Fallout 4, and really the Fallout series in general, is something I always love diving back into. As much as I may prefer fantasy settings in most games, there’s something about the incredible world Bethesda created when building Fallout 4: The sprawling environments, the impressive enemies, the interesting characters, and more.
But, after tens, or even hundreds, of hours and playthrough after playthrough, you can sometimes get bogged down or find yourself playing the same way as you did before or running out of unique quests and stories to unfold. I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine that is basically a PC gamer and only a PC gamer, so when I discussed with him the issues I was having in my third playthrough, he told me to try mods. Now, I’ve only ever played the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series on consoles, so I was unfamiliar with the concept of mods, but he informed me that Fallout 4 featured a wide array of mods that were designed for the console version as well – and once I dug into it, I realized that I had so many exciting ways to enjoy Fallout 4 thanks to this newfound discovery. Many of the mods are basically cheats, ways to break the game and make things infinitely easier – I did my best to avoid these, as I wanted to maintain some level of challenge, but still find new and interesting ways to spice up the experience. Since I recently finished up a new modded playthrough of Fallout 4, I wanted to share with all of you the four mods I chose that really made the experience fresh and cool for my fourth time through the game – check’em out!
(Disclaimer: Mods are typically not recommended for a first playthrough, and they disable your ability to acquire trophies on whatever save file you have modded. So if you’re on a first playthrough, or still have trophies to chase, then save mods for another time!)
Now quaint shacks like this can be explored, too! (Bethesda)
The Beantown Interiors Project – If you’re anything like me, one of the big draws for a game like Fallout 4 is the ability to run off in pretty much any direction and explore new locations, find new buildings to loot, and more baddies to take care of. However, there are a TON of cities in the game that are filled with buildings that can’t be explored. I remember walking through Concord for the first time, very early in the game, and being bummed to find out that the majority of the buildings there were just doors that didn’t open. The Beantown Interiors Project changes a lot of that in a pretty big way, by creating brand new interiors to be explored in various towns and cities throughout the Commonwealth. Dozens of buildings all across the game (I believe over 60 altogether) are now explorable, and that was an awesome addition for me as much of this content was basically brand new areas to look through, and while some of them are less fleshed out than others, it’s still a great deal of surprising and exciting new places to check out – definitely a mod to get for the Fallout explorers out there!
This place is so cool, and I didn’t have to build a thing! (Bethesda)
Marlborough Mansion – Now, this is one that even I didn’t expect to like as much as I did because I don’t usually like things set up or pre-built for me. That being said, as much as I liked the settlements mechanic in Fallout 4, I gotta be real with you, I am not very good at it! I always wanted to build up awesome settlements with kick-ass houses and places for me to lay my pixelated head down at night, but it was always a frustrating endeavor for me because I wasn’t great at it, and would get annoyed with the amount of time I needed to put in to make it happen (meanwhile, my sister is a settlement expert making me look bad with her elaborate mansions and whatnot). So I decided to find a mod that allowed me to have a sweet pad to kick it in, without the hard work and frustration: Enter the Marlborough Mansion. This isn’t the most complicated mod, but for those of you out there that want some cool digs with all the equipment and crafting stations you need (including a place to alter appearance, if you want!), with little to no effort, then this is definitely a mod for you!
I never thought the Commonwealth could look so good! (Bethesda)
SimpleGreen – There are a plethora of visual improvements, weather changes, spring, summer, winter, fall, etc, mods out there in the ether that are all worth your time, if you really wanted to check them out. However, after looking through quite a few, I gotta tell you that the SimpleGreen mod was a beautiful and welcome change for me. Look, dystopian futures are dreary and grimy and filled with various shades of brown and grey and so on. This mod flips all of that on its head by changing the face of the Commonwealth entirely – going from the dark and grimy post-apocalyptic Fallout 4 we know, and introducing green, lush environments that are far more pleasing to look at and explore than before – and this is one of a select few mods designed exclusively for PS4, so any performance issues are few and far between in comparison to some of the other mods of this kind available. While this really doesn’t change up much of the game in regards to the story or gameplay, it certainly is a much prettier world to explore, that’s for dang sure.
Image pulled directly from Bethesda’s mods page… Immersive, indeed! (Bethesda)
Immersive Gameplay – Last, but certainly not least, you’ve got a mod that feels like it was made for someone exactly like me: a gamer that enjoys the ultimate challenge in a game, even if it means the game is going to kick my ass up and down and all around – and the Immersive Gameplay mod did just that. This is arguably one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, mod available on PS4 in regards to affecting the overall gameplay. If you’re a challenge-seeker, like me, then the hyper-realistic gunplay, slower leveling, improved AI, all added to the already difficult Survival difficulty mode, will certainly be right up your alley. Something else really neat about this mod is it sets you up with a lot more items, equipment, weapons, etc, right from the start, but it’s there because you have so much less health, and items are much less frequent with his mod activated. If you’re wanting a mod that doesn’t hold your hand at all and requires you to muster up all of your gaming skill to overcome, then download this mod immediately and prepare to die – a lot.
Wanna step out of your pre-war bunker and faceroll the whole game? Well, these mods are for you! (Bethesda)
Honorable Mentions: Cheat Room and Prewar Preparation – I’ve added these two because while I don’t like cheating in games, these two mods were certainly a lot of fun to mess around with. If you want to start a new save file and basically just level yourself up and have every single weapon and piece of armor in the whole game (and even modified weapons that are way stronger than anything else in the game), then you’re going to have a lot of fun with the Cheat Room mod. But if you want to make the game easier in some ways, but with a little less cheating, then go for the Prewar Preparation mod. This mod opens up a basement underneath your house, which you can access once you’ve left Vault 111, and it’s filled with a bunch of healing items, purified water, food, and a variety of modified weapons to take with you, along with a couple sets of modified armor (including one that cloaks you completely if you crouch). This mod doesn’t quite break the game, but it gives you just enough of an advantage to enjoy playing the game however you want, especially if you’re a stealthy player, like me.
I gotta say, I really enjoyed this last playthrough of Fallout 4, maybe as much as the very first time I ever beat it, and a big reason why was the added bonuses of these awesome mods. Have you modded Fallout 4? Any mods you liked that weren’t on this list? Let us know on social!
And don’t forget to sign up for this month’s Core Crate, as February’s PROTECT Crate has awesome items from Fallout, The Expanse, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Black Panther!
