Highlights

  • Fallout 4 stays relevant thanks to player-made mods that enhance the game experience.
  • The upcoming Fallout: London mod offers a massive conversion with a new narrative and factions.
  • Until then, the Vault 494 mod delves into Vault-Tec's disturbing experiments, creating a chilling storyline.

It launched all the way back in 2015, but Fallout 4 has managed to remain relevant over the years, primarily through the continued support of the game's player community. As a game that has seen its fair share of criticism among fans of the franchise and set the tone for the future of the studio that followed, community-made content has allowed players to bring out some of the best that Fallout 4 has to offer.

In production for years now under Team FOLON, Fallout: London is a total conversion mod that is set to take FO4 across the pond next month. Mods that totally alter the game world are nothing new to Bethesda releases, but London's scope and development timeline have made it clear that this mod will essentially operate at the scale of a standalone title. A long wait further delayed around Starfield will come to an end when it arrives next month, but there are also existing mods with similar depth that players can experience right now, including Vault 494, one revolving around a particularly disturbing and compelling scenario caused by Vault-Tec.

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Expanding the World of Fallout 4 Through Story-Centric Mods

The Appeal of Going Beyond Fallout 4's Narrative and Fallout: London

While the protagonist's journey through the Commonwealth that sees them discovering the fate of their son and deciding which faction to ally with in the end is a satisfactory adherence to what has become a series formula, several outspoken players have found it less substantial than in previous titles. The Fallout 4 DLCs Far Harbor and Nuka-World came with their own merits, but many fans have ultimately found lasting fulfillment in the game's modding community.

With everything from custom 3D models, voice acting, and an entirely new set of factions in Fallout: London, it truly sets the tone for what a mod is capable of. It remains to be seen how London's narrative will play out despite that, however, but there's one currently available mod that is guaranteed to deliver on that front.

The Secret of Vault 494 - A Vault-Tec Story is Worth Solving the Mystery

Uncovering Vault 494's Mystery Through Environmental Storytelling

Set in an area beneath a building in Nahant, Vault 494 achieves a level of quality befitting of the base game despite not being a total conversion mod. Players will uncover yet another lost experiment set in motion by Vault-Tec leading up to Fallout's Great War, and there's a surprisingly dense level of depth to the plot conveyed by creator Seddon4494.

Seemingly abandoned and filled with long-dead skeletons, Vault 494 is the site of a devastating event that can be slowly understood via the clues scattered across the dwellings of different fallen NPCs. While this mod doesn't actually contain any combat for the most part, the attention to detail present throughout its chilling atmosphere and the ominous text logs that have been left behind within all come together to build up to a chilling pay-off which asserts the dark truth about Fallout's signature prolific defense corporation.

Vault-Tec's Experiments and the Premise of Fallout

The many Vaults of Fallout were designed as facilities to conduct tests on their residents alongside existing as nuclear shelters.

From intentionally leaving people exposed to radiation to pumping the air full of hallucination-causing gas, there is a multitude of inhumane scenarios that occurred in many of the hundred-plus known Vaults, of which the number 494 is said to be an accounting error on the mod's page. Players can learn for themselves if attempting to create a crime-free society turned out to be one of Vault-Tec's most disturbing experiments by uncovering the truth of Vault 494, a cautionary plot to be remembered even after Fallout: London's release.