Top 5 Early Fallout 4 Playthroughs - Let's Play Countdown

So, before things get a bit wacky on this countdown, we figured we’d kick things off with one of the more straight-forward playthroughs. Alchestbreach was the most popular entry by far on our last Fallout countdown, so we’d be remiss if we didn’t include his first forray into the much anticipated sequel. Credit where credit is due!

This is one of those playthroughs that’s great if you want to watch someone who’s very thorough. For example, Al takes the time to fully examine the cryo chamber that he awakens in: he opens his wife’s pod, checks every entry in nearby terminal, etc. Note how even in the first hallway, he always checks the multiple paths you can take before following his quest marker: clearly he knows what game he’s playing. Fans of the series will agree that that’s the way it’s meant to be played, something which Al seems acutely aware of. It’s definitely not all business though…*

As you can imagine, the thorough, “real time” nature of this playthrough makes it better suited for long term binge watching. Impatient viewers may find this style to be a bit dry, but Al’s built a strong base of fans around his consistent quality and funny-but-not-overbearing commentary - both of which are on full display here.

As much as I enjoyed watching this series, I got a bit embarrassed with how fast he found the button to extend the bridge in the Assembly Plant in episode 9. I can’t be the only one that didn’t see that at first, right?

Most people like to save a “challenge run” playthrough for their second or third attempts at a game - you know, after they’re used to the ins and outs. Well, not Yub! Here he’s gone hard-as-fuck and decided to pump the difficulty up to “Survival” on his first playthrough. He must be glad they’ve made the gunplay better for Fallout 4 as well, since he’s decided to forgo the use of VATS as well…

I should say that Yub follows the main storyline a fair amount in this series - probably more-so than the other entries we’ll see today. If you’re the type of person that wants to avoid major storyline spoilers, this might not be the series for you.

While YuB’s channel is least well-known one we’ll see today, his style is tight. He’s found a great middleground between completely uninterrupted gameplay and highly edited hyper screaming madness. He cuts out any overly long conversations and dead air, but isn’t afraid to throw in some effects in editing to make a joke.** He’s also thrown in a sweet “previous on fallout 4” montage at the beginning of each episode, which is not only a nice touch, but it also lets long time viewers pick up where they left off with ease.

If there’s one definite highlight from the first dozen or so episodes, it’s gotta be his relationship with Piper. Early on, Yub picks up the plucky reporter as his companion, which begins a running gag in which he acts truly, truly horrible towards her. Hey man, the wasteland is an unforgiving place: there’s no room to be soft, not with ANYONE. Of course, we really can’t blame him too much: Piper is a real chatty-cathy. *

Considering how off the wall some of the commentary gets in Let’s Play videos, what’s most striking about StephenPlays is how professional he is in his role as host. Episode 1 begins with a calm and collected introduction - one where he explains his methodology and encourages fans to send him feedback. It’s a breath of fresh air - especially for those of you who feel that the average Let’s Play is a bit too ...zany?

This professionalism spills over into the whole series. He’s clearly poured over his character creation at length, detailing his reasoning behind his distribution of stats and whatnot. It feels like Stephen is settling in for the long haul on this game, and he makes it easy for viewers to do the same. Stephen did a 283 episode series on Skyrim, so that’s not too much of a gamble to say that he might do the same with the Boston Wanderer.

What could possibly take so long? I guess I should mention, that this is a completionist run; so he wants to do EVERYTHING in the game. All the quests. Everything. If you’ve ever played a Bethesda RPG before, you’ll know that this is a daunting task to say the least - but it guarantees a large amount of content.

I mentioned earlier that feedback from his users was something he’s encouraged in this playthrough - and that turns out to be one of the better parts of the series. For example, fans tip him off that he has to go back to the Red Rocket gas station to find the cave he couldn’t find the first time around. Of course, he still did better than I did: I scrapped the terminal which told you about the cave in the first place so I never even bothered to look. Hey, I was still new to the game gimme a break! (Sigh)… I’m such a noob…*

One of the best ways to play Fallout games is to have a distinct idea for your character: who he or she is, what they’re stat distribution will be, what kind of equipment would they use, etc. Lewis and Simon from Yogscast exemplify this to a T with their character - Grognak the Barbarian - a character ripped straight from the lore of Fallout 4 itself!

One concern when watching this sort of series, especially for people like me, is that key plot points or elements of the game might be spoiled by watching someone else play through it. The Yogscast guys are quite accommodating in this regard. They promise to make their playthrough spoiler free - at least as far as the main questline is concerned. I’m not entirely sure if this criteria follows through to the other episodes, but as a “primer” for episode 1, it’s a great idea.

Actually, if you’re new to the game or still on the fence about it, this is probably a great place to start with, since the most of episode one is devoted to showing off some of the new features of Fallout 4.

Anyway, their Grognak character really only comes into his own in Episode Six when the guys explore the studio above the comic book store. Now, the jury’s still out on whether or not they knew about where to find the Grognak costume, but that reaction does sound pretty genuine.* The guys actually aren’t skilled enough to get Grognak’s axe in this episode though, although it’s sitting right there in the locked display case. So, you’ll have to check back a few episodes later for them to complete the ensemble. Funnily enough, they try to use dogmeat to glitch it out of the case for them - but alas they’re forced to do it the legitimate way and spend the perk points in order to pick the lock. Remember that technique though, it’s gonna come up in our next entry.

If you felt that the last few entries didn’t have *enough* irreverent commentary, look no further than the GameSocietyPimps...ugh I can’t believe I have to say that name seriously…

At a glance, it’s easy to see what sets this series apart from a lot of its peers: it features commentary from 2 hosts instead of just one. While this is clearly used to deliver a lot of the jokes, it also helps to fill up a lot of the dead air that arises in so many of these playthroughs. Just the amount of fun they get out of their character creator abomination is pretty golden. (Character’s husband)

While every playthrough has to do the same beginning part - a section which gets pretty repetitive once you’ve seen it a few times - the (sigh) Game Pimps do their best to spice it up with their commentary. This is a thread that runs through the two episodes of the series that have been released so far - a decent mix of screwing around and, you know, actually playing the game. One caveat however, is that while the gameplay is essentially uninterrupted - aside from a few edits to speed things up - you can hardly ever hear any of the dialogue from the NPCs amidst the steady stream of banter.

Remember that glitch that I mentioned that the Yogscast guys tried to use? Well, it works for these guys, who use Dogmeat to “fetch” the Cryolater, which is still technically out of reach behind a master-level lock. What a magical dog! This is pretty ironic because if you rewind the video only a few minutes, you’ll see that they were seconds away from pulling an old-yeller on him.

What Fallout 4 play through do you think people should check out? And what category should we count down next? For more lists published everyday, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com