By using fast travel mechanics, you either miss out on moments like this, or you experience them as part of your checklist of objectives. Fallout 4 is full of small instances where your decisions matter, or where you can get lost in the finer details of the lore. While the outcome doesn’t drastically alter the game, it does have an impact in a small way. If you make the walk, you’re likely to bump into the Drumlin Diner and find yourself in the middle of a dispute between Trudy and a chems dealer named Wolfgang. It falls almost directly between Sanctuary, where I normally make my home, and Diamond City, where many of the game’s quests pass.
I’d argue that the best Fallout 4 has to offer is its attention to detail, and those details are found not when you’re completing a quest, but when you’re immersed in the world. In a game like Fallout 4, that’s a big loss. I could jump from Diamond City to Sanctuary in a matter of seconds, never getting to experience what falls between those two points. I would often travel from objective to objective, skipping all the details that make these environments come to life. Like most gamers, I’ve been historically absent minded in relation to fast travel mechanics in games.
