Fallout 4 Reviews

Fallout 4 is ranked in the 98th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Apr 2, 2017

Fallout 4 represents a huge leap forward from Fallout 3 in terms of visuals and combat, but it somehow delivers an even worse story, and the reduced role-playing mechanics mean that a Fallout game has never been this shallow. Bethesda Studios Games needs to completely revise how it approaches stories in its games or Fallout 5 won't be worth playing.

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GameSkinny
Top Critic
Jul 27, 2016

The mad science experiments are amazing, although the rest of the DLC is a bit of a let down.

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Nov 10, 2015

Bethesda has a reputation for two things: stunningly realised worlds and frustrating technical issues. In both cases, the latest Fallout does not disappoint

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6.7 / 10.0
Dec 27, 2015

If one approaches Fallout 4 expecting not an RPG but a "survival simulator" where the core mechanic is to salvage practically any and everything, defend one's loot with near-FPS style gunplay, and participate in pithy character interactions, then the game delivers. For those looking for a game with memorable character development and interactions, meaningful plot devices, and wondrous discoveries, then Fallout 4 disappoints in what matters.

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Giant Bomb
Jeff Gerstmann
Top Critic
Nov 10, 2015

Fallout 4 may feel overly familiar to some, but there are plenty of places to go, people to see, and mutants to shoot, and most of those things are still exciting to visit, look at, and murder (though not necessarily in that order). The occasionally extreme performance issues found in the console versions of Fallout 4 make those versions more difficult to recommend than their PC counterpart. [OpenCritic note: PC version rated 4/5 stars. XB1 and PS4 versions rated at 3/5 stars.]

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3.4 / 5.0
Nov 9, 2015

The open-world/sandbox RPG genre that Bethesda helped create has moved on and done some amazing things. It's even spread into and influenced other genres like action-adventure and MMORPG-shooter. My hype to see how Bethesda would interpret all these innovations and incorporate them into the Fallout setting turned to disappointment when I stumbled through a game that features the same poorly-implemented combat and all the same old Gamebryo engine annoyances and glitches we've been dealing with for years. Fallout 4 will provide some good old-fashioned fun for players who are looking for a prettier Fallout 3 (now with Minecraft!), but it could have and should have been much, much better than that.

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GameSkinny
B. Chambers
Top Critic
Jan 3, 2016

The problem with Fallout 4 is not that it doesn't live up to its hype, but that it doesn't live up to the Fallout name

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7 / 10.0
Dec 1, 2015

Sure, there is the typical Fallout aesthetic and the goofy music and that joy of seeing deathclaws rip the occasional NPC to death, but with much of the core roleplaying aspects torn out of the game, it isn't the New Vegas (or even Fallout 3) inspired heir that many hoped it would be. Still, it is fun to engage in, if you don't mind being an early adopter and paying full price for a loot hauling ARPG. If you're fine with that, hit the trigger on the game and spend the next 60 hours killing mutants with missile launchers.

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Nov 9, 2015

Fallout 4's setting and conceit are strong as ever, but it feels quite a bit less daring and honed than its predecessor.

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Nov 9, 2015

Fallout 4 is a good game, no doubt, but it's hard not to feel let down after six months of solid hype, and high expectations on the side of the players. It hasn't learned any lessons from predecessor New Vegas, and aside from smaller tweaks and decent gunplay, there's very little to the core game that wasn't in Fallout 3. Building your settlements is fun and the main campaign missions (after a time) are engaging and entertaining. However, for a near-20-year-old series to take two huge steps forward in 2008 and 2010, only to hardly make any progress in 2015, is galling. Go in with that in mind and you'll have a lot of fun. Expect a nuclear revolution and you'll be left wanting.

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7.5 / 10.0
Dec 17, 2015

Fallout 4 retreads far too much old ground to really justify its existence. Even the potential withing this sprawling map is not enough to entice a player enough to toy with wonky A.I. or repeat mundane tasks endlessly.

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7.5 / 10.0
Nov 9, 2015

The above example sums up "Fallout 4" in a nutshell. Its changes and additions can hardly be categorized as improvements from a standpoint of player experience. The game doesn't look, sound or play particularly better than earlier games in the series. Fans of the series will enjoy touring the wasteland because "Fallout 4" feels familiar, but it doesn't have the meaningful change that is to be expected when a series debuts on a new generation of console.

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7.5 / 10.0
Nov 9, 2015

After spending roughly 40 hours with the game, I can safely place it somewhere in the middle of Fallout 3 and New Vegas in terms of quality. A lot of the franchise's signature problems have carried over directly into Fallout 4, but all of its charms have come along for the ride as well. It manages to do a whole lot right, but the story drags at times, and glitches...glitches never change.

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76 / 100
Nov 19, 2015

Fallout 4 does one thing so well that you can mostly forgive, if not ignore, its awkward treatment of the player character. Bethesda's team creates maps that are a joy to explore.

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Nov 9, 2015

Fallout 4 is full of these moments, enough to last a very long time, and if you can ignore the bugs and get into the story, you may find yourself addicted all over again.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2015

Fallout 4 schafft mit den neuen Action Elementen und dem Build-Modus neue Wege für die Serie, vernachlässigt aber einige Bereiche, die die Serie eigentlich so groß gemacht haben. Action Fans und Neueinsteiger in die Fallout Reihe werden auf jeden Fall ihren Spaß haben. Fallout Veteranen wird es zwar etwas an Vielfalt in den Dialog-Optionen und dem Skill-System fehlen, aber wir würden euch den Titel trotzdem ans Herz legen.

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8 / 10
Nov 18, 2015

Crafting mods for your equipment is child's play, compared to the fact that Fallout 4 allows you create and manage entire settlements with the junk you find on your travels

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80 / 100
Nov 18, 2015

Despite weak storytelling, bugs and dated technology, the world of Fallout 4 is a joy to explore, and the new crafting and customization mechanics give you lots of reasons to do so.

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Player.One
Top Critic
Nov 9, 2015

Fallout 4 took a long time to get here. Thankfully it's going to take a long time to finish, too.

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Ofisil
Top Critic
8 / 10
Nov 21, 2015

Grab that nuclear-fuelled Power Armor, then, step into the acid rain, and get ready to enter a world that might not be perfect, but is certainly hard to avoid coming back to again, and again, and again.

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