Typing “cozy” into the Fallout 4 part of Nexus Mods doesn’t carry you as many truly cozy mods as you may assume. In response to modders, a customized bed room with an American flag, one thing known as “seen rain,” and a busty sweater are all cozy. I understand that the nuclear post-apocalypse isn’t precisely chill, however mods are supposed to interrupt the chains of a designer’s intent and allow us to get pleasure from a recreation how we need to get pleasure from it. I ought to be capable of flip the whole recreation right into a Stardew Valley dream.
I’m certain these mods are on the market, however it might take a Ph.D. to know all of the totally different dependencies and variations you’ll want to set up to get them to work. So, I needed to assume exterior of the field to make Fallout 4 cozy and discover the mods that make dwelling in an irradiated Boston as nice as doable.

This week on game-feeds, we’re taking a look at video games that really feel like holidays on your mind in a bundle we’re calling Retreat Week.
First on my listing was discovering a option to repair all that capturing you must do. There’s nothing cozy about fight, in order that needed to go. One of the best mod I may discover for that is known as Violent Enemies Eliminated, which largely does what its identify implies. Each enemy within the recreation will get immediately killed once you get close to them, and turns into invisible so that you don’t have to have a look at all of the corpses. Besides robots, as a result of the modder thinks “robots are actually cool,” based on the mod’s description. They’re unsuitable: The robots in Fallout 4 usually are not cool; they shoot at you on sight and I don’t really feel responsible for killing them. The mod does 90% of the job, although, so I can’t be too upset about it.
With fight out of the way in which, Fallout 4 feels barely much less hostile, however not sufficient to actually be known as cozy. The lifeless bushes and desaturated all the things aren’t notably inviting. That’s the place graphics mods are available in. As a way to mess with the entire aesthetic of the sport, you want the ENBSeries mod and ideally a preset by somebody on Nexus Mods. I used the Vivid ENB preset to crank up the saturation and add some life to the world. And by “life” I simply imply prettier lifeless bushes that aren’t so grey and have a whole lot of impossibly orange leaves. No person mentioned a comfortable Fallout 4 needed to obey the legal guidelines of biology.

Picture: Bethesda Recreation Studios/Bethesda Softworks through game-feeds
That mod alone will get Fallout 4 fairly near one thing approaching cozy. Brightening up the world does loads that will help you overlook how bleak it’s, even when all of the wrecked buildings and vehicles haven’t gone away. I couldn’t cease enthusiastic about Expensive Esther whereas strolling by the empty fields and highways. It’s type of peaceable once you’re simply on the market alone with Dogmeat, appreciating life the place you don’t should dwell in worry of being mauled by a feral ghoul — and it’s even higher with the radio on.
Settlements are what Fallout 4 dropped at the collection, and so they’re good for our cozy transformation. Or they’d be if all of the constructing blocks weren’t so ugly. I ought to’ve recognized that constructing a base out of concrete slabs and moldy beds wouldn’t make for a very inviting environment. A lot of the settlement preset mods use the sport’s default fashions to provide you impenetrable fortresses or, alternatively, beachside fortresses. It’s all fortresses with excessive partitions, no home windows, and turrets on the roof.
Modder Elianora saved the day. Their Chestnut Lodge – Participant Dwelling mod drops somewhat cabin close to Diamond Metropolis. It’s proper subsequent to a pond and largely seems to be untouched by the entire nuclear explosion factor, and it nails the vibe I needed. Inside there’s heat lighting, music, and somewhat desk with a bowl of ramen on it. The kitchen wants some cleansing — we’ll name it rustic — and there are cabinets stuffed with books. I’ll even put up with the “All you want is love and cup of espresso” signal. It’s charmingly corny, and I believe in an absurd world like Fallout, it really works.
1/3Picture: Elianora, Bethesda Recreation Studios/Bethesda Softworks through game-feeds
Mix the Chestnut Lodge with the Place In all places mod and you’ve got a recipe for a comfortable Fallout 4 the place you’ll be able to take lengthy walks to totally different landmarks and are available house to a working settlement that doesn’t seem like a brutalist hellscape. I didn’t have the time to dig into them, however there are many mods that allow you to add customized settlement objects in too, which implies there’s room for dialing up the comfortable much more.
You may spend weeks massaging Fallout 4 into the final word cozy recreation, and also you type of should in case your aim is to erase all the things in it that makes it Fallout. That’s not me, however I nonetheless put in a handful of smaller mods to spherical out the comfortable expertise. I grabbed a mod that stops all of the Radstorms, a mod that makes the water unnaturally clear, a mod that permits you to craft cats, a mod for clear beds, and a mod to color your weapons pink. I attempted just a few mods that rework and develop a few of the cities, like Goodneighbor, however for no matter purpose they stored crashing the sport with my setup. Ideally, I’d need to have the ability to go to NPCs and perhaps even recruit some customized companions.
Your definition of cozy might range, however I like the place my model of Fallout 4 ended up. It grew to become a recreation all about touring the open world with good music on, nearly like I used to be taking part in Euro Truck Simulator — , with out the vans. The Fallout collection is already largely about roaming the countryside and seeing what you discover, so this felt like a becoming option to convert it into one thing far much less violent.

Picture: Bethesda Recreation Studios/Bethesda Softworks through game-feeds
With out all of the bandits and radscorpions in all places, Fallout 4 is a surprisingly fairly strolling simulator. With my modifications, I’ve truly had time to understand Bethesda’s open-world design. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring get a whole lot of reward for the way they subtly lead you to factors of curiosity and shock you with tucked-away secrets and techniques to search out, however Fallout 4 has a whole lot of that too. I discovered a diner with a skeleton mendacity on the desk as in the event that they died in a pancake coma and a number of other camps of individuals making an attempt to start out their lives once more. If something, taking part in a comfortable Fallout 4 made me understand how unbelievably empty Starfield is. No cozy mods may repair a thousand planets stuffed with completely nothing.
Fortunately, Fallout 4 continues to be alive and nicely by the ability of mods. My time with the unique recreation was short-lived as soon as I completed the principle story. I’ve by no means been the type of participant who must wipe the sport clear of each potential aspect quest and crafting materials, so I ultimately misplaced the drive to discover. With Fallout 4 as a comfortable recreation, nonetheless, I loved having the ability to return with out the burden of all of the RPG programs. No stolen kids to fret about, no freaky androids, no ghouls; simply miles and miles of a world on the precipice of life after a catastrophe. And in a world as bleak as Fallout 4’s, I believe that’s about as cozy as you may get.