Most of the way this huge roleplaying-shooter game works is carried over from its excellent predecessors, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. It is the Skyrim to Fallout 3’s Oblivion, if you will – it iterates on the previous game’s already amazing systems, and it’s similarly dense with locations to explore, genuinely creepy monsters to fight, and superbly engrossing post-nuclear atmosphere that blends unsettling gore and death with dark comedy. After more than 55 hours played I may have seen an ending, yet I feel like I’ve only begun to explore its extraordinary world; from the look of it, I’ll easily be able to spend another 100 happy hours here and still see new and exciting things.

Watch the first 20 minutes of Fallout 4 see deal Fallout 4 - PC $29.99on Gamestop

Mega(Bos)ton

“ The main story isn’t nearly as gripping an attraction as the huge number of well-written side quests.

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A story that begins as a basic search for your lost family evolves into something much more complex and morally nuanced. Like in Fallout: New Vegas, we’re drawn into a struggle between several groups competing for control of the region, and deciding which of their imperfect post-apocalyptic philosophies to align with made me pause to consider how I wanted events to play out. Even the highly questionable Institute has a tempting reason to side with them, and turning away from them in my playthrough wasn’t as clear-cut a choice as I’d expected. I was impressed by the sympathy shown toward the villains, too - even the most irredeemable murderer is explored and given a trace of humanity.

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“ Attention to detail is evident everywhere.

Over Powered

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Perhaps because this adventure is such a long haul, Fallout 4 is a bit overeager to hook us in the beginning. After a brief glimpse of pre-war life in Fallout’s familiar-but-strange near-future and a retelling of the events on the day the bombs fell in 2077, we barely have time to get our hands dirty in the post-apocalyptic era before Fallout 4 throws us into a big action moment: You’re given a suit of the big, stompy power armor and a heavy weapon, and put into an intense brawl against the series’ most iconic monster.

Above: Vault IGN discusses the first things we'll do in Fallout 4.

It Builds Character

It’s certainly not an unconventional idea for a game with a long progression arc to give us an early taste of the powerful toys we’ll gain access to later in order to motivate us to work for them, but with Fallout it’s a misstep that trods on the series’ beloved feeling of working our way up from almost nothing to become the dominant force in the wasteland. This bothered me less and less as I began to explore, but knowing that armor was available when I wanted it made me a little cockier than I wanted to be when setting out into a hostile, unforgiving world.

“ The decision of what to do with the single point you get each level has a significant impact.

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Watch the Fallout 4 Launch Trailer above.

One Man’s Trash

These might be more general, jack-of-all-trades types than previous Fallout character builds, in that you generally don’t have any crippling deficiencies, but they definitely have their distinguishing features that’ll make one playthrough feel different from the next. And before you lament it as a “dumbing down” of Fallout’s overall complexity, turn your eye to the new crafting and equipment progression system, which has picked up the slack by becoming vastly more complicated and interesting.

“ Fallout 4’s crafting system gives even more motivation to compulsively collect everything that isn’t nailed down.

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Above: Catch up on the Fallout universe in (a little over) 5 minutes.

“ Nearly every modification you make is reflected in the look of your gun.

Post-Apoca-Chic

Likewise, the new armor system lets you piece together six chunks of gear - helmet, chest plate, and each individual arm and leg - on top of your clothes to form cobbled-together, asymmetrical outfits that feel like exactly what someone who assembled their wardrobe by scavenging the wasteland should wear. The suit my character wears now has at least one piece from each major faction, reflecting both his allegiances and his victories over foes. And of course, armor can be upgraded using collected materials as well, though it sadly doesn’t have as dramatic a cosmetic effect as with weapons.The armor system suffers from some inconsistency: several times I was a little bit heartbroken to find a new outfit like a tuxedo or a Halloween costume, but couldn’t use them as the foundation of a new custom-built look. Only certain jumpsuits can have pauldrons and shin guards strapped onto them, it seems, and no distinction is made in the item description.