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I’m about to commit what some Fallout fans would consider a capital offense. Fallout 4 is my favorite Fallout game. Go ahead, New Vegas fanboys. Tell me I’m wrong. I’ve heard the arguments, and I probably agree with most of them. The dialogue system is pointless, the leveling is uninspired, and the voiced protagonist was a terrible idea. And yet, eleven years later, I still can’t stay away from the Commonwealth. On 10 November 2015, Bethesda Game Studios released Fallout 4 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, bringing players another sprawling post-apocalyptic adventure with improved shooting mechanics, extensive crafting, and an entirely new settlement-building system. I was there on day one. I’d preordered the collector’s edition, complete with that cheap plastic Pip-Boy, and picked up the hardcover collector’s strategy guide with it. After spending more than a thousand hours each in Fallout 3 and New Vegas and thoroughly enjoying both, I was ready for another trip into the wasteland. And despite its shortcomings, Fallout 4 delivered something I still enjoy immensely. Welcome to the Commonwealth Fallout 4 takes players to the Commonwealth, the radioactive remains of Massachusetts, more than two centuries after nuclear war devastated the United States. Emerging from Vault 111, the Sole Survivor discovers a world inhabited by raiders, mutants, struggling settlements, and several competing factions with very different ideas about humanity’s future. There’s also the mystery of the Institute, a secretive organization capable of producing synthetic humans nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. It’s a setting full of interesting possibilities. The Commonwealth itself had its own personality. It was familiar, but not quite like the games that came before. And my favorite part was probably its urban environment. The Capital Wasteland had its ruined monuments and subway tunnels, while the Mojave offered vast desert landscapes and western atmosphere. But Boston and its surrounding neighborhoods provided a different kind of exploration. Ruined streets, tightly packed buildings, elevated highways, rooftops, and dangerous neighborhoods gave the Commonwealth a sense of scale and verticality that I really enjoyed. There was always another building to investigate, another alley to explore, or something interesting waiting around the next corner. And the improved combat made exploring those places considerably more entertaining. Better Gunplay and Building a Better Wasteland Two things put Fallout 4 ahead of its predecessors for me: gunplay and settlement building. The shooting simply felt better. Weapons had more weight, aiming felt more responsive, and combat was considerably more satisfying than in the earlier 3D Fallout games. V.A.T.S. was still available, but I no longer felt like I needed to rely on it to make every firefight fun. Weapon modifications added another layer of customization, allowing players to experiment with different configurations and tailor equipment to their preferred playstyle. But settlement building was the real game-changer. For the first time, I could do more than wander through ruined communities and occasionally help their inhabitants. I could actually rebuild them. Gathering materials, constructing buildings, establishing supply lines, recruiting settlers, and providing defenses became an entirely new game within the game. I could spend hours during a single session doing little more than improving my settlements. And I often did. There was something tremendously satisfying about turning a miserable patch of radioactive wasteland into a functioning community. I enjoyed the vanilla construction system, but over the years I’ve also spent considerable time with the Sim Settlements mods, which expanded the possibilities considerably. Suddenly, my settlements could grow and develop in ways that made them feel more like living communities. For me, that added another dimension to the familiar Fallout experience. The Commonwealth Has Some Great Characters I also think Fallout 4 gets considerably less credit than it deserves for its characters, factions, and quests. The Minutemen are easily my favorite faction. I appreciate what they represent: ordinary people trying to protect their neighbors and rebuild civilization without some grand political scheme or obsession with controlling everyone else. And yes, I actually like Preston Garvey. I know he’s become a punchline because of his endless settlement requests, but I think he’s a decent, likable character whose motivations are easy to understand. He’s also one of my favorite companions. The other is Nick Valentine. Anyone familiar with my love of noir and detective fiction probably won’t find that surprising. A synthetic detective with a mysterious past, a battered trench coat, and an office in Diamond City? That’s practically irresistible. His personality, dialogue, and personal storyline are among my favorite parts of the game. Piper, on the other hand? I find her almost unbearably annoying. She’s pushy, manipulative, and has a personality that gets on my nerves every time she’s around. But that’s part of having a varied cast of characters. You’re not necessarily supposed to love everyone. And between the Minutemen, Brotherhood of Steel, Railroad, and Institute, Bethesda created several factions with competing priorities and enough interesting personalities to make the Commonwealth’s conflicts entertaining. I just wish the game had done more with the consequences of choosing between them. Where Fallout 4 Gets It Wrong Here’s where I’ll probably agree with some of the game’s harshest critics. As a traditional RPG, I think Fallout 4 is the weakest of the mainline games. The familiar skills were eliminated in favor of a simplified perk system, character progression became less interesting, and different builds often started feeling remarkably similar after enough levels. The dialogue system was even worse. Those four vague conversation options rarely told you exactly what your character was going to say, and too many exchanges seemed to boil down to different variations of the same answer. And giving the protagonist a voice made it harder to imagine my own character’s personality. Even worse, the voice usually didn’t match the characters I made. For a franchise that once celebrated player choice and roleplaying freedom, these were significant sacrifices. The moral choices also felt watered down. There were still important faction decisions, but the world rarely responded to your behavior with the depth or consistency I wanted. I understand the criticism that Bethesda streamlined and softened so much of the franchise’s grittiness in pursuit of a wider audience that it lost some of its original identity. I’ve watched other franchises I love, including Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons, undergo changes that left me wondering who they were trying to please. And I certainly don’t want Fallout to follow that same path. But that’s the direction it’s going. And here’s the thing. I can dislike those design decisions and still have a fantastic time playing the game. But I’m left wondering, how much more watered-down will the next game be? And will I even like it? Making My Own Roleplaying Opportunities Since the game doesn’t always provide the roleplaying depth I want, I’ve learned to create some of it myself. Whenever I start a new playthrough, I develop a character with a detailed backstory, personality, motivations, and a set of self-imposed rules. Maybe they’re an idealistic hero trying to rebuild civilization. Maybe they’re a hardened survivor with a very particular moral code. The character’s beliefs determine which factions I’ll support, which companions I’ll travel with, and what decisions I’ll make along the way. Sometimes I’ll even restrict the weapons, equipment, or tactics I’m allowed to use. My current Twitch playthrough is a good example. I’m playing a Survival character built around the idea of an Elder Lyons synth, carrying forward his more humanitarian Brotherhood of Steel philosophy. It’s a completely different way to experience the Commonwealth, and that’s part of why I keep returning. The modding community has helped enormously, of course, but the vanilla game provided a foundation I genuinely enjoyed from the beginning. What About the DLC and Fallout 5? Not every expansion was a winner for me. I wasn’t particularly impressed with Far Harbor, despite its popularity among fans. I had considerably more fun with Nuka-World, and Automatron let me indulge in another favorite pastime: building and customizing my own robots. As for Fallout 5, my wish list is pretty straightforward. Give me another enormous world to explore, packed with interesting characters, new factions, and plenty of lore to discover. Bring back more traditional RPG mechanics, meaningful character builds, deeper dialogue, and decisions with real consequences. Get rid of the voiced protagonist. And give me bigger, better settlement building, preferably with the kind of piece-by-piece construction options found in Fallout 76. One more thing: Keep Fallout in the United States, for God’s sake. The retro-futuristic Americana, 1950s cultural influences, and twisted vision of American history are fundamental parts of the franchise’s current identity. I don’t want to lose that. Eleven Years Later I don’t think Fallout 4 is perfect. I don’t even think it’s the best RPG in the series. But it’s the Fallout game I have the most fun playing, and there’s a reason I’m still wandering around the Commonwealth eleven years later. Sometimes I’ll spend an evening fighting through ruined Boston neighborhoods. Other times, I’ll barely fire a shot because I’m too busy building another settlement. And I’m perfectly happy either way. So yes, Fallout 4 is my favorite. Don’t bother trying to change my mind. What’s your favorite Fallout game? And if you could bring back one feature from the older games for Fallout 5, what would it be?

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