I just created this account just to write a honest review what bothered me the most in fallout 4 and my impressions.

I play fallout games since 1997.I played fallout 1 /2/3 Fnv ,also tried a bit Brotherhood of Steel spin off in 2004.

I am totally dissapoited by fallout 4.I waited for so long....yet the game has lost its character and spirit.We were waiting for a post apocalyptic open world RPG with FPS and survivable elements.

We got a streamlined casualized shooter.

I cannot play the damn thing.I reached level 32 went to the Intitute .Game is so poorly written that gives me no clue what the Institute goals are nothing.Started a new char...stoped.Enough rant.My impressions.

First of all...the character background choise.We play fallout 4 /pc games cause we want in our game time to escape from reality.To feel unique.To be ,driving car drivers,astronauts,pilots,generals ,survivors ,knights,elves ,name it.In Fallout 4 the main story plot forces us to be ..ehm...a papa.....

Second:Overall theme could be a good.A la Blade runner.But it is poorly written.

Let's go to the main game :

About graphics/UI.I have no problem at all.Graphics are fine(could be a little bit darker though).i would expect more cinematic graphics in "i am Alive" style.

Environments are very good designed.Armors ,clothing hoever ,not.too fancy,too colourfull.

UI is fine.

What annoys me and i feel overall brought down the game:

Voiced protagonist:This forced simplified dialogue lines and choices.Also immersion.Hardly to imagine ourselves speaking as the US actor does .We would not speak so fancy.example:when we finish minutement guest and return to report we say to the settlers."I...took down these raiders for you".well this is american style of speaking i mean the attitude.It shows a spesific character .But fallout 4 is an rpg..we don't want a predetermined character.we want to have our own.With such speaking and moves?impossible.


Quests/exploration:The few vaults in this game are dull.No good written quests.Not enough vaults.no mystery.No metro.No caves.no tunnels.No interesting discovered landmarks.Except dunwitch mines.


Armor:20-30% of Fallout playerbase plays with PA.Here you are forced to play with power armour from first hour.It breaks immersion,character development.Powera rmour was a powerfull pre war tech.Now we have access to it from day one.

Armor Design:Only 4 (!) yes 4 armors in the game.Leather,Metal ,raider,,combat.While i was level 32 i saw a reinforced Combat Armor II ,in a loading screen.Anyway i will not spend another 30 levels to try to find it.I almost finished the game...

Almost all of F4 non powered helmets are bad aesthitically designed.At leat these you can wear them.

Map:map is not small however in pip boy it looks small and all the landmarks are clattered causing comfusion.

No cover system in 3rd person view.

In 3rd person view animation at aimed scoping are not good.Bethesda look at FNV....

Survival has been removed as a perk/skill.

Different ammunition from FNV have been removed.
Armor/weapon repair has been removed.

Rewards in game such as different armor/weapon/chems/food recipes have been removed.From day one,you the cheerfull papa knows to do chems,craft all food and nearly all armor.

There is no sense of exploration.Landmarks are swallow.Deathclaws do not live inside caves just behind rocks....Yao guais are in the bushes..

Removal of iconic weapons /armours of F3/FNV.Chinese stealth suit is gone.Ranger armor is gone.Assasin suit is gone.etc......These were beautifull artistically designed sets that made our chars to look impressive.Yet they are not in the game.



Verdict:Game was rushed and casualized. Streamlined for fps shooter audience ,just adding rpg elementsin an post apocalyptic enironment.Average target age of the product:12-17 year old teenagers.
As for the statements that they developed this game for 5 years...The game has a development cycle less than 3 years and it shows it clearly.No metro no armors no vaults simplified story.

i am so sad...

Forcing voice has been quite a contentious thing in the community, its driven off some customers to never buy a fallout game again and others like it so there is that I guess? If they were smart implementing new features there would be options to turn that voice off, its not that hard to do or maybe it and noone cared enough to bother to do it. If they didnt care enough to add the option its no wonder so many people have sworn to never buy another fallout game again.

The world is more dense which is AWESOME! but its all so boring, no personality, and no character. They all look the same using the same drab colors on everything from the world to the enemies so it all just looks so visually boring since nothing pops or stands out. The game is boring to look at which is bad because people dont like that having such boring looking places with all the same colors. Might as well be black and white.

The audio just svcks in general. Some audio is LOUD and others are like a whisper. Perfect example is at the super duper market. There are two holotapes here. Listen to joshes tape and its a whisper who knows what he says and who cares, pick up emma's holotape and its loud clear and crisp. These audio problems where some people are loud and others soft just shows that they dont care about making a game that works, just about making money. Anyone can make a game these days, indie devs are a dime a dozen. When the audio is messed up so bad most of it noone can hear it just shows they dont care about the game, and if they dont care about it in the future then none of us need to buy them. huge fallout fan, but this lack of basic quality is to much, it just shows a complete lack of respect for the entire gaming community, it also disprespects all the voice talent who put in hours in shifts recording dialog noone can hear.

Anyhow... I won't say much... just this - everything can be fixed by mods EXCEPT:

The poor dialog system, quest consequences, perk/skill checks, high/low int dialog, npc reactions, meaningful choices in dialog to cover more rp choices other than the jerk-good guy premise.

This is my main gripe with the game. There are more but at least mods will, in some years, have fixed them..........

The game was rushed:

example:

From day one you can modify leather armour.Yet you cannot modify Road leathers....Hellmets cannot be modified.

when Geck/Creation watever kit comes out i can done this in less than one hour.No joking.Adding a new armor "Renforced leather roads" with +1 stats.And same texture /meshes.

This is just a detail that shows how the game was rushed.You can only reenforce vault suits.You cannot re paint them.There are still other clothing that can be worn in the game but cannot be modified.This shows a severe lacking of time development.

And ofcourse that is just an example.

Are there mods yet? this game feels so unifinished and unpolished. Is there any mods to fix basic core broken mechanics like how the audio is all over the place with diff characters speaking at diff levels?

This game is rushed because their spread real thin at bethesda working on doom and the new skyrim which I was gonna preorder just like the pipboy for f04 but Im not falling for more of their games. No way am I ever preordering a game again this is so bad. If they cant bother to finish these games and do quality control then Im not gonna bother buying them, which is probably how most feel. What a huge letdown for the gaming community, no doubt this will lose sales for all their games coming out, ill just wait until their on sale or never buy them, theres enough games out there noone needs a doom or fallout game anyways, those are just names and a bunch of developers do the same thing and better.

There will be soon. http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/

But the most complicated mods will be released after Q1 2016 when the GECK will be released (hopefully).

yeah I have to agree on all the points you made....sadly. Everyting gaming wise these days are with the age of 13-17 in mind. The Call of Duty generation

game is so rushed that the first Vault consists of 3 rooms.There is no Security Vault Suit aaround.One of the most iconic fallout items.

Whenever you find it,it is one piece and ofcourse obsolete.How much time would take for a designer /artist to split the Security vault suit into 4 pieces?30 minutes?

Not that they have dozens of armors in this game and missed that one.They have only 4.....Which one ,"Leather Chest piece" consists of a belt.....only a belt1 :/

Synth chest piece?the same.only a metal colar.Are we for real???

I agree with most of what the OP says. I am 35 years old and I played since Fallout 1, in 1998. Honestly I think the games have gotten worse, Fallout 2 was the peak of the series. Fallout NV was the best FPS Fallout because they got some of the original Fallout makers back to fix it... as the op said why did we lose ammo types? that was awesome.

The game was rushed for sure. There are areas that look like a child made them, perfect example are the buildings larger then 2 floors. They just look like a game level rather then a building... stairs in random places no bathrooms, rooms that maje no sense... I lose immersion in these places, its like the area designers have never seen an apartment or office building. The sad part is they can do good work... the Super Duper Mart for example.

Weapon mod system is interesting but just like Skyrim crafting is Super OP. the game becomes trivial even on Survival after you have Gun Nut 3. Anything minus a Legenday Deathclaw/Security bot just melt vs a modded Unique weapon. It doesnt belong in Fallout, and takes the joy out of finding a good weapon.

In Bethesdas usual style the game is too easy. FPS combat has improved but as I said, modding + weapon perks are just too powerful. DOUBLE damage from weapons for 5 perk points? 50% damage resistance? You can play naked and win. I have like 120 Stimpacks at level 20 playing on survival, and I can eat in combat.

As posted the dialog is weak, and as the OP said my main gripe in Fallout 3/4 is you are FORCED into a roll. I dont want to be a little 19 year old kid looking for daddy. I dont want to be a daddy looking for my kid... its an RPG let me make my damn character.

snip

Come on man, you can have a better conclusion than that. The only thing you're missing is a direct reference to CoD, "fps shooter" comes close enough though.

No offense but it's just lazy writing. Not saying it's not effective though, but it's less a review and more a Trojan Horse for tired criticism.

I feel your pain bro.... Bethesda broke Fallout as franchise as EA broke C&C

As I recall, FO was a defunct franchise before Bethesda got the rights. So maybe FO3 and 4 don't meet your expectations, but it's that, nothing, or endlessly replaying FO1 and 2.

I'm loving just about every minute of this game. Of course I never played FO1 or 2 and have been with Bethesda since Morrowind, so I'm biased toward this style of play.

I think there is to much junk laying around. I constantly want to pick it up because I don't know if its important or if I will need it later on. I spend more time sifting through my inventory then actually exploring.

Very disappointed to be honest.

I dismiss any review which includes "Dumbed down" when it is an almost ridiculously complex system of Settlement Resource Management, perks, and less streamlined abilities versus the simple Skill and Perk System.

Any person who thinks its dumbed down and not TOO COMPLEX is not making a real argument.

They're repeating a talking point.

It's LESS of a shooter now and that makes it WORSE.

But that, again, doesn't fit the narrative they're somehow playing such an incredibly complex game as the original Fallout which involved moving three steps at a time and hitting the attack button.

Multiple companies were interested in acquiring the Fallout license including Troika a company founded by the three main developers behind Fallout 1/2.

^^^

Lamontagne i am not a native english speaker :/ .it is not lazy writing it is bad english writing,i 'll give you that.But i am honest.

In which of my points do you reject?

You feel the voice protagonist looks cool when he says after the minutement quests ,going back to the settlers.."I...took care of these raiders for you".Does that feel of a hardened post apocalyptic warrior or of a 16 year old child?This is an rpg ,but a game with dialogue wheel and talking f,orces us into a spesific type/character.

Do you liked the vaults and the vaults guests in the game?I mean the very few that are present.

Have you been to Vault 85(or is it 86?) The one still living and well that has a secret disease/rat infection agenda.It states in the terminals that overseers are fully aware.Yet the overseer we speak has not.Game offers no explanation.Poor writing.

Vault 95?Another mess.

Do you liked the extreme variety of non powered armors of the game?I mean the 4 ones :/

Do you liked the intersting caves of fallout 4?Soory they do not exist. :/ I still remember the first time i entered the cave with the ants below the school building in F3.It felt a strange yet beautiful combo of fantasy/post apocalyptic game.That is the beauty of fallout franchise.No such beauty in F4.

i could go on.The point is i wrote all these cause i care for fallout.There is till hope with the upcoming DLCs.To add some variety in the world some interstring landmarks ,some intersting plot and design.

FNV Lonesome road.....FNV Old World Blues.what intersting worlds!!To explore .The design of the upsided /destroyed buildings in lonesome road is a masterpiece compared to F4 building design.5years passed from then.And situation deteriorated. :/

Yeah and the beach looks great in the turist catalog, but when you get there, there's only a couple of nudists and they are all old! Actually it's true that the starting vault is small considering that you had to live there, but then not really because you got frozen which is kind of new and perhaps those vault developers were out of time since holocaust was coming.

The choices you get to begin with are realistic, because you get be female or male. What more can you expect, every human is born into a family without choice. but not every one choose to live with it, and it seems like you can actually ignore the main kid quest like follow it in a careless way.

How on earth are the Fallout 4 character system and settlements "almost ridiculously complex" compared to the old system? I don't really agree that it's been particularly dumbed down but there is hardly anything in Fallout 4 that is more complex than what existed previously. The settlements are incredibly basic and simple.

I just want to add somethings else that annoeyed me:

The whole settlement issue.I don't like Minecraft,i don't play Annos games i never downloaded the mod from nexus that added these features.was a succesfull mod?Ofcourse it was.But among hudreds of quest/armor/gameplay mods.

Good that exists,problem is Beth made it a selling point and a key of F4.To my opinion it does not feel real for a post apocalyptic game.The whole settlemet design wasted precious money/time of development and that annoys me.I partially blame this for F4 mess.

What to say.I finish my first guest, the saved ones want me to meet them in sactuary.Fair enough.I go there.Make us beds they say.

I bought a post apocalyptic RPG ,not sims..... :/

I'm sympathetic to some points OP, but a note - shouldn't spoil what happens in the game. Edit that line about the Institute to be more vague

Beth did purposely try to make the major faction choices very ambiguous

post apocalypt

Post apocalyptic sims are better than sims, because here they need food, water and guns, in sims they need food, water and relation dialogs.

By the way there is a new feature very post-apocalyptic from the previous fallouts in 4, the atomic holo in-game. What's your score?

Might as well just getused to it because Bethesda's Fallout is here to stay, and deservedly so. If the old Fallouts were so great the series wouldnt have neededto be sold off to begin with.

"Complex Settlement Resource Management." xD I hope you're being sarcastic, as from what I've seen it's really simple. (Could just be me though.) I'd rather have Beth spend their time on other things than creating a half broken settlement system. They could've used that time to create a survival mechanic for example.

About the perk system... Good thing is that Beth finally decided to learn from the perk overhauls modders created the last 2(or 3) games. (Every perk I've seen yet was in an overhaul too.)But it really doesn't excuse the removal of skills. TES' way of levelling skills is better IMO. I wish we had that in FONV. All people do now is purchase a perk and boom! Now you're suddenly much stronger. Kind of does away with the feeling of progression.

Hey man, yeah, I thought that you weren't a native English speaker, that's cool and I understood what you were trying to say completely. When I said "lazy writing" I didn't mean the grammar or language was bad - I meant that it was a lazy conclusion to draw. It's a criticism that so overused that it's become clichéd.

You seem like a smart guy, I couldn't write a post like yours in a foreign language. As such, even though you may not write it perfectly, I reckon you can do better than just concluding "casualised ... streamlined". I didn't mention English as a second language in my first post - I find it really patronising - but just so you know I've italicised words that I think are central to my reply but may be unfamiliar. If it feels really patronising to you I apologise for that.

Edit: But to respond to your post:

I actually don't mind the voiced protagonist. Something that Bethesda has been criticised for is their writing a story. In order to have a good story you first have to have a good protagonist. I feel that voiced dialogue goes a long way to helping with this. Some people disagree and that's cool, I was skeptical at first but have been won over by the fact that now it feels like I'm having a real conversation and it more closely reflects dealing with people. Before I felt dialog was just an information gathering exercise.

With regards to the other things it's too early for me to form an opinion, I have only about 12 hours in so far so no vaults etc.