RJ Writing Ink’s Reflections on Fallout 4 for its 10th Anniverserary
If you’ve read any of my posts related to the subject, then you know that I’m a massive fan of the Fallout franchise. I love the games, the lore, and the fan-related content that has come out over the years. The question is, where did I start my journey through the Wastelands? To answer that, we have to go back ten years as I was at my local library and saw a copy of the then recently released game on the shelf. Out of curiosity, I checked it out for the next week, but it soon became clear that a single week wasn’t enough time for Fallout 4. I would need to get the game for myself, which is precisely what I did. And this is where one of the best gaming experiences of my life begins.
Fallout 4 is, by far, the most ambitious game in the history of the franchise, and for good reason. The game itself starts on the morning the Great War begins, and has you play as either an Army veteran or his wife. They make it to a Vault right as the nukes begin falling in Boston, so you get to see for yourself the true horror of nuclear war. After that, you get put into cryosleep by Vault-Tec (because they’re jerks) and are forced to watch as your spouse is murdered and your infant son kidnapped. By the time you wake up, it’s been 210 years since the bombs fell, and the Massachusetts commonwealth is a savage wasteland. A wasteland that you must now navigate through as you try to find your son and uncover the identity of the people who took him.
That’s only the main plot behind Fallout 4, and much like previous entries, you are under no obligation to immediately follow through on it. Once you step outside the Vault, you’re free to explore one of the biggest and most expansive maps I’ve ever seen in a video game. You can fight whoever you want, loot whatever you want, and basically do anything you want. In my case, what I wanted was to rebuild the Commonwealth.
You can Build your own Nation
Fallout 4 is considered an ambitious game for a good reason, thanks in no small part to the introduction of the Settlement mechanic. For the first time ever, players had the opportunity to create their own ramshackle settlements to give themselves, their companions, and any other NPC’s a home. Bethesda spared no expense on it, either, as players can decorate and model settlements as much as they want. Go on YouTube, and you’ll find people even now who are using the Settlement mechanic to create entire cities and fortresses. Later DLC would only add to the freedom of creativity with new parts, structures, and workshops. Combined with the size of the map, and by the end of the game, it’s possible for you to have dozens of settlements crisscrossing the Commonwealth, all trading and cooperating with each other. In other words, you can build your own society from scratch. But you’ll also have to defend it.
Who Will you Help?
Like in previous games, there are multiple factions in Fallout 4 vying for influence in the Commonwealth. The Brotherhood of Steel makes a return, sending a recon force in the first act before arriving in force later in the game. Then there’s the Institute, descendants of members of Commonwealth Institute of Technology. They’ve lived underground for centuries and created a futuristic society with the most advanced tech in the franchise. Including, I might add, synthetic humanoids that range from robots to flesh-and-blood beings. That raises ethical concerns about slavery, leading them to be opposed by The Railroad, who seeks to free the Synths. Lastly; we have the Minutemen. Like their namesake of old, they’re a militia built to defend settlements, and were once seen as heroes. But by the time you find them, they’re down to a small band on its last legs. Since they recognize game when they see it, they will quickly elect you their leader and allow you to rebuild them.
When I was playing Fallout 4 for YouTube, I made it a point to focus on rebuilding the Minutemen. There’s a good reason for that. As you build up more settlements, you can convince them to align to whatever faction(s) you join with. By doing that, you can gain the ability to gather caps, resources, and most importantly, manpower. Build up your settlements and the influence of a faction, and you can reach the point where you can summon them into battle. By the endgame, I could call the Minutemen to help me out wherever I was or call down an artillery strike on my enemies.
Not that I needed much help dealing enemies.
Fallout 4 Demigod!
I will be blunt when I say this: in Fallout 4, you can become a full-on demigod. There are plenty of weapons, armor, and skills that allow a player to become an unstoppable force of nature. It helps that there are some pretty useful good bugs that have remained a part of the game that savvy players can exploit. By the end of my playthrough, I was carrying a Tommy gun with exploding bullets, the most advanced power armor available, and could talk or force my way through any situation. I was able to walk through the most irradiated part of the Commonwealth in a loincloth and carrying a sword, and could kill Deathclaws and Radscorpions. That’s how tough you can get.
And all of that was the base game. The DLCs took it even further.
So Much DLC Content!
There were six major DLCs released in the year after Fallout 4 came out, each adding something new and substantial to the game.
The first DLC was Automatron. When the player gets a distress call from a caravan, they discover an army of killer robots terrorizing the Commonwealth that need to be stopped. In the process, you can unlock a new workshop that allows you to build your own robots. These custom automatons can do jobs around settlements, guard caravans, and serve as companions, and can be armed to the teeth.
Wasteland Workshop added new structures and objects that can be built into settlements. You can create cages to capture animals in or create gladiatorial arenas.
Far Harbor was the biggest DLC, taking the player to an entirely new map on the titular island off the coast of Maine. Besides an interesting storyline, it came with new factions, settlements, and new weapons to collect.
Contraptions Workshop was another addition to the settlement mechanic. This time, players got prefabricated structures to help save time building. More importantly, they could create production lines to manufacture resources.
The Vault-Tec Workshop lets players live out their fantasy of running their own Vault. You can assume control of an unfinished Vault and build it to your heart’s content. More importantly, you can choose to live up to the promise Vault-Tec made to the public, or use it for their evil experiments like a jerk.
Lastly, we have Nuka-World. Players discover an amusement park based on the popular Nuka Cola drinks, now populated by raider gangs. By clearing out the park, you can help the gangs turn it into their fortress of power, or you can kill them all. Either way, it’s a homage to Disney World and gives you the ability to make Nuka Cola.
Cause I’m a Wanderer!
The bottom line is that Fallout 4 is a very fun game with a very long lifespan. People are still churning out mods and fan-made content for it thanks to its in-game creation club, and they’ve managed to get very creative over the years. What makes it even more unique, though, is the multiple endings available to the players. Bethesda has yet to canonize the true ending to the game, and until a sequel or the show makes it there, fans won’t know how the Commonwealth turns out. Not that it seems to bother us, as we’re having too much fun building our own kingdoms. I, for one, enjoyed the thrill of mowing down enemies in my power armor like they were nothing. With the game having been ported to next-gen consoles and readily available on Steam, odds are, Fallout 4 is going to remain a franchise staple for years to come.
