Fallout 3 is a big game, so I thought it deserved the follow-up treatment I’ve done with some other big games. I noticed some nice things I missed the first time through, such as in Fallout‘s capacity for “roleplaying builds”: There’s such a variety of costumes and skills that you can create any number of interesting characters once you’re good enough to avoid getting killed. (I especially enjoyed dressing up as Abraham Lincoln and completely razing a town full of slavers.) That said, the main weakness I’ve noticed is that the game isn’t hard enough on replay—or it isn’t hard in an interesting way.

Fallout 3 uses the most “arguably unsatisfying” mode of difficulty adjustment, where “harder” difficulty means you’re weaker and enemies are stronger. This fails to affect some of the most forgettable “risks” in the game: radiation poisoning and drug addiction. These problems are easily swept away with relatively inexpensive and quickly accessible solutions. I found the game way more interesting and challenging when willfully ignoring certain rules (e.g., by giving away or selling non-irradiated healing supplies), but I shouldn’t have to just look the other way. Higher difficulty settings could make radiation accrue more quickly, addictions harder to kick, and supplies scarcer and heavier. (I play on the Xbox 360, but I imagine much of this has already been remedied on the PC with mods.) I hope they think beyond this in their next game. Making the Wasteland a more dangerous place could really make Fallout 4 shine—or at least give it an appropriately post-apocalyptic glow.