The karma system was noticeably absent from Fallout 4, and while I admit it wasn’t for everyone in previous games, I love how it integrates with faction reputations in New Vegas to create a truly reactive world that always feels receptive to your choices. If you’ve ever wondered what karma would look like in The Commonwealth there’s a new mod just for you, and you can even adjust the parameters of the system yourself.
Uploaded by ‘bp42s’ the Fallout 4 mod called ‘Karma’ does exactly what you think it does: bring the morality system back to the RPG game. A new karma page on the stat screen of your Pip-Boy helps track your actions and moral standing, and just like in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, broadly immoral actions like stealing or killing neutral NPCs will knock your karma down, while helping people will bring the value up. So if you’ve wanted a robust karma system in Fallout 4, now’s your chance.
Now, the karma system does get a lot of flack for how black and white it is in the newer Fallout games, but this mod lets you choose what gives or takes away karma, so you can tweak the mechanic to your liking. You can turn off gaining karma from healing companions and claiming settlements for example, while faction events can be split between karma gains, losses, or be entirely neutral to your standing. Perhaps you want to get away with stealing or lockpicking? Well, you can turn the karma penalties off these actions individually too.
There are even custom karma sounds, more level-dependent karma titles like in the previous games, and custom Pip-Boy icons, so it should feel like a legit integration of the karma system that you can edit yourself.
The bp42s karma mod can be downloaded right here, and they say that the Fallout 4 next gen update shouldn’t impact the mod at all, but I’d still be careful.
Our Fallout guide can help you decide which of the games is right for you after watching the Amazon series, while our breakdown of the Fallout 5 release date should make the eternal wait slightly more bearable.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.