This is not The Best Fallout 4 Review, no. This is just a tribute.

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I cannot even begin to fathom how many hours of Bethesda gaming, I’ve put in. The last time I lost myself was when The Elder Scrolls came out and it took me a few months to get the arrow out of my knee, pun intended. So first thing’s first, more than just a review, this is a piece on why the Fallout franchise remains one of my top favourites from the very beginning. I can admit that while there is plenty to fault about this game, everyone who wants to know about this game has already gotten it. It’s the RPG we all know, a game that rewards smart calculated decisions but can suddenly decide you had enough fun and find ways to challenge and end you.

The game’s so good, I ultimately realized I had to stop at some point to write this review and there’s plenty to talk about it. As much as non spoilers go, Fallout 4, yet again, puts you, a character out of time, in a dystopian apocalyptic post-nuclear scarred America, well an alternate America if you will. It’s the same history that follows well in to the Fallout lore and that itself is a piece for another time since this history goes in to the games from 1997. The character is now forced to live in the wasteland after finding shelter within the Vault, an underground bunker provided for the privileged or selected few to live out the days when the bombs dropped and  as the only survivor from Vault 111, you are now in the year 2277, separated from family and now tasked with finding them in what remains of Boston.

Consider this a gamer’s stamp of approval that this is one of the games you don’t want to miss out on in 2015, even if the game may be broken or glitchy in places which is why it misses out on a perfect score but don’t let this be an hinderance.If you’re playing on the PC version you’re more likely to find unofficial fixes from the amazing community over at Nexus Mods who have already made a substantial contribution to enhancing the game for everyone else.

With a game that has so much of history behind it, first time players may find themselves overwhelmed with the many intricate details that befalls any Fallout player. They’re expansive sure but easy to catch on. The signature series of Fallout 4’s RPG mechanics are the game’s SPECIAL skillset categorization, which is short for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. Bethesda teased us with short old timey videos that explain what this is.

Fallout 4’s skill sets are placed on a grid that allows players to dedicate ability points to each category which you gain when you progress a level. All of this is beautifully illustrated in a vault-tec poster, the same poster you get physically when you buy the Pip Boy limited edition version of the game, which if I didn’t mention before, is that you get an actual Pip Boy, the device that acts as your menu in the game world, to slot your smartphone in which interfaces the game via app on the wifi network so you don’t have to use your pip boy in game.

Fallout 4 constantly reminds you you’re free to do anything in this massive playground. Fallout 3 gave you more to look at doing this now would choke the casual player. With the world being your oyster, this game let’s you grow how you see fit. You aren’t obligated to follow the plot because there’s always different parallel stories running, the kind you’re familiar with any RPG. You can cook, be a thief, or a gun crazed mercenary and you’ll still find a fit.  Also familiar with Fallout, is VATS or Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. It lets you slow time allowing you to target your fire on critical areas of enemies, on their appendages or what have you. The difference being, enemies still move and not every targeted hit will connect, so you’re forced to be calculative in this regard.

Make no mistake, the elements make Fallout 4 a classic RPG that’s going to take months for you to complete every single thing with changes coming that makes this game even bigger. And what makes this particular change so impressive ? The ability to craft, essentially, any functional piece of equipment you have in game and modify their stats. Every interactable element in the game carries loot, some of this junk is functionally essential to upgrade your gear and let me tell you some of that junk can be hard to find so it suddenly doesn’t seem so practical to dispose it. I spent most of the time storing it in safe houses peppered across the landscape so I can upgrade my gear and weapons. There’s also the likely chance that you can encounter legendary enemies and successfully taking them down nets you legendary gear, which of course is completely moddable as well.

Speaking of settlements and safe houses, they are craftable as well. The core game mechanic lets you play a key role in the repopulation cycle by attracting settlers, clearing the debris and set up complex structures, providing resources and power and eventually contribute to the settlement’s happiness and at random points when your settlement gets too attractive, it will get raided and you’ll be called on to defend it. Of course, you’ll find people building whole complex structures, that’s been the beauty of Bethesda’s gaming community. It’s given them the tools to use their free time and create structures with the game engine and again, this adds on to an already large list of potential things you can do in Fallout 4.

Not giving too much in the story, the whole landscape has different factions and there only seems an apparent peace when everyone winds up dead. The Commonwealth’s good people are few and far in between. The biggest worry is that quests may feel repetitive, without purpose and that does happen occasionally especially when you’re grinding but you’ll find plenty of life in the characters and the stories you’ll play a part in, and the decisions you take to further your goal aren’t clearly defined in black and white, they’re morally ambiguous and you’ll often find yourself asking is this what you would want to do in the wasteland where everyone is in it for themselves. This clearly happens depending on the companion who you choose to accompany you and the decisions you take also has a scale of approval that either makes them dislike or admire you.

Codsworth the robot butler who is your companion early in game. The voice talent backing him, Stephen Russell, is a special exception as he can speak multiple names depending how you name your character, and as luck would have it, my name was on the list. It put a smile on my face whenever the morally righteous yet gutsy robot acknowledged you, it must have been a feat to voice various names, including a few naughty ones but that’s all in good fun.

In doing so, Bethesda has managed to make me question on how far I’ll go to make the right choices. There were only so many times I could remember that I could save and redo it all over again. Fallout 4 has some amazing story writing I’ve seen and the final chapter of that story, your story, will grip you. It’s an accumulation of decisions you take which all reflect on everything plays out. An innocent choice in the beginning has serious consequences that you won’t see coming, I won’t spoil too much for you but this gives so much playability that you can experience multiple stories over time. The Commonwealth is an epic saga that has over 200 years worth of life that has come to a standstill and it welcomes you with open arms to discover it fully.

Having played it on both Xbox and the PC later, Fallout 4 will stay with you and with mods coming to both PC and in some capacity, console, it’s only going to get ambitious.