Is Fallout 4 the best game of this generation?

Upon the release of Fallout 4, it’s a convenient time to review our previous article on the game. The article was released on October 17, 2013, over two years ago. In the article, we posed the question “Will Fallout 4 be the greatest game of the next generation?”

Of course, despite the fact that Fallout 4 has been finally released, it is still too early to say if the game is the best of this year, let alone the best of an entire generation, which will likely span ten or more years. However, we will revisit our old article and compare it with some of the things that we can see in Fallout 4, along with further discussion on the game itself.

As mentioned in the previous article, it was more than obvious that Fallout 4 will be released in this generation of consoles. Bethesda has been a developer that prides themselves in putting the best videogames and seeing that the previous generation was ending and the new one freshly commencing, it was logical for Bethesda to wait until the new generation of consoles hit the market to produce a game for one of their best franchises.

As we expected, Bethesda does not miss a single detail in the creation of post apocalyptic Boston, and its outskirts. The game employs a fresh new system of dynamic lighting. This of course is one of the cornerstones of this generation, and has been done in many games. However, Bethesda’s impressive recreation of light goes further than most games of today’s date. The engine that Fallout 4 runs on involves a new lighting and material system called “The volumetric lighting system.” This system adds atmospheric depth to the game and irradiated air to the environment which gives a completely different feel to the Fallout series. It gives the player the sense that they are present in a post apocalyptic, radiation-filled Boston. The material system causes in game items and other materials to react to the lighting and other changes in weather and climate. Just as the lighting is dynamic, so is the wind in Fallout. Depending on the weather, winds will have certain effects on objects. As Bethesda puts it “When a rain storm rolls in, our new material system allows the surfaces of the world to get wet, and a new cloth simulation system makes cloth, hair, and vegetation blow in the wind.”

Coupled the new lighting and material effects with the creation of hundreds of individual “junk” components in fallout 4 and you have the recipe for a fantastic game. Bethesda has finally made every junk component in their Fallout universe usable for weapon and armor repair and modifications. These items can be scrapped to obtain materials that are useful for building other things. The useful materials that can be obtained from scrapping junk are adhesives, concrete, steel, leather, nuclear material, oil, and plastic, to name a few. For example, a blowtorch can be scrapped to obtain oil and steel, which in turn can be used to create weapon modification and so on. The game features over 50 base weapons, and over 700 different modifications. Aside from the weapons and armor repairs and modifications, the game also includes an entire system of building entire settlements. The player can create areas and attract settlers by building houses, generators, defense systems, radio towers, etc. The game goes as far as giving the player the ability to create everyday household items, such as beds, sinks, toilets, and many other items.

At this point, it is too early to know exactly how many marked and unmarked quests the game has to offer. However, Bethesda’s lead producer Jeff Gardiner has made the claim that he has played the game for over 400 hours and still is finding new things to do in the game. Compare that to the measly 200+ hours that the guys at NerdSplash have put into Fallout 3 and New Vegas and it gives us an idea of how massive Fallout 4 really is. Of course, both Elder Scrolls IV and V have given players over 400 hours of gameplay, but this goes to show that Bethesda finally has include plenty of playtime to the Fallout franchise. It’s fairly obvious that the game does offer over 400 hours of gameplay. Consider the weapons, settlement, and armor modifications, along with the mini-games within Fallout 4, as well as all of the individual locations that can be visited, and finally, the quests, marked and unmarked that can be done in the game.

The slight downfall to the game is the obvious glitches that are included upon release. Bethesda is expected to patch the bugs and glitches, as is customary. Also, the game does run on a slightly older engine, and it is obvious from the graphics of the game. The characters look realistic, but they look dated. The texture in the game is missing layers of detail. Weapons and armor lack the kind of detail that can be seen in recent Call of Duty games. Of course, Call of Duty is nowhere near as large as Fallout 4, so the comparison is a bit unfair. The game is extremely large, and adds levels of seamlessness and transitions from location to location without having to load. It seems fair to assume that Bethesda has sacrificed some graphics to create such a large game. Finally, claims have been made that the map is small and can be traveled in shorts amounts of time. However, comparisons of Fallout 3’s map to 4’s map have been made, and concluded that Fallout 4’s map is roughly twice as big as 3’s. Fallout 3 features 163 individual locations, while Fallout 4 has roughly 235.

Does this answer the question posed by NerdSplash in late 2013? Is Fallout 4 the greatest game of this generation? As said, it is too early to tell. Fallout 4 does offer the best installment in the series. It gives players an immense universe to explore and enjoy, with over 235 locations to discover, a vast variety of quests to complete, new customization features to express one’s creativity, all which add to over 400 hours of gameplay. The games developed by Bethesda have won several “game of the year”. The Elder Scrolls III, IV, and V, as well as Fallout 3 all hold that achievement. Fallout 4 might be on its way to join in the rest of the games developed by Bethesda. The game has received reviews of high 80s to low 90s on most of the reviews, having an average of roughly 90% from 17 different reviewers. The game broke the record on Steam for most players concurrently playing online, with almost half of a million players, despite only receiving a 7/10 from Steam.

This generation of gaming will see other fantastic titles in its future, which will possibly be better than Fallout 4. Perhaps Fallout 5 will be the best game of this generation?

The Cheese