Sometimes gameplay trailers don’t really help a game. Sometimes it kills the excitement instead of building up the hype. Sometimes it’s better to stick with the launch trailer or story trailer but don’t release the game trailer unless it’s going to WOW. The new 5-minute Fallout 4 gameplay trailer is definitely not WOW. In fact, after watching this trailer, I’m feeling $19.99 on Amazon.
Here’s the good:
1) Graphics and Art Design: environmental, landscape, post-apocalypse universe – all great. Always stellar Fallout grittiness. Fallout is a Western, the Wild Crazy Nuked-up West. It need to have that dirty-dusty. Some of the guns are rusty and looks beat-up, which is accurate, and which is the Fallout DNA.
2) Weapons: the laser musket is a scene stealer. You have to crank it and has a rate of fire of 1 per 3 seconds, but it packs a punch and completely obliterates soft tissue. Yum. The dog is cool, too: best K-9 killer this side of Riley. Not too thrilled with the Power Armor. I always preferred the smaller, scavenge-from-the-wasteland weapons to some of the more high-tech stuff. Power Armor is cool, but it’s just not as fun.
3) Don’t have to kill any rats upon exiting the Vault.
Here’s the not so good:
1) The Vault door faces the sky. Come on! In the original, the Vault opens into a cave, which is what it should be. Who would have the door of a fallout shelter facing the sky when you can have it open into a cave for added protection?
2) FPS. The exploration part is cool. I want to know the mystery of what happened. I want to scavenge for supplies and weapons. Finding food and weapons is fun. One of the best parts about the mobile game, Fallout Shelter, and the original Fallout games. The Fallout 4 gameplay trailer quickly moves away from that and degenerates into a humdrum first-person-shooter. FPSs are cool, but it’s nothing special. Fallout is special, very special, but this gameplay trailer makes it another one of your boring shooters.
3) Robot that gives you exposition. I know, it’s necessary – every RPG has one of these expo-roles – but it’s annoying.
4) NPCs who say things like, “You came just in time!”
5) Where’s the team? The gameplay shows a solo affair.
I was jazzed after the Official Trailer, but now…I’ll buy it used.
Coming soon on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.