Why Fallout 4’s leaked map walk video doesn’t tell the whole story

The size of Fallout 4's world has been a hot topic of conversation of late, especially since a video recently leaked online revealing that you can run across the entire map in just under 11 minutes.

Compare that to the two hours it takes someone to walk through Skyrim, another Bethesda open-world game, and it's easy to understand where some of the disappointment may come from.

Here's the thing though, the amount of time it takes you to run across a space is not indicative of the amount of things you can do within that space. 

In Skyrim, for example, the world is filled with mountains that take up lots of space. They don't really serve a purpose aside from looking pretty and acting as a barrier you need to go around.

Fallout 4, on the other hand, is a dense city. As you may have seen in the now-removed video, multiple areas of notable interest were discovered within seconds of each other. So while there are areas of open desolate wasteland, there are also tightly packed cities with tall buildings, many of them open and ready for exploration.

The reason the size of Fallout 4's map can't be judged by how long it takes you to run across is because it's built vertically, not horizontally. Rest easy, Vault dwellers, I'm sure there is plenty to explore in the world of Fallout 4.