Welcome home to the Wasteland!
Since Bethesda Game Studios’ last installment of the series in 2008, fans have been anxiously scavenging for information about Fallout 4. Now, that day has come, and in a mere matter of weeks, a copy of Fallout 4 will probably be in every RPG fan’s hand.
The game is promised to be bigger and better than ever – a natural evolution from its predecessor.
We know conversations will be fully voice-acted, including dialogue from the players themselves, and that the character creator has received a complete overhaul. Already an open-world series, players will be given even more freedom through the customization of weapons and settlements.
However, there is still a lot to learn about Fallout 4! The latest news comes from QuakeCon 2015, and every detail is another reason to get excited for November 10th, 2015.
1. You will have some friends to keep you company.
Preston Garvey, leader of the Commonwealth Minutemen and a potential companion in Fallout 4
As with previous Fallout titles, companions can be recruited to aid the Lone Wanderer in his or her trek. Fallout 4 will have around twelve potential companions, but we have only heard details about a few so far. Most of what is known came from QuakeCon!
The star of every Fallout 4 trailer has been Dogmeat, a German Shepard. Dogmeat was the first companion introduced and has already won over the hearts of Fallout fans. Fortunately, we also have been told that Dogmeat cannot die in the game.
Three other possible companions have been confirmed as well. Codsworth, the infamous Mister Handy butler-bot from our first peek at Fallout 4, has already dedicated his life to serving the Sole Survivor; naturally, he is an available choice of companion.
The rest of the known companions are humans. First, there is a woman named Piper, who works as a journalist. QuakeCon offered a few interesting facts about Piper, including her apparel (a red leather jacket and newscaster hat) and the fact that she has a little sister.
Last but not least, there is a man named Preston Garvey. He, too, has been featured in Fallout 4 promotional videos and is known as the leader of the Commonwealth Minutemen.
Perhaps the most exciting companion-related news from QuakeCon is that some will be romanceable! All humans can be romanced, and there is no discrimination or limitations based on gender.
2. The upgrade system has gotten an upgrade itself!
Your character and their weapons will be completely customizable.
A monumental change we expect to see in Fallout 4 is how leveling up works and what it means for players. Developers have made reference to the changes without specification, and at QuakeCon, they finally shed a little light on them.
There will be 70 perks across 275 ranks – more than previous installments in the series. Additionally, the perks are tied into the 7 SPECIAL skill stats: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. Good SPECIAL skill stats translate into good perks.
The intricacies of the system still require comprehensive explanation, as players are naturally skeptical to change. To ease everybody’s minds, a rudimentary list of the perks that should be available in Fallout 4 is on the game’s official Wiki, and they all sound like classic Fallout.
Much of what makes Fallout 4 unique so far is the focus on construction, upgrades, and modification. While the preceding base games were incredible on their own, with the latest release it appears that Bethesda is going all out to make the playing experience perfect for every player. What we know so far about perks and the leveling system is that they also encourage player renovation.
With weapons, for instance, there is the Science! perk that allows the modification of Energy Weapons and the Gun Nut perk that allows the player to construct additional weapon mods and even turrets! Players can also have their own personal settlements and terminals; if you like that, the Local Leader and Hacker perks are for you. The most intriguing perk of the batch is called Intimidation, which supposedly allows players to control other people.
While there is not a whole lot of concrete information about the upgrade and leveling systems in Fallout 4, we have been shown that it will be integral to the gaming experience. The new updates from QuakeCon 2015 give us hope for what we will learn in the future!
3. Some things never change.
Behemoths are back!
Everybody knows that war never changes, but that isn’t all!
At QuakeCon 2015, the Fallout 4 team assured fans that the game will not be that far removed from its ancestors. They still have the same heart – an apocalyptic, open-world RPG with a sense of humor. Furthermore, there will be certain throwbacks to previous games in Fallout 4.
A fan favorite, the Bloody Mess perk will make its return. The Bloody Mess perk literally makes everything a bloody mess; enemies are more easily dismembered, and the player receives a 5% damage bonus using all weapons. As a result, every battle has comedic amounts of gore.
Right along with the copious amounts of carnage, a favorite weapon from Fallout New Vegas will be back in Fallout 4: the Fat Man! The Fat Man was originally in the New Vegas expansion called Gun Runners’ Arsenal, but it will be back in November as well!
Super-Duper Mart, a grocery store on the Potomac River in Fallout 3, was said to make its reappearance in Fallout 4. Maybe this time the Super-Duper Mart won’t be completely infested with raiders.
Other features that were already expected to return received their confirmation at QuakeCon 2015. Computer hacking will most certainly be in Fallout 4, and yes, your character will need to use lockpicks to get around as well.
4. Your Mister Handy is even cooler than we originally thought.
Your right hand man.
Fallout 4 will not be the first Fallout game that Mister Handy robots are in. In fact, a Mister Handy has been in every Fallout game since the original.
While they were never as effective in combat as their militaristic Mister Gutsy counterparts, Mister Handy robots are great at doing what they are programed for: menial chores and housework. They tend to be very polite, and some even have some great jokes to tell!
Codsworth, the butler we all have come to love from early Fallout 4 trailers, is most like Wadsworth from the player’s Megaton house in Fallout 3. However, Codsworth is more intelligently designed to be the best robot assistant possible. He can even say the character’s name.
Todd Howard, the game director of Fallout 4, specified at QuakeCon that there are approximately a thousand popular names that Codsworth can say, in addition to personalized names that include swearwords. People in the audience definitely liked that option. Codsworth will probably be subjected to saying some pretty filthy language!
5. Dogmeat is the best character of the year.
Who's a good dog? Dogmeat's a good dog!
Dogmeat has been the darling of Fallout 4 so far. During QuakeCon 2015, they made sure to devote time to satisfying his fans.
We learned that Dogmeat is based on an actual dog named River, who is owned by the wife of Joel Burgess, the Senior Designer at Bethesda Softworks. Attendees of QuakeCon 2015 even got to watch footage of River! They truly won over the hearts of fans, and those who missed out on the video of River have been decidedly disappointed.
River has spent a lot of time at the office during Fallout 4’s development. Designers watched River play, run, sniff around, and all other sorts of dog stuff in order to know how to animate Dogmeat. She even recorded audio, voice acting for the character she was modeled as!
A tweet from Joel Burgess’ wife comparing the likeness of River to Dogmeat
As mentioned before, Todd Howard clarified that Dogmeat cannot die in Fallout 4. There is no worrying about getting emotionally attached to a precious animal and then losing him several hours into the game. Dogmeat is here to stay!
Moreover, we learned that the player can build a doghouse for Dogmeat when they are constructing another site. Like everything else to do with Dogmeat, it looks unbelievably adorable.
Fallout 4 is out in just a few months, and the team brought new information to QuakeCon 2015 to get us all hyped. It worked! From what we’ve seen, the game will be a perfect balance between old, new, and cute pets.
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