There’s no mistaking that the Fallout series has changed from deep RPG mechanics to a more action-oriented style over the years. In Fallout (1997) and Fallout 2 (1998), players enjoyed isometric turn-based combat, managing action points and detailed S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills. Things changed in 2008 with Fallout 3, which introduced a 3D open world, real-time shooting, the V.A.T.S. targeting system, fewer skill categories, and quest markers for easier navigation. In 2010, Fallout: New Vegas retained the action focus while adding depth through faction choices.
By 2015, Fallout 4 ditched skills in favour of a simpler perk chart, a dialogue wheel with vague prompts for a fully voiced protagonist, enhanced FPS gunplay, and settlement building, shifting emphasis toward action rather than micromanagement or strategy. Fallout 4 may be the franchise’s event horizon, where it completely gave up all pretenses of being an RPG at all and became another open-world action game. It was demanding on PlayStation 4, so how does it fare on Nintendo Switch 2?
Fallout 4 takes place in the Commonwealth, a post-apocalyptic version of Boston in the year 2287, following a global nuclear exchange between the United States and China during the Sino-American War from around 2066 to 2077, driven by dwindling resources. This alternate history diverges from our own after World War II, resulting in a culture steeped in 1950s aesthetics and characterised by atomic-punk technology.
Players are set loose from Vault 111 and awaken to a world filled with irradiated ruins inhabited by feral ghouls, super mutants, raiders, and Deathclaws. Competing factions include the Institute, which creates synth androids for “humanity’s future”; the Brotherhood of Steel, which hunts down technology and genetic abominations from their airship, the Prydwen; the Railroad, which aids synths in escaping to freedom; and the Minutemen, dedicated to rebuilding settlements throughout the Commonwealth. It’s a radioactive frontier, an atomic Wild West, and the only thing the protagonist cares about is saving their kidnapped infant son, Shaun.
At least, that’s what the contrived plot would try to presume players will care about. Making the protagonist into a more defined character with an emotional connection to a baby was destined to backfire when the gameplay fosters freedom of expression in a go-anywhere-and-do-anything Mad Max-esque post-apocalypse, where gamers are given an absurdly powerful power armour early on. This is compounded with the subplot of rebuilding the Commonwealth with a robust settlement system where players can build structures and assign NPCs to work in full-blown towns. It’s all too easy to lose track of the main character’s motivation when there is so much stuff to do.
Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition is utterly jam-packed with content. It’s an immense buffet of stories, amusing gimmicks, places to explore and characters to interact with. There are theme parks overrun with psychotic bandits. Wasteland Workshop enables creatures or raider capture for arenas, plus new build items. Far Harbor expands to a foggy island with synth mystery quests and new monsters. The Contraptions Workshop introduces factories, sorters, and a conveyor automation system for the settlements. The RPG mechanics may have been streamlined into nothingness, but Fallout 4 more than makes up for it with the sheer density and depth of its simulation gameplay and dog-raising module.
The attempt to add features and content does not obscure the fact that Fallout 4 is still hindered by design flaws. The vague dialogue wheel restricts role-playing and leads to unintended responses. The main story revolves around the search for baby Shaun, culminating in a predictable twist. The narrative is padded with unnecessary filler, as various factions converge on similar endings that lack meaningful consequences. The AI in the game is poorly designed, with NPCs clipping through objects and struggling with pathfinding. Numerous bugs plague the experience, resulting in crashes and quest-breaking issues due to poor design. Meanwhile, the world feels lifeless and unresponsive to player actions, making exploration feel hollow and unsatisfying.
The FPS gunplay is serviceable, but the real reason anyone would play Fallout 4 is the alternative combat mode. V.A.T.S. electrifies Fallout‘s combat by slamming real-time gunfights into tactical slow-motion glory: pausing the chaos to surgically queue shots on enemy limbs, crippling legs to create crawlers, exploding heads in crimson bursts, or shredding arms to disarm foes where high perception and agility stats unlock godlike precision. The V.A.T.S. system is applied to any weapon type or combat style, making it flexible for players to make character builds who can surgically rip apart foes with their bare hands if they so choose.
In a surprising twist, Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition looks and runs excellently on Nintendo Switch 2. Bethesda games can be pretty spotty on most consoles and are no strangers to iffy optimisation, but not this time. Fallout 4 looks about on par with the latest ports, boasting an impressive draw distance and decent lighting quality. There are three FPS options: 30, 40, and 60. The target frame rate is 60, which is consistently achieved most of the time.
Fallout 4 has always been somewhat of an ugly and rugged-looking game due to its reliance on a withering engine, and it’s still the case on Nintendo Switch 2. The 40 fps mode is the most stable while boasting the sharpest image quality. Unfortunately, there are no gyro-aim options or mouse aim, which is a huge missed opportunity that would have fostered more snappy and fluent shooting.
