Fallout 4/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Is Piper Wright's reporting for the betterment or detriment of the Commonwealth? On the negative side, some of her articles can come across as fear-mongering that only breeds paranoia, focus on less important subjects related solely to Diamond City and not the entire region, and make baseless accusations (like implying that Mayor McDonough, the leader of Diamond City, is an Institute Synth). She's also prone to asking people rather invasive questions in a very abrupt manner that only seem to unnerve them. Complicating matters is that it's implied that the latter-most is more due to her own invasive personality (which she herself doesn't like and is trying to get ahold of), and the answers she gets back are also more than not just examples of her interviewees' stupidity/ignorance. Relatedly, there's the fact that many of her articles do try to inform, but are held back by the limits of available resources in the Commonwealth for journalism, and that she deliberately tries to write for Diamond City's audience first because they have the highest population of literate people in the Commonwealth (although she still tries to write some articles focused on other parts of the Commonwealth). Also, she was actually right about Mayor McDonough being an Institute Synth, and it's possible that further evidence discussing her theory was either planned to be discussed in future editions, or was held back deliberately because of Piper's very appropriate fear of the Institute/McDonough retaliating upon her little sister Nat if her theory was right. There's also the fact that the game actually has some (admittedly subtle) Foreshadowing for McDonough being a Synth: When they see Piper and yell for them to leave their office, their voice gains a noticeably mechanical undertone like a malfunctioning computer.
  • Best Level Ever: So many examples.
    • "The Silver Shroud" is popularly considered to be the best quest in the entire game, since it pretty much has the Sole Survivor becoming The Shadow, and supplies plenty of hilariously awesome badass one-liners as you cleanse the Commonwealth of criminal scum.
  • Broken Base: Unfortunately, there's also lots of examples of this, to.
    • Just as an example, there's the removal of the Karma system, which has been in the series (in at least some form) since the first game. Many fans have cried foul, complaining about how this means the environment will respond less to players' choices in-game. Many other fans instead love the decision to remove Karma, claiming that it makes the series able to better analyze the morality of a post-nuclear world.
  • Contested Sequel: The game has generally gotten this reputation, especially when New Vegas is concerned.
  • Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Much like both Fallout 3 and New Vegas before it, the game unfortunately suffers from this issue.
    • The three main factions in the Commonwealth - the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel, the Institute, and the Railroad - all have their sympathetic and unsympathetic elements (even the supposedly benevolent Railroad). Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Minutemen, the nicest faction in the game, are largely ineffectual without the help of the player character.
    • Despite 4 ostensibly being Lighter and Softer than both 3 and New Vegas, it has largely dropped a lot of the series' trademark Black Comedy and replaced it with grim horror, drama, and tragedy. Instead of coming across an example of Comedic Sociopathy or a Wacky Wayside Tribe when visiting a famous landmark like in previous games, it's now more likely for the Sole Survivor to find a heartbreaking Shaggy Dog Story that usually ends with Kill'Em All. Even the Raiders, who in previous games were seen as just cartoonishly evil sadistic killers, now largely come across as horrified criminals strung out on too many drugs to reason what's right & wrong anymore.
    • Pacifist runs are also harder to do now, with the player needing to get at least a few dozen kills under their belt in order to progress. A Martial Pacifist run is the closest thing one can really do now.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Evil Is Cool:
  • Evil Is Sexy: One of the likely reasons why the Operators are viewed in a (comparatively) more positive light than the Disciples and Pack at Nuka-World is because of how attractive their leaders are. Special mention must be given to Mags Black, given she shares a voice actress with Ragyo Kiryuin.
    • If one chooses to see the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel as evil, Elder Maxson also counts as this.
  • Fanfic Fuel: The death of the Lyons family and the East Coast Brotherhood's return to a more "traditionalist" mindset under Elder Maxson has led to downright juicy speculation on what has happened to the Capital Wasteland in the decade between 3 and 4.
  • Fashion-Victim Villain: The Pack in Nuka-World. They dress themselves in remnants of old animal costumes that they found in the park combined with pastel body paints. Of all the Raider factions there, they're by far the hardest to take seriously.
  • Genius Bonus:
    • The Brotherhood of Steel's airship - the Prydwen - is named after a ship used by King Arthur and his knights while searching for magical weapons from the ancient Arthurian poem Preiddeu Annwfn.
    • It's possible to find two men - Mikey and Moss - having a spirited discussion about the definition of a sandwich. This was the subject of a real life 2012 court case in Massachusetts.
    • After getting bitten by one of his war-dogs, Crazy Bosco goes...well, crazier than he already was, and discusses plans on his terminal for conquering other Raider gangs. He dismisses taking Libertalia, claiming "There's too much water there." Considering how a common symptom of rabies is hydrophobia, it's all but stated that Bosco's actually suffering from rabies.
    • One of the terminals aboard the Prydwen serves as a letter back home to the family of a fallen Brotherhood Initiate, letting them know that they "should be proud of the sacrifice he made for the sake of his country." This more or less implies that the Brotherhood has evolved into an "Ordensstaat", a little known political concept denoting a military order that has become a sovereign state in its own right. The best, and possibly only examples of an Ordensstaat found in history are the Teutonic Order after the invasion of Prussia, and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (formerly the Knights Hospitaller).
  • Good Bad Bugs: Dogmeat will still be able to fetch items held in locked containers. This means that the Sole Survivor can simply return to Vault 111 with Dogmeat, go to the Overseer's office and ask him to fetch, and he'll bring you back the Cryolator. With him even adorably carrying it in his mouth while he follows you around and wags his tail!
  • Hype Backlash: Pretty much inevitable for a game as well-marketed as this one.
  • It's Hard, So It Sucks: Rather infamously, a reviewer from IGN complained that this game is so damn hard he uninstalled it. This earned him a good amount of online ridicule, including people wondering if he's really cut out for the job.
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks: Many longtime fans miss the days when Fallout was more of a cult series, especially since Bethesda's choice to remove the skills and Karma systems were likely done to make the game more appealing to more casual players unfamiliar with previous installments.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Several fans have noted their disappointment on how similar the Brotherhood's ending for the main questline is to the ending of Fallout 3.
  • It's Short, So It Sucks: The Automatron DLC adds the ability to mix and match your own robots with all sorts of possibilities, but the actual story content that goes along with it is pretty bare. Conservatively, it only takes around three hours to complete the associated missions and unlock the full range of crafting schematics.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Most of the Harbormen of Far Harbor are acerbic jerks, but it's hard to not feel sorry for them since they've lost numerous families and friends.
    • Cait's a bit of an asshole, even by her own admission. But given how badly her life has gone, it's hard to really blame her.
    • Despite his acerbic-ness and biogtry, it's made clear that Danse's suffering from PTSD, and his personal quest always ends on a grim note.
  • Les Yay: Cait and Piper have this in spades, lending itself to the One True Threesome interpretation of their relationship (in fact, if you've romanced both and switch from Cait to Piper as your active companion, Cait will even suggest a threesome).
  • Love It or Hate It: Rather unfortunately so.
  • Memetic Sex God: Elder Maxson has this reputation among a not-insignificant portion of the fanbase.
  • Moe: Curie, oh so much, especially with that gentle French accent of hers, soft-spoken demeanor, and generally Adorkable personality.
  • Narm:
    • The fact that one of the main villains' names is Conrad Kellogg has been the source of no little ridicule.
    • Most dialogue scenes will become unintentionally hilarious if the Sole Survivor is given a silly enough face by the character creation system.
  • Narm Charm: Unlike previous games, 4 doesn't have the rest of the world freeze in place when the Sole Survivor converses with other characters. This results in scenes where the Sole Survivor and their companion have deep conversations while the pieces of a destroyed Vertibird fall to Earth around them or Super Mutants wipe out a horde of Feral Ghouls. However, this doesn't stop the talks with companions (along with other conversations with various other characters) from being very touching, heartbreaking, intriguing, surprisingly deep, and even deliberately funny.
  • Nausea Fuel: Bloodbugs will often stab their huge proboscis in your chest before spitting your own now-irradiated blood back in your face - all from a first-person perspective.
  • One True Threesome: The Sole Survivor, Piper, and Cait have gotten a lot of support. Not just because Girl-on-Girl Is Hot, but also because Cait and Piper actually appear to be friends despite their vast differences. Likewise, Cait actively tries to get Piper into a threesome with the Sole Survivor well before any romance begins.
  • Paranoia Fuel: It is entirely possible for Institute Synths to sneak into your settlements and wreak havoc. After it happens the first or second time, you may find yourself compelled to check every settler in V.A.T.S. for an unusually high level of energy resistance.
  • Player Punch:
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Mayor MacCready was infamous as one of the most aggravating characters in Fallout 3, epitomizing everything bad about annoying kids in video games. His adult version is generally seen as more likable due to being Older and Wiser (though this hasn't stopped players from taking vengeance for making them suffer throughout Little Lamplight).
    • For some players, Preston Garvey has been redeemed from the original mountain of bile reserved for him. It helps that updates after release cut down on some of his supplying of radiant quests to the Sole Survivor, and more players were able to analyze his Hidden Depths as he opened up more over the course of the Minutemen storyline.
  • Ron the Death Eater: As was the case with Skyrim's civil war storyline and the faction war in New Vegas, lines are already being drawn in the sand with people picking their favorite faction and demonizing the others. The exception is the Minutemen, who get off relatively unscathed from these debates (it probably helps that the Railroad, Institute and Brotherhood can ally with them in some capacity, and the Brotherhood and Institute will never attack them until the player is an enemy of the Institute or Brotherhood).
  • Scrappy Mechanic: The cut-down dialogue system. Even Bethesda have admitted that it wasn't the best idea in retrospect.
  • Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: You can now spend hours alone on building and furnishing your settlements, optimizing your weapons and armor as you see fit and scouring junk for rare scrap parts, or play video games on your Pip-Boy. The Nuka-World DLC also includes an arcade packed with mini-games. Who has time for the pressures of being a Raider Overboss when there are high scores to be set in skee-ball and Whack-A-Commie?
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The game seems to generally have this reputation in terms to Fallout 3. It's more...debatable for New Vegas.
  • Take That Scrappy: After the Contraptions Workshop DLC was released, many players put Preston Garvey and Marcy Long in stocks out of "punishment" for perceived obnoxiousness.
  • That One Sidequest:
    • "The Silver Shroud" for the most part is pretty easy as it's just shoot these guys and leave a literal calling card behind... until you get to Sinjin. This drug dealer has your radio buddy Kent hostage and you have to save him but doing so is harder than it seems. He has around three leveled lackeys that will shoot you if you don't scare them off... which means Sinjin will shoot Kent right afterwards. You can challenge Sinjin but then his lackeys will start shooting you too.
    • "Hole in the Wall" is even worse. Austin, the Vault kid who has taken a shine to you, gets sick after being bitten by an infected mole rat. Said mole rat is one of many in the closed-off section of the Vault and all of them are going to try and bite you. Mole rats aren't exactly hard to kill, but there's a lot of them, they pop up out of nowhere, and it's very hard to kill them before they get at least one bite in. Worse still, your companion and the allied Protectron in the Vault will somehow infect you if they're bitten, and they aren't competent enough not to get hit. A single hit means you're infected, which in-game means you get a perk that takes a permanent 10 hit points off your maximum. There is a single dose of anti-virus that will cure it, and the good ending requires giving it to Austin. For perfectionist players, the mission is extremely obnoxious. Mercifully, the dialog system can be cheesed to allow you to cure Austin and yourself with the same dose (get to the option, pan the camera to exit dialog, cure yourself, then go back and cure Austin though dialog), but that isn't apparent to most casual players.
  • Tough Act to Follow: Faced this twice-over, both from Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim.
  • Uncanny Valley: Baby Shaun just... doesn't look right. With his oversized cheeks that would look more at home on a bulldog and his black, soulless eyes he more closely resembles a doll than a real baby.
    • Mama Murphy just looks... off. Her mouth opens unnaturally wide when she speaks, while the rest of her face remains dead still.
    • In what's a more likely intentional example are the Institute's Coursers, whose awkward facial animations and intentionally monotone delivery makes them come across as something only doing an impression of acting human...and not really bothering to put that much effort into it anyway.
  • Unwinnable by Insanity: With the Nuka-World DLC, taking over a settlement results in Preston Garvey and the Minutemen turn hostile, making their questline impossible to complete. If you've done this and turned the Brotherhood, Railroad and Institute hostile (or destroyed them), then you can't complete the main quest. The Raiders of Nuka-World have no means of destroying the Institute.
  • Vindicated by History: Depressingly inverted, as the game's reputation seems to have only gotten more negative online after the disastrous launch and dismal reception of Fallout: 76.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: While the game itself is quite gorgeous overall, special mention must be given to the fantastic animation on the Synth creation process in the Institute.
  • Win Back the Crowd:
    • A number of people who were not won over by the game when it was initially revealed got brought back when the new features, like weapon crafting and settlement creation, were shown off.
    • At least a few of those who complained about the limited dialogue choices in the main game were pleasantly surprised that in Far Harbor, the dialogue trees are much more complex despite using the same limited system.
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