL THE THINGS!:
Multiple bases, customize all weapons you find with various mods, customize your power armor and even give it a new paint job, customize your armor with extra armor kits over your vault jumpsuit or other lesser armor sets, make your own food, make your own chems, stims, etc. They took the workbench and such from New Vegas and went apeshit with them... speaking of which...
Junk finally has a use!:
Remember all the junk items you'd find lying around? The chess boards, the plates and dishware, the random useless objects that'd just get in the way when you were looking for ammo, chems, stims, and caps? EVERYTHING HAS A USE NOW! Those plates and mugs (sorry Muggy, no mugs for you) are ceramics that you can use as components to build power supplies for your bases. All those bits and bobs of metal you find around are used as steel to reinforce your defenses and build barricades. The blood packs that were formerly useless without that vampire perk? Combine them with some abraxo cleaner for an antiseptic and some steel for the syringe and you've got a stimpak my good man! The only catch is that your inventory will fill up FAST... but just go to one of your bases and drop them off at the workbench (you can press one button to deposit all your junk items in one go). As a bonus, if you have multiple bases you can set up supply lines to have them share what's in the workbenches! No need to run back and forth (you will need the first Local Leader perk to do this mind you).
But with the good...
What I don't like...:
Yeah, as good as this game is so far there are some complaints I have... so lets get this over with.
Is Bethesda afraid of beta testing?:
Yeah, its buggy as all hell. I get a lot of latency spikes (which is really odd in a non-online game), on occasion the game will freeze up momentarily, or almost crash and cause the screen to go blank. Hell, once I got surprised by a Yao Guai and my character must've been really surprised because the next thing I knew she was about half a mile up in the air! At least I got a nice view before gravity kicked in...
So yeah, Bethesda needs to get to work patching this bitch. Maybe when we get the DLC rolling out it'll come with some stability patches.
... maybe.
Some of the plot points are really silly:
Well, okay, one of them really, but its a big one. The minutemen you join up with are going to your former town of sanctuary... because a chem addled 'psychic' granny told them to. I'm with the other guys here, that woman is bonkers. She got it right mind you, but she's still pretty bonkers.
Bloodbugs:
Giant. Mutant. Mosquitoes.
Seriously. Its every nightmare I had about going to Michigan in the springtime as a kid amplified to the nth degree. There isn't a flamer big enough in all the wasteland.
There are some really cheap deaths: Especially early on. You really need to stay on your toes in this game. I can't count how many times I've been sneaking into a raider or a super mutant base only to hear someone spot me and then a faint whistling sound right before a missile flies right up my bumhole and blows me all the way to New Vegas. Mines also seem to be a ton more powerful now too, and don't get me started on the new 'Super Mutant Suiciders'. Get this, some super mutants are carrying a mini nuke and if they see you they'll start the timer, run up, and give you a hug as a compact nuclear device blows you and them straight to hell. Keep something like a tommy gun handy for these guys, the only way to keep them from detonating is to put them down.
Not amazing, not awful, but worth pointing out:
Pistol-whip!:
I am SO damn happy Bethesda added this. By pressing the Right Bumper on your 360 controller (or whatever keypad thing it is) when you have a ranged weapon equipped, you can smack an enemy across the jaw with it. This is really useful for dealing with the flying insect monsters (bloatflies, bloodbugs, stingwings) who are really speedy and good at dodging bullets, and also useful for smashing radroaches without having to waste ammo. As an added bonus, you can temporarily stun enemies with it sometimes, allowing you to smack a raider or ghoul, then unload into their chest while they're still reeling.
Perks reborn:
Perks and abilities are totally redone now. When you level up you can either put a point in any one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats, or you can unlock a perk based on your special stat's level and your own level. Some nice examples are:
Strength/Strong Back: Always useful, but especially in this expansion. This perk has four ranks. First two give a cumulative +25 max carry weight, the third allows you to run while overencumbered by spending action points, and the fourth lets you fast travel while overloaded with loot. Really important when you're working on building up your base.
Perception/Locksmith: Of course this one is vital for any wastelander. The Locksmith perk will allow you to pick higher level locks for the first three ranks (you start out able to do Novice). Once you get the fourth rank your lockpicks will NEVER break.
Endurance/Ghoulish: Want to play a ghoul? Here you go! The first rank makes it so radiation will heal you instead of hurting you, second one makes you regenerate lost health faster, and the third one actually makes feral ghouls want to help you! They think you're one of them! This perk can also make a certain story mission a lot easier.
Charisma/Local Leader: This one is essential if you're planning on building up your Minutemen outposts. The first rank lets you make supply lines between bases, allowing you to use the same scrap parts pool at any linked bases. The second rank lets you build and assign vendors to the towns and outposts you make, which will both make your villagers happier and allow you to barter at any base.
Intelligence/Scrapper: The scrapper perk is also super-useful for any customizing. It lets you salvage weapons and armor for parts! The first rank just gives you common items like screws, bits of metal, and such, while the second rank lets you find rare parts like crystal, radioactive materials, and more.
Agility/Ninja: While the agility tree has the more useful gun-based abilities, the Ninja one is neat because it increases damage from any sneak attacks by a huge amount. At the highest levels your melee sneak attacks do a whopping TEN TIMES normal damage. Thats enough to even worry a Deathclaw!
Luck/Idiot Savant: This one is just goofy. It gives any (and I mean any) thing you do a chance to award bonus experience... but here's the catch. The chance is INVERSELY PROPORTIONATE to your intelligence score. In other words: The dumber you are the more XP it gives you! Most of the Luck perks are the 'shits 'n giggles' type.
Bobbleheads and Magazines:
Since the old ability scores are gone, these guys do something totally different now. The main bobbleheads for the S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats are still the same, but the others are all specific for whatever ability they used to help. The Science one will now give you an extra chance at any hacking attempt, the Barter one gives every vendor a permanently 100 cap bonus to trade with, and so on. In addition, the magazines are their own unique perks! Find an issue of Guns 'n Ammo to permanently gain a +5% bonus to all ballistic weapon damage, a copy of the Surgeon's Journal will make it easier for you to cripple your enemies, and so on. Oh, and each magazine has a unique cover.
was very excited to find an issue of 'Grognak the Barbarian' where he went to the (I'm serious) 'Jungle of Bat Babies'.
