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Fallout 4 next gen update review – the post-apocalyptic in high-res-Nick Gillett-Entertainment – Metro

The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S update for Fallout 4 is available now and despite problems on PC it’s a definite improvement from before.

Fallout 4 – the update is free for everyone (Picture: Bethesda)

The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S update for Fallout 4 is available now and despite problems on PC it’s a definite improvement from before.

Although it was a disappointment to most gamers, not to hear Ron Perlman reminding them that war never changes at the beginning of Amazon Prime’s new Fallout TV series, the show’s inspired take on the post-apocalyptic wasteland has otherwise been warmly received. Perhaps even more appreciated, is Bethesda’s new ‘next gen’ upgrade for anyone (or more or less anyone) who owns Fallout 4, which is now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC.

Originally released almost a decade ago, the critical and commercial reception for Fallout 4 was positive, if not ecstatic, with some complaints about the game’s technical shortcomings and the simplified dialogue system. As ever, the technical problems were mostly patched in its first year or so, leaving a huge and phenomenally complex retro-futuristic role-playing game to explore.

That included recruiting a range of sidekicks, base-building, crafting, factions you could join and eventually oppose, and a vast array of distractions from its plot, which involved searching the irradiated wastes for your kidnapped son. As is traditional for Bethesda games, there was far more fun and longevity in collecting bric-a-brac for crafting, upgrading your weapons and armour, and generally making yourself the scourge of post-nuclear Boston, than there was in following the main quest line.

While gunplay has never been the series’ strongest suit, Fallout 4’s is the nearest the franchise got to feeling like a shooter. Its step-time V.A.T.S. system, that lets you target specific body parts and previously made combat effectively turn-based, now just slows time rather than stopping it altogether, and the improved weapons handling means that in many encounters you can ignore V.A.T.S. altogether and just pull the trigger.

Before this week, players returning to Fallout 4 on their new consoles may have experienced a fresh set of problems. Our most recent save was in DLC add-on Far Harbor and on PlayStation 5 things were quite badly broken, its many inhabitants and much of its landscape shrouded in what appeared to be shiny pink goo. Even the map wasn’t displaying properly, making fast travel all but impossible.

The arrival of the next gen update has fixed all these problems, revealing a more stable, higher resolution version of Bethesda’s classic. Inventory management, especially in the late game, is still a clunky, alphabetised nightmare that’s only slightly mitigated by the ability to sort by various categories, and conversations still take you into an awkward third person view, but it’s undeniably good to be back.

There’s new content as well (Picture: Bethesda)

All those years of playing Call Of Duty, and the many games that sensibly model their control schemes on it – to let your muscle memory kick in, means it takes a few hours to get used to jumping with triangle and crouching with R3, but at least reload is where you expect it.

It’s amazing how swiftly you get back into the groove though, picking off super mutants and their grotesque looking hounds, before looting absolutely everything in sight, from bottle caps to glowing Nuka Cola, which still heal you while nudging up your rads. If you’re starting where you left off it’s inevitable that much of the wasteland will have been picked clean during your past exploits, but we found a surprising amount of virgin territory, given the nearly 200 hundred hours on our imported PlayStation 4 save.

Along with unclaimed loot from your old play through, you’ll find completely new weapons and armour, as well as the presence of The Enclave, the bunch of creepy religious zealots who appeared in previous Fallout games but have been added here via the game’s Creation Club, which lets players add their own mods.

Its gunplay may now seem even less accomplished than it used to, but as part of what is still an alluringly complex ecosystem of crafting, exploration and peculiar characters requiring questionable favours, you very quickly feel at home.

It’s also amazing how the game’s muddy, grey-infused colour palette is occasionally lit up by sunshine, blue skies, and the odd remnant of brightly painted alternate-history 1950s. It works really well and the wasteland still feels alive with the monsters and weirdoes we all vaguely remember from 2015. Graphically, the frame rate’s more consistent, the visuals are a bit sharper and perhaps a touch more colourful, but the differences are modest.

The update may not have been a good idea for PC gamers (Picture: Bethesda)

If you can face starting from scratch, this remains a game into which it would be easy to pour hundreds of hours, the intricacy and detail of its perks and character upgrade system, along with the astonishing variety of armaments and clothing you can pick up and augment, remaining a compelling draw.

Fallout 4 also has a key element that was missing from Starfield: you can spot an interesting looking tower in the distance and simply wander over and investigate. You might get sidetracked along the way, or forced to retreat by overwhelming enemy fire, but the feeling of the world being at your feet is dizzying. It underlines how much that sense of possibility remains the game’s most powerful point of difference, and one that the intervening years have done nothing to diminish.

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