FALLOUT 4 REVIEWS

 Fllout 4 is too big for me to tell you even a fraction of all there is to say about it.

Its user interface is often too opaque, and at times Fallout 4 has some of the same technical issues as Bethesda's previous games, from strange AI quirks to performance hitches and actual hard locks of the software. It's frequently unforgiving. And occasionally, despite a next-gen visual overhaul, its human characters still look a little terrifying. I'm not nearly as big a fan of the Diamond City radio DJ as I was of Three Dog in Fallout 3.

And all of that matters just enough for me to feel obligated to say it before I explain how, after more than 60 hours of Fallout 4 in seven days, the only thing stopping me from going back into it is taking this time, right now, to tell you about the game.

Like every Fallout game, Fallout 4 places you in the shoes of a fish out of water, thrown into the wasteland remains of a nuclear post-apocalypse. Before the bombs fell, some citizens were able to find shelter within the Vaults, massive, hyper-advanced underground cities designed to withstand the end of the world. You play as a survivor from Vault 111, who, through circumstances I should best leave unelaborated, finds himself transported 200 years into the future and separated from his family.

Ostensibly, Fallout 4 is an RPG — those familiar with the genre will immediately comprehend the game's SPECIAL system, which stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck.

While this is lifted directly from previous Fallout games, Fallout 4 is considerably streamlined in the way that the player character's abilities are managed. Each SPECIAL ability has 10 skills attached to it, and each skill requires a progressively higher rank in that ability to unlock. When you level up, you have a single point, which you can use to unlock an available skill, or to increase one of your SPECIALs. Granted, the change is initially intimidating — available perks and SPECIAL skills are shown together on a giant poster, listing every perk available on a grid.

Still, after a few levels, it felt like a much a simpler way to play Fallout. At first, I missed the multiple layers and point systems present in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. I felt like Fallout 4gave me less room to focus with my character, to determine his build and pursue it. The new skill system feels more general, more haphazard and do-what-you-want.

But after allowing it time to breathe, I didn't find myself playingFallout 4 any differently in the moment than I did every other Bethesda game of the last decade. I snuck around, unlocking anything anyone had the temerity to try to close off, attacking enemies from afar. And the openness of the new skill system allowed me to hold onto skill points after leveling to use them as whim struck.

Bigger changes are reserved for VATS, or the "Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System." In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, hitting the left bumper on your controller would freeze time completely, allowing you to target specific enemies and their weak spots using a number-driven system of probabilities and critical hit rolls. And while the latter elements are still present, the safety of frozen time is nowhere to be found. VATS now slows time down to a crawl instead, which is still useful, mind, but not godlike in its broad, ass-saving applications.