Much of the good stuff-like base building and romance-will come later. There's lots to unpack in Fallout 4, from lore to how you level up to where you can find and do certain things.

How do I fight? What fun stuff can I do with Dogmeat? What is all this talk about perks and skills and how do I make sure I'm not a weakling forever? After jumping on the hype train and forking over your cash, you find yourself in the Wasteland with absolutely no idea what to do.

But even after half a year of news bites and a trickle of leaked info, you have no idea what you're getting into mechanically. You know it takes place after nuclear war has devastated the world, and you know you're playing as the sole survivor of Vault 111. You've just booted up Fallout 4 for the first time, and as the opening sequence music swells, the thought suddenly hits you: this is your first Fallout game.