The graphics won’t blow you away, the side quests and scale of the game will.

The world, exploration, crafting, atmosphere, and story of Fallout 4 are all key parts of this hugely successful sandbox role-playing game. Great new reasons to obsessively gather and hoard relics of happier times, strong companions, and sympathetic villains driving tough decisions make it an adventure I’ll definitely replay and revisit

Unsurprisingly, Fallout 4 is closer to Fallout 3 than it is to the former episodes. And it comes with all the qualities and problems we already know. But Fallout 4 belongs to this hypnotizing kind of games that you should not miss if you love Western RPGs.

It really does feel like Fallout 3 with slightly nicer graphics and a few mods (like “homebase customization”) thrown in, and while Fallout 4 has everything that made the last game great it has all the weaknesses too, like a terrible inventory menu, stiff character models, interior locations requiring loading screens, and more. Fallout 4 is an amazing game that I doubt anyone will be disappointed by, but it’s not unique. And I still prefer New Vegas.

After 200 years in cryostasis you will find everything in ruins, beasts and monsters (human and nonhuman alike) run amok and there are more weapons than in a Michael Bay movie. In short it is a vivid world to explore in which no one can hold a decent dialogue.

The fact that it's heavier on combat than stats is sure to annoy RPG classicists, but the fact that the combat is fantastic helps a lot. So, too, does the intriguing world, the excellent characters, the hidden secrets, and the difficult decisions.

Bethesda has laid solid and at times spectacular groundwork for an awesome game. I look forward to another developer building on it.