I’ve played Fallout 4 through multiple times, and rescuing Shaun has never been at the top of my list. Rather, instead of trying to generate momentum as Fallout 4 does, a game needs to give players a reason to engage with its tale.īut Fallout 4 makes no effort to create a connection between you and Shaun. The problem isn’t that Fallout 4 is an open-world game, though there are always going to be issues setting a story in a world where the player can just wander off. Just poking around abandoned Vault-Tec vaults, savoring every scrap of lore you come across, is infinitely more entertaining than tracking down “your” missing child. It’s even more jarring when you’ve spent the past 10 hours merrily roaming the wasteland, tackling Fallout 4’s sidequests.

This creates a huge disconnect between player and character and risks pulling you right out of the game.

I’d happily punt the sprout-faced little cry-box into orbit if it got me a few extra caps, but no, every other time I stumble across a story-relevant NPC, my only options are to ask about Shaun.

But it still tries to pull you back into the main story, putting words in your character’s mouth. There’s still an awful lot to love about Fallout 4, and I’ve whiled away hour after hour exploring. Even worse, it undermines the rest of the game. But with no emotional ties to Shaun, your “son,” it rings hollow. Whoever penned it clearly expected you to drop everything and race across the wasteland in pursuit of those foul, stone-hearted kidnappers. So why’s that a big deal? Because your child’s abduction is supposed to be the emotional driving force behind the bulk of Fallout 4’s story. But worst of all, it tells me to care for my son, when, in reality, I couldn’t care less. It tells me to care about my spouse (also limiting my character’s sexuality). It tells me to care about the suburban domestic homestead I inhabit. The problem with Fallout 4 is that, right from the word go, it tells me to care. But five years after its original release, I’m seething over Fallout 4’s massive narrative misstep. Up until Fallout 4, Heavy Rain’s big twist was the last time a game really filled me with rage, and as a long-time Fallout fan I certainly expected better from the last single-player entry in the series.

Fallout 4 is father really shaun