This Review is Spoiler-Free.

After 60 hours of gameplay, I finally finished the main story. But of course, you never actually finish a Bethesda RPG,

because simply the world is just too huge and chock full of things to do. This is a huge world to explore indeed.

I'll start by addressing the elephant in the room.
Many people have reported their disappointment at the graphics claiming that it doesn't look that

much improved and isn't a huge graphical improvement like how Fallout 3 was to Fallout 2. Is that true?

Personally i've always viewed Bethesda's treatment of the Fallout series to be an improvement on its Flagship Elder Scrolls series.

It was no secret that Fallout 3 was an improvement upon the Elder Scrolls Oblivion engine, and similarly, Fallout 4 is to the game engine

that powered Elder Scrolls Skyrim. It takes the base engine and refines upon it.

Admittedly, compared to the other AAA titles released in 2015, Fallout 4 graphics aren't gonna blow you away.

But as they say, graphics definitely doesn't matter here, because Fallout 4 is a very good game despite using an older engine.

Everything wrong about Fallout 3 has been thoroughly looked into, and greatly improved upon.

Graphics that was dull and drab in Fallout 3 are given a very distinctive makeover in Fallout 4.
The Commonwealth now looks a whole lot more colourful then the Capital Wasteland, yet
its use of colour is subtle. While the buildings and locations are now alot more colourful,

in a way, its kindda sad to see all this pre-war beauty lying in ruins.

The main story is definitely alot better written then Fallout 3.
Bethesda aren't known for having very good storylines to their games, but Fallout 4 may be the
first one that actually breaks the mold. Without going into too many spoilers, the main story has

a very urgent feel to it, and the player would actually find it kindda hard to ignore it.

Every quest in the main story is just another step of trying to find the truth,
and when the truth is revealed, it can be conflicting at times, but ultimately deeply satisfying.
I liked how important the main story now becomes, but i also missed how non-urgent Fallout 3's
main story was and how I could deviate any time to do whatever I wanted. As a roleplayer,
I find it hard to justify why my character wouldn't pursue the main story.

Overall system has been given tweaks, conversation is being given an overhaul. No longer are you "zoomed in"

to a NPC when talking. Conversation now feels more like the style of Mass Effect and I particularly enjoyed how

natural it felt despite having less conversation options compared to earlier games. Lip synching however needs

alot more work because it can be quite bad at times.

Other tweaks are how you don't have to go to a separate screen when looting items from containers.

You can literally see whats in the container at one glance and loot everything all at one keystroke.

And you will definitely be looting in this game, because of the new crafting system.

Compared to Fallout 3, every single piece of junk in the game now has purpose, and aren't just
for decoration. Each junk is categorized and are vital if you venture into crafting, not only can
you build custom weapons and armors, they even put in a whole new mini game that lets you
build entire villages from the ground up complete with settlers, food storage and defence.

Building all these resources require all the junk you have salvaged in your travels, and it can be very rewarding

to build up a settlement from scratch and watch it grow. That said, I also love that this part of the game is entirely

optional and the game never forces you to do it if you aren't interested in crafting. A lesser game would have

made use of this to artificially lengthen the gameplay time i'd imagine.

While I certainly enjoyed this addition to the game, I can't help but feel that the Settlement building mini-game feels

more like a glorified mod then an actual in-game function that is built from ground up. Certainly lots to improve upon

and I look forward to a more refined version in the next Elder Scrolls title.

Sound is of course exceptionally well done as usual, especially for the new main theme by Inon Zur.

Compared to the industrial, and sometimes robotic feel of Fallout 3's main theme, this new main theme

evokes a sense of loss, and also hope. Something about this new version of the theme makes it especially

epic and melancholic when its played while you're travelling across the devastated wasteland.

As with any Bethesda games, bugs are inevitable, but I find it easy to forgive them because of how huge the open world is.

That said, in my 60 hours of playing, i've only crashed to desktop only about 3 times in total, which is really not that bad at all.

There are also a couple of minor graphic glitches, and the usual NPCs blocking the door annoyances.

In my experience, the game ran smoothly at 1080p with around 60fps on Ultra settings on my 970m laptop class graphics.

Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10
An excellent and worthy sequel to the Fallout series. If you enjoyed Fallout 3, definitely pick this up,

for it improves upon almost everything that was wrong with it. While it may be running on an older engine,

Fallout 4 definitely deserves a spot in your gaming library.

Bethesda has produced yet another winner. Two thumbs up, way up!