It has been a long time since Bethesda Softworks decided to open up the vault holding one of the crown jewels of the company: “Fallout.” In 2010, Bethesda released “Fallout: New Vegas” to help tie over players until the release of “Fallout 4” in 2015 — and boy, was it worth the wait.

Bethesda did all they could to keep the big reveal of “Fallout 4” a secret by registering the title in Europe in a foreign language. As soon as the game was announced, the company released a trailer shortly after and reported that the game was nearly finished. With more than 111,000 lines of spoken dialogue, the game took several years to create, but the company did its best to keep media off of the game. Now, “Fallout 4” is one of the hottest holiday items of the year, and for good reason.

The game begins in the year 2277. For once, we get to see the future in the Fallout universe before the rain of atomic bombs that threw the world into an apocalyptic wasteland —and it’s beautiful. Although several hundred years in the future, the game portrays what the world would look like if science focused more on warfare from the 1960s instead of advancements in household technology. Instead of iPhones, a landline fills every home. However, robot butlers have been engineered to aid families in U.S.

After a brief experience in the beautiful 60s environment, news breaks over the television that bombs have been dropped in two major U.S. cities. Alarms begin to sound in the quaint neighborhood as you, the player, do your best to guide your in-game spouse and child to a “vault” — an underground living quarters built to withstand atomic warfare.

As you and your family begin the decent into the vault, you barely avoid an atomic bomb explosion. Once inside, you are led to a “detox” chamber that — spoiler alert — isn’t a detox chamber. You and your family are frozen in ice until two people arrive to unfreeze your wife and child, but leave you frozen. After your baby is stolen, you are released after being frozen by unknown causes, and you leave the vault with a drive to find your baby boy.

The mechanics of the game include everything from the previous installments, with improved fluidity. The graphics for PC, PS4 and Xbox One editions are simply stunning. The vastness of the wasteland will draw you in just like it always has. One difference that separates “Fallout 4” from the previous games is the spoken dialogue of the main character. Previous Fallouts have only provided text choices for the main character’s responses, but now the player chooses a short synopsis of what could be said in conversation and then listen to the character speak a full response.

This is the only negative I saw in the game. Bethesda has always found a way to combine intense gameplay with dark humor, and from my experience playing, there is a lack of role-playing that the franchise is famous for. Some responses always lead to the same outcome, which seems unfair and takes away from the player’s ability to craft his or her own character’s story.

Choosing whether to brave the wasteland alone or with a companion is also a choice that players must make. Accepting help along the way would not be a bad, however, players seeking a challenge will likely dismiss all aid. The Fallout franchise has a way of bringing out the survival instinct of players, and “Fallout 4” is no exception. With hundreds of hours of play and exploration, complete side missions and the opportunity to meet thousands of in-game characters, “Fallout 4” lands a 9/10.