What a wonderful world
The apocalypse is coming and it looks glorious. Fallout 4 game director Todd Howard clambered on stage at E3 to give the world its first in-depth look at the latest game in the series. Unlike the slightly underwhelming reveal trailer that came out over a week ago, this demo fizzled like a freshly opened bottle of Nuka Cola, showing off the game's gorgeous new graphics engine, improved character models and, in a first for a Bethesda game, a fully-voiced player character.
As many speculated, the game has been in development since work wrapped up on Fallout 3 way back in 2009. Beginning on a picture perfect Saturday morning, the game opens before the fateful day the bombs fell and the USA became an irradiated ruin.
You play as one half of a happy couple living an idyllic life in '50s suburbia. After picking if you want to start your adventure as a male or female, you can customise your character. This is done in real-time as your character admires their reflection in the mirror - no sliders, or values, you literally just pull and prod your protag's face until you've moulded a character to your liking.
Once that's done, the player character is summoned to the front door by the tinkling of the doorbell. Standing on the doorstep is a Vault-Tec representative who collects the player's information --stats, name, etc.-- before our character unceremoniously slams the door in his face.
With that out of the way, our character swings by the kitchen for a quick tête-à-tête with robo-butler Codsworth. Surprisingly, the shiny robo-servant calls out our character's name - that's right, Bethesda Game Studios actually recorded dialogue for the world's 1000 most popular names.
To avoid spoiling the remainder of the game's opening chapters, the demo spool's ahead at this point, rejoining the action as our hero emerges from the Vault 200 years after the bombs have fallen. The world is very much changed, with spindly trees and twisted wreckage stretching off in every direction. The nuke hasn't erased every trace of our hero's past, though, as he quickly spots Codsworth hovering among the wreckage. As you'd expect after spending 200 years in hiberation, the player character is little confused. Luckily Codsworth is on hand to fill him in on what's been happening while he was tucked up underground.
Different dialogue options are assigned to different face buttons. According to Howard, if you get tired of chatting you can simply walk away or, if you're feeling particularly murderous, pull a pistol and start shooting. Your character may be voiced this time around, but Howard was keen to stress that player choice is still paramount.
The trailer goes on to show off a new canine companion who players can issue orders to, as well as a brief slice of combat. We see the player character employ VATs to splatter some unsuspecting mole rats as well as a brief bit of real-time gunplay. The footage ends with a quick montage of different environments, showing off some of the gruesome sights players will be able to explore during their travels through Fallout 4's version of Boston.
If that wasn't enough, Howard also lifted the lid on the game's ludicrously in-depth suite of customisation tools. Players will be able to bolt together their own tools of destruction, build shacks and even fine tune their own Power Armour.
The game's slated to hit consoles and PC this November. Start counting down the days now.
Videos courtesy of Eurogamer.net.
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