The Future Looks Bright

Fallout 4 depicts a 22nd-century post-apocalyptic Boston. Spoiler alert: The city looks the same, but with more mutants.

By Rachel Slade· 11/24/2015, 3:59 a.m.

Rendering courtesy of Bethesda Softworks

Take a tour of post-apocalyptic 22nd-century Boston, where the Bunker Hill Monument looks like Godzilla took a baseball bat to it and mutant creatures, products of mutagenic bioweapons, frolic freely in Southie. This is the future according to Fallout 4, the blockbuster role-playing game released last month by Bethesda Softworks.

The concept: Thanks to a system of elaborate, self-sustaining fallout shelters, you’ve survived the worldwide nuclear war over resources, and now you’re free to wander the planet blowing up and shooting whatever comes your way, including an amusing cast of fabulous freaks. In previous versions, developers took great delight in semi-annihilating Washington, DC, Las Vegas, and southern California. Now Boston—the perfect amalgam of historicism and technological promise—gets its due.

Fallout 4, $60, Target.