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Buy the complete post-nuclear adventure with six official add-ons and enjoy hundreds of locations, characters, and quests. Customize your own robot companions, capture live creatures, build a Vault, and explore Nuka-World in this award-winning game.
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“Welcome home.”
is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth major installment in the Fallout series (eighth overall). It was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 10, 2015, except in Japan, where it was released on December 17, 2015, due to the country's requirement to censor some footage and references to atomic war, while still keeping the plot intact.[Non-game 2] A VR version of the game was released in 2017 and is treated as an independent standalone game.
The story of Fallout 4 focuses on a spouse, the Sole Survivor of Vault 111, as they search for their missing child, Shaun. Fallout 4 is set in and around the Boston area in 2287, 10 years after Fallout 3. Along the way, the Sole Survivor discovers a world in fear of a mysterious organization known as the Institute, consumed by paranoia of a race of robotic yet also biological human-like beings known as synths. As a result of the synth-focused narrative, the Sole Survivor, as well as the player, are faced with ethical questions such as how far people should experiment with science, the morality of creating sentient living machines that express emotions and suffering, and what it means to be human. Story elements from previous games are present, primarily Fallout 3; the main story of Fallout 4 takes elements from The Replicated Man quest from Fallout 3.
In 2022, Bethesda announced that a free next-gen update patch would be released for Fallout 4 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Released on April 25, 2024, this patch includes bug fixes, performance mode features for high frame rates, quality features for 4K resolution gameplay, and new Creation Club content. There are three new quests, including one which brings back the Enclave.
is similar to Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas in some ways; the gameplay allows the ability to switch from first to third-person view. Enemies such as mole rats, mirelurks, raiders, super mutants, deathclaws, and ghouls return to the series. The player character, the Sole Survivor, accesses the in-game menus through a Pip-Boy to manage statistics,...
The events of Fallout 4 occur in 2287; a decade after Fallout 3 and six years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas.
The game takes place in the Commonwealth which is composed mainly of the former state of Massachusetts and is set heavily in the eastern portion of the state. The largest and central city of the game is Boston but also includes the surrounding towns and cities of Cambridge, Concord, Lexington, Malden, Nahant, Natick, Quincy, Revere, and Salem. Other real-world locations are represented in less detail, such as Bedford which has been replaced simply with Bedford Station. The game also includes some fictional towns, such as Sanctuary Hills where the game begins.
Famous local landmarks like the Paul Revere Monument, the USS Constitution, as well as the Massachusetts State House with its unique golden dome, are included in the game world. Other locations that make an appearance in the game are Scollay Square, renamed Goodneighbor, Bunker Hill, and the baseball stadium Fenway Park which has become a shantytown called Diamond City.
In Fallout 4, the Boston area has been quite flooded compared to real life, with new rivers. A large and still inhospitable nuclear blast site called the Glowing Sea is to the southwest. The starting area in the northwest contains low-level enemies and is relatively safe, but the enemies get progressively tougher towards the southeast area of the map.
Synopsis
The player is the Sole Survivor of Vault 111. Although the player can decide the Sole Survivor's name, gender and appearance, the father is commonly referred to as "Nate" while the mother is commonly referred to as "Nora" due to them being the names given to the player's spouse. Fallout 4 briefly begins on October 23, 2077 (the day of the Great War), showing the player living with their spouse and child, Shaun. After a series of events, they emerge after the Great War. The story of Fallout 4 guides the player into its world, discovering leaders of different factions with varying views of synths. These include Preston Garvey of the Minutemen which lacks a strong opinion on synths, Desdemona of the pro-synth The Railroad, Arthur Maxson of the anti-synth Brotherhood of Steel and even the leader of the Institute behind the synths, "Father." Synths being a main focus in the game encourages the player to empathize with the characters' distrust and uncertainty as to who they should trust, adding a level of paranoia with character interactions. During the game, it is revealed that seemingly innocuous characters are actually synths. Every major faction has at least one synth within their organization.
Plot
On the morning of October 23, 2077, a father stares at his reflection in a foggy mirror and remarks war never changes. His wife tells him to stop hogging the mirror. The player may play as the mother or father. The protagonist walks around their house and speaks to their Mr. Handy, Codsworth. A representative from the Vault-Tec Corporation arrives and says because of the contributions of their family to the country, they have been chosen to be allowed in the local Vault, Vault 111. The protagonist decides to verify their information. After the representative leaves, Shaun cries and his parent spins a mobile over their crib to calm him down. Codsworth implores the family to see a TV broadcast, confirming that America is being nuked. Sirens begin blaring in Sanctuary Hills, causing all the residents to flee to the local Vault, but only those who are approved access are allowed past a security gate. The protagonist descends into the Vault seconds before they are hit by the explosion. Inside, the new residents are welcomed by the Vault 111 overseer, given their jumpsuits, and a doctor implores them to enter a decontamination and depressurization chamber. After what appears to be a few moments inside the pod, the protagonist witnesses a mysterious man open their spouse's pod and try to take Shaun. The spouse refuses and so the man kills the spouse and steals the baby. The man then looks at the protagonist and calls them the "backup" before leaving. After what seems to be more moments, the pod opens and mentions that they were actually inside a cryogenic chamber; the other residents asphyxiated to death in their pods. The protagonist mourns their spouse, takes their wedding ring and says they will seek vengeance. The protagonist makes their way outside the Vault which has become infested with giant roaches, realizing they are the Sole Survivor. Back on the surface, the Sole Survivor sees the ruins of Sanctuary Hills and discovers from Codsworth that 210 years have passed since that fateful morning. After a sweep of the neighborhood, the Sole Survivor discovers no evidence of Shaun. They learn that survivors may be in Concord so they head there and meet Preston Garvey of the Commonwealth Minutemen. They are told Diamond City may be a good lead and at the front gates, they meet Piper Wright, a reporter who has been banned from the city because she wrote a speculatory article suggesting the mayor could be a synth. Piper uses the Sole Survivor to get back into the city; inside, they meet Nick Valentine, a friendly synth detective who has been allowed to live in the city. Nick encourages the Sole Survivor to investigate Conrad Kellogg, the suspect of Shaun's kidnapping. They find a cigar in Kellogg's house which Dogmeat tracks to Fort Hagen where the Sole Survivor kills Kellogg. Upon leaving, a Brotherhood of Steel airship flies to the Boston Airport where the Sole Survivor can learn about the group and possibly join them; if done, the Sole Survivor can discover Paladin Danse was secretly a synth all along who was unaware, and either let him go or execute him per Arthur Maxson's orders. Kellogg was a cyborg and a device connected to his brain allows the Sole Survivor to dive into his memories with the assistance of Doctor Amari at the Memory Den. Inside Kellogg's memories, the Sole Survivor witnesses moments of Kellogg's life, sees Shaun has grown up to be a young boy, and discovers the secret of how the Institute manages to lay low: teleportation. Kellogg's memories and Amari's advice indicate that the Sole Survivor should locate an escaped Institute scientist, Brian Virgil, who escaped to the Glowing Sea after intentionally transforming himself into a super mutant to escape the Institute. Virgil informs the Sole Survivor they need to collect a "courser chip" for the teleportation so they kill a courser, Z2-47. To use it, Virgil tells the Sole Survivor to find a synth liberation faction called the Railroad. Using the Freedom Trail, which is a red colored brick pathway in Boston's streets, the Sole Survivor finds them located under a church led by a woman named Desdemona. She implores the Sole Survivor to keep their location hidden, but is willing to let them join if they desire. With the help of either the Minutemen, Brotherhood or the Railroad, the Sole Survivor builds a teleporter to enter their facility where they discover Shaun, but not in the way they expected. The Sole Survivor quickly discovers there is something off about "Shaun" during their conversation, especially when their child appears to be disturbed by the reunion and is deactivated like a synth. The real Shaun enters the room, who is actually an elderly man who has become the leader of the Institute, due to being removed from the cyro pod many decades ago and growing under the Institute's wing long before the Sole Survivor woke up. Shaun allows his parent to wander around the facility in order to learn more about the Institute and get to know its employees. The Sole Survivor learns the Institute is an advanced technological site of innovation, capable of teleportation and making artificial humans and gorillas, but they are also incompetent when it comes to keeping their synths in check, making them require "coursers" to go after escaped synths, and even dedicate an entire sub-organization called the Synth Retention Bureau. Despite their inventions, they can not cure Shaun's cancer either. Before leaving, the Sole Survivor meets Madison Li who gives them the ability to teleport into the Institute. In the Sole Survivor's free time, they may also discover the reason why synths are able to escape the Institute in the first place. After leaving the Institute, the player is encouraged to take a faction's side which will result in angering another faction due to their differing views on synths and inability to compromise, especially due to Shaun's rigid belief that synths are not sentient. As a result of Shaun's, Desdemona's and Maxson's differences of opinion, the three leaders instead demand the Sole Survivor to go on a murder spree and wipe out the other factions. However, if the player purchased the add-ons, the player can instead take a boat ride to Far Harbor and the Island or a subway train to Nuka-World, before deciding on a faction. The former story involves the mysterious disappearance of a teenager named Kasumi Nakano and focuses on synths, while the latter story focuses on three gangs trying to dominate the abandoned theme park.
Endings
has four main endings, one for each main faction, with some variations regarding the relationships of the factions involved. For example, it is possible to complete the Minutemen ending while keeping both the Railroad and Brotherhood alive but destroying the Institute. One is able to mix the steps they take towards any particular ending since not all faction quests necessarily force those of another to fail. For example, it is possible to warn the Railroad after being sent by the Institute to destroy it, then destroy the Prydwen as part of the Railroad, and then return to Father and get the Institute ending slideshow. Although there has been no officially sourced confirmation of this as of yet, in the Fallout TV series which canonically takes places in 2296, 9 years after Fallout 4 in 2287, an airship that both heavily resembles the Prydwen and has the name marked on its hull appears in multiple scenes during the first season, indicating that it and the East Coast Brotherhood canonically survive the events of the game, that the Sole Survivor either allied with them or with the Minutemen (and did not destroy the Brotherhood), and that the Institute and Railroad endings (which both require destroying the Prydwen) are most probably non-canon.
Initially, in 2004, Bethesda Softworks licensed from Interplay Entertainment the rights to create and publish three Fallout games (Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4). Later, in 2007, Bethesda purchased the entire franchise, and Interplay licensed back from Bethesda the rights to a Fallout MMORPG. The legal dispute concluded in January 2012, with Bethesda Softworks and its in-house development studio retaining the rights to all of the Fallout franchise, including an MMO.
In 2009, Bethesda's Pete Hines said, "The whole reason we went out and acquired the license and that we now own Fallout is that we clearly intended to make more than one." He also added, "This is not something we're going to do once and then go away and never do it again. When that will be or how long that will be God only knows, but we acquired it specifically because we wanted to own it and develop it and work on it like we do with The Elder Scrolls."[Non-game 5]
Development began right after Fallout 3's release, in 2008. The game had minor development due to Skyrim being developed at the same time. After Skyrim was released in 2011, Fallout 4 became the primary project for Bethesda.
During voice recording, Fallout 4 was given the codename of Angelina, ostensibly a space sci-fi game, according to the audition sides.[Non-game 6] Voice recording for video games was a much more secretive process at the time of Fallout 4's development, and many actors initially did not realize what they were working on, before reading dialogue that clued them into the fact that it was a Fallout game.[Non-game 7]
Pip-Boy Edition
The Pip-Boy edition of Fallout 4 features: a wearable Pip-Boy that can, according to a Forbes article, hold the iPhone 6, iPhone 5/5s, iPhone 4/4s, Samsung Galaxy S4, the Samsung Galaxy S5 and many other smartphones using foam inserts.[Non-game 19] a Pip-Boy pocket guide, a Vault-Tec perk poster, a RobCo Industries stand (for your Pip-Boy), a capsule case, and the game in a collectible metal case.
Fallout 4 Nuke Pack
The Fallout 4 Nuke Pack features a Fallout 4 lunchbox, a 37x10" Fallout 4 Print, a Vault Boy mini bobblehead, and the game in a collectible metal case. The Nuke Pack is sold exclusively in Australia and New Zealand, distributed by EB Games.[Non-game 20]
Fallout 4 Mighty Bundle
The Fallout 4 Mighty Bundle features: a 100-page hardcover Fallout 4 Franchise Book "...detailing in words and hi-res imagery the history of Fallout over the years", a Fallout Vault Boy Pop! Vinyl figure, and a copy of the game.[Non-game 21]
Bethesda announced that DLC would come and start in early 2016, as well as smaller updates along the same lines Skyrim saw.[Non-game 23] A season pass for all add-ons could be bought at a price of $29.99 USD, €29.99 Euro before March 1, 2016, and a price of $49.99 USD, €49.99 Euro afterwards. The released DLC includes Automatron, Wasteland Workshop...
Fallout 4 is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fourth main game in the Fallout series and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
- November 10, 2015
- Creation Engine
May 14, 2024 · updated May 14, 2024. IGN's complete Fallout 4 Wiki Guide and Walkthrough will lead you through every Quest, Location, and Secret in Bethesda’s newest post-apocalyptic adventure on PC, PS4, and...
Apr 11, 2024 · Posted: Apr 11, 2024 8:49 am. Hot on the heels of the release of the well-received Fallout TV show, Bethesda has finally announced a release date for the long-awaited Fallout 4 next-gen...
- Wesley Yin-Poole
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May 14, 2024 · Find everything you need to know about Fallout 4, the post-apocalyptic RPG set in Boston. Explore quests, locations, secrets, crafting, settlements, weapons, and more with IGN's comprehensive guide.
Apr 15, 2024 · Fallout 4. 15 essential Fallout 4 tips to know before you play. Guides. By Sam White. Contributions from. Leon Hurley, Iain Wilson. last updated 15 April 2024. A handy guide to help you...
