Fallout 4 Review in Progress: Building a Base

We are playing our way through Fallout 4 currently, and have already complete part 1 of our review in progress, which you can read here. In this next edition of our Fallout 4 review, we are looking at character customization and base building, two areas of the game that will have you spending many hours!

If you don’t spend at least an hour trying to create a realistic representation of yourself you are either insanely talented or you just are not doing it correctly. I know individuals who have spent hours – notice plural, hours – trying to create a realistic representation of themselves. I’m not that dedicated or talented, so I gave up just over an hour in. Frankly, I got to a point where I just wanted to play the game, and couldn’t care less about the character I created – especially since I play exclusively in first person! 

I spent a majority of my early time in Fallout 4 working on my home base. The game gives you multiple areas to establish a base, and as you add more to your bases, people will come to live and work there. Off the top you are given two choices: the town where you originally lived or a gas station nearby. Personally, I would suggest beginning at the town where you start with a good group of individuals to help you out, as well as lots of items to scrap, food to eat, and more.

I would say the game does an OK job to explaining how creating a base works, although I did have to Google more than I would have liked to fully understand what I was doing. The first thing I did was walk around the town scrapping anything and everything. Broken doors, rusted out cars, fallen trees, and more will provide you with valuable resources for crafting other items. It wasn’t long before I had a good amount of steel, wood, cloth, and other items. I was all ready to base build.

Building a base is relatively easy if you know what you are doing and don’t have to run off to find crafting items. Your first task will be to craft beds for your residents; should you have ample wood and cloth, this should be fairly easy. I know a lot of people who just plopped down 5 beds in one house – even placing one in a bathroom! – but I choose to clean out a few houses and place beds around the town. After you have finished creating beds, the game will lead you through water collection, food collection, and defenses – yes, you can get attacked. 

For the most part, this tutorial worked. However, when I ran out of resources I navigated via my Pip-Boy to my junk collection and realized I had items that could be scrapped to get me the resources I needed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to scrap junk that contained multiple resources. After lots of menu searching, I hopped on the Internet and realized all I needed to do was transfer my junk from the inventory to the workbench, and it would be scrapped automatically when the resource was needed. Straightforward, perhaps. However, the game NEVER explains this to you, which has caused frustration for more than just myself.

Overall, base building is really great, and loads of fun. You can create your own rooms, put up walls, floors, and a roof. You can place furniture and other items around the house. It won’t look pretty – it is Fallout after all – but it will be usable space that your residents will appreciate. Once you begin building, don’t forget to actively check back in. Without your consistent support, residents will become unhappy and leave. The more productive your base is, the more you will get out of it in terms of resources, ammunition, bottle caps, and more.

Our Fallout 4 review currently stands at 9.0/10.