Developer Bethesda Game Studios Publisher Bethesda Softworks Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2015
At launch, in 2015, Fallout 4 arrived like the dropping of a bomb. At the point of impact, it broke records, flattening GTAV’s for the highest number of concurrent players in a Steam game not developed by Valve. And with that bright light hanging in the sky, it took a moment for the sound of dissent to catch up.
Much of that came from the subset of players who considered its predecessor, Fallout: New Vegas, the high point of the series. That game – a rare commission from outside of Bethesda’s own stable of developers – had been distinguished by slow-burn faction stories and choices that meaningfully rewarded skill specialisation.
Five years later, though, seemed to show an intention to step away from these traits. And indeed from Traits, the characterful modifiers revived from Black Isle’s original games by developer Obsidian Entertainment (no wonder, given the studios’ entwined histories) but absent here. The logic might have been sound enough, part
