So, as you know, I got a new laptop, and a rather nice boy I know got me a present before it even shipped. Fallout 4.

The fallout games have always been dear to me, because they combine elements of things I love, with things that I like but am terrible at, so they help me learn. I’m terrible at FPS. Truly terrible. When something jumps me, I freak out, flail, and die. It’s embarrassing. Fallout has an FPS element, but it’s not all shooting, and if there’s a foe I just cant deal with, there’s VATS to help out. I’ve become something of a skilled sharpshooter though, which is nice.

 

The real reason I love Fallout though, is how it combines:

• Apocalypse tales
• Zombies
• Urban decay
• Art Deco architecture
• 50’s Americana
• borderline self-trolling humour
• What I call the “limited population” genre (Walking Dead, Lost, Resident Evil), because it’s still vaguely reality based, but not at current population concentrations
• Extreme customizability, both as an inbuilt mechanic, and through mods
• Strong sense of immersion

Right off the bat I was simultaneously super pleased and horrified with the character editor. The ability to customize so many parts of your character’s bone structure and facial features was fantastic. The controls to do so were a little irksome, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty powerful. I still wish there were numbers for fine tweaking, but whatever. The hair options…they…exist. They’re kinda bland and boring, the image map for the hair is rather coarse and ugly, and the lack of bright hair in this irradiated wasteland was puzzling. I have fairly pale eyes in real life, and I found all of the eyes were very dark. I wish the bodies had more height weight options, but from a programming and content management standpoint, I understand why they didn’t offer more choice there.

The extras section… The moles are awful. The scars and blemishes and damage are mostly useless. The makeup. Hoo boy. I was excited when I saw lip matte, lip gloss, lipstick, and waterline. I thought that they perhaps had a makeup guru on their design team… They did not. The lip liners go with exactly zero of the other lip options. The eye shadows are confusing, messy, and extremely limited in colour. The liners are okay. Interesting style, very limited colours.

I had to layer a lot of options together over the course of nearly two hours to get what I wanted on my first playthrough. I face-rippered my face for the second playthrough,* because I was so not spending two more hours tinkering. Also, my first playthrough was about 90 hours long, so I had grown attached to, and familiar with my face.

* I had to make a second playthrough long before finishing the first, because my companions were bugged. I initially found Dogmeat kinda noisy and annoying, but I just thought he was an anxious, whiny dog. I finally ditched him and started using Codsworth, but by that point, I was a good 20 hours in. Codsworth never shut up. I don’t mean a little chit chat here and there and a few snide remarks about looting junk. Oh no. His audio files would clip off the ends off each other to talk and talk and talk. I was in the lonely chapel and, “Ma’am, it’s a pity thMa’am, it’s a pity that this is probably considered clMa’am it’s a pity that this is probably considered clean these days. The lack of light in hThe of light in here is disMa’am, I don’t think we’re aloRIGHT! WHAT’S ALL THIS THEN? Tally HoI don’t feel pain!” Srsly Codsworth? You might like me, but I want to rip your limbs off.

This was just my initial experience. It may seem like I don’t love the game, but I do. Oh, I do. More later.

Other Photos from the Wasteland:
PftWL1: Fallout 4 Reviewish Ongoing Series
PftWL2: Headshots

Part of a series in which I make lazy, half-assed reviews of games. Other Reviewishes:

Bastion
Citalis
Bunny Programming
Diablo III
Fallout 4 (old)
PlanetZoo
Sigils of Elohim
Torchlight
This War of Mine
The Witcher