This has been a busy week for me between Blizzcon, a Hearthstone expansion, Apple hardware releases between the Apple TV and iPad Pro, a bunch of behind the scenes stuff at TouchArcade, oh, and the release of Fallout 4 on PC and consoles. In the past we’ve covered the Pip-Boy App (Free), so it seemed like a good idea and come full circle writing about both Fallout 4 as well as what it’s like playing the game using the companion app.

First off, I love the Fallout series. It’s been my favorite video game universe ever since I discovered it, which lines up well with my preference for reading crazy post-apocalyptic dystopian future Sci-Fi novels like A Canticle for Leibowitz and everything after. They’re amazing games because they’re fantastic single player experiences that lend themselves to near infinite replayability because of how different the game can be based on both the choices you make and the character you create. (i.e. PC Gamer’s luck and charisma-only play through.)

Fallout 4 flawlessly picks up the torch from Fallout: New Vegas and puts players in charge of a vault dweller from Vault 111. The game sets the scene with an opening sequence that takes place before the blast, with you and your family quickly running to your assigned vault when the sirens go off. Like most vaults in the Fallout universe, Vault 111 is the subject of a crazy experiment. This one in particular involves cryogenically freezing its occupants. For mysterious reasons, you’re awoken to see the cryopod across from you opening up as your baby gets kidnapped and your wife gets shot. A quick freeze and refreeze later and you’re escaping from your pod, not knowing what happened, how much time has passed, or what happened to your son… Which serves as the main trail of breadcrumbs for the primary quest line of the game.

The truly radical thing about Fallout games is how you pursue quests in the game world is up to you. You can say screw your son, kill legit every person you come across, and the game figures out how ti make that all work. You can prioritize finding your son, or get totally distracted with side quests, discovering, joining, and ranking up through the various factions inside the game. Fallout 4’s overall immersion is ramped up even further as the in-game radio has gotten even better with providing in-game news reports that reflect things you’ve been doing in the game. The world feels more alive than it ever has before.

Another substantial improvement id the addition of a shockingly deep and complex crafting and settlement system. In previous Fallout games, there’s junk scattered all over the wasteland which basically only ever served as vendor fodder to collect and trade for a few caps. There’s been small improvements over the years where this stuff is used for something, but you could basically disregard it all entirely with minimal impact. In Fallout 4 absolutely everything is used for something, between customizing your weapons or armor, to building your various settlements. It totally changes how you’re playing, and it’s equally cool and weird that you now find yourself wandering through the wasteland getting excited because you found a pile of aluminum cans as aluminum is super useful for gun mods. Overall, it just takes immersion even further as you actively feel like you’re a scavenger in a nuclear wasteland.

I could go on and on and on about how great Fallout 4 is, but in the interest of our focus, let’s talk about the companion app. Using the Pip-Boy app involves downloading it from the App Store, then going into your Fallout 4 game settings and turning the app connection stuff on. From there, you fire up the app, tell it you want to connect, and if you’ve got Fallout 4 actively running on the same network it should discover it automagically.

Once you’re connected, you can use all the Pip-Boy functions right on your phone. I went a step further and bought the collector’s edition that includes the plastic Pip-Boy holder for your phone. I’m not sure how practical it is to play the game while wearing it, but you totally can, and that’s awesome. Putting your phone in to the Pip-Boy is as simple as selecting the proper foam insert for whatever phone you’re using. (You’ll need to take it out of the case, although the iPhone 6/6S fits inside pretty well without any foam insert with the Apple leather case on.) From there you need to make some minor tweaks in the app to get it to render the screen in the right spot, but otherwise it’s super simple.

While the novelty factor of being able to do all this is off the charts, I’m not entirely sure how useful it is when you’re actually playing the game. I imagine playstyles will vary wildly, but I like that bringing up the in-game Pip-Boy pauses the game and lets you think about what you’re going to do without getting jumped by baddies (or even in the middle of combat). Using the Pip-Boy app does not pause the game, so it’s far less useful inside of firefights as you’ll be dead by the time you fiddle around and find your purified water to drink.

I suppose you could spice things up a bit doing a super immersive no-pause playthrough where you only access your Pip-Boy stuff via the app in realtime, but that’s pretty hardcore. Alternatively, you could play with a co-pilot who manages your Pip-Boy for you, which sounds like another neat way to try playing the game. At the end of the day how you end up playing Fallout 4 isn’t as important as you just playing Fallout 4. It’s an incredible game, and the companion app actually makes sense unlike a lot of second screen experiences which are often totally half baked and just sort of stupid.

Add the Pip-Boy accessory into the mix? These are amazing times we live in.