The bombs have dropped, nuclear war is upon us. Your only saving grace is the capitalistic fallout shelters sold to you by a door-to-door salesman. 

This is the reality of Fallout 4. The post-apocalyptic video game was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and released in 2015 by Bethesda Softworks.

The year is 2077, a Vault-Tec salesman has come to your door to sell you your place in Vault 111. You get the choice between Nate and Nora, a married couple with an infant child, Shaun.

Your choice doesn’t change the story, from either point of view, you sign your life away to Vault-Tec.

When the alarms sound, you and your family rush to the vault. It is nothing you’d expect. You’re given blue and yellow jump suits, ushered into cryosleep pods and preserved for the next 200 years. When you awaken, you are forced to watch Shaun be stripped from your spouse’s arms before they lose their life. You will spend the rest of the game searching for your child. 

Exiting the vault, you find the world has changed drastically. There is little to no world order, there are mutant creatures and violent raiders around every corner. Even money no longer has value, everything is bought and sold using bottlecaps. You know what they say, “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”

I am not much of a gamer, my experience is very basic and limited, as in I play Minecraft on easy mode. Playing a first-person shooter with no experience and no idea what to expect threw me through a loop. I had just finished the TV adaptation and was left with nothing but questions. 

What exactly is a ghoul? What is a forced evolutionary virus? Is the entirety of Vault-Tec a ruse to experiment on civilians? How did Cooper Howard last so long? What is a deathclaw? Are all of these mutations due to radiation? Failed experiments? Both? How did anyone survive outside of the vaults? How is anyone still simply human?

It was recommended to me to play Fallout 4 to aid in my hunt for answers. After playing, I can confidently say none of my questions have been answered. This game is one with a lot of lore. There is so much information to consume to truly understand the storyline. However, that knowledge is not entirely necessary to play the game, but you will be in for quite the surprise.

Having no idea what I was doing, I had someone walk me through the beginning stages of the game. Despite the confused daze I am left in every time I open the game, I continue to find myself doing just that. I keep going back to the game, trying again to solve task after task. Meeting people, having pleasant conversations quickly followed by shootouts in abandoned warehouses. Traveling the desolate lands in search for answers, followed around by a German shepherd named Dogmeat. 

I must say Dogmeat is my favorite part of the game. Despite my love for him, I made the decision to send Dogmeat back to the Red Rocket Truck Stop. Upon meeting Piper Wright, I chose to take her as a companion. I felt for her as she is a struggling journalist, the only one in Diamond City. 

Fallout 4 is intriguing, leaving you asking questions you must continue playing to answer. It becomes difficult to put down the controller once you have begun. I have yet to finish the game and find Shaun, but it is worth a shot if you like first-person shooters, action, gore, or unnecessarily complex lore. Check out Nukapedia to research new information as you go through the game. Beware, you will never get through the over 50,000 articles written on the lore. 

Despite my minimal experience having not completed the game, it has grasped my attention and really got me thinking. My opinions vary, but overall I’d have to say I enjoy the gameplay. Download Fallout 4 and start your bottlecap collection today.