Fallout 4 Gamescom Previews, Interview, Tone Discussion

We’ve rounded up some more reports on the Fallout 4 hands-off presentation that are pouring out now that Gamescom has closed shop for the year. All of them focus strictly on the game’s mechanics, because Bethesda apparently didn’t showcase any quest or social interaction in the footage they prepared for the German convention.

The Vault wiki has a pretty detailed write-up on the character progression system, the combat mechanics and even the new art style. A couple of short snippets:

The presentation began with the Survivor quickly flipping through his PIP-Boy, demonstrating the new perk tree. There are 70 perks, one for each level of each SPECIAL attribute, with most perks having three to four ranks. It also appears that you can improve each of your attributes on level-up. It’s unclear whether it’s a drawback, as you receive 28 SPECIAL points during character creation, which means that maxing out your attributes will take 42 levels and likely hamstring your character due to the absence of perks.

…

Following some more ghoul slaughter, the video seamlessly transitioned to some urban warfare against raiders (with a bolt-action sniper rifle) and the Corvega assembly plant. The plant is a large, self-contained combat area. Unfortunately, while many areas are open and part of the world-map, Creation is still cell-based, like its five older siblings, and map transitions are necessary. The Survivor battles his way through a high volume of raiders, to the other end of the factory. The first thing showcased in combat is the reworked VATS, used to good effect on an attacking raider in the lobby. VATS no longer guarantees critical hits, instead they’re made after the critical hit bar fills up (the speed depends on your attributes and perks). Without the bar, it’s effectively auto-aim, with chances to hit determined by the game.

It’s worth noting that the AI seems to be a tad smarter than in previous installments and chooses their attacks more effectively. Apart from standard raiders, he also runs into fixed turret emplacements that provide very effective suppressive fire and have to be dispatched with grenades which appear to have their own hotkey. On the way, the Survivor also patches up their wounds with a stimpak. Unlike previous games, Fallout 4 shows you applying the stimpak (in first person during the presentation) and according to previous reports, there is a cooldown included to avoid the (god mode) known from Fallout 3 hotkeyed stimpaks with instant effects.

Then there’s a number of video previews that focus on different aspects of the presentation. Some publications chose to put the new iteration of SPECIAL system under the spotlight, while others focused on the game’s action, which apparently is quite the improvement over Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas:

Bethesda’s VP of PR and Marketing Pete Hines explained the new perk system and the philosophy behind it to IGN:

Finally, “Many A True Nerd”, a YouTube channel known, among other things, for its challenge playthroughs of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, has a video discussion of Fallout 4’s tone, mood and mechanics, based on the game’s promotional materials. It’s purely speculation, but it’s also far more articulate than most of the coverage I’ve seen around outside of previews, so I thought it was worth the inclusion: