Fallout 4

 PC
User Score
5.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 9559 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,044 out of 9559
  2. Mixed: 1,929 out of 9559
  3. Negative: 3,586 out of 9559
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  1. fuwaneko
    Nov 12, 2015
    4
    First 5-6 hours the game feels enjoyable. But when you want to dig deeper, there's nothing to dig. To that time you've already done and seen everything game has to offer. Building is atrocious. Props look horrible (will people REALLY live in those dirty shacks with holes in walls even after apocalypse? doubt it), snapping is horrible, controls are horrible and WASD stops working from timeFirst 5-6 hours the game feels enjoyable. But when you want to dig deeper, there's nothing to dig. To that time you've already done and seen everything game has to offer. Building is atrocious. Props look horrible (will people REALLY live in those dirty shacks with holes in walls even after apocalypse? doubt it), snapping is horrible, controls are horrible and WASD stops working from time to time, fences hang in sky, corner props stick to wrong walls, and there's really no point in building except for the defense turrets.

    I don't even want to start talking about quests, characters and story. Other people have already said it multiple times. This is an emotionless piece of concrete that feels way outdated. When you look at other games which came 2014-2015 you see castles, mansions and cute huts. When you look at F4, you see dirty shack with holes in walls and rain coming through the ceiling.

    Bethesda... Bethesda never changes.    … Expand
  2. Barny
    Nov 25, 2015
    4
    With all deep RPG elements finally eliminated from the game, it feels fairly bland. The main problem are the conversation choices: 4 possibilities, not one more. The side quests are, repeat over and over again of the same stuff. So apart from the neat appearance and music, this is a disappointment of great magnitude. The crafting however, kind of make sense, but with the rest of the gameWith all deep RPG elements finally eliminated from the game, it feels fairly bland. The main problem are the conversation choices: 4 possibilities, not one more. The side quests are, repeat over and over again of the same stuff. So apart from the neat appearance and music, this is a disappointment of great magnitude. The crafting however, kind of make sense, but with the rest of the game it does not so much. And why obtaining a power armor so early in the game ?… Expand
  3. kgersen
    Nov 11, 2015
    4
    "text UI" is from the 90s, I guess it's mainly because of console support. PC gaming is dying because of games like this.

    In 2015 a RPG should have full mouse support, click &drag for inventory management and crafting, colorized items : the top weapon is just a green line of text like the lowest junk item...that's just silly. the Pip is just an annoying gimmick. The time wasted    "text UI" is from the 90s, I guess it's mainly because of console support. PC gaming is dying because of games like this.

    In 2015 a RPG should have full mouse support, click &drag for inventory management and crafting, colorized items : the top weapon is just a green line of text like the lowest junk item...that's just silly. the Pip is just an annoying gimmick.

    The time wasted dealing with that outdated UI is just phenomenal.

    Tip for Bethesda: at least provide a customizable UI system with addons (like WoW for instance) if you can't code a decent UI yourself.    … Expand
  4. Enshia
    Nov 15, 2015
    4
    Summary: Not a fallout game by any stretch. If you can live with that, then it's a fine game. However, if you're looking for a game that will hit the levels of FO3, you're not going to see it. If you were hoping of something as good as FO:NV not a chance. You're better off spending the $10 to buy both, and install the Tales of Two Wastelands mod, which combines both places into theSummary: Not a fallout game by any stretch. If you can live with that, then it's a fine game. However, if you're looking for a game that will hit the levels of FO3, you're not going to see it. If you were hoping of something as good as FO:NV not a chance. You're better off spending the $10 to buy both, and install the Tales of Two Wastelands mod, which combines both places into the FO:NV engine. That will let you enjoy a lengthy game, with better game play, story, and graphics options.

    Other people have covered everything else in more detail, so there's no point in making this larger.

    Story/VO: There is no real story here. It's an abysmal piece of writing that would have had your grade 9 English teacher tell you to rewrite it. If you were expecting an option where your choices changed the outcome or gave you variable choices, it's not going to happen. Since your PC is now voiced, many actions also have a very wooden feeling to them.

    Controls/UI: Terrible, no other way to put it. Your dialog choices are determined by your cursor keys, the pipboy system is a mess. Perk tree is beyond simplistic, and in some cases doesn't clearly state what it does.

    Graphics/Textures are...washed out, no other way to put it. It looks like someone took the texture palette, smeared in some brown and yellow, photocopied it, re-imported into PS then made it into a 128x128 sized texture block.

    Game play elements/Dialog: There are no skills, which are replaced by a perk system. The perk system itself is a complete joke of any previous FO game. Dialog doesn't exist, it's a story on rails. Karma? No karma for you, that's too difficult for people to grasp apparently.

    Crafting: Probably the only redeeming part of the game. Takes the best options of previous games, adds them altogether and lets you do whatever you want with those 300 pencils you've been carrying around.    … Expand
  5. konjiki7
    Apr 8, 2017
    4
    Fallout 4 has great mod support and thanks to the modders this game can be alot of fun. On its own the game performed pretty bad and there was the weird Nvidia workshop shenanigans which crippled all amd gpu's until amd mad patch specifically for this game.

    The dialog and variety is what made past fallout games great because you could basically play the game again as a different    Fallout 4 has great mod support and thanks to the modders this game can be alot of fun. On its own the game performed pretty bad and there was the weird Nvidia workshop shenanigans which crippled all amd gpu's until amd mad patch specifically for this game.

    The dialog and variety is what made past fallout games great because you could basically play the game again as a different character and have completely different experience. After beating the game i've had little motivation to play again.....    … Expand
  6. CoreDave
    Dec 2, 2015
    4
    Okay well I'll try and be as fair as possible. Fallout 4 is a fun action adventure game with plenty going for it. But I'm not rating it as an action adventure game. I'm rating it as a Bethesda open world role playing game.

    So let's just start with a 10 (a fair assumption based on how much I've enjoyed past Bethesda games). -1 For the over simplified and restrictive perk system. It's    Okay well I'll try and be as fair as possible. Fallout 4 is a fun action adventure game with plenty going for it. But I'm not rating it as an action adventure game. I'm rating it as a Bethesda open world role playing game.

    So let's just start with a 10 (a fair assumption based on how much I've enjoyed past Bethesda games).

    -1 For the over simplified and restrictive perk system. It's not a massive issue for me but it's a step in the wrong direction and it's worth at least a point being knocked off.
    -3 For the voiced protagonist. This is a HUGE failure and the single biggest thing ruining the experience. It's simply not possible to define your own character and personality anymore, you have two choices, both defined by Bethesda. It's like roleplaying with a GM who keeps telling you what your character thinks says and does. I know other games the the "RPG" label do it but to me this is at odds with the fundamental principle of creating a character and playing a role. Voiced protagonist's work in games like tomb raider or even Mass Effect because those are not really role playing games, they are story's they you watch and take over for the action bits. Fun but not what I was looking for here as all.
    -2 for the dialogue wheel, 4 options, often the same with what you are actually choosing wreathed in mystery. It's just bad through and through and is another sing that Bethesda wanted to make a cinematic action story rather than a role playing game.

    That leaves me with a 4 which I'm going to stick with. I could add points here and there and I could detract points here and there but overall Fallout 4 is a game that could easily of been amazing but by trying to be a different genre and forcing a questionable story and personality on my undermines most of the "live another life" feeling that I look for in Bethesda games. That 4 reflects my overall disappointment well.    … Expand
  7. Cymrix
    Jul 18, 2016
    4
    Judging solely on this game alone, and not the ones that came before, it's just not a good game. For $25 AND heavily modded, it is playable.

    What makes it bad is the lack of incorporating what other FPS games have done that expand the genre. You still can't grab ledges. A staple in major FPSs for a few years now. Nope, stil can't get over that 4ft wall or climb through a window.    Judging solely on this game alone, and not the ones that came before, it's just not a good game. For $25 AND heavily modded, it is playable.

    What makes it bad is the lack of incorporating what other FPS games have done that expand the genre.

    You still can't grab ledges. A staple in major FPSs for a few years now. Nope, stil can't get over that 4ft wall or climb through a window.
    The thing here is, this is an RPG in first person, and "action" FPSs are more immersive.

    You can't hide in brush, and enemies have a 6th sense to detect you, even if they can't see you. Again, imersion.

    Intetactive kills are a joke. You have to be undetected AND have a melee weapon equipped AND do a power swing.

    Weapon switching doesn't pause the game. And the weapon menu is clunky. And you can't use your mouse wheel to cycle through favorite main weapons. The mouse wheel frickin changes 3rd person camera distance??? How often do you think I "need" to do that vs changing my weapon? Couldn't put that on a ctrl+mousewheel?

    They put Enter key as the select key, but your fingers aren't close to that key. Couldn't make it spacebar? Or give me a keybind?

    Tab OR Esc key will be "back" or "exit" depenfing on the menu or context... wtf? Couldn't just make them always the same?

    No way to build genetic structures for settlements. You have to place every single wall... and the snapping is horrid.... and the rotation has no snap! Why not do 45 degree snaps? So all my **** is lined up? Especially since you made the rotation so fast...

    Unarmoref NPCs can take multiple bullets to the head. Decomposing ghouls take multiple clips before dying, and their attacks kill you easily. I get this isn't an action game, but you are hiding ****ty game mechanics behind artificially inflayed hitpoints per hit zone.

    How is it my "automatic" weapons do less damage pet bullet? It's the same frickin bullet! And, for some reason, in VATS, my automatic weapons fire only one more bullet for the same AP? I'd understand a decrease in accuracy, especially with consecutive shots, but less bullets? Just **** game mechanics...

    Dialog options... how the hell did you skimp on giving us the actual dialog? Several times I chose an option that said something I didn't want, or wouldn't have chosen, if I'd have known the actual dialog. Was this because you didn't want to update text files?

    It's a **** design choice to say almost nothing has grown in 200 years since the nuclear fallout. That is just stupid, and we have several examples of that just not being true in the real world.

    Overall, I think it's a ****ty port of a condole game, and was never intended to do more than ride the coat tails of our fond memories with Fallout 3. Which, this game is more of a Fallout 3.5. There are a ton of mods that reduce or fix all most of these shortcomings, but you have to search them out and find the right combo of mods to get what you really want. I've spent more time finding the right mods than playingvthe game so far...    … Expand
  8. Magnethead
    Jan 24, 2016
    4
    I had so looked forward to finally playing this title, I had put it off until I had the time to really get immersed. And I started out with an abundance of enthusiasm that lasted through the character creation and prologue. After about five hours of game time, however, it started creeping up on me. Where was the Fallout feeling, where was the desire to play on?

    I tried messing with the    I had so looked forward to finally playing this title, I had put it off until I had the time to really get immersed. And I started out with an abundance of enthusiasm that lasted through the character creation and prologue. After about five hours of game time, however, it started creeping up on me. Where was the Fallout feeling, where was the desire to play on?

    I tried messing with the graphics (to solve the mysterious problem of the game being horribly overbright to look at), I considered a new character, starting over and taking it more slowly. I yanked the difficulty to Survival so I would feel that I was in danger at least. Everything. In the end I tried to push on, to go out and just explore, to feel the world itself. Then after a few hours more it struck me. the plain, horrible truth of it: Fallout 4 is a mediocre game. Plain and simple, I never thought I would say that out loud but it's the truth.

    The graphics are mediocre, the scenery is nice but skin textures stretch awkwardly across poorly animated actors. The voice acting is bad, the story offers no immersion and doesn't spark any desire to explore or interact. I tried to ignore all that and set out on one of the classic exploration tours that I loved in the former Fallout games. Just going into the wasteland, feeling that specific tingling that comes with exploring a dead world where anything (often times something terrible) is waiting around the corner. I went from house to house, explored, looted. Found dead people but they meant nothing. The town had no feeling, just random houses with a surprising abundance of loot. At that time it hit me for real, I shouldn't have bought this game. I had thrown money out the window. I was now at the mercy of the modding community, I pray they'll save this train wreck. I don't know how or why, but I hope they find a way.

    So be warned, if you liked Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas (Fallout 2 is extremely different so I won't include that as a comparison) , you'll very likely not like this game. It seems haphazardly put together, devoid of charm and personality. It's such a shame... really is.    … Expand
  9. kamgeforce
    Nov 11, 2015
    4
    Disappointing. Like a casual mode for Fallout 3, pretty much everything was simplified, some mechanics are gone completely, like reputation system. Doge is nice, but wont save it. Plot is weak, dialogues are even weaker. I am really sorry I didnt wait and bought the game for full price, if Witcher 3 is worth 60 bucks with all the content, this game should cost 15 at max.
  10. KuriousJorj
    Jan 15, 2019
    4
    Poor, weak, lazy game. Just boring. Boring combat, boring world, boring story. Not at all fun. Soulless. Empty. I used to love the Fallout games, but I'm done with them. No more for me.
  11. Wraithman
    Jan 1, 2016
    4
    After 11 days with this game..What i can say...Wonderful environment, not bad graphic, terrible combat mechanic, terrible npc ai, really stupid and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ main plot. Guys this scenario can write a 10 years, old without that big holes in plot. And when Fallout 3 was a big mistake, Fallout Nv was quite good with complicated world and characters. Fallout 4 i dont know what type this gameAfter 11 days with this game..What i can say...Wonderful environment, not bad graphic, terrible combat mechanic, terrible npc ai, really stupid and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ main plot. Guys this scenario can write a 10 years, old without that big holes in plot. And when Fallout 3 was a big mistake, Fallout Nv was quite good with complicated world and characters. Fallout 4 i dont know what type this game is, definitely not Crpg, shooter more. And this scenario...guys...please. You all Killed this franchise without mercy and, ♥♥♥♥♥ all mature players with Super Sledge. Start is fun..after that everything is dying. So many wasted possibilities, so many booring quests, and in mine loong career as a Game Master in few rpg systems you really really need to send that guys to read some good books. Maybe it will help.
    Anyway mine scores for this game:1 to 10
    Quests - total score 4, main story line beginning 7 ending 2.It start good and ...thats all. Lovercraftian quests toons of wasted potential.
    World - 8 Nice locations few really fun to explore. Prydven is beautiful.
    NPC Characters - 4 Some ok,some flat and boring. Nothing to be excited. Please return to bg 1 bg2 to learn how to build deep funny characters. It is all about story and fun.
    Mechanic - 1. Its booring, and stupid in soo many examples...
    Total not to solid -4.
    And i know for Bethesda last years succes is measured in number of copies sold- but Witcher 3 can do both things. Quality and profit.
    Recommended for easy shooters fans, not recommended for fallout, and post-apo fans.    … Expand
  12. Asmodias
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Where do I begin? I really, really don't know.

    Let's 'try' to do this from the start.
    You play a guy with military training who goes into cryo, or a women with household chores training (completely ignoring the complete survival chance disparity in the husband/wife). You then have to go look for your infant son. You, like a complete idiot, still think your son is a newborn despite the fact that you quite obviously exit cyro-stasis at very different times.

    You then are then ham-fisted a dog from the get go (like, hey guys, dogs are cool right?) as well as having a bunch of other immortal god companions who spend the entire fight on their ass. You can only play one character - concerned daddy. I mean, concerned daddy can either be chill about finding his son and be polite, or be slightly abrupt and annoyed about finding his son. But at the end of the day, you're not choosing who you want to be; the game has already done that for you. You're roleplaying exactly what Bethesda wants.

    Fort building is a joke. The NPC's will literally steal your power armour and make it impossible for you to recover (exo-suits can't be taken off corpses, just the armour) straight from your fort. That's right, settlers know how to use power armour. Guess training ain't needed, huh? Placement is regularly buggy and fussy, and whilst you can scrap all sorts of **** and that's cool and all, you can't level out the ground you're building on which just leads to the realistic 'build space' being where the game sodding well lets you. 3-4 slots in the first one and a couple in one or two others. Oh, and the house you build for yourself? Gonna get invaded by settlers.

    You're once again ham-fisted the role of brotherhood knight, oh, and you're also the general of the minutemen! After about 3 minutes outta the vault.

    Sidequests are literally MMO tier - go here, kill raiders, come back, get reward.

    Optimisation is 'eh' at best, and your FPS will get annihilated in the city.

    Difficulty seems to vary to ridiculous degrees with some areas seemingly levelling with you and others being preset.

    The weapon customisation is cool, but the quantity of skills and components required just for say.. a shotgun stock is ridiculous and will take a huge amount of levels.

    The looting gets ridiculous too when you see names like "Tactical compensated heavy stocked automatic suppressed bayoneted laser rifle" and after a while, all these mods mean nothing, it just turns into another slog fest of putting round after round into some up-levelled raider's skull, desperately hoping the fight will end.

    Radiation actually matters now which is nice. But no radiation sickness. (wat)

    Power armour is a cool rethink. Shame it completely ****s all over the lore.

    Romance companions? What like say "I thunk we should be more than fronds" "oki, we are lol"

    Just generally being ham-fisted with companions. Stop it, stop.

    Seriously, am I not allowed my own house? I know I've said it, but when I build my own house I don't want it invaded by a brahmin caravan that blocks the doorway.

    No more skills, just a ****ty rethink of the perk system simply leads to a game where you don't get a stronger character, the game just keeps asking you to play it FPS style and occasionally pick up a new weapon.

    Honestly the most disappointing starting vault ever.
    10 people in cryo and some staff that died after a year. Absolutely tiny too.

    Simply put, this isn't an rpg anymore. This is like if they stole Mass Effect's dialogue wheel, made a huge mess out of it, and removed any last semblance of an RPG.

    Well, back to Fallout 1-3 + Vegas, guess that's where the franchise ended.    … Expand
  13. Crazyferret
    Jun 10, 2016
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. At first I was excited to play a new Fallout. I thought it looked amazing and the gunplay was good. As I kept playing though, I found that was about it. I saw that it was actually very shallow and became boring quickly.

    The voiced character is a mistake in my opinion, as it really restricts the dialogue. The dialogue choices rarely even mattered. For example, in the quest The whole yes, sarcastic (yes), No (yes), speech check (yes) is very true. Really makes the choices seem worthless, and they certainly are most of the time.

    The story wasn't really good. It came down to two things. They want you to care about this story by making you chase after a son you don't get to know. They make it seem like the story is urgent while wanting you to explore. Quest weren't that great either. some were interesting, but most fell flat. A lot ended with just killing everything in a certain area. Lots of unnecessary radiant quests that add nothing. Places you clear out will just spawn more raiders or super mutants for you to kill for your next quest.

    The roleplaying aspect is severely crippled. You don't get to build your own character but play their character. The voiced dialogue is part of the problem. You are always going to be the concerned parents. You aren't really able to be evil so much as just an **** sometimes. If you want to play like the exact character you are given, then you'll be okay. Anything else just doesn't fit. Really kills replayability. Fallout has always been about making your own character and acting like that character would. That shouldn't be taken away from a Fallout game or open world sandox RPGs.

    Fallout games should be a RPG first and a shooter second. This game is a FPS first with leveling and some perks on the side, and most of that seems meaningless anyway. It's closer to Farcry than previous Fallout games. The leveling doesn't have a cap, so you will get all the perks at some point. Skills were removed and SPECIAL is the only thing that affects stats, but you can max these out as well. Many of the perks are damage buffs, crafting, skills like lockpicking/hacking, and useless ones like less rads from food (which cooking removes from most things.) Weapons seem to be more important than anything else. I played on survival (the original with the bulletsponge enemies) without taking the damage buff perks for weapon, and I had no problems. the RPG elements are minimal and take a backseat to the gunplay.

    That's just a few things I found wrong. I've already rambled so I'll give my finale review.

    TL;DR Very dissapointing. Seems fun at first until you get into it. If you want Fallout, this isn't it. If you want an RPG, this isn't. If you want to go around shooting thing in an open-world FPS with some quests and a small story, then this is an okay game for that. There are games that do that better though. (Farcry, Borderlands, etc.)

    4/10 - No Ron Perlman intro/outro    … Expand
  14. thenthomwaslike
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    Forced mouse acceleration, mouselook has higher sensitivity horizontally than it does vertically, uninteresting dialogue, overall conversation system with the exception of the good persuasion system is not very good, with awful cinematography and a penchant for pulling you out of the scene if you even touch your mouse. broken quests, and bloated and reused content. And this is just from 2Forced mouse acceleration, mouselook has higher sensitivity horizontally than it does vertically, uninteresting dialogue, overall conversation system with the exception of the good persuasion system is not very good, with awful cinematography and a penchant for pulling you out of the scene if you even touch your mouse. broken quests, and bloated and reused content. And this is just from 2 hours of play. I'll update the review after i rebuy it after seeing proof that its issues have been resolved. But dont pay 60 dollars to be a beta tester.… Expand
  15. JymmyQuidd
    Nov 20, 2015
    4
    an old fallout fan here, for the first time i can't find the words to describe the calamity im playing atm, if fallout never existed and fallout 4 was fallout 1 im sure ill cut it some slack, but really... if u played the old fallouts, or at least just fallout 3 or NV u'll understand, im not goin to do a list, but just goin to point out the one thing that really made me sad, angry, andan old fallout fan here, for the first time i can't find the words to describe the calamity im playing atm, if fallout never existed and fallout 4 was fallout 1 im sure ill cut it some slack, but really... if u played the old fallouts, or at least just fallout 3 or NV u'll understand, im not goin to do a list, but just goin to point out the one thing that really made me sad, angry, and dissapointed and that is the skill/leveling system... its just outrageous, i dont recognize this game anymore.
    The only good thing i can say about fallout that never dissapointed me and im sure its not gonna do it now is the modding community, them, and only them are the ones able to make this thing right, to do the work bethesda didnt want to do. So believe it or not, im level 29, still didnt finish the main story and im already goin to stop and wait till something from modders comes around, what a disgrace...    … Expand
  16. Necroscope
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    Now I know exactly what one of the leakers meant by saying that voice acting plays against this game: it feels utterly unnecessary and awkward more often than not. Plus the the dialogue wheel thing; I always thought that people exaggerate when criticizing ME in that respect, but in this game it's really badly executed and I feel like I have no control over what my character is going toNow I know exactly what one of the leakers meant by saying that voice acting plays against this game: it feels utterly unnecessary and awkward more often than not. Plus the the dialogue wheel thing; I always thought that people exaggerate when criticizing ME in that respect, but in this game it's really badly executed and I feel like I have no control over what my character is going to say. For example, I can never tell if "sarcastic" means that my milf is about to tell a joke or something mean to the speaker. It's a bit like playing that retarded mini-game from Oblivion, except without hints as to how the NPC is going to react. The facial animations are abysmal and somehow worse than before.

    The whole parenting emotional bull***t is a total failure, not only on it's own (the beginning is probably the most cringeworthy of all Bethesda games), but also because of how over the place the pacing is; "Oh no, they killed my husband" "Hell yeah let's kick some asses God bless America!"

    Graphics are f*****g ugly - not really because the quality, but that pastel and glary color palette that messes with your eyes. What I find the biggest annoyance, though, is that the environment is so viciously bright. Seriously, it feels like a flash bomb went off in the sky permanently. All in all, I have difficulties recognizing what I'm looking at.

    The only positive thing is the improved gunplay and that the game is more challenging than it's 2 predecessors. The enemies are smarter and I often find myself in a position where I have to escape.

    Overall, a very overrated game with tons of bad game design and only a few minor improvements over it's predecessors. Fallout: New Vegas outclasses this game on every level.    … Expand
  17. Nichtswisser
    Nov 12, 2015
    4
    The writing is probably the worst in the whole series. It makes b-movies and fan fiction look like Shakespeare level material in comparisson. And it makes talking with people a real chore since it's never interesting. The stupid Mass Effect like dialoge wheel does not help either. And of course the characters are just as bland and uninteresting as the dialogues. Sadly this time around evenThe writing is probably the worst in the whole series. It makes b-movies and fan fiction look like Shakespeare level material in comparisson. And it makes talking with people a real chore since it's never interesting. The stupid Mass Effect like dialoge wheel does not help either. And of course the characters are just as bland and uninteresting as the dialogues. Sadly this time around even the world seems bland and uninspired. It just feels like something a single dude playing around with the Fallout 3 editor for around a year put together. It really does!

    The UI is the worst piece of crap I've seen in a long time. Organizing your inventory and comparing items is a nightmare! And the controls with K&M are a slap in the face. The whole building structures part might well be the most clunky thing I ever had to deal with in a video game!

    The Roleplaying aspects of Fallout 4... Oh my god they killed Kenny! I really don't even know where to start...

    - They dumbed down the character development
    - Killed dialog choices with the Mass Effect Wheel
    - Removed the ability to roleplay your character
    - Pretty much removed most choices from the game altogether

    This game can not even be called an RPG anymore in my opinion. Skyrim was at least still an RPG Light, this game is a true travesty. I read somewhere that this supposedly was in development for 6 years... I really don't know what to say to that. This game is an abomination.

    Without the Fallout name and sold as a survival FPS about running around in a Wasteland and shooting zombies, I guess this could be considered an OKish game (not good mind you!). Yet as both an RPG (cringe) as well as a Fallout game (cringe even more) it's an abomination! It really is terrible and this time around even mods might not be able to fix it. There is just too much wrong with this game.    … Expand
  18. Doombeldore
    Nov 11, 2015
    4
    Very disappointing, genuinely feels like they have added nothing new to this game in terms of mechanics, AI and story. It will no doubt sell fantastically based on peoples previous experiences with Fallout but this is the last time I personally buy a Bethesda game so blindly.
  19. Cyper
    Feb 15, 2016
    4
    This is ’’Fallcry 4’’.

    The story itself is a good idea but unfortunately, poor design choices stands in the way for the story to develop. When I play the story I feel like i’m a dog on a leash with someone who hold my paw throughout the whole game. There is nothing unexpected that happens but it all feels very predetermined in advance. The game is extremely easy as well. There is no    This is ’’Fallcry 4’’.

    The story itself is a good idea but unfortunately, poor design choices stands in the way for the story to develop. When I play the story I feel like i’m a dog on a leash with someone who hold my paw throughout the whole game. There is nothing unexpected that happens but it all feels very predetermined in advance. The game is extremely easy as well. There is no sense off difficulty to it. In less than in an hour of playing you got your first power armor.

    In terms of gameplay Fallout 4 is a mix between Fallout and Far Cry. The main concern in the game is to shoot other people in the head. RPG element of the game has been weakened in many ways (even though it has been improved in others). The new dialog layout is stupid and unintuitive but after all the dialog does not offer much variety and regardless of what action you take it has more or less not impact on the world or the player. For example the whole Karma system is removed completely from the game and this is and this is a terrible great loss.

    I can forgive bugs and other small errors in the game given that these are fixed latter. I am not picky when it comes to graphics either. But textures look very poor and for some reason they get worse after i’ve been playing making the world look uggly. However, I can not forgive the developers to create a game that does not measure up in the story and gameplay.

    To me, it seems like ’new devs’ were let into the warm room to make the game more ’’accessible’’ and ’’streamlined’’ as its called… and it shows because the game suffers because of these stupid ideas and if it becomes more dumbed-down you may as well not call it fallout anymore.. but Fallcry.

    There is great potential for this game... the problem is that there obviously is CONFLICTING IDEAS of how the game should be because now it does not feel like a coherent experience.    … Expand
  20. 21-5-73
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    I sneaked into the bandits house, wielding my shotgun, moving in the dark and silently fighting my first enemy, the atrocious FOV, when a second adversary, the much maligned Mouse Acceleration, stabbed me in the back. While I was struggling with these menaces, a raider appeared in front of me, but luckily he couldn't hite me with his spiked bat, because he couldn't walk past the open doorI sneaked into the bandits house, wielding my shotgun, moving in the dark and silently fighting my first enemy, the atrocious FOV, when a second adversary, the much maligned Mouse Acceleration, stabbed me in the back. While I was struggling with these menaces, a raider appeared in front of me, but luckily he couldn't hite me with his spiked bat, because he couldn't walk past the open door between us. I pointed my gun to blow his dumb AI head, and a moment later I was looking at my desktop, defeated by the most dangerous nightmare of the wasteland: the Crash to Desktop.

    -a minute of play extract from my actual Fallout 4 experience, hence my vote, until a patch makes remedy of this shame.    … Expand
  21. Ostrypwns
    Nov 12, 2015
    4
    Only played enough to get some first impressions, and I doubt I will have the resolve necessary to play it anymore. All the way form the very beginning the game is overly pompous/pathetic - combine this with 7-year-old writing and a bunch of logic holes and basically that's Fallout 4 for you.

    Want more? Overly simplified mechanics - traits and perks gone, the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system    Only played enough to get some first impressions, and I doubt I will have the resolve necessary to play it anymore. All the way form the very beginning the game is overly pompous/pathetic - combine this with 7-year-old writing and a bunch of logic holes and basically that's Fallout 4 for you.

    Want more?

    Overly simplified mechanics - traits and perks gone, the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system devoid of nearly all relevance compared to older titles of the franchise; no hardcore mode which I loved in New Vegas. Graphic engine about 10+ years old only rehashed slightly - for the second time now - and the developers have the audacity to tell us the engine is something brand new... Seriously, this game looks only slightly better than Skyrim. Almost nonexistent dialog options, and if you manage to find them they are almost irrelevant. The voice acting is so sloooow and bland it hurts my ears - combined with HILARIOUS facial expressions and poor childish writing the only feelings it brings up in me are that of embarrassment and amusement so more often than not i would just skip the dialog. But don't worry - should you ever want to skip entire conversation the extremely dumb dialog wheel has it easy for you as most often the only things you can say are 'yes', 'no', 'bad', 'good'.

    To sum up, In a new age of games like Witcher 3 and Pillars of Eternity Fallout 4 is not only laughable but also the worst of Bethesda's games to date. Fallout 3 fanboys should have plenty of fun though, so I imagine Todd Howards will keep lying to himself and everyone else around him as he always does.    … Expand
  22. kellan
    Nov 13, 2015
    4
    FO4 is a game with good ideas, but one of the most horrible executions I've seen.

    The crafting system, and the open world are its strong sides. The storyline and side-quests are very much mediocre. Compared to Witcher 3 for example - very bland characters. Combat is one massive improvement from Fallout 3 - especially gunplay. Weapons, for the most part, feel like they have impact.    FO4 is a game with good ideas, but one of the most horrible executions I've seen.

    The crafting system, and the open world are its strong sides. The storyline and side-quests are very much mediocre. Compared to Witcher 3 for example - very bland characters.

    Combat is one massive improvement from Fallout 3 - especially gunplay. Weapons, for the most part, feel like they have impact. Shooting is fun. Cover system is a bit buggy, but serviceable.

    Technical execution is horrible. Textures are extremely bad. Lighting looks nice, until you notice its mostly static - almost everything in the game lacks dynamic shadows. Animations are horrible. On top of that - game forces V-Sync, because else the physics engine bugs out, and it doesn't even lets you select buffering method - absolutely pathetic in 2015. G-Sync users experiencing tons of bugs because G-Sync forces V-Sync off. Despite the game's outdated and, for the most part, ugly graphics - the game is a big resource hogs.

    A game that looks like it was made 3 years ago, should at least have the hardware requirements of a game made 3 years ago. There is no excuse why people with old rigs can't run this game. There is no excuse why consoles can barely reach 30fps.

    Overall, its a massive heap of bugs, deficiencies, false promises and horrible execution, that hides a decent game underneath. But to dig thorugh that pile is an effort no developer has the right to ask from a player.    … Expand
  23. Voukras
    Nov 29, 2015
    4
    To put it shortly, the game is extremely buggy with low performance. The engine is a mess. I think i would be no exaggeration to say that Metal Gear Solid V looks better and runs twice as fast.

    The gameplay has huge problems, inheriting everything from previous games with zero improvement. There are only two options: Either the game can be too easy or enemies become time wasting bullet    To put it shortly, the game is extremely buggy with low performance. The engine is a mess. I think i would be no exaggeration to say that Metal Gear Solid V looks better and runs twice as fast.

    The gameplay has huge problems, inheriting everything from previous games with zero improvement. There are only two options: Either the game can be too easy or enemies become time wasting bullet sponges, depending on the difficulty you choose.

    The storyline is uninspired. The motivations of the characters are simple and boring at best, paling in comparison to characters like John Henry Eden from the previous iteration. Even characters from New Vegas that I thought were boring such as Boone now seem like complex and well done characters when compared to the characters in Fallout 4.

    The only remotely good things about the game are the weapon modding and base building. But even the base building is incredibly rudimentary and clunky. It is inherently fun because of its concept but it's implemented in a very throw away way.

    The game is not an improvement on Fallout 3 or NV. It is merely different in a few regards. Worse in many, better in a few. Very disappointing.    … Expand
  24. Schwarzspuk
    Nov 19, 2015
    4
    Verstümmeltes Dialogsystem, Skillsystem runtergedummt, gestrichene Karmapunkte, Inventar aus Oblivion, veraltete Grafik, Gesichtsanimationen, Lippensynchronität usw.
    Trauerspiel !
    Meine Entäuschung des Jahres.
  25. misiaczek
    Nov 15, 2015
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Worst Fallout Ever, even Fallout 3 was better. Story is weak, as usual for Bethesda. Hud and interface for PC are one giant misunderstanding. Getting a Power Armor after 15 minutes just kills the fun of finding it. I think that this is one giant failure, thought myabe they've learned something from Fallout 3 and Obsidian who did a nice job in FNV. Only feature I found nice was weapon/armor mods.… Expand
  26. ShadowWarfare
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    The creators didn't even attempt to create a coherent wasteland. Fallout is supposed to be a RPG about surviving a nuclear holocaust. In Fallout 4 however the game appears to be about nothing more than capping enemies in the head with an assortment of different weapons.

    The design of the game has gone from being a game which tells a story. To simply a game about playing a game. Fifteen    The creators didn't even attempt to create a coherent wasteland. Fallout is supposed to be a RPG about surviving a nuclear holocaust. In Fallout 4 however the game appears to be about nothing more than capping enemies in the head with an assortment of different weapons.

    The design of the game has gone from being a game which tells a story. To simply a game about playing a game. Fifteen minutes after leaving the Vault butt-naked with nothing but a blue jumper suit and a pistol to your name, you will acquire a suit of high tech Power armor along with a Minigun to go along with it. Twenty minutes into the game you will be destroying some of the most powerful enemies in Fallout lore, the dreaded Deathclaw government experimented super soldier.

    A few more hours into the game and you will have a mini nuclear rocket launch (The Fatman). An assortment of weapons from machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles, shotguns, auto pistols (list goes on).

    Another hour into the game and you will meet the Elite Brotherhood of Steel, the futuristic faction of super soldiers who guard their high technology secrets furiously. Don't worry though because they'll be happy to recruit you into their ranks almost instantly. Thus giving you access to laser weapons and other high tech weapons. The recon leader of the Brotherhood is even nice enough to give you his prized possession, his legendary laser rifle. Yes he will give his most prized weapon to some random wastelander he met just ten minutes ago.

    And that's Fallout 4 for you. It doesn't even attempt to make any sense. It has no character progression because your character will go from zero to hero before you even get ten percent into the game. And the games world is not a wasteland. It's just a game world which looks like a wasteland and has a bunch of loot thrown into it so that the console players can run around capping zombies and raiders without even trying.    … Expand
  27. MagnesiumDew
    Nov 20, 2015
    4
    Yep, its **** Well not that **** but they've managed to de-rpg the **** out of this. No more karma, meaningful conversations, crap performance (once again) and low quality textures abound. I have a 980 TI and since the framerate is bound to the gameplay, indoors, the game plays at 2x speed. Its worse IMHO than Saints Row 2's port was. And this isn't even a port.
    For ****s Sake Bethesda.    Yep, its **** Well not that **** but they've managed to de-rpg the **** out of this. No more karma, meaningful conversations, crap performance (once again) and low quality textures abound. I have a 980 TI and since the framerate is bound to the gameplay, indoors, the game plays at 2x speed. Its worse IMHO than Saints Row 2's port was. And this isn't even a port.
    For ****s Sake Bethesda.
    For ****s Sake    … Expand
  28. Zeriel
    Feb 12, 2016
    4
    As a huge Fallout and Bethesda fan this game was a huge disappointment. It's an uninspired mess with a terrible game engine and loading screens every 2 minutes. The quest are repetitive and it's like Bethesda just phoned in the whole game without giving a damn. I loved these series, I saved money for months to buy an R9 390 to play this game and here I am using my 300$ video card to playAs a huge Fallout and Bethesda fan this game was a huge disappointment. It's an uninspired mess with a terrible game engine and loading screens every 2 minutes. The quest are repetitive and it's like Bethesda just phoned in the whole game without giving a damn. I loved these series, I saved money for months to buy an R9 390 to play this game and here I am using my 300$ video card to play League of Legends. **** you Bethesda for abandoning your fans :(… Expand
  29. diendjap
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    A very mediocre game by all standards. Gameplay is a straightforward FPS with some role-playing elements, RPG elements are dumbed down significantly even compared to Fallout 3, dialogue is really bad, graphics look fine if you look at something from far away, but once you get close, Creation Engine really 'shines' with its horrible textures, audio is pretty good, animations are terrible.A very mediocre game by all standards. Gameplay is a straightforward FPS with some role-playing elements, RPG elements are dumbed down significantly even compared to Fallout 3, dialogue is really bad, graphics look fine if you look at something from far away, but once you get close, Creation Engine really 'shines' with its horrible textures, audio is pretty good, animations are terrible. Story is really bad, especially the ending (which is binary, by the way). Some of the dialogue is B-movie tier, some of it is C-movie tier. That's about it. PC port also crashes a lot for me, so 4/10 for me.… Expand
  30. NicoNofx
    Nov 27, 2019
    4
    Don't get me wrong, the game is a classic but I have never experienced so many glitches and bugs in a game.

    Even playing at 1080 resolution with a Strix 1080, i7 700k and 16 ram at 3200mhz in 2019 the game has a lot of trouble keeping at 60 fps stable. I spent a lot of time downloading mods to try to solve the terrible Bethesda engine, and that's not what I want in a game, I want to    Don't get me wrong, the game is a classic but I have never experienced so many glitches and bugs in a game.

    Even playing at 1080 resolution with a Strix 1080, i7 700k and 16 ram at 3200mhz in 2019 the game has a lot of trouble keeping at 60 fps stable.

    I spent a lot of time downloading mods to try to solve the terrible Bethesda engine, and that's not what I want in a game, I want to install it and play it. (Not counting loading screens that can reach up to 3 minutes just by leaving and entering a building)

    I have to install Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch, ENB, tons of textures, change some values with the text editor, watch some videos to solve crashing errors and even use the ingame console to complete some quest that were still bugged.

    It is not worth so much effort and money just so that when the fight starts, the game goes from 60fps (if you had luck) to 40 or even less.

    Bethesta has lost contact with fans delivering increasingly incomplete products, and boy don't let me talk about fallout 76, because otherwise this review would extend a few more characters.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

31
#31 Best PC Game of 2015
2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
2
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 38
  3. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. CD-Action
    Feb 4, 2016
    80
    After terrible first couple of hours Fallout 4 pulled itself together and ultimately was almost as fun as The Witcher 3. There’s a huge chasm between these two games in terms of technology (F4 looks like a X360 game), but their open worlds are equally good and Bethesda did a better job with crafting. [01/2016, p.42]
  2. PCWorld
    Jan 19, 2016
    70
    This isn’t the step forward I expected, though. Here we are, the first Bethesda game on a new hardware generation, and I can’t help feeling like we’ve regressed—like Fallout 4 really is Oblivion-with-guns. A decade later, it certainly makes many of the same mistakes.
    Read full review
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Jan 4, 2016
    92
    It’s easy to get carried away by Fallout 4’s massive open world. While the gunplay is much improved and the quests fun, I found the UI lacking on the PC. The inventory and build menus are really tedious to use. [Dec 2015]
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