Why ‘Fallout 4’ Will Be A Voracious Time Eater

Bethesda Game Studios doesn’t go small when it comes to role-playing games, and Fallout 4 appears to be ready to take things to another level. Both the lead producer and game director made comments Wednesday that to show the announcement of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC title at E3 may have broken November. They may be understating things a bit though when you look at what has been announced so far.

“I’ve played [Fallout 4] probably 400 hours, and I’m still finding stuff that I haven’t seen yet,” Lead Producer Jeff Gardiner said at an E3 presentation attended by GamesRadar on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Game Director Todd Howard mentioned, “I’ll be playing the game and run into something and be like, ‘Who built this? What is this? It’s so big!'”

While some of that is surely the two creators behind the game generating a little hype, Fallout 4 is shaping up to be a ludicrously extensive single-player experience.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the current time eater standard for Bethesda. It’s not uncommon to find those who spent hundreds of hours playing the game just so that they could explore over nook and cranny of the world as well as play with different characters for different experiences.

Fallout 3 was a large experience, as well, especially for it being the first Bethesda-produced game in the series.

For Fallout 4, Bethesda has already stated that the game world will feature their biggest map yet. Skyrim’s map size was approximately 15 square miles, which has since been bested by open-world titles like Grand Theft Auto V and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.

The map for Fallout 4 looks to be at least twice the size of Skyrim, as Imgur user SlendyIsBehindYou researched. The focus on Boston, Massachusetts, and the surrounding areas results in a map size that is around 30 square miles.

The size of the Fallout 4 map isn’t necessarily a time eater, but it does give you an idea of the scale of the game. We can probably expect the main quest, if that is all that one follows, to take a couple of dozen hours; something on the order of 24 to 40 hours. That puts it in the neighborhood of Skyrim.

However, it is the side quests and other activities that players will most likely find to be their biggest time sinks. There will be at least two factions, and Howard stated on stage during Bethesda’s E3 showcase that there will be over 50 base weapons and 700 mods available. That’s just the weapons. Players will also be able to mod power a suit of power armor.

Players be able to mod weapons and armor by collecting items and resources from around the game world. That’s another time-eating activity, and the use of resources doesn’t end with weapon and armor mods.

The potentially most dangerous activity for those who value their time is the completely new feature of being able to construct items and structures to build entire communities. This concept seems to be borrowed from survival-based games like H1Z1, but it fits perfectly within Fallout 4, and nobody is going to complain about their inclusion. Okay, some will complain because they will get completely hooked and won’t get anything else done in the game.

As the Fallout 4 reveal video demonstrated, players will be able to construct and furnish homes in certain areas of the game world. In fact, they’ll be able to construct entire communities complete with walls, gates, and power generators. An electrical grid can then be constructed to power everything from lights to automated defense.

Naturally, building a community will send players scurrying into the game world to scavenge for resources. It’s all a vicious circle that will likely enrapt many players for months and is why Fallout 4 may have broken November.

[Images via Bethblog, Imgur]