There is an argument to be made that Fallout 4, for all of its success, is ultimately a regression over the previous games in the series, simplifying most of its mechanics and systems, to mixed results at best, and decidedly poor ones at worst. In a lot of ways, all of this streamlining has made Fallout 4 a worse playing, less compelling game than its predecessors.
There is one exception to this, and that is the game’s crafting mechanics- Bethesda doubled down on just how extensive and powerful the crafting tools are in Fallout, and they managed to create one of the most compelling reasons to stay invested in the game in the process. They seem to be doubling down on the crafting, too- next month’s DLC for Fallout 4 is Wasteland Workshop, which expands the crafting even further.
Speaking to IGN, Fallout 4 director Todd Howard explains how the development team arrived at the idea for an expansion of the game’s crafting with DLC.
“I think the Workshop stuff was the biggest surprise for us, in that…how many people gravitated toward it as its own game and are doing all sorts of crazy things with it,” Howard said. He said that the popularity had encouraged Bethesda to look into expanding the customization options in future DLC releases, and that Wasteland Workshop was the result of this process.
It does make sense, too- the crafting in Fallout 4 is almost like a metagame, an entirely separate set of mechanics that exist independently of the rest of the game. It is possible to ignore everything else in the game, and for one to immerse themselves entirely into the fleshed out offerings of the crafting mechanics- it’s almost like Minecraft with a decidedly more post apocalyptic bent. It’s good to see Bethesda in tune with their fanbase, and what they clearly want.