Screenshot by Adrian Trujillo.

By Samantha Johnson

It’s been seven years since the last “Fallout” game was released and this year’s “Fallout 4” was nothing short of record-breaking. With 12 million copies sold to retailers on launch day, according to Gamespot.com, it’s been one of the most widely anticipated games of the year. Bethesda, the company that developed previous games like “Elder Scrolls: Skyrim,” is saying that “Fallout 4” was one of the most pre-ordered games as well, setting a record-high demand for the game.

But does the game live up to the hype? As a “next generation” game, which means it’s only available on the newest consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, it begs the question of whether or not the nearly $60 game is worth the buy. With improved graphics, a new storyline and an open-world user experience, players could only hope to get what they’re paying for.

The Reno Smash Community, which focuses on “Smash Bros” tournaments in various Reno venues including the University of Nevada, Reno, was only one of the groups of gamers anxiously waiting for its release. Riley Moore, the admin for the Reno Smash Community, has already spent 20 hours playing the game, even though he had no intentions of buying it. The game was a gift to him from a friend, and in the beginning he had doubts.

“At first I kind of didn’t like it,” Moore said. “I wasn’t used to the combat system and it felt really clunky to me compared to other first-person shooters.”

Moore had never played any of the “Fallout” series before this game and he said that the more he played the more he enjoyed it. An aspect of the game that Moore said was appealing was the open-world experience, but unlike other open-world games that detract from the original storyline, “Fallout 4” has a strong story that motivates you to find out what happens next alongside being able to level-up the character.

“I didn’t know what all the hype was about,” Moore said. “But I would say that I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and from what I’ve seen, veteran ‘Fallout’ players like it a lot too.”

Websites like Neurogadget.com are already making predictions that “Fallout 4” will win “Game of the Year,” and according to Gable Foertsch, a veteran gamer of the “Fallout” series, it’s an accurate statement.

“They made a lot of good changes,” Foertsch said. “Everything ‘Fallout 3’ could have been is ‘Fallout 4.’”

Among the qualities Foertsch listed, the voice acting and character interactions were what he said made the game unique and went above and beyond the previous games. He said it was the first time in the “Fallout” series that the first-person character had a voice instead of being mute and the conversations between characters made the user become more invested in the storyline. What most next generation’s games lacked in plot for the sake of graphics, Foertsch said “Fallout 4” excelled in both.

“It’s crazy how deep they went into it,” Foertsch said. “I would recommend anybody to give this one a try because it’s one of the greatest games of all time.”

While it’s only been available to the public for about a week, “Fallout 4” critics will have to give it a little more time to decide whether or not it lives up to its predecessors.

Samantha Johnson can be reached at samanthaj@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @SamRayJohnson.