Fallout 4 Just Hit Its Lowest Rating and It’s Really No Surprise

Fallout 4’s recent Steam reviews have fallen below the “Mostly Negative” threshold, with nine out of ten being unfavorable. The unenviable milestone is a result of the heaviest review bombing campaign that Fallout 4 has suffered since its 2015 release.

November 10 marked the 10th anniversary of the latest mainline entry in the post-apocalyptic RPG series. Bethesda commemorated the occasion with Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, a re-release akin to Skyrim Anniversary Edition, which bundles the base game with all its DLC and more than 150 Creation Club add-ons. However, the updated version of the RPG introduced a range of issues that sparked fan backlash, leading to a surge of negative reviews across multiple storefronts, with Steam being the most affected.

Fallout 4 Is Suffering Its Worst Review Bombing Campaign Yet

Nearly two weeks later, the Fallout 4 Steam review bombing campaign is still ongoing, having evolved into the most significant instance of fan pushback against the game to date, percentage-wise. According to SteamDB data sourced from Valve’s API, Fallout 4 received over 7,500 negative reviews in the 12 days leading up to November 22, with nearly 91% of its user reviews during that period being negative.

Excluding its launch month, the post-apocalyptic RPG has been subject to two prior review bombing campaigns on Steam. The first occurred over a two-month period beginning in August 2017, triggered by the launch of the Creation Club feature, which introduced paid mods and forced users to download sizable CC data even if they had no intention of using the platform. That campaign resulted in over 18,000 negative reviews but was less severe proportionally, with 88.64% of reviews during the period being negative—compared to 90.93% now. The second, significantly smaller campaign took place in April 2024, following the Fallout 4 next-gen update that broke a wide range of mods, some of which remain incompatible with the current version of the game 19 months later.

The ongoing barrage of negative reviews stems from complaints that Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition broke the Creations Menu, introduced issues with DLC ownership verification, and resulted in a range of other technical hiccups, including new crash scenarios. It also broke numerous mods, which is a common side effect of Bethesda updates that require runtime changes, namely a new executable file. A vocal segment of the fanbase is describing the current situation as entirely predictable, if not avoidable. “Breaking the game on its anniversary is peak Bethesda,” one player wrote on Reddit, in a thread filled with calls for Bethesda to do better.

All Fallout 4 Steam Review Bombing Campaigns to Date

Fallout 4 Is Getting Another Bug-Fixing Update Soon, and More Fallout Games May Be in the Works

Bethesda already released one Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition hotfix on November 17 and confirmed that another bug-fixing update will arrive before the end of the month. Looking ahead, Fallout fans may have several game-related projects to look forward to. According to previous leaks and insider reports, both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas have remasters in development. Their release timelines remain unclear, though the modernized version of Fallout 3 may launch first, as it has been rumored for much longer—dating back to its mention in ZeniMax documents inadvertently leaked by the FTC in September 2023 during its legal battle with Microsoft over the Activision Blizzard acquisition. As for Fallout 5, Bethesda Executive Producer Todd Howard repeatedly said work on the next mainline game will start once The Elder Scrolls 6 is out, which isn’t expected to happen before 2027 at the very earliest.

Source: Actual-Damage-4216 / Reddit