‘Fallout 4’ Rumored To Take Place In Cyberpunk, Retro-futuristic Boston

Update: It turns out it was all a lie. Just like we warned. 

Another day, another rumor. Today, a rumor about Fallout 4’s development surfaced on the gaming forum reddit, posted by one “GNR_Informant”, whose name is an obvious reference to the radio station in Fallout 3. The rumor follows a tease by the voice actor of ThreeDog a few days ago, who hinted at the game's development. 

The post, titled “Pal of mine works in Public Relations at Bethesda. I have learned various bits of information about “Fallout 4”. Nothing super-concrete, and all this info is subject to change, but here is what I have learned” garnered half a thousand upvotes, and prompted much discussion about the upcoming game, which is rumored to be in development at the Maryland-based studio.

According to the would-be whistleblower, the game is set to take place in Boston, and serve as a “kind of a direct sequel to Fallout 3 with few groups returning.” In other words, should the rumors hold firm, players can expect to interact with some remnants of the Enclave.

He goes on to state that a location called “The Institute” holds much of the game’s content, and is analogous to downtown DC or New Vegas in Fallout 4. 

“Boston is going to be unlike anything we’ve seen in a Fallout game before,” he writes, “with buildings more on par with cyberpunk and retro-futurism.” 

Androids, he says, will play a big role in Fallout 4, and the railroad from Fallout 3 will serve as one of the factions in the setting. The enemies of the railroad are known as “The Plantation”—a group which forces androids to farm in order to provide sustenance for humans. If the rumors aren’t false, it would appear that the game will approach the topic of artificial intelligence and the rights of sentient machines. According to the leak, “The Institute” is highly advanced, and built their own GECK technology to start a farm. 

The leaker says that Bethesda is aware of the complaints it received about its excessive implementation of both the Super Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel in the previous game and plans not to use them in the upcoming game. He writes: “Bethesda wants to make a new "race" (think Ghoul, Super Mutant) which will be central to Boston. Bethesda is currently looking at Lovecraftian fiction since Boston is around "Lovecraft Country".”

Finally, he says that the studio has no plans to reinvent the leveling system and will instead focus on introducing a system, similar to Skyrim, to allow players to level up their skills for performing certain tasks. 

As with all previous leaks, take this one with a huge heaping of salt. With any luck, they’ll make an official announcement about the game in the near future.