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. Strawberryblast
    Dec 3, 2015
    3
    Fallout 4 is what you'd call the McDonald's of video games. Such averageness should be considered an art form. It's a video game for everyone. It's a soulless husk of a game made for the sole purpose of money. The excellent writing previous in the series (admittedly, not the Bethesda one) has been completely thrown out for some attempt at Mass Effect dialogue. It's the illusion of choice,Fallout 4 is what you'd call the McDonald's of video games. Such averageness should be considered an art form. It's a video game for everyone. It's a soulless husk of a game made for the sole purpose of money. The excellent writing previous in the series (admittedly, not the Bethesda one) has been completely thrown out for some attempt at Mass Effect dialogue. It's the illusion of choice, very similar to a McDonald's burger.
    You can add and take away as much as you want from a McD's burger and it will make no difference because the foundations are painfully average, much like Fallout 4.

    Have you ever thought that Fallout 4 would be better if it wasn't an RPG? No, nobody has. Bethesda seems to think the people just want a shooting gallery with arbitrary numbers.

    What people want is a Fallout game. What people got was Skyrim with guns, with somehow even less RPG components.
    I wouldn't be surprised if the next Elder Scrolls is basically a first person Zelda game at this point.

    The story is exactly the same as Fallout 3 but with axis tilted slightly to fit in with the commonwealth. I can't believe how lazy this idea was. If New Vegas was accomplished in around a year and a half, how is Fallout 4 in this state after four years? It would've made sense if they changed engine. But they didn't.

    This is still gamebryo and it's the anchor that just holds down Fallout 4 from being painfully mediocre to a solid "meh."

    What I did enjoy was exploring the world and the gunplay. That's about it though.
    The settlement building is incredibly tedious. Despite advertising itself as completely optional, several instances in the main quest will shove it down your throat.

    Bethesda have stopped trying, and this is a problem.    … Expand
  2. Ekchuah
    Dec 4, 2015
    3
    Having finished the game:

    It's honestly the least moving, most formulaic ending I've seen in years. Despite the attempt at pathos, there's ... none. There's nothing. 'I'M READY. BECAUSE WAR... WAR NEVER CHANGES.' It sums up the game, but not in a good way. It's unintentionally a great way of driving home that you in fact have no agency as a player when it comes to the story, at    Having finished the game:

    It's honestly the least moving, most formulaic ending I've seen in years. Despite the attempt at pathos, there's ... none. There's nothing. 'I'M READY. BECAUSE WAR... WAR NEVER CHANGES.'

    It sums up the game, but not in a good way. It's unintentionally a great way of driving home that you in fact have no agency as a player when it comes to the story, at least. Is this not how "your" character would react? Well, you don't actually have a character. You customize your appearance, but in no meaningful way are you actually making a character. You're Joe Soldier or Jane Lawyer. The people defending this - I don't know. Part of it's blind fanboyism, some of it's this weird drive to maintain the letters 'RPG' because the original Fallout games have them, and I strongly suspect some of it's ignorance from never having played an actual CRPG - just iterations of The Bethesda Game and maybe some JRPGs.

    A lot of people defend it on the basis that the combat is better. But "better" in no way means "good". Despite positioning itself as a shooter, Fallout 4 fails as thoroughly as an FPS as it does as an RPG. The combat is simplistic, the weapon balance is a joke, the much-touted mod system is largely just upgrades to damage and scope range and is used to justify a tiny number of base weapons, and one of the only pair of RPG mechanics Fallout 4 retains makes it all the more annoying - enemies are bullet sponges, soaking up dozens of .308 or .50 bullets to go down if they spot you and remove the stealthed damage bonus.

    It's the summer blockbuster of games. It's formulaic, it's flashy, and it's enormously dumb. If you turn your brain off, it can be fun - until the threads start to unravel, until the endless inconsistencies of the world become impossible to ignore, until the tedium of combat mounts, etc, etc, etc.

    It's a game that's going to be utterly forgotten. Almost 20 years later, people still talk about Fallout.

    Nobody's going to talk about Fallout 4.

    Not in a positive way, and not even in a negative way. It's going to leave absolutely no impact whatsoever.    … Expand
  3. bolt007
    Dec 4, 2015
    3
    I have never written an online review until now. This game sucks! It is so boring its not even funny. Its not an RPG, its not an FPS, its some awful mix between the two and does both extremely poorly. After 17 hrs I cant bare to play it anymore. What an over-hyped lump of crud. All there is to do in this game is shoot things with guns in broken buildings. There is no difference from 1 hrI have never written an online review until now. This game sucks! It is so boring its not even funny. Its not an RPG, its not an FPS, its some awful mix between the two and does both extremely poorly. After 17 hrs I cant bare to play it anymore. What an over-hyped lump of crud. All there is to do in this game is shoot things with guns in broken buildings. There is no difference from 1 hr gameplay to 17hrs gameplay. Very disappointed.… Expand
  4. REDECT
    Dec 7, 2015
    3
    I hate this game! Really!

    Start of this game is ok and interesting, first crafting is useful and interesting too....and also, storyline interesting too....for first half of game, after this part, you understand, that you tired from this game, you want to finish it faster, you will finish storyline and.....when you will see the ending you will cry! Cry, because it's worst ending in    I hate this game! Really!

    Start of this game is ok and interesting, first crafting is useful and interesting too....and also, storyline interesting too....for first half of game, after this part, you understand, that you tired from this game, you want to finish it faster, you will finish storyline and.....when you will see the ending you will cry! Cry, because it's worst ending in story!
    A lot of people say: Mass Effect 3 had a worst ending....NO! Mass Effect 3 ending was awesome against ending of Fallout 4.

    I played all Fallout games, and I like Fallout 1-3 and New Vegas a lot. But this....this game a piece of **** It's look like addon to Fallout 3, but not as Fallout 4!

    I hate this ending, how they can do it with us - with players!

    Don't buy this game, really, better if you will play again in previous Fallouts.

    I spent here 85 hours and I think that it was a stupid wasting of time, it was better if I see all storyline on youtube with popcorn for 2-3 hours.

    It's all!    … Expand
  5. Braxmapoutras
    Dec 7, 2015
    3
    Its not a bad game,its a bad fallout and bethesda game though....
    Almost non existent rpg elements,unlimited repeatable and stupid fetch quests,exploration rewarding only until you find the best weapon possible....which by the way you'll get depending on your luck as loot system is rng....and it has the most ridiculous pacing in all of bethesda games...in the first hour you get an OP    Its not a bad game,its a bad fallout and bethesda game though....
    Almost non existent rpg elements,unlimited repeatable and stupid fetch quests,exploration rewarding only until you find the best weapon possible....which by the way you'll get depending on your luck as loot system is rng....and it has the most ridiculous pacing in all of bethesda games...in the first hour you get an OP power armor and a minigun and a laser musket ...all in less than an hour...and not to mention that you also become a faction leader within that time as well....i'm very disapointed in bethesda truly they got realy lazy this timeq..aaaaand teeerible performance and dated **** engine....hope they make it a better game at least though expansion packs and updates...which i doubt but lets hope for the best...    … Expand
  6. BlackFlag66
    Dec 8, 2015
    3
    Terrible game.

    Graphics: Inferior to Half-Life 2 from 11 years ago. Look almost exactly the same as Fallout 3. Is this an expansion, or stand-alone sequel?! Controls (on PC): Terribad. Do you like WASD? No? Too effing bad. Story: Bad. Developers needed to pick an idea and run with it. If it's a choose-your-own-adventure sandbox, they shouldn't have made the main    Terrible game.

    Graphics: Inferior to Half-Life 2 from 11 years ago. Look almost exactly the same as Fallout 3. Is this an expansion, or stand-alone sequel?!

    Controls (on PC): Terribad. Do you like WASD? No? Too effing bad.

    Story: Bad. Developers needed to pick an idea and run with it. If it's a choose-your-own-adventure sandbox, they shouldn't have made the main storyline so dramatic and compelling. My son is kidnapped.... allowing me the "freedom" to not start moving that storyline ahead until 15 hours of gameplay in is STUPID. I'm normally all for freedom in an RPG-ish game, but in this instance, it makes no sense... especially considering I don't have any REAL freedom. I can't join up with the raiders. I can't say no to certain quests, I can't be evil in any meaningful way.... but I can be a bad father who is in no hurry to save his son. Great Jorb.

    Gameplay: zero nuance, and absurdly hard legendary enemies. ABSURD. One mele hit from one of them kills me, but I can crit them in the face with my highly upgraded shotty and point blank range for about 20% of their health. I'm sorry, but unless they're a liquid metal terminator, NOTHING should be that durable. I guess the developers don't really get physics. I suppose that's why I can nuke something 50 yards away and live to tell the tale.

    Wait for this one to be on sale for $2 on steam. Not worth the $60 I paid.    … Expand
  7. Oxicleen
    Dec 11, 2015
    3
    Crafting system is okay, but its lacking. There's only maybe 10 total base guns to mod off of, and even then they really fall off in terms of damage compared to some of the goofy guns you find while exploring.

    they shouldn't have removed ammo from the workbench, as there is ammo scarcity in this fallout. The settlements are broken, you can build bases but sometimes they won't ever    Crafting system is okay, but its lacking. There's only maybe 10 total base guns to mod off of, and even then they really fall off in terms of damage compared to some of the goofy guns you find while exploring.

    they shouldn't have removed ammo from the workbench, as there is ammo scarcity in this fallout.

    The settlements are broken, you can build bases but sometimes they won't ever get attacked, and that's lackluster. Still couldn't manage to get npcs to come to my settlement to sell things, so it looks like they shipped half a game feature.

    There's tons of bugs, some of them showstoppers -- one of which made me have to restart the game after 20 hours in.. I had to restart 4 times to get the "ideal" special stat build so I wouldn't get locked out of stuff and story/plot.

    The companions will piss you off and get in your way.

    the dialogue is boring, previous bethesda games did it better.

    The characters are bland and forced, you don't really feel an emotional connection to them

    The artillery, flare, etc, systems are kinda broken, you have to invest a lot of dumb time farming certain crafting materials to get it set up to be useful, and by the time you do that, you've already cleared out the city

    map is tiny compared to previous fallouts and elder scrolls maps

    game humor went from quirky and funny to weird backwood inbred circus humor    … Expand
  8. Kodie53
    Dec 12, 2015
    3
    The only way I could have any fun with this game was by cranking the difficulty to max, requiring pixel perfection on every move I made.
    Besides that the cliche story and forced characterization is extremely sub-par for a AAA $60 title, and completely removes any desire for a second play through.
    The overall atmosphere of the game falls flat, compared to the rest of the fallout series.    The only way I could have any fun with this game was by cranking the difficulty to max, requiring pixel perfection on every move I made.
    Besides that the cliche story and forced characterization is extremely sub-par for a AAA $60 title, and completely removes any desire for a second play through.
    The overall atmosphere of the game falls flat, compared to the rest of the fallout series.
    The main character is a cookie cutter 1950's family man/woman with a spouse and kid,and the player is given no real choice in how their story progresses. The only divergence in the path is through charisma based dialog options, and even those choices are completely negligible, only truly mattering to your current companion.
    Speaking of companions, the 'vast array' available in Fallout 4 are all extremely poorly coded, have lazily written dialog, have no affect on the plot/ending, and over all become more of a nuisance than an actual wasteland companion. All of them are like having the 'Adoring Fan' from Oblivion follow you around (nearly identical AI behaviors aside), but they block doorways more often.
    The graphics are decent at best,and the game speed being dependent on frame rate is a pathetic disease that should not plaque games with multi-million dollar budgets.
    The game's engine, Creation Engine, was old in 2011, and it shows in game play.
    Overall as a Fallout game its a 3/10 because it is possible to enjoy this game, and its not the worst game I have ever played.
    That being said, I have played the Fallout series since Fallout 2, and this is by far the least enjoyable, shallowest, and overall weakest game in the entire series.
    However, even taking the game out of Fallout context, and considering it its very own game belonging to no series, it is still a 3/10.
    The extremely heavy FPS focus turns away a lot of players, who aren't big FPS gamers.
    The 'infinite' quests are more redundant than for(;;), and about as interesting.
    The settlements feels like a game all on its own, was poorly implemented, and has nothing at all to do with anything else in the game. you get no ending relating to your settlement, no bonus karma, no army, nothing. At most you get some extra caps and junk materials.
    The AI is absolutely horrendous, beyond outdated, and if it weren't for the lone wanderer perk, it would bring the game down to a 2/10, but the developers obviously knew that they implemented a horrible AI system, so they gave you a perk so you didn't have to deal with followers. At least that is what I've decided to believe.
    And finally, getting back to the Fallout series, the end of the game is so immensely disappointing that I plan to never pick the game up again.
    The end of the game is defined by only 1 factor, with only 4 available endings, dependent solely on which faction you side with, a pathetically low number when you consider that there were:
    6 main endings and 2-4 distinct endings for each faction and companion in NV
    26 different factors in 3
    and in Fallout 2 there are 50+ ending scenes, all effected by your choices in the game.

    TL;DR
    This game is shallow, poorly written, poorly coded, all the 'extra cool features' felt last minute and are all buggy or poorly implemented. The game leaves you disappointed and unfulfilled, yet gives you no incentive to start a new play through.
    3/10 not worth the hype, 150 hours, or $60 dollars I wasted on it.    … Expand
  9. xonedl
    Dec 20, 2015
    3
    From a player that never played older Fallout before:

    1, game performance & visual For a 2015 game, the visual department of this game is pretty terrible. Low polygon stuff, unnecessarily high resolution but still rather low quality textures. Long loading time, stutter, freeze, there seems to be issue about Nvidia vs AMD again. For all the technical problems piles up in exchange for a    From a player that never played older Fallout before:

    1, game performance & visual
    For a 2015 game, the visual department of this game is pretty terrible. Low polygon stuff, unnecessarily high resolution but still rather low quality textures. Long loading time, stutter, freeze, there seems to be issue about Nvidia vs AMD again. For all the technical problems piles up in exchange for a game that looks like from 2010... it just fail this category. The developer seriously should have just throw that old game engine to the bin already and use something more modern, at least Unreal Engine 3 or something. I understand that the game is made for modding and I guess that's the primary reason why they stuck with an engine so old. But still, should have use other better engine and spent the time to figure out about the modding addition.

    2, audio and dialog
    Bland. Oh their son got kidnapped, husband/wife got killed... and... Still sounds like your character just woke up from a normal day sleep nothing had happened. Nothing much interesting about all those dialogs.

    3, story & quests
    Kill the raiders / monsters, setup radio tower, repeat. Is there even a story in this game? So far after a few days playing, everything seems so bland. Hell even S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl have a decent story to it from the get go.

    4, weapon, gears & combat, etc
    Before I going to talk about combat I have to point out the interface is terrible to sort / find items. With equipped items stays in the same list, it's annoying to move stuff around and often accidentally move or even worst - scraped your gear. Worst when you try to scroll the whole big list trying to find your junk material...
    Weapons have no durability and don't lock up. Wut?! Those pipes quality sure are good! Duh... I understand they trying to keep the game really "crude" with all those pipes weapons, but seriously isn't this is the USA we're talking about? With all those pipes weapons, the combat isn't exactly great in early game. Weapon/bullet ballistic, it just doesn't have any good feelings playing those weapons. Can be the problem of bland audio and visual feedback making everything seems kinda cartoonish. Gun fights seems pretty boring in this game. And those NPCs can takes like what... 10... 20 bullets onto their head... (there is a mod to fix this problem)
    And that stupid dog, always get in my way. And it can carry as much items I load onto it and it still runs normally. Doesn't seem to be any weight limit on it? And oh, it doesn't even have any bags, how can a dog carry so many stuff LOL! Terrible.
    The radiation mechanics in this game is weird and almost useless. I am almost wearing nothing and still can stand in the radiation storm without much trouble. Go swim in the river and got some radiation, came back on land and no more radiation that continues to kill you, instead it just a static red bar on your health bar. Radiation doesn't seem to be even a threat AT ALL.

    5, settlement system
    I don't know if that appear in older Fallout game, but there was a game I played that have 100% identical system, Rust. In Rust, the constructing system is more robust and easy to use. But this game have some issues like not allowing you to place an item, having some weird gaps, or the super annoying snapping problem. In the end of the day there are just some critical mods required in this department to spice the settlement system up - mods that adds TONS more items to make, increase build range, allow placing despite "red", allow clipping, etc... I can see that this is a interesting part of the game that people will spent most of their time into than anything else.    … Expand
  10. Autumnny
    Dec 20, 2015
    3
    Oh my god this edition to the Fallout series is embarrassing. This game is more of an Action FPS rather than an RPG! The dialog has been dumbed down to a terrible dialog wheel, and your character has a pre selected background that you CANNOT change.

    The only thing I can say about this game is that it has the best gun play out of all the fallout games, but that's really about it.
  11. Swannicus
    Dec 21, 2015
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I enjoy the graphics upgrade and brighter world. Would be nice if they put in some greenery at some point, it is 200 years after the war.
    The gunplay enhancements are also nice but still lagging behind anything considered current in FPSes. Being unable to target limbs in VATS as a melee character and the ridiculous imbalances of combat in general are sad. (Enemies are bullet sponges, you can get the best weapons minutes into the game)
    The atmosphere is gutted, the voice acting is frequently out of place and tells you how to play your character (4 variants of the same thing). The world would actually be fine, if rather small and shallow, if the game was set 30-60 years after the war but 200 makes it ridiculous. A city of 50 people is not a city, its a collection of shacks. There should be many, many more humans and much larger civilizations without intervening elements stopping them. Feral ghouls are silly zombies, legendary enemies are immersion breaking in their gameyness, super mutants are barely explained and just orcs. What really irks me is that decent writing and atmosphere shine through occasionally but there is just so much mediocrity between each nugget.
    Animations are again a step up but still lagging behind any other relevant games. Bethesda really needs to invest in some good coders and animators to either fix their broken engine or buy/make a new one. Also still no ladders and 5 minute loading screens on a decent rig? Could be handled better.
    The factions appear interesting at first glance but they are again shallow and out of place. Spoiler warnings but minute men are a bunch of squatters who claim to be rebuilding and protecting the wasteland but actually just rely on you for everything from planting crops to killing 6 ghouls. The railroad is tiny and has no other goals than saving synths, they should be a minor faction. Brotherhood of Steel are actually better represented than they were in F3 but their ending is a copy and paste from F3 as well (hope you liked Liberty Prime). The Institute is approaching decency but they again feel shallow and out of place. Their goals are all over the board, which could be seen as a fault of them just being scientists and not leaders but its not written well enough to do so. So many things are just poorly handled from synth replacers to stopping cyborg augmentation.
    If you want an RPG with decent gunplay, an immersive story about a technologically superior force interfering with the denizens of wasteland america, warring against the somewhat ineffective peace bringing civilization and the brutal but effective questionable group on the otherside with half a dozen minor factions spread out, play Fallout New Vegas. My greatest hope for this is that Bethesda let Obsidian make another game, with the engine enhancements and new power armour system it could be GOTY.    … Expand
  12. dirkdeagler
    Jan 1, 2016
    3
    Playing Fallout 4 was such an unsatisfying Fallout experience that I went back and played New Vegas for the first time after reading how good it was from some of the other reviews here. I spent a couple hours picking up highly recommended mods. After getting everything running nicely, I was absolutely shocked when comparing the modded FNV experience with FO4.

    Modded FNV has: -Better    Playing Fallout 4 was such an unsatisfying Fallout experience that I went back and played New Vegas for the first time after reading how good it was from some of the other reviews here. I spent a couple hours picking up highly recommended mods. After getting everything running nicely, I was absolutely shocked when comparing the modded FNV experience with FO4.

    Modded FNV has:
    -Better textures
    -Better performance in fps
    -Better character faces and facial animations
    -Better weapon textures AND a huge variety of weapons

    And that's only considering the aesthetic improvements, the massive amount of additional modded content notwithstanding. I am frankly shocked that a AAA development studio is unable to meet or exceed the development quality of mods made by unpaid community modders in a game using the same engine. I can only guess that a priority on console development is why the PC offering is so poor in comparison.

    I would have been able to overlook the technical ineptitude of the game if there were anything resembling the soul of Fallout still present. As many other reviewers have pointed out, the essence of Fallout has always been choice and flexibility in how to resolve problems. In previous Fallout titles, everything from a total pacifist run to wholesale murder of nearly everyone were viable ways to play the game, with potential alternate routes depending on skill checks and your character's inclinations. Fallout 4 gives us improved gunplay, but has stripped out the ability to make meaningful decisions about how to resolve problems, as nearly every quest can only be resolved by going in and shooting up the place.

    The voiced protagonist contributes to this straitjacketing. This is a design decision that does not work within a sandbox RPG. Games like Mass Effect worked better with a voiced protagonist because the story and setting were more focused and the base character more developed. The dialogue was also more consistently written and voice-acted-- I have no desire to do another playthrough to hear the female voice actor, but the male voice actor at least was inconsistent in the tone and style of his delivery to the point of totally breaking immersion.

    The writing quality and pacing was bad. Your character wakes up a subjective 15 minutes after having breakfast with his family to a post-apocalytpic wasteland, and rather than giving us any reflection on the massive future shock and dislocation the character would surely be feeling, we're picking up power armor and a minigun and killing a deathclaw within an hour. I thought the power armor and minigun were fine as a teaser for things to come, since you don't have fusion cores and ammo readily available in the early game, but it would have been nice to have even a cursory nod toward having the character understand what the hell happened to the world around him.

    The main storyline serves to introduce the player to the main factions present in the Commonwealth. However, at a crucial juncture, the lack of choice in resolving conflict undermines the story, as the player is locked into wholesale slaughter of all the competing factions, with no chance for diplomacy or double-dealing. Most or all of the factions aren't really in diametric opposition, so this turn in the story feels incredibly forced, and like the writers just ran out of steam. The ending was so abrupt and underwhelming that I literally had to use Google to confirm that I really had seen the ending.

    The choice to implement random-style loot on legendary enemies and to tie equipment modding to junk scavenging are mildly interesting at first, but dissolve into tedium quickly due to the uselessness of most of the legendary affixes, and the hours of scouring forgettable locations for junk. It would be generous to call the settlement features half-finished. I don't get where the demand for Minecraft/Sims-style crossover gameplay was coming from-- it doesn't appeal to me in a role-playing title but that still doesn't excuse Bethesda's half-baked implementation.

    Bethesda chose to strip out the soul of Fallout games in favor of making a generic shooter that combines shooter, RPG, and builder elements, but does none of them very well. They've gone from a "must-buy" development studio to one that I will approach with heavy skepticism in the future, and wait on user reviews for an accurate representation of the game since it seems the professional reviewers have little integrity.    … Expand
  13. Exeris666
    Dec 30, 2015
    3
    I feel this is high enough for a game that wasn't finished.

    When you keep seeing things like cars with their doors open and not even a tiny piece of garbage inside, it looks like someone just cleaned the inside of the cars. And the tugboats most of them don't even have a interior. Trying to snipe someone can be quite hard when the draw distance at max is so damn low, use the scope    I feel this is high enough for a game that wasn't finished.

    When you keep seeing things like cars with their doors open and not even a tiny piece of garbage inside, it looks like someone just cleaned the inside of the cars.

    And the tugboats most of them don't even have a interior.

    Trying to snipe someone can be quite hard when the draw distance at max is so damn low, use the scope and most of the game disappears in the distance.

    Overuse of sprites to, but i can understand them on this point. Must have been quite the challenge trying to get this to work on those console ****

    It's worth playing but by far the worst Fallout game to date, emotionless, cold and unfinished.

    Feels like the developers disliked the making of Fallout 4, it bleeds through while playing and gets worse the longer you play.    … Expand
  14. BeanBuster
    Jan 5, 2016
    3
    The very simplest way i can explain how average the game is with a choice:
    If you want a fun, well made shooter, this game is very good
    If you want a RPG with good dialouge, lots of ways to build your character, this game is bad. This game has taken out lots of the things that made it a fallout game. Skills, good dialouge, diplomatic solutions, all of it has been ripped out to make    The very simplest way i can explain how average the game is with a choice:
    If you want a fun, well made shooter, this game is very good
    If you want a RPG with good dialouge, lots of ways to build your character, this game is bad.

    This game has taken out lots of the things that made it a fallout game. Skills, good dialouge, diplomatic solutions, all of it has been ripped out to make the game easier for console gamers.

    This game is WORSE than 3 and NV. Please, buy NV. It is a much better game in every aspect.    … Expand
  15. Cyclictunic209
    Jan 19, 2016
    3
    - **** Story
    - 2008 graphics
    - Terrible quests, all generic kill and loot quests - Buggy as **** - Streamlined the game to appeal to the masses - Perhaps the worst of all is the dialogue wheel, what the **** were they thinking? Allows for no role playing what so ever. All you are is a concerned parent. This is a warning to Bethesda. If this same **** occurs with the Elder Scrolls 6    - **** Story
    - 2008 graphics
    - Terrible quests, all generic kill and loot quests
    - Buggy as ****
    - Streamlined the game to appeal to the masses
    - Perhaps the worst of all is the dialogue wheel, what the **** were they thinking? Allows for no role playing what so ever. All you are is a concerned parent.

    This is a warning to Bethesda. If this same **** occurs with the Elder Scrolls 6 I will not be purchasing your games anymore.    … Expand
  16. Sarahbrewery
    Jan 30, 2016
    3
    The only thing that this game has improved on compared to its predecessors is the gunplay. In every other way, it is a massive step back. The dialogue system is completely insulting, with only four options that boil down to: Yes, Yes?, Sarcastic, and No(really means not right now). The script is laughable, and if the game didn't take itself so seriously, one would think it was satire.The only thing that this game has improved on compared to its predecessors is the gunplay. In every other way, it is a massive step back. The dialogue system is completely insulting, with only four options that boil down to: Yes, Yes?, Sarcastic, and No(really means not right now). The script is laughable, and if the game didn't take itself so seriously, one would think it was satire. There are no longer multiple ways to finish most quests, because every quest is "Go here and kill this". The game no longer has skills or traits, instead they've "streamlined" all the rpg elements away, and all that is left is a game that is no longer an rpg at all. There is now only one build, and that is a combat oriented one. It honestly feels more like a poorly made clone falling somewhere between the mass effect and borderlands series. This is not a good thing. Stay far away unless all you are interested in is shooting things and looting locations. There is no payoff at all for your actions in this very shallow playground of a game. It did accomplish one good thing by making me want to replay New Vegas!… Expand
  17. Ragemage
    Jan 31, 2016
    3
    How I feel about this game and Bethesda right now can be summed up by one of Rose of Sharon Cassidy's classic Fallout New Vegas lines, with a couple of changes:

    "You ever had a brother? Some dumbass younger brother, say, who knocked up the pastor's daughter, can't hold a job, and his home-away is a jail cell? That's "Bethesda". Their compass is spinning, all the time. They try to put    How I feel about this game and Bethesda right now can be summed up by one of Rose of Sharon Cassidy's classic Fallout New Vegas lines, with a couple of changes:

    "You ever had a brother? Some dumbass younger brother, say, who knocked up the pastor's daughter, can't hold a job, and his home-away is a jail cell? That's "Bethesda". Their compass is spinning, all the time. They try to put their "casual game marketing" in everything they see. Nobody's ♥♥♥♥ is that long. Not even Long ♥♥♥♥ Johnson, and he had a ♥♥♥♥ing long ♥♥♥♥. Thus the name. So "Bethesda" tries to hold on to everything. They can't, because it's too big for them to get their arms around. ... Look, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't want "Black Isle" or the "Obsidian" families running the "Franchise", all of them are a different kind of ♥♥♥♥-up. So what's the alternative? "Bethesda" just has some shaping up to do. Maybe "the fans" kicking them in the nuts is a nice wake-up call, is all I'm saying."    … Expand
  18. Zigmar
    Feb 11, 2016
    3
    It might me not a bad game by itself, it is, after all, a quite beautifully designed action game with some RPG elements. But if one judge it as a Fallout game - it just plain terrible. Absolutely nothing of what made Fallout series great isn't here, besides maybe a good music and beautiful world. There is no consequences whatsoever to anything you do (crazy example: insulting a BoS elderIt might me not a bad game by itself, it is, after all, a quite beautifully designed action game with some RPG elements. But if one judge it as a Fallout game - it just plain terrible. Absolutely nothing of what made Fallout series great isn't here, besides maybe a good music and beautiful world. There is no consequences whatsoever to anything you do (crazy example: insulting a BoS elder and mocking their values, won't prevent them from making you a paladin two minutes later), there is no real dialogue (all choices have exactly same outcome, you can't even deny doing quests for NPCs, if you say you don't want - they just ask to think again, and you go back to the same dialogue fork, with only way out to accept the quest), there almost zero interesting bald characters (I could count two or three maybe), all the side quests and huge chunk of main plotline are boring fetch and kill quests (which game happily generate procedurally for you, as all you want to do in Fallout game is do boring kill-all-raiders-and-get-an-item quests). Note: if you familiar with other games in series, you no doubt aware, that side quests, where you meet interesting character and discover things about the world, were the actual "meat" of the games, where main quest line was just a skeleton it was handing on. Non of it is here, after doing couple of dozen of side quests, I just stopped bothering, because literally not of them were interesting, it was just a boring side activity, without as much as an interesting story to discover in old terminal. Grind, as they call it.
    Every faction in game was just a bunch of boring illogical one-dimensional cliche stereotypes, leaving me with non to emotionally or rationally relate. And you didn't even had an option to side non of them, you had to join one of them, and kill all the others (BTW: peaceful solution was not an option in absolute majority of main and quests).
    Out of love for the series, I decided to finish the game (main quest) but I must tell, it wasn't a rewarding experience. At the end, I just ignored all the sides quests, dragged myself throughout the rest of the game, reluctantly joined one faction (which looked only a tiny bit less stupid than the rest) to finish the main quest. And I got rewarded by most boring and anticlimatic ending one can imagine. And they added insult to an injury, as apparently no matter which faction you end with - you get the same cinematic (albeit few phrases changed).And you just continue playing (read: killing raiders and fetching items) as nothing had happened. Nothing you did - really mattered.

    So if you looking for a Fallout game - skip this or you will be greatly disappointed. If you just want to shoot some raiders in a Fallout-themed world - you might give it a try. But you might as well go play Borderland - at least has better written characters (I'm not joking!).    … Expand
  19. Lachhh
    Feb 13, 2016
    3
    Oh wow, where to start. Like many, I've enjoyed previous Fallout games (a little too much) so here's the review I thought I'd never write. Please consider user reviews before making this (expensive) purchase people, there's quite a lot critics just don't touch on. I only wish I'd read some before throwing money at this game, as it turns out, the only fool is me. Let's get this on the road.Oh wow, where to start. Like many, I've enjoyed previous Fallout games (a little too much) so here's the review I thought I'd never write. Please consider user reviews before making this (expensive) purchase people, there's quite a lot critics just don't touch on. I only wish I'd read some before throwing money at this game, as it turns out, the only fool is me. Let's get this on the road. (Lengthy read ahead)

    Over the better part of a decade, a whole crop of great, immersive open-world RPG's have been released. The sheer amount of depth, immersion, gameplay and graphics quality of quite a few of them is impressive - we're no longer forced to make great consessions in favor of a superior RPG experience. (The Witcher 3 hammers that point home for sure) Which is why I was so sure that the previous "King of the Hill" of immersive RPG's would positively outdo itself in its newest itineration, as well as retain all the great stuff that fans of roleplaying games have come to expect from it. I thought it would be the postapocalyptic pendent to Witcher 3, turns out it's the postapocalyptic version of Far Cry - minus some of the entertaining characters.
    Well, nevermind all that - after having played Fallout 4 I'd be happy if it was so much as a carbon copy of Fallout 3 or New Vegas, truth be told it's not even in the ballpark on that front.

    So, let's get to the meat of it. What could possibly cause a game that came out close to a decade after Fallout 3 to be a vastly inferior roleplaying game? For starters, ask yourself what *you* expect from a game when you buy an open-world RPG. An exciting, intricately woven main story that keeps you on your toes? A slew of immersive and emotionally involving side quests with many characters outside the beaten track of the main story to keep you invested and playing all day? Wanting to sleep but you can't, because you have that last emotionally involving questline hammering in your head? A feeling that the world is populated with interesting characters with a unique backstory? Not knowing what you'll find beyond that next hill? The hard decisions? The diplomacy, the player choice? The freedom? The feeling that your choices in-game matter?

    Well, if the answer to any of this was "yes", then skip Fallout 4. None of that is present in the game. (I'm not going to go into the slew of bugs, the disappointing graphics, the horrid character animations, the watered down perks, etc. That's been said before and I'd like to focus on why FO4 is a dismal RPG experience.)

    If you're wondering why, after 15 hours of play, the world already feels devoid of people to talk to, interesting story lines and never generates an adequate sense of population (minus the shooting gallery of ferals, raiders and super mutants ofcourse) then the answer is --- because this is unfortunately what Fallout 4 is. It hands you a main storyline which, apart from being hammy and badly-written, is predictable and quite the F03 story copypasta. (Searching for a family member), the side quests are MMO-style fetch or kill quests, given to you by the same clone-stamp NPC's that hand you the same dialogue over and over with no backstory or immersion whatsoever.

    "But there's still the exploring!" You scream. Well, think about it this way. If you *know* ahead of time you'll either find a group of raiders or ferals or supermutants behind the next hill, what's the reason for wondering what's there in the first place? - You already know. You won't find any hidden interesting factions, pockets of people hidden away that give immersive quests or anything of the sort. You won't be asking yourself what painful, meaningful decisions you may be forced to make next - because there aren't any in this game. This "knowing" kills the fun of exploration the previous games had IMO. (Unless you treated the world as nothing but a loot chest with accompanying shooting gallery, in which case you may enjoy this - but even then only to a degree, and if loot is your main prio, so many more games centered around that have you well and truly covered.)

    I was stoked to hear they added relationships to the game. Like everything else remotely RPG in this game though, this too is a sick, outdated joke. You can "flirt" yet not a single frame of animation indicates you're actually in a relationship. Not one hug or kiss. Companions don't generally react any differently to you even at max affinity. You can't sleep in the same bed as your supposed "lover" at night. (Error message "this bed is being used" - yeah, by my supposed "lover"...) The relationship feels nonexistent to the degree i'm wondering why they bothered with the mechanic at all.

    In every way shape and form, this game underdelivers on the RPG element and overdoes it on the "stoof 2 shoot" motif. If you haven't played previous installments, do yourself a favour and give this one a miss in favour of modded versions of previous games. You'll get a far more rewarding package all the way.    … Expand
  20. adamh9999
    Feb 14, 2016
    3
    So disappointed with this game. I tried so hard to love it, even put about 15 hours into it. Unfortunately, I got to a point where I just completely lost interest and stopped playing. The missions get repetitive and if you have any skills as a gamer the enemies are easy to defeat and the missions even easier. Sure, I could have upped the difficulty at some point, but to be honest I justSo disappointed with this game. I tried so hard to love it, even put about 15 hours into it. Unfortunately, I got to a point where I just completely lost interest and stopped playing. The missions get repetitive and if you have any skills as a gamer the enemies are easy to defeat and the missions even easier. Sure, I could have upped the difficulty at some point, but to be honest I just felt like I was playing this game because I felt obligated to, not because I was enjoying it. What a let down.… Expand
  21. RobotoMr
    Dec 12, 2017
    3
    The phrase "One step forward, two steps back" comes to mind when thinking of how to sum up Fallout 4.
    My mayor problems with it:
    - Forced back story - Voiced protagonist - Removal of skill checks or skill based dialog - Graphics over content - No imagination when making quests - Paid mods - Base building that is buggy and un-usable without mods and console commands In summary,    The phrase "One step forward, two steps back" comes to mind when thinking of how to sum up Fallout 4.
    My mayor problems with it:
    - Forced back story
    - Voiced protagonist
    - Removal of skill checks or skill based dialog
    - Graphics over content
    - No imagination when making quests
    - Paid mods
    - Base building that is buggy and un-usable without mods and console commands

    In summary, the game is nothing but a graphical update with all RPG elements removed... just what Fallout fans didn't want.    … Expand
  22. Kevinas001
    Mar 13, 2016
    3
    Ill start off with that this game is an overhyped mess.
    5 years Bethesda and you pulled something out of your ass.
    The game is full of glitches. The plot is absolute **** Compare it to Fallout 3 or New Vegas. You could finish those games without pulling any trigger. Here its like Shoot kill shoot kill. People are praising it for its big map. Well fallout 3 and New Vegas had a big    Ill start off with that this game is an overhyped mess.
    5 years Bethesda and you pulled something out of your ass.
    The game is full of glitches.
    The plot is absolute ****
    Compare it to Fallout 3 or New Vegas.
    You could finish those games without pulling any trigger.
    Here its like Shoot kill shoot kill.
    People are praising it for its big map.
    Well fallout 3 and New Vegas had a big map too.
    All of the quests are shoot and loot.
    310    … Expand
  23. Hcoalex
    Nov 14, 2018
    3
    Graphics in game 2000 (Paleozoic). Sorry but it is a fallout, No more role-playing game.
  24. lordaeron1
    May 13, 2016
    3
    Started playing the game with hopes that it's going to be better than Fallout 3 (spent months playing that one) but sadly after an hour or so i fell sick. I have never experienced Sea sickness (even on a Boat) but this game made me very sick. as a gamer i must say that i never thought that there will be a game that can make me sick but this one win's. i have only played it 1 hour and iStarted playing the game with hopes that it's going to be better than Fallout 3 (spent months playing that one) but sadly after an hour or so i fell sick. I have never experienced Sea sickness (even on a Boat) but this game made me very sick. as a gamer i must say that i never thought that there will be a game that can make me sick but this one win's. i have only played it 1 hour and i needed a week to get well again. after that i tried to play the game for about 5-10 minutes for few times before i gave up. the only think that drove me to try again knowing that i will feel sick is the Hype... it's not worth it.

    after researching the problem, i found that i am not the only one and many people get sick from this game.

    I choose feeling well than playing a Game!.

    giving it a score of 3 because the game looked pretty good until it made me Sea Sick.    … Expand
  25. Aven2334
    May 27, 2016
    3
    FFs Bethesda... Just give the Fallout ip to Obsidian. It seems this game was just a big cash grab from the start. Sure, you guys put work in your game, so that you claim, but it wasn't hard work. This game is one of the most lazy AAA titles I've ever played. I could list so much **** about how much you **** your fans over with this, but it looks like that has been said and done thousandsFFs Bethesda... Just give the Fallout ip to Obsidian. It seems this game was just a big cash grab from the start. Sure, you guys put work in your game, so that you claim, but it wasn't hard work. This game is one of the most lazy AAA titles I've ever played. I could list so much **** about how much you **** your fans over with this, but it looks like that has been said and done thousands of times over. I'll just mention a few thing that just annoy the **** out of me with this. The 'cinematic camera' during dialogue why the **** is this a thing? Do we need it? No, it's just annoying, Fallout isn't a movie. Weapons aren't kept on your character, and they pop into existence when you un-holster them. Combat rifle is the same model as the combat shotgun, but with minor tweaks. Power armor isn't unique. Loading screens are bad and show things to you that you haven't even seen yet in game (Que the loading screen with a big fat suit of X-01 power armor that you've yet to see in the actual game yet cus you haven't fount it yet.). Power armor isn't just the only un-unique thing in the game, I might as well say every thing in the game isn't unique, just renamed **** that looks the same as everything else (cryo sledge hammer? wtf is it magic or some **** why does it do frost damage?). The only companions I thought were worth the time were Cait and Nick, everyone else was just ****ty (boring), too stupid, or annoying as **** Dogmeat was even annoying! He doesn't even ****ing talk because he's a dog, and somehow, still annoying. "Hey what's that I hear? A good ending? Oh, you mean it was cut out? Why? You dunno? Ok." I will say this, Automaton and Far Harbor are worth it, cus they were pretty cool. Wasteland workshop could've been a free update or maybe even cheaper than it is. Oh **** I forgot to mention the assault rifle! No not that "assault rifle" I mean the Chinese one that was an actual assault rifle and is the reason why the assault rifle in the game has a quick select icon that looks like an Ak-47, because they couldn't spend just a little bit more time to finish it so the went through the trouble of renaming the, what was supposed to be, LMG to "assault rifle"(again, lazy).… Expand
  26. NathanielRH
    Jul 14, 2016
    3
    This game is simply bad. I am very depressed to say so. The game starts out so promising, but it has enough bugs to qualify as a species of beetle, terrible graphics which are somehow simultaneously poorly optimized, and simply isn't worth the money you pay for it unless you plan on running it on Medium settings; this game was built for consoles and runs best on your computer if yourThis game is simply bad. I am very depressed to say so. The game starts out so promising, but it has enough bugs to qualify as a species of beetle, terrible graphics which are somehow simultaneously poorly optimized, and simply isn't worth the money you pay for it unless you plan on running it on Medium settings; this game was built for consoles and runs best on your computer if your computer is forcibly ran like a console. If you have an old computer, this is the game for you. If you have a post 2013 computer, don't even buy this game unless you want the graphics falling apart every 15 minutes. The company which made this game will not care to update its large list of problems and modders so far have been incapable of fixing them either. Worst of all is the fact that the hardest difficulty is unplayable because of the amount of bugs in the game. You NEED the game console to play the game because the console is a debugger and is used to fix bugs, but on the hardest difficulty, they remove the console from the game so you can't use it to fix bugs. Playing on survival mode is a DEATH warrant which will lead to endless frustration. The game is a 0/10 on Survival mode and 3/10 because they have other modes you can play on.

    So, to reiterate:
    1. 2013+ computer? Don't buy.
    2. Always play on the hardest difficulty? Don't buy.

    I'd price this game at $0 if you have a newer computer and/or always play the hardest difficulties on games. $10 if you can stand crappy graphics and any difficulty below Survival.

    I would give it a higher rating if I knew Bethesda were working on fixing this game's huge list of problems, but they are not working on it because they have already made a lot of money and have no reason to fix old issues, even though the problems are so deep that modders cannot pick up Bethesda's slack this time.

    Do not buy, do not waste your time, force Bethesda to at least put in some effort on Fallout 5. We know there will be a Fallout 5 as long as there are idiots who buy crappy games like Fallout 4.

    Again, I'm depressed to write this review. I'm sorry.    … Expand
  27. qm3
    Jul 24, 2016
    3
    +3 points for the shooting mechanics and simulation.
    -7 for the oversimplified storyline, quests, decision making rip-off and the lack of details.

    Imagine the feel when you flirt with Paladin Danse just by jerking in and out of your power armor a few times.
  28. Iplayedthegame
    Aug 11, 2016
    3
    Fallout 4 is by far the most disappointing game purchase of 2015. In the 25 hours I spent in Fallout 4 I found hardly anything to be excited about. Give the choice, I would rather play New Vegas or even Fallout 3. I'm glad I didn't buy the season pass as I have no desire to revisit the Boston wasteland. Skip this one entirely. Opening a box of Hot Pockets™ offers more immersion and freedomFallout 4 is by far the most disappointing game purchase of 2015. In the 25 hours I spent in Fallout 4 I found hardly anything to be excited about. Give the choice, I would rather play New Vegas or even Fallout 3. I'm glad I didn't buy the season pass as I have no desire to revisit the Boston wasteland. Skip this one entirely. Opening a box of Hot Pockets™ offers more immersion and freedom of choice than this game.… Expand
  29. hero665
    Aug 30, 2016
    3
    I've played the game for 200 hrs the game is a slightly more open game then farcry 3. Wide as the ocean, deep as a puddle. I can only remember one location and its diamond city and again i've played for 200 hrs. fallout NV had so many memorable locations like good springs camp mccarran The Strip and more so did fallout 3 and skyrim. fallout 4 is Bethesda's attempt of copying minecraft andI've played the game for 200 hrs the game is a slightly more open game then farcry 3. Wide as the ocean, deep as a puddle. I can only remember one location and its diamond city and again i've played for 200 hrs. fallout NV had so many memorable locations like good springs camp mccarran The Strip and more so did fallout 3 and skyrim. fallout 4 is Bethesda's attempt of copying minecraft and in my opinion i think they failed at that attempt. If you look at the steam charts website you can see more people playing skyrim then fallout 4 it has very little replayability and no feel of mystery and adventure since you have to build your own locations.
    There's a lot of criticism about the graphics but you can ignore them bethesda rpgs never had very good graphics any way. If you're looking for a zen game about collecting resources and building things i'd suggest save your money and play minecraft. If you're looking for a cathartic experience going around killing things and blowing stuff up i'd suggest playing just cause 2.
    Buy fallout 4 when it's on a discount and avoid the dlc    … Expand
  30. FreddaKiko
    Nov 14, 2016
    3
    Writing, story, and world building take a back seat to brand recognition and flashy graphics (which aren't that good, mind you). The world is fairly interesting to explore, which is the only thing the game is really good for, considering most of the quests in the game are unsatisfying to say the least, most of them giving you little in the way of any real agency. There are too many jarringWriting, story, and world building take a back seat to brand recognition and flashy graphics (which aren't that good, mind you). The world is fairly interesting to explore, which is the only thing the game is really good for, considering most of the quests in the game are unsatisfying to say the least, most of them giving you little in the way of any real agency. There are too many jarring lapses in the established lore to ignore.

    The game's alright if all you want to do is run around mindlessly shooting stuff with your guns for about 3 hours and then quit. Sometimes I'll be high and consider launching it up before I realize I uninstalled it and own KillingFloor.

    If you're looking for a good RPG, go play New Vegas. I hope Bethesda lets Obsidian make the rest of the fallout games, since they know how to make a much better game with a fraction of the time and resources. I know that won't happen, but a man can dream.    … 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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