Fallout 4 master builder pushes settlement system to its natural limit by spending 100 days making an actual vault

A screenshot shows an elaborate Fallout 4 vault.
(Image credit: Bethesda / SirBalz)

Fallout 4 is, in short, a wasteland. Bethesda's 2015 action role-playing game offers cybernetic drama in a retro-futuristic apocalypse, and the game's settlement-building system lets players turn it into their uninviting home away from home. But, as Fallout construction pro SirBalz demonstrates in a recent YouTube video, even doomsday can look kind of cozy if you spend 100 days making it that way.

"By far my most complex construction to date! Really took all the skills I acquired over a decade," SirBalz wrote in the description of their YouTube video, which showcases the elaborate vault they made as if it were a celebrity home tour. "Hope it lives up to that!" 

Spoiler: it does. Fallout 4's Settlement system does have the typical Bethesda range of intense customization features, but it takes a lot of mastery to convert its prefabricated structures into something as detailed and lived-in as the vault SirBalz created. Their video reveals many incredible features, including a round door that twists open like a peeled potato, a shrub-filled entryway decorated with dry fountains, and a cold, TV monitor-filled perch for an overseer in a mean suit. 

Close-ups of open rooms nestled on either side of the vault also uncover elaborate settings for NPCs, which tend to Settlements to save them from disrepair. SirBalz gave them everything: bedrooms, a dinner hall with red-striped vinyl seating, a hydroponics lab, a tragically grubby discotheque, complete with pink neon lighting, and so much more.

"This is amazing to say the least. It gives me an old, abandoned [...] home vibe," one commenter said. "You make the most impressive settlements!" 

"Damn...outstanding work," said another comment. "I spent over a week in my own Sanctuary — made it into my own Diamond City — but this...I have no words to properly describe how much I enjoy this. My friend, I can see you poured your heart and soul into this."

Now pour out your own — here are the 15 best city building games to play today.

Ashley Bardhan
Contributor

Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.