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Released in 2015, Fallout 4 was a milestone achievement for Bethesda Studios in several ways.
Bethesda's in-house game development, consisting of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, used to have an ill repute of dated gameplay. Skyrim's combat, for example, was only subpar in terms of 2011 standards, despite the massive improvements it made in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
For Fallout 4, however, Todd Howard's team pulled out all the stops by calling in id Software, the talents behind DOOM, to help improve the gunplay from Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
Largely thanks to their efforts in gunplay and visuals, the title feels much more modern compared to its predecessors. On top of that, it happens to have the largest dedicated mod community on the Nexus, second only to Skyrim. With numerous mods and tweaks to pick from, the game can be brought even closer to a 2022 shooter.
Note that this modlist assumes that players have already plugged in the stability and modding essentials such as the community-made Unofficial Patch, F4SE, and ENB Helper.
Lightweight Fallout 4 modlist to give the game a modern AAA makeover
1) Uneducated Shooter
Uneducated Shooter does two separate things. Firstly, it adds inertia to the weapons as you move the camera around for a greater sense of mobility and immersion. Secondly, it adds a proper leaning feature as found in the likes of Rainbow Six: Extraction.
Fallout 4 already contains a baked-in leaning feature that kicks in when gamers take cover behind objects and try to aim around the corner. Uneducated Shooter streamlines this feature to make it manually toggleable on either side with Q and E by default.
2) Simple Impact
As previously mentioned, Fallout 4's combat is a vast improvement over its predecessors. Interestingly, Simple Impact does not do anything too big on paper.
First and foremost, it subtly improves visuals for both hip-firing and iron sight firing by adding a more prominent muzzle flash, camera shake, and blur without going overboard. Secondly, it adds auditory feedback to hits and kills as found in modern multiplayer shooter games, inspired by the mod 'Kill tips and Hit sounds.'
Only with these changes, this mod alone makes the tactile feedback and overall oomph of the gunfights feel much more modern and engaging.
3) Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul
Those who have modded Skyrim will remember the similarly named SSE mod (later superseded by Audio Overhaul 2). Likewise, the Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul mod on Fallout 4 does precisely as the title would suggest.
It fixes and tightens up the Fallout 4 soundscape to be more logically consistent without changing the base sound effects. This is a welcome change perceived almost immediately, thanks to the many vaults and other such settings that respond well to a high acoustic range.
4) Combined Arms and Combined Arms - Expansion
Along with its recently released expansion module, Combined Arms adds 17 new weapons and distributes them across the game world. The obvious caveat here is that the lore-friendliness of this mod is dubious in most cases. Nearly all the weapons added, such as Barrett M82a1 and SPAS-12, came to exist in the 1980s in our world.
However, if you can look past this drawback, the quality of this mod is next to none. Each weapon peppers a touch of modernity to the atompunk world of Fallout. All firearms come with suites of custom scopes and other extensions, to boot.
5) Better Locational Damage and Optional Gameplay Overhauls
The self-proclaimed 'most realistic damage overhaul you'll find on the whole Nexus,' this mod is a package deal that adds several features to spice up vanilla Fallout combat, optionally with its own AI tweaks. This ranges from an auto-save element to Shotgun knock-back.
Out of the myriad tweaks and additions, the most important are:
- Scripted headshots that can instakill based on the target race, helmets, and the caliber used.
- The chance for live dismemberments with laser weapons.
- A balanced backstab and stealth kill feature.
- A bleeding system that works on enemies and players alike.
- Enemy reaction to weapon hits - including flinching, staggering, knock-backs, and knockdowns.
6) NAC X
From 'l00ping,' the author of NAT for Skyrim and NAO for Oblivion, NAC X is among the most realistic weather overhauls for the post-apocalyptic Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
It comes with a completely new weather palette featuring 40 distinct kinds of weather, custom sky, cloud, and rain textures, ten original radstorm variations, and realistic nights.
7) ELFX
While NAC X works its magic on the exterior weather, Enhanced Lights and FX is the one-in-all comprehensive interior lighting mod from anamorfus. Like the author's similarly named mod in Skyrim, ELFX strips away the overbearing ambient interior light to give it a touch of drama.
The added light sources, lighting value changes, and extra ambient effects do not focus on realism so much as they do on creating a dramatic scene.
8) Reactor ENB
Dependent on the last two mods for interior and exterior lighting, Reactor is one of the newest ENB presets added to the ever-expanding Fallout 4 mods library. Sitting on 300+ endorsements within two weeks of its initial release, the preset's accolades speak for its level of polish.
If you wind up using this ENB, do not forget to grab the complimentary ENB patch from the NAC X files tab.
9) Luxor's Summer
To overhaul the Fallout flora, numerous options are available on the Nexus. Most vouch for True Grass, the one-and-done solution that leaves the trees alone. However, for an avid player who does not mind departing from the original look of the wilds of Massachusetts, Luxor's Summer is the newest feature-rich tree and grass replacement mod to look out for.
The mod's bright visuals are akin to Far Cry: New Dawn or Fallout 76's West Virginia and top-notch in terms of texture details.
10) Pip-boy Flashlight
The final piece of the puzzle happens to be, again, another mod whose scope seems deceptively tame and specific. Turning the Pip-boy into a more focused flashlight does wonders for its visual fidelity.
While similar mods do not work as well in Fallout New Vegas or Fallout 3, the resident flashlight mod of this game fully utilizes the upgraded Creation Engine's point-lighting capabilities. With NAC X's dark nights and ELFX's darker interiors, the flashlight also ramps up the sense of exploration like no other mod combination possibly could.
Note: This article reflects the author's views.
