– How the game looks and feels :
The user described the game as not looking revolutionary but still looking better than what we’ve seen so far in E3 and via the official screenshots. The game as a whole looks much better than the sum of its parts and the lighting is one of the best he has ever seen. There have been a few framerate dips here and there, but there’s also a lot more on the screen than compared to Fallout 3.
– Difficulty Levels :
There are six difficulty levels. Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard and Survival Hardcore. With each difficulty levels the your character’s damage, enemy resistance, the rate at which enemies spawn and the rate at which legendary enemies spawn are different. Legendary enemies will drop legendary loot for the player once defeated. So there’s perhaps even more of an incentive to bump up the difficulty other than craving a challenge. These legendary items have unique characteristics. Examples of which are better critical hit chances or regeneration of Action Points upon landing a critical hit, the last difficulty is really for hardcore gamers, role playing player.
– The color of your heads up display – HUD – will be configurable via red, green and blue sliders.
– The lock-picking and hacking minigames are identical to those in Fallout 3.
– Map Size :
The player said that it was hard to tell as the map appeared to be quite small in size inside the pip-boy but was actually massive and much closer to the size of Skyrim more a half.
– Combat And Enemy AI :
The player described the first person experience as being amazing, while Fallout 4 is definitely no Call of Duty the first person experience is fantastic and the immersion is incredible. It feels visceral, you feel the impact and the recoil of the weapons, each of which feels completely unique. It’s a huge jump from Fallout 3, which had somewhat of a clunky combat system. The enemy AI feels much more real. Your enemies will hide away from your sights, seek cover and opportunistically attack you when your health is low or when you’re busy reloading. Worthy of note is that the player said he was playing in hard mode. Finally he also said that people can choose to play completely without VATS as it’s not really essential in anyway.
– Animations And NPC Diversity:
The animations looked perfect. And there’s great variety in how the people look. Even generic NPCs like raiders will look completely different from one another.
– Dialogue System, Diplomacy And Karma :
The player said that he did not really enjoy the dialogue system in the game. And that in 23 hours he faced very few missions in which he wasn’t able to get out of a situation by through dialogue. There is a similar friendship system to that in Dragon Age and Mass Effect games. However there is no visible karma system. The in-game statistics also did not have any indicators for your reputation. So the reputation system will likely work in a similar way to Skyrim’s the player speculated.
– Settlements :
One of the primary features in the game. A lot of people will love it, some will not care for it. The player described that he actually normally enjoys this sort of thing in role playing games but that in Fallout 4 he felt that it was harder and more in-depth than he would’ve liked.bThere are almost endless options for it, many missions and objectives that can very easily distract you from the rest of the game.
How Settlements Work :
You will find red workshops tables spread out in settlements all over the world of Fallout 4. A few of those will be on empty settlements that you can build from scratch, while others will be occupied. If you encounter such an occupied settlement you have to first identify what type of people have settled in it. If they’re friendly NPCs you can complete missions to help them and gain their trust. Everything that was showcased in the E3 gameplay showcase can be done by the player. You can destroy and rebuild everything you see in these settlements.
To sustain the population of a given settlement you have to provide them with food, water, energy and beds. Settlements become under attack, in which case you will receive a message notifying you of the situation with the option to go defend your settlement. You can invest countless hours building and sustaining your settlements. A home away from home, where the NPCs are “your people” and you can use these settlements as a base to rest, recoup and carry on with your adventures.
– Weapons :
The player claims to have seen 12-15 basic weapons which you can modify with mods, which he described as “crazy”. Every one of those 12-15 basic weapons has 25-30 unique pieces that can be used to customize it and change its stats.
– Power Armor :
The player described power armor as something that you’d treat almost like a vehicle. You wear the power armor by climbing inside it, if you climb out the power armor stays where you left it. It’s heavy, bulky and slow but extremely powerful.
– Loading Screens:
The player said he had run into many small buildings that don’t require any loading screens. However, bigger buildings still do. Although those loading screens are quite short 0.2 seconds. Shorter than loading screens encountered when fast traveling.
– Narrative :
Finally the narrative. The player said it starts off a bit slow but it picks up and gets quite pacey. He said that in a full day of playing Fallout 4 he only managed to complete 4 of the main quests. They’re long, gruel and tough. But the story is developing into something very very interesting.