Ever since the first official trailer hit YouTube on June 3, anticipation has been mounting for the release of Fallout 4, the latest installment of the popular video game series.

But excitement has been especially high in New England, as the game is set right here in Boston — 200 years after a nuclear bomb decimated the landscape, that is. Think Mad Max, but with a little more dirty water.

Bethesda was kind enough to send us an advance copy to review, and we took it upon ourselves to explore as much of the landscape as possible to find out how Fallout Boston (and the surrounding suburbs) compares to the real thing. Short answer: There’s a lot less traffic, a lot more mutant insects intent on destroying you, and Fenway Park is even more magnificent than before.


The game begins with a short prologue in which your family seeks shelter in a fallout bunker as mushroom clouds shimmer in the distance. Two hundred years later, you awake to an unfamiliar world. Or at least it’s unfamiliar for those who aren’t from around here. Others will recognize Concord and Lexington, two of the first towns you visit as you head south toward the city.

Though the general layout of Concord feels familiar, the action takes place at the fictional Museum of Freedom, a celebration of our country’s long history.

You’ll laugh as the paintings on the wall transition from Colonial-era generals like George Washington to future battle heroes from space wars beyond your wildest imagination.

You can even shoot a few Red Coat mannequins if you want.

On the way, you encounter a reporter from the local paper (apparently not The Boston Globe 200 years later), who helps you enter the real gem of Fallout’s Boston: Fenway Park, now a standalone city, a fortress that has sustained a group of survivors for over 150 years.

Check out more of our favorite Fallout Boston locales in the gallery below.