Nothing I have seen thus far has shown the bleakness of a post-apocalyptic world. Instead, they have shown us that maybe post-apocalyptic worlds aren't such a bad place after all, when you can just build yourself a shelter topside, do some farming, purify water, play some games on your PIP-boy, and set up a fricking light show. With some brahmin steaks I bet you could have yourself a nice BBQ; invite all your neighbors! All in bright, shiny GFX.

The FO series was rooted on tragedy tempered by quirky humor, but I feel that Beth has focused too much on the latter, at least in what they have shown to us thus far. Where are the slavers? Where are the deranged cults and power-hungry paramilitary organizations? Hell, show us any faction other than generic raiders to serve as cannon-fodder for your little fort.

They need to show me some substance before my hype-meter progresses from lukewarm.

... good for you?

I mean, I don't want the games to lose their sense of bleakness, but I won't deny I want them to amp up the dark comedy. And the color palette is a welcome improvement, too, if less "bleak". More or less, that sense in the game will have to come from the story and side-quests, which Bethesda's keeping under close wraps.

Consider the bleak darkness of the post-apoc setting is so cliche it's puke infusing, its kinda refreshing to see a more lighter tone, the post-apoc works cant stay super bleak forever, its been 200 years after the bomb fell after all.

And consider Todd already stated he and his team prefers the bleaker tone of Fallout 1 over the dark humour of 2, Im not to worried we will get shades of bleakness and darkness too, guess they just figured it just be to nothing showing us the expected, cliche aspect of the genre.

I plan on creating some of my own darkness within the game!

I just hope we get some better evil options this time.

I was going to post the exact same sentence.

I got very frustrated with Fallout 3 and New Vegas for the very same reason in the OP. How can you have this stark, PA world when you can't swing a molerat around without hitting yet another weapons cache, set of advanced powered armor, or (in New Vegas) an entire gunsmithing industry? Now we see that there are vertibirds, androids and all that. The simple truth is that Fallout is NOT post apocalyptic in the bleak The Road or Book of Eli way. It is more of a world that is recovering from Post Apocalypticia and is in a rebuilding stage. Having realized that, I can enjoy it as a form of a sci-fi world instead of a post apoc one. If that isn't for you (generic you as a consumer) then vote with your dollars and find another way to scratch that itch.

This is news to me. Very, very welcome news, because to me FO1 is still the series' crowning jewel.

They haven't shown any story yet. Hard to tell what bleak events might or might not happen until then.

There is the glowing sea, witch generates radioactive storms.

Heh, why would you expect any different from a spin-off? The fact that they've added bloody radios in the first place was enough of a hint of how far have they spun off from the ... "original spirit", so to speak.

But this seems to be what people want - post-apocalypse amusemant park. I don't blame them, I just wish it was under new IP.

I think if you enjoyed Skyrim, you can get safely hyped up for F4, although I don't see the reason why would you want to get hyped for anything.

If the cost of bleakness and darkness and whatever is the fact that humanity just seems to stagnate and do absolutely nothing except survive in the most basic way I don't really think it's worth preserving.

I think the more upbeat and colourful tone of the game in general will make the more harsh and depressing areas that much more intense.

For instance, look at Paradise Falls in FO3. It's a depressing place but the general atmosphere isn't much different from for example Megaton. The colours are the same, the lighting is the same, people wear the same clothes. Now imagine a bleak and harsh place like Paradise Falls in the bright world of Fallout 4. The contrast will make for a more impressive experience I think.

But then they would just be accused of making a Fallout clone, consider how much it looks like Fallout

I expect the areas where the bomb dropped to be bleaker.

I agree with you OP - I wish the palette was a bit darker, the atmosphere seems too bright, and the game seems to be more about EXSPLOSHIONS and FUN rather than a hardcoe RPG experience.

However, two points to consider:

1. We've only seen the few minutes of gameplay that Bethesda has decided to show us for marketing purposes. To attract a larger audience, they'd get more out of showing the cool, fun, awesome parts of the game rather than the subtle elements of atmosphere and detail that only a smaller section of the gaming community will appreciate (hope that makes sense). We haven't really seen enough to make a clear judgement on the overall atmosphere.

2. The theme of the game appears to be different. There's a definite theme of renewal and revival in FO4, what with the significance of the pre-war segment, and the obvious focus on technology due to the Institute and its synths. FO3 was almost literally about finding/creating an oasis in a desolate wasteland; this one seems to be set in a location that has not only recovered, but was not hit as bad by the bombs in the first place.

It's been 200 years since the War happened. You don't think people would have rebuilt society at least partially? The whole theme of the series is picking up what was left of the Old World and building up a New World. I'm sure there will be darker aspects of the game that makes things look bleak and depressing, but that's kind of the point. The series is, or was trying, to show that people are trying to rebuild despite all the problems they have. Fallout 3, EVERYONE was miserable, EVERYONE was in the same, stagnant situation so you couldn't really care for them. Here? Hopefully they're not like that so you DO care when slavers, cult leaders, or paramilitary organizations attempt to bring all their progress to a screeching halt.

I am not dissapointed because they failed to capture the Fallout theme in Fallout 3, in Fallout 4 they will have continue with their vision of Fallout that we saw in F3, but at-least there will be less borrowed stuff from Black Isle and more of their own setting, like Institute and Railroad factions.

Indeed. The one thing I really disliked in Fallout 3 was that the world was completely stuck to the same state it was two days after the war. Like nothing had happened in 200 years. That contradicts not only logic but established lore as well.

We've seen little of Fallout 4 but even that tiny amount already gives much more logical image of the world. At least in the commonwealth there seems to be some actual rebuilding and creating a new society.

I hope and expect there to be areas in the game that are more civilized with nice settlements, stores etc and then again bleaker and darker areas too which are farther from the main settlements, and maybe some settlements that are dark in nature (like that town Arendale (?) from FO3).

Fallout 3 was a little too bleak for my liking, with tortured corpses hanging from the ceilings or super mutant gore bags in every single place I loot. Contrarily, New Vegas was a little too alive which I was fine with at first but then I started to lose interest because it looked more like The Unforgiven meets Casino than a unique post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Perhaps FO4 will succeed in balancing this.

After 200 years I'd expect it to be less bleak, I'd expect people to be rebuilding and improving their world. It's not Metro.

I agree with this and would go even further. There are still many things in the FO4 videos that looked like if the war was just a few month or very few years ago, and not already 200 years. Dead trees? Prewar houseruins made mainly of wood? Would have been rotten away already. Everything made from steel would have been rusted to dust. Vegetation would have been fully recovered. ( just look at actual images of the area around Chernobyl or Bikini Atoll ). I would even expect rebuilding much more progressed. I think for a real bleak scenario a game should play in the month after a nuclear war, not 200 years after

I've only played bits of FO1 & 2 and spent vast amounts of time in 3 & New Vegas. I'll agree Fallout 4 seems to be less dark however it makes sense with the profession of time and redevelopment of the wasteland. People are settling more and control is being employed where chaos once stood. Kinda makes sense I suppose. I'm sure there will be dark parts.

You don't consider the 75% death rate of the Minutemen bleak or depressing? The probable loss of your family? Whatever hopelessness, anger, or other emotion that would inspire the PC to blow-up a nuke in northern Boston? There is a reason why humanity is listed pretty high on the food chain, because there is a lot we can learn and a lot of determination, thus why humanity is growing after 200 years of hiding and arking. We, as many creatures, will find a way to survive and as shown in our history, humanity will also not devolve into a bunch of psychotics, it's just not genetically viable.

You have to remember that Fallout universe is based on popular belief and sci-fi from the 50's/60's. We didn't know back then what we do today. if dinosaurs were in Fallout they'd be giant lizards that drag their tails on the ground. If we went to the moon in Fallout universe it might be populated by giant busty green women. It's an alternate time line in a different universe with different rules.

As for bleakness. I don't need a lot of bleak.. we have plenty of bleak movies, t.v. shows, and books. When everything is at it's bleakest is when silly is needed the most.

Yes, this! Sounds like more than enough tragedy & bleakness to me.

~~~

As for lighter and brighter look, I like what I've seen so far. Some of the concept art has varying degrees intimidating areas. Don't forget we have weather now ... rain, lightning and radiation storms ... these will add atmosphere.

Personally, I am very much looking forward to seeing what the story is about as well as exploring Boston and MIT. I believe that there is going to be so much to do in this game, besides crafting, farming and settlement building with light shows (but these sound like a lot of fun, too).

Tell that to the super mutants

Well, after 200 years it shouldn't be about surviving the apocalypse, after that much time rebuilding should be pretty much complete.

Think what the real world was like in 1815, that's a damn lot of time. Hell, the two biggest wars in history happened too, and there is little evidence of them left despite many cities being bombed into rubble.