Fallout 4 Review | IGN

IGN:
The world, exploration, crafting, atmosphere, and story of Fallout 4 are all key parts of this hugely successful sandbox role-playing game. Great new reasons to obsessively gather and hoard relics of happier times, strong companions, and sympathetic villains driving tough decisions make it an adventure I’ll definitely replay and revisit. Even the technical shakiness that crops up here and there can’t even begin to slow down its momentum.

[FlexLuger]

Sweet. All my fall games have been 9s! lol! Cant wait to get stuck into this. Ill have TR and fallout 4 by the end of this week...but which do I play first? Im still neck deep in forza and halo, but having TR and fallout 4 as my adventure and RPG games, rounds things off VERY nicely.

[Gazondaily]

Been a great year for gaming really, particularly in the holiday period. My backlog is massive. I still need to complete MGS, Tomb Raider, Halo 5, Forza, Cod and now this. Still, good times.

[Masterofwiiu3ds]

If you can get a backlog off of Xbone games, you'd never see the light of day with a PS4.

I kid! I kid! Can't we all just get along? :)

[donthate]

@Masterofwiiu3ds:

Drumrolls.... Septic already has a PS4 and that is the entire list worthy!

I kid! I kid! Can't we all just get along? :)

[Gazondaily]

@Master

Nah not into Hatsune Miku Upskirt Mega Edition Volume 3.

I kid I kid :P

[MSBAUSTX]

I am worried that IgN is just handing out 9.5 scores these days just because.

[RedDevils]

Not bad for a Bugthesda's game

[user9950279]

Hell yeah, same for m e. I'm knee deep in games atm and bout to go deeper.

"but which do I play first?"

lol. I think we all know the answer to that.

[UltraNova]

Play TR first as it will take you up to 12 hrs, then you'll be free to take on F4 that requires anywhere from 50 to 100 hrs depending on your game style.

[Flash81]

My brother just beat TR in 8 hours on the Xbox 360. Does the Xbox one version have extra levels??

[RiseofScorpio]

The they have more time for the campaign since there's no multiplayer.

[ThePope]

If you beat TR in 12 hours you will be missing out on things. I beat the first one it 19 hours and collected almost everything.

[Flash81]

Fallout 4 is definitely worth 60 bucks!! Tombraider would be a rental to me if my brother didn't have it. Under 8 hrs is always a rental to me if its just a single player game. Or wait until it gets on sale.

[Masterofwiiu3ds]

@Flash - agreed. You could probably get Fallout 4 right now, and by the time you're done (depending on how much free time you have to game), Tomb Raider will be discounted.

[modelgod]

I have 1,3000 hours in Never winter so I should breeze thru birth TR and Fallout 4 like it's nothing.

[MSBAUSTX]

Yay 50+ hours of mindless running across the same looking terrain and killing basically the same thing over and over again only to gather an item that you should have been able to get when you were in this place 30 levels ago. Sounds great.....yawn..... No thanks. Did it in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. I'm not falling for it a third time.

[MazzingerZ]

Hope not as buggy as usual...will wait for a couple of patches

[madmonkey01]

main issues seem to be the frame rate, especially the x1 version. patches should improve it.

[iistuii]

I'd play TR for its entirety & keep on F6, then complete Halo5 & do some warzone & by the time your done with all that maybe, just maybe they would have patched Fallout 4 to something that plays anywhere near as smooth as those other great games. I have no idea how a game can get nearly a perfect score when the frame rate drops so badly, even to 0fps at one part & has floating objects & other bugs. The Witcher was the same, 10 patches later it smoothed out the framerate...just.

[showtimefolks]

IGN can only give out 9 and above but after they gave evolve a 9 all respect and credibility was lost

Waiting for some honest gamer reviews on YouTube

Angryjoe
Angerycentericgaming
Chicago charlie

BTW not hating on fallout 4 it's already pre ordered. Just stating that too many games get 9's.

Already digital foundary did a video and they Cleary stated that both ps4 and Xbox one version has long load times

Xbox one version also has frame rate dips to ZERO in some areas

Hopefully some patches are coming soon

Witcher 3 and bloodborne had long load times at launch but both improved greatly with patches so here is hoping for the same. My only issue with Bethesda is that they usually are not quick to release patches

Also why is it that Bethesda games always launch with issues yet reviewers never say anything. It's to a point where this gas to improve from Bethesda end

[yarbie1000]

Angry Joe lost a lot of credibility with a lot of people when he kept talking about beating Halo 5 in 4 1/2 hrs. He played it Co-op on NORMAL.

[BlackTar187]

@yarbie whats wrong with his play time even though he did coop normal? Is this some new standard that has been set all of the sudden where playthroughs have to be solo on max difficulty?

[showtimefolks]

Yarbie

For your kind information every reviewer plays the review copy on normal/default setting

Also halo 5 campaign is about 4 to 5 hours and that's a fact, halo 4 from what I remember was about the same too

Atleast Joe has the guts to call out game companies that either try to take advantage of gamers or release unfinished or broken games

[s45gr32]

Halo is best played with a buddy. It just feels lonely and kind of meh playing Halo solo.

[ThanatosDMC]

Yarbie1000, how does Angry Joe lose credibility when he reviewed it honestly?

[Aenea]

TR has mulitplayer elements, right? at least online challenges and such, might be more fun to start with that one then!

By the time you're finished with TR the minor framerate issues and some other little bugs that are bound to happen in a huge open world game could have been patched!

[Null]

Be on the lookout for spoilers. People are mixing the game ending spoiler with regular comments or just making it their name. I don't even know why you would spoil the games ending.. The main mission in almost every Bethesda game is always like two hours long and you spend the rest of the game just having fun making your own story

[Neonridr]

what do you mean spoilers? People are ruining the game??

How dare they do... Han shot first... such a thing

[Null]

That's not funny. I'm currently watching those movies. Grow up

[Neonridr]

lol... my apologies kind sir.

[BlackTar187]

sorry you don't get to complain about spoilers on a 30yr old movie.

[Taero]

It's cynical of me but I read your comment in kind of a jerky eye motion because I was suspicious of you putting it in the middle :p like a "watch out for ending spoilersSPOILERpeople are doing that"

[Elit3Nick]

*Looks at name* Oh god, everyone dies confirmed

[cfc78]

Judging by the scores (didn't read the article just incase of spoilers) were in for a great game.

11 hours to go hope we all enjoy.

[Garethvk]

I have been playing almost a week now. I can say it is easily the most accessible game in the series.

[Automatic79]

Is fallout 4 as slow as Fallout 3 and is the shooting mechanic closer to a shooter game then a turn based RPG?

[Garethvk]

For me it was faster and easier. It does take some getting used to. We have some video up and you can see the mechanics in action. The biggest issue for me was something coming at me, I tended to be early or late with firing so I died a few times until I got it sorted out.

[iistuii]

I'm reading it has frame skipping & terrible frame rate issues, have you noticed this ??

[Garethvk]

No but a 4 GB 9700 card on an I7 with 24 Gb Ram.

[iistuii]

Ahhhh PC the way to go then, cheers for reply..

[frostypants]

Depends on your PC.

[RedDevils]

A low-mid end gaming pc will do

[Paytaa]

Hahaha yeah I'm going to be a straight up vampire the next couple days playing this. Goodbye world.

[Meltic]

This game wont be GOTY. I Think witcher 3

[DarkOcelet]

Witcher 3/MGSV/Fallout 4/Bloodborne are the GOTY contenders and one of them will win.

[RiseofScorpio]

Only the first 3 imo and it'll probably be between Witcher and FO4.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Agreed. I think the bulk of the GOTY might come down to those. Love Fallout series and getting Fallout 4 in mere HOURS YES! But I know it likely won't get the bulk of the GOTY awards.

MGSV, Witcher 3 and Bloodborne likely one of the 3 will get the most GOTY awards. They got a ton of perfect scores across the board. Fallout though its one of my favorite series last gen, just doesn't command that type of respect when it comes to getting a perfect score, I know it has some technical issues but I'm fully ok with that and feel the trade off is worth it.

Based on how GOTY awards work, I feel the best should be to the most radical design and clearly over all best game. MGSV, Witcher 3 and Bloodborne come to mind with those awards.

My personal GOTY award right now is easily MGSV, but Fallout 4 would have to do a whole lot in the next few hours for me to really change my mind lol, but I feel even me loving Fallout for being Fallout isn't enough to give it such a award if I consider just how good MGSV was, I put well over 80 hours in it, even with a strange ending, I still loved what I played, loved the difficulty, loved the options to beat levels as its difficulty forced me to really think about my play style and to change it to fit my objective.

Something like waiting until dark when less guards are out, or using DD to sniff out hostages or enemies or using Quiet to divert attention away from me to be able to complete what I need to do, or even using C4 to distract enemies to a location to give me some time to complete an objective or calling in a air strike etc Just a wealth of options that get so complex, you realize you need a team sometimes to complete some really, really hard missions. Though many might get mad at its ending (won't spoil it for anyone) I'm actually fine with it and it doesn't change how I feel about the over all game...the ending is a few strange minutes, it doesn't erase the 80 hours of the greatest stealth game I've ever played in my life! I still loved the story and all the strange answers to why things happen the way they do in Metal Gear 1, 2 and even Solid and other games.

If you played Metal Gear 1 or 2, you spot many, many answers to who are many people in MG1 and 2 lol, its pretty neat from a MGS series view point, if one didn't play the whole series, I can see why many of those moments are not the same.

GOTY this year legit can go to many titles, its rare you really get such a toss up of such amazing titles.

[overrated44]

Don't really know why people are neglecting Bloodborne, it's easily my game of the year so far. And yes, that's after playing Witcher 3, MGSV, and (I'm in the middle of Fallout 4 so opinions could change). But still, Bloodborne is #1 as of right now. Or have you not played it?

[EazyC]

Depends on what you prefer, I don't think you'll objectively be able to cheek call one 'better' as they're so different thematically

[frostypants]

Witcher 3 bored me. I prefer the freedom offered by Bethesda's style of RPG.

[Germany7]

The Witcher 3 fans sound insecure with comments like this.
Fallout as a series it's way better.

[generic-user-name]

Both consoles have framerate issues, crow being served today.

[Neonridr]

considering both are identical in terms of presentation, you would expect any issues to be similar.

[generic-user-name]

Hey, that's some nice rational thought you have there, wasn't much of that in yesterday's article where many were quick to dump on the PS4 version while claiming the X1 version was 'butter smooth'.

[slate91]

It was never that deep to "serve crow" lol.

[FlexLuger]

"It was never that deep to "serve crow" lol."

^^This.

[EazyC]

Shut it, Defoe!

[generic-user-name]

:'(

[EazyC]

*Defoe being served today

[Null]

Don't know why I am laughing so hard at this. "Crow being served". I might get thrown out of class if this chuckle turns into a laugh

[Flash81]

Fallout 4 will definitely be a contender for GOTY! And one of the games that will definitely get a 9 metacritic review score just like Witcher 3,Bloodborne, and MGS5!

[Tobsesan]

I dont get how MGS5 is on the GOTY list anyway. It has a horrible story and you play the same missions in the same areas OVER AND OVER again. This game istn even worth an 8.

[Crashbandicoot77]

That's the same way I felt about Halo 5 story. But Multiplayer is good

[_-EDMIX-_]

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

Your free to not like MGS5...but at least recognize what the game did well. It didn't get a slew of perfect scores for no reason.

If you play the same way over and over again, that has more to do with you and not the game. The can't hold your hand and force you to use the features given to you to complete a mission. I've noticed many people who speak on the gameplay, seem to also do the same things, even though the game allows purposely for you to do the mission in many, many different ways.

The MGS series has always had you doing many of the same things, sneaking to objective, cut scene, sneaking to objective....cut scene lol

This game gives you an option to play many ways, while still giving you cut scenes, of a story mind you, lots of is already known. If you know MGS lore, you also know who is who and what actually happens to some of those characters, some of it is legit some tongue and cheek humor. ie look how Miller is to Solid Snake...(I won't spoil anything for anyone one lol)

The detail, amazing game play, wealth of options is just staggering. Mind you, I played the entire series before MGSV released as I had a very fresh memory of what you did in those games. You do MORE of ALL of them in MGSV easily.

I personally love MGS3's story, but by default MGSV is the best MGS ever released. I still loved its story as it makes so many references to people in Metal Gear 1, and you get to find out many reasons behind who sides with who, how Foxhound started and why the soldiers in MGS1 and MGS2 look the way the look lol

I many also loved that you where now not forced into codec story parts, you can now just optionally listen to cassettes . Consider LOTS of MGS series is told in audio vs cut scenes. They merely let it be an option vs forcing a long scene. If you want lots of those story parts.....listen to the cassettes, they are not really that different from codec scenes.

MGSV got more 10's then Bloodborne and Witcher 3. I'm sorry but mere moments of a strange ending, don't ruin an 80 game that is easily one of the best stealth games to ever release.

MGSV is as good as the person playing it. If you need the game to hold your hand like the previous games have done.....you may not like MGSV, the hardcore MGS fans and clearly most of the community approve of its difficulty and options and don't mind the story. You actually sorta know how those events end considering what Metal Gear 1 actually is lol

[Tobsesan]

@_-EDMIX-_

I played it myself and i cant see a 10 in this game. Everything looks the same and the base building is just pure ****. Compared to Fallout 4 this game is a joke. Ye the gameplay might be good but other games get smacked in reviews for thing noone talks about in MGSV like the bad story and replaying old missions over and over. BUT HEY, its kojima and he cant do wrong.

[NovaCorps]

"_-EDMIX-_
the hardcore MGS fans and clearly most of the community approve of its difficulty and options"

no they dont
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[RedDevils]

MGS is not everyone cup of tea, especially not in my case lol

[Automatic79]

Fantastic review

[Gatsu]

Awesome <(^O^<) !

[PizzaSteve]

Broken games get 90's. Welcome to the world of game reviews folks.

[LeCreuset]

I was just typing something to that effect while you were commenting. Even worse, it's not consistent! Other games would never get away with it. It looks fun and they sold me on it, but come on with the 9.5.

[Dark_Overlord]

It's why reviews are pretty much pointless nowadays, certain big games from big companies get free passes, however smaller devs would be absolutely slaughtered if the game had issues :/

[LeCreuset]

@Dark_Overlord

I'm just finished reading the Digital Foundry analysis. How on Earth does this score a 9.5?

[iistuii]

I agree totally. Can you imagine if Halo 5 had framerate that dropped to a 0fps & had floating objects & other bugs, it would have been slaughtered...

[Dan_scruggs]

Her is a list of the things that had to be patched in Witcher 3. Nothing is perfect buddy.

http://wpc.4d7d.edgecastcdn...

[KiwiViper85]

And it scored multiple 10/10's at release.

Thanks for proving his point...

[DJustinUNCHAIND]

That's why I'll be playing RotTR first!

[Big_Game_Hunters]

Broken game, garbage gameplay, Uninspired world, Terrible framerates, ass graphics= 9.5. Thats what happens when you give lazy developers a bunch of drones to fund their games.

@dan scruggs
Day one patch problems vs things that will never get fixed. Because lets be honest, bethesda doesn't fix their games, they don't care bout their fans. They leave it for modders to fix. Still not good, but at least those issues were fixed by the endnof the week.

[LeCreuset]

So how is this a 9.5 given the frame rate issues and bugs? This is the problem I have with reviews. Critics of other industries have a hard enough time maintaining consistency and objectivity while delivering a review pertinent to their audience. There is even less of a professional standard separating game critics from the general audience. Gaming criticism is missing that authority which commands greater respect for the opinions of the subset of gamers that are critics than those of the greater gaming community.

Too many gaming critics fall into these categories:

1) The "go with the flow" type. This is the critic who allows a game's hype to positively influence their review score. They enter into the review with a certain expectation, whether from marketing, brand, word of mouth, or other factors; and they're review score is already established within a certain range.

2) The hipster. Self explanatory. The critic who scores a game to go against popular opinion.

3) The shill. Allows bias for or against a brand to effect review scores.

4) The fan. They type of reviewer who, say, let's their distaste for horror games bias their review of a horror game, or scores game X highly, despite glaring flaws, because they are fans of the franchise or genre.

[Tobsesan]

Dude this game is so filled with bugs its not even funny anymore

[LeCreuset]

Yeah. Looks fun, but I think I'll wait a bit before picking it up. Already got bit with Skyrim.

[Sketchy_Galore]

Damn that's a relief. I was honestly bracing myself for 5s and 6s on these reviews. It seems the complaints from the slightly lower scoring reviews are that the game doesn't stray too far from the old formula, which is just about perfect for me.

[FrostXVenom]

I wanted this game to be good but not like this..... not with those bad A.I and lip sync(WONT MENTION GRAPHICS)in 2015....I dont think it will be completely playable until next year after some mods.....

Bethesda just dont like to take time to fix half of the issues the game has got now.....

[jcnba28]

So it seems the media don't care about bugs and glitches when it comes to review scores..

[FrostXVenom]

Its Bethesda,reviewers review their game without considering them....

Bethesda is known for bugs and glitches.....So no need to mention...

[Kalebninja]

So because its Bethesda it excuses them from not mentioning the issues in the game. Fanboy talk right there.

[MSBAUSTX]

So we only hold Activision, EA and Ubisoft to high standards but we give Bethesda a free pass on the same Bull$h1t programming that we crucify the others for? My god I pray heaven saves the gaming industry from itself.

[FrostXVenom]

I remember AC Unity was heavily criticized by the reviewers for performance issues bugs and glitches...

Consider all those issues in fallout 4,for me its 8 to 8.5,as mentioned all those issues are overshadowed by its gameplay.....

And then review it again after all the issues have been fixed...

[Big_Game_Hunters]

Its okay when Bethesda releases broken games.

[Silly gameAr]

Only when it's certain games from certain companies.

[SegaGamer]

It's frustrating. If this was a JRPG or a platformer with bugs, it would be ripped apart by reviewers. It's blatant bias. Some games ( especially games that involve guns and fast cars ) seem to get away with it.

This is why i don't listen to reviewers, they can't be trusted to be fair.

[Tsunade]

Looks like while both versions has problems, the PS4 has superior results

"On balance though, PS4 is in the better shape as terms of consistency across the game; it has nothing close to the stuttering seen on Xbox One, and a better frame-rate in big towns and cities as well. Xbox One has a repeatable advantage in the Deathclaw battle, where effects clash heavily, but in most scenarios we get matching, or superior results on PS4."

[Tobsesan]

Im 13h in and i would give it a 7.8 so far. It has some great parts but the Visuals are sometimes horrible to look at and its filled with dozens of bugs.

[iNFAMOUZ1]

GOTY baby, cant wait to recieve my key, if only funstock would deliver them already!!!! dang it >:(

[kenwonobi]

Game reaches 0 fps has major bugs=9.5.... Well it must be really good in other areas. We all know Fallout is really fun. So that's probably the case.

[Realms]

I don't trust reviews anymore I will play the game and see if it lives up to the hype. Not a huge fallout fan but I am willing to try the game out, considering it has some performance issues I wonder how much this will affect my overall view of the game.

[DivineAssault]

Good to know this will be a joy to play.. I wonder how many hours i will be dumping into it

[Mroc13]

Someone tell me why I should buy this game. It looks so drab. The combat doesn't look that fun. So what's so good about fallout?

[Protagonist]

@Mroc13

So you didn´t bother to read the review, you thought it would be better to ask some random person on N4G, what´s good about Fallout, which you wouldn´t accept anyway, if been told it´s good.

Makes sense...

[Mroc13]

Of course I watched the review. I was not impressed. Stop being a cunt.

[KiwiViper85]

Immature? ^^^

Fuck you N4G

[Mroc13]

More of a Battlefield guy though.

[Cell128]

I'm not sure if u shold get this for my ps4 or my laptop (clevo w230st with a gtx765 nvidia card). If the laptop will run it good I rather get it for that asm not home often.

[Genki]

Interesting. So, why exactly is IGN not corrupt for this review like they are for their reviews of Halo, CoD, and The Order, again?

[NovaCorps]

lol so far the game sells better on the ps4
so much for exclu deals microsoft hahahaha

[NovaCorps]

love the game so far

[Kuma]

Let's hope it's not all hype like Destiny one.

[Maxor]

Huge shock, it's another Fallout game that doesn't run well. Even on the PC the game can plunge from 60 FPS to 20 FPS in some fights.

[guyman]

"Even on the PC the game can plunge from 60 FPS to 20 FPS in some fights."

That's a very wild statement. it depends on your pc

[thricetold]

Same ole ign. They give out 9's like police dole out beatings. You get a 9 and you get a 9 and you get a 9.... Flaws? Who cares about those? No need to dwell on them at all.

What a joke of a site and who in their right mind gives credence to these "professional" sites?

[coolbeans]

9GN...9GN never changes. ;P

[N8]

I'm doing the buy two get one free at target tomorrow. Fallout 4, tomb raider and Blops3.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

I just want to say that there were some neogaf "insiders" claiming the review score from IGN was going to be low.

lol.

[Maxor]

While the features are great, after 3 Fallouts I feel that this franchise is missing something intangible. Something that can not be checked off like shopping list of features. I think it's missing a soul. I think Fallout should be rebooted back to it's RPG survival roots where survival in the wasteland actually means something.