Fallout 4

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.

Fallout 4 isn't perfect by any means, but the sheer scope of the game as a whole and the incredibly well-structured world means that should you dare to take the plunge, you'll be swimming around in these waters for dozens, if not hundreds of hours. The bugs may threaten to spoil the show, but every time one rears its head and makes you want to stop playing, you'll feel the pangs within the hour to go back and give things another go. Many people will fail to see everything that the wastelands have to offer, but that absolutely shouldn't stop you from trying to take it all in. Just as in life, y...

Republished on Tuesday 26th September 2017: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the release of Fallout 4's Game of the Year edition on PlayStation 4. The original text follows.

Fallout 4 is the most highly-anticipated video game of the last few years. Does it deliver on the hype? Find out in our review!

No summary available

A largely iterative game, Fallout 4 suffers from a limited dialogue system and procedurally generated content, but still excels at creating a world that is fun and rewarding to explore.

“Fallout 4 sets a new standard for first-person RPGs.”

If you're willing to put up with some technical issues, Fallout 4 is Bethesda's most ambitious RPG to date.

Fallout 4, then, maybe isn’t as good as it should have been, or at least as good as we’d all hoped. Everything new that has been added is pretty inconsequential. Everything that has been streamlined detracts from the series’ depth. Luckily though, the amazing game world presented, combined with our natural curiosity to explore, means that it’s still a highly enjoyable adventure that is unmissable for fans of the series. Aside from the settlement building system, there’s nothing revolutionary here. Just a spattering of evolution across the board that makes this the most playable and accessible,...

Easily the best DLC entry for Fallout 4 to date, Far Harbor introduces some exciting new enemies and a tighter, more enjoyable main storyline. It also brings an air of over-familiarity and fresh performance issues that blight an otherwise exceptional expansion.

20,000 Rads Over the Sea

A technical addendum - for me Fallout 4 mostly managed a steady 60fps at max detail (bar shadow quality, which I dropped from Ultra to High) and 1440p on a GTX 970 and a first-gen Core i7 overclocked to 4GHz. There was one particular indoor area which saw it drop to 35, but that was very much the exception rather than the rule. I also experienced no crashes. I'm afraid I'm not in a position to talk about multi-GPU support.