There is a certain something in Fallout that makes it very hard to dislike. That certain something is allowing you to be who you really are, even if that means a cross-dressing, drug addicted, alcoholic, hoarder by the name of “Fuckface”, or in other words, me. The wasteland offers a plethora of things to do.  So much that it has a tendency to get a little aggravating at times. The apocalypse dawned itself on America over 200 years ago, why the hell should I be concerned that someone somewhere needs my help? I just finished a night of binge drinking and injecting myself with every sharp edge I could find, plus I probably have an STD from the unprotected sex I had with the performer at a bar, I’ve got my own problems, my character’s life now mirrors my real life.

As supplies in fallout are finite, it’s important that you have your priorities straight when it comes to building

But I digress. Fallout 4 had me stocked up with much more ammo than previous titles. However, I was burning through it much faster. So fast in fact that I had to begin selling drugs just to afford to buy more. Luckily I was a charismatic ol’ chap so the money kept rolling in. Eventually, I not only had enough money for bullets, but for building materials.

In our pool group of 1  person we had a 100% satisfaction rate

The all-new settlement mechanic that utilizes these materials is both the most entertaining and time consuming. Aside from that it’s also completely optional, though the game definitely wouldn’t let you think that. Remember those people that needed your help? Well it’s actually an entire settlement. Each one will need enough food supplies and infrastructure to keep it up to code. Once you have enough supplies you can build these things to increase happiness levels. Or instead of helping actual, real people, you can do what I did and build a kick ass basketball court with a laser light show. And that truly is the beauty in this game.

If your mind isn’t completely warped while wandering the wasteland, you aren’t playing right

In addition to all of this, your character now has a voice. While it’s a nice change of pace, it doesn’t really help with character development. Every dialogue option is now in the same vein as Mass Effect, where there will be a one word summary and your character will begin spewing about something completely unrelated. This new system almost always ends with you saying yes, whether that was your original intention or not.

All in all Fallout 4 is good at creating unique experiences. A song about being painfully shy came on while I was bashing people’s skulls in whilst wearing a barbarian outfit and eating corpses. And while some characters began bugging out on screen, I couldn’t help but smiling a little. So all in all, Fallout 4 is an incredible game, though it has many flaws.