Fallout 4 - When a Game does not Deliver on the Hype surrounding it

The great Adam Kovic once described Far Cry 3 as "Skyrim with guns", unintentionally spawning a series of mock comparisons that became its own meme. Now it has come full circle, because Fallout 4 can be described as "Far Cry 3 with nukes".
This game is no longer an RPG, it's an open-world action game with RPG elements. You don't hold exciting, well-written conversations, you shoot people in the head. You don't solve intriguing quests, you shoot everyone in the area in the head. You don't make morally ambiguous choices and join sides, you shoot everyone the game throws at you in the head. That's because shooting, slashing and blowing up hordes of interchangeable enemies is the only kind of game progression Bethesda knows. And that would be fine, if they weren't making a long-awaited sequel to one of the greatest, richest and most imaginative RPG franchises of all time.

Instead of role-playing possibilities and freedom of choice that New Vegas nailed so well, we got a dumbed-down action game that limits your options at every chance. You can't really play as a bad guy, you can't toy with the SPECIAL points to create wildly different character builds and each play through will be more or less the same.

Core RPG elements, deep mechanics and good writing were put aside and replaced by crafting and base building, which, at least from the 2/3 of DLC, seem to be Bethesda's main focus. Unfortunatelly neither the building, nor the combat mechanics are deep enough to support the game on their own, despite improving upon previous Bethesda games.
It's a pity, because the beautifully designed colorful environments and great weather effects give the world a unique, eerie atmosphere unlike any game in recent memory and the improved game play aspects present a functional structure for a potentially great game. If only that shell was filled with worthwhile content.

In this Fallout 4 Review, I'll touch base on many aspects of the game and also let you know what my gripes are with this one in particular.

Quests and Content:

After finishing the main quest, which is decent at best, you have almost nothing to do. There are a few choice quests that stand out such as the USS constitution's quest or the Museum of Witchcraft, but apart from that the game is extremely lacking. A side effect of this is once you finish the main quest, there is no content left. The game becomes boring. You're left with the crafting system and settlement building. If that's enough to keep you occupied, you might be able to stretch Fallout 4 for a bit longer, but you'll eventually become bored. The game suffers heavily for having nothing to do, despite being one of the biggest open world games ever released. There are so many places to explore but nothing to actually DO. It's the Fallout equivalent of having a cake but not being able to eat it. There are a ton of cool places like the Combat Zone and the Robot Race Track where there could be interesting or unique interactions, but they're just more raider shooting galleries. You're probably only going to get ~80 hours out of the game if you're an average gamer, over 100 if you try and stretch it. By starting with a new character and siding with different factions OR if for some reason you're okay just aimlessly exploring, you could probably get ~150.

Writing and Player Character:

The writing in this game is just pretty bad. Apart from being cliche, predictable, convoluted, and not really giving you an actual reason to care, it limits your role playing potential. In previous Fallout games, you were in complete control of your character's personality, traits, opinions, etc. In Fallout 4, you are a semi-goody two shoes no matter what you do. This is a side effect of both the voiced protagonist and the 4 dialog option. The game will direct your character on rails the entire game. The game lies to you by telling you you are free. Sure, you're free to go wherever, and do whatever you want, but you will complete quests the way Bethesda wants you to, or you won't complete them at all. In New Vegas, you could finish and complete quests in literally any way you want, and the game would be ready for it. Not in Fallout 4. You don't get to role play as the player character and make your own meaningful decisions. You're Bethesda's sole survivor and you will do as you are told.

Graphics:

The game can be pretty, and it looks good. It's not graphically impressive like The Witcher 3, and it doesn't have a fantastic aesthetic like Bioshock Infinite. It looks alright and is graphically fine. It's just 'meh' across the board. That's okay. The problem arrives the game runs like garbage. I have a GTX 770, and I have to run this game on medium-high. That's a complete joke when I can count the pixels on the rust texture that they reused on every piece of metal in the game. The game is very poorly optimized. Games like Metro Last Light, which is much more graphically impressive, and has a much better aesthetic, I can run at high-ultra WITH higher frames than on Fallout 4. Ridiculous.

Combat:

The combat in Fallout 4 is smooth, fun, and interesting. There are literally hundreds of ways to kill your enemies in any variety of fashions. Improvements on enemy AI make each enemy unique, from ghouls lunging at you, death claws bobbing and weaving around your bullets, or raiders riposting your melee attacks. The enemies are smarter. They also actually use cover now. VATS is still as good as ever. Reliable damage with a percentage chance to hit. You can also sprint now by using AP, a feature that was actually a New Vegas mod. Easily the best combat out of all of the Fallout games by far, ignoring 1&2 as it wouldn't be fair to compare the first games.

The World:

The post apocalyptic Boston Commonwealth is a fantastic place to explore. Several famous landmarks are present, the historic feeling the city of Boston actually has is portrayed well, and it's absolutely giant. There are a massive amount of things to find in the world. There are hundreds of marked locations and an uncountable amount of unmarked ones as well. If you enjoy aimlessly exploring, you'll love this game.

Crafting Systems:

This is by far my absolute favorite improvement Bethesda brought with Fallout 4. The new overhauled crafting system is spectacular. You can create any number of combinations for weapons, allowing you to build the perfect weapon for you. For example, let me talk about the combat rifle. You can turn the combat rifle into a bolt action sniper, or a full auto SBR, and anything in between. The mix-and-match system for upgrades is absolutely grand because it allows you to fine tune your weapons to be a perfect fit for your character and playstyle. You can also customize armor, although it's not as exciting. The most you can really do is upgrade your stats. You can also customize your power armor, but we'll touch on that later. The new crafting system also makes junk loot usefull. By scavenging random junk that would of been useless in previous Fallout games, you can scrap them for materials and parts to build other items. Find a cooking tray? Useless junk right? Nope. Melt that baby down and build a new receiver for your shotgun. The settlement building is also great. It's essentially Fallout: Minecraft edition, which is great by me. The only problem is it can start feeling a little game-y managing resources and such. It's fine overall though. It you like building like I do, this part is really, really cool.

Power Armor:

The power armor in this game is, if you'll excuse my language, freaking awesome. In previous Fallout titles, power armor was simply another regular set of armor that gave the best stats. Not in Fallout 4. Power armor is closer to a vehicle, like a mech suit, in Fallout 4. You climb into your power armor and instantly become an un-killable hulking beast powered by fusion cores. Oh yeah, power armor isn't powered by micro fusion cells anymore. It's powered by fusion cores. Fusion cores are essentially nuclear batteries. You can find them scattered around the wasteland in random places. No fusion cores, no power armor. Don't worry though, you probably won't run out. The crafting system for power armor is equally awesome. You can fully customize your power armor with different upgrades ranging from a VATS computer inside the helmet, to electric fists, to a DAMN JETPACK! You can also paint your armors all different kinds of colors. If you have an idea of a cool suit, you can make it. Also, you can mix and match power armor pieces. Want X-01 arms, T-51b torso and helmet, and T-60 legs? Go for it, because you can, although having full X-01 will always be more efficient, but harder to repair.

Special Perks/Skills:

They don't influence anything! In previous Fallout titles, every perk, every skill you've achieved, no matter if it was for charisma, strength, intelligence and so on, influenced your game experience with unique dialogue options and other things. Its gone now!

Engine:

The fact that you guys still use this old, heavily modified Morrowind-engine, not only shows how you guys are unable to evolve as a game development studio, it also shows that you probably don't want to evolve, because you think your games are the pinnacle of open world RPG's - well hear the news - THEY ARE NOT.

Karma-System:

The karma-system is missing! Despite the fact someone have thought that this won't be a problem after all, it's a huge problem and another step downhill for a once great game ! While FO3/NV had a karma system, Fallout 4 does not have it, and it takes away the feeling that the world is reacting to your actions! It takes away the soul and everything else which gave immersion for the choices you made in game! Cause nothing actually really matters now! "Eradicate Diamond City? Who cares, go on, you lost your stupid son so I will forgive you!"

Popularity-System:

This one was also cut, or was never planned to be in game because Bethesda didn't want to spend time on this! FO:NV greatly introduced this system, and it was absolutely great having the choice to be friends with nearly EVERY faction present in game - depending on the choices you've made!

Building-System:

Despite the fact I've spend tons of hours building settlements - which at the end didn't served any real purpose than being cosmetic crap like everything else in this game - this system is so unbelievable broken and almost unusable, that the easiest constructs sometimes made you grind your teeth because of frustration! Thankfully to your community, all the mods helped eradicate the undone stuff you left over!

DLC's:

Excluding Far Harbor and Automatron, all the other DLC's are an absolute joke, and an underwhelming experience, and not worth their money. Too much workshop stuff, which wouldn't be so bad if settlements - like I said before - would serve more than just an cosmetic purpose.

And Nuka World ... Holy fu**, how I hate it! I even prefer the horse armor! I wouldn't even mind it, if it just was some small addon in the middle of other DLC's, but the fact that it really is the last DLC, is such an complete disappointment, I have no words left for it. The quests, the raiders, the wasteland - everyhing is mediocre at it's best, probably much worse.

Special-Items:

None of them actually has some special design or some special "enchantment", nothing feels unique, everything is just the same stuff! At least in Skyrim some of the special items were unique, not all, but some, but in Fallout 4 nearly every special item isn't special! Copy paste at it's finest! Every reward is just underwhelming. Think it's not important? Well, maybe it ain't imported for some kiddos with low standards, but for true fans - IT IS IMPORTANT!

Main Quest:

Probably the most miserable main quest I've ever saw in a game, and the fact that I really don't have another choice than blowing up this or that faction at the end, is just lazy writing and lazy development.

GIVE ME SOME REAL ALTERNATIVE!

THATS THE PROBLEM WITH PRE-DEFINED CHARACTERS IN AN PSEUDO-RPG. YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE IT "YOUR" CHARACTER. YOU ARE BOUND TO A BACKGROUND STORY. FO:NV DID A GREAT JOB WITH THE COURIER! THATS WHAT I CALL AN RPG-ELEMENT.

Pros:

• Fantastic character customization. Even without more detailed controls, the system allows for truly unique looking characters.
• Great characterization. I've frequently heard people claim characters are "bland" and "boring", but those that I've run in to so far have been anything but. I think that this opinion stems from the first few hours of the game, when you're first getting a feel for things. Preston Garvey is admittedly pretty bland, as well as the inhabitants of every tiny settlement until you reach the edge of Boston. Once you start getting into the nitty gritty of it, you'll find some charming characters.
• Good AI, improved companion AI. This is another point of contention. I've seen people complain that the AI is bad, but in my experience, it's above average when compared to most other AAA titles these days, and leaps ahead of where Bethesda was with Skyrim and the previous Fallout. Enemies make frequent use of cover, attempt to flank, etc. Companions position themselves to accurately fire down at people. I've had very few issues so far.
• Amazing gun/armor customization. Glad they added in layered armoring.
• Music. Great song choice, cool radio station, funny announcer (though I do hope he'll actually tie into a quest at some point). Non-radio music is also great.
• Environment and Level Design. Very pleased with how it turned out. Plus, the increased amount of outer-cell and vertical-game play oriented areas makes me very happy.
  

Cons:

• Dialogue. I don't like the four-button system, and I don't like the whole "color indicated difficulty" with speech checks. I very much prefer a flat threshold. That said, the dialogue is fluid, the multi-person conversations are a refreshing addition, and I can't bring myself to outright dislike this.
• Bugs. This is probably the most bug-free Bethesda release I've ever seen, not counting the problems associated with Gamebryo or the game's status as a mediocre port. Still, the bugs are there, and they are occasionally jarring. Every major release should expect some bugs, and Fallout 4 seems about average for the games industry rather than for Bethesda's historically poor track record.
• Story. I can take it or leave it, which may be better to take as a bad sign. If this game were linear, this would be a major downer.
• Controls. Jesus, the control scheme is bad. UI is terrible. This was a case of people reassigning keys to be used on the PC rather than giving it the attention is deserves. This is probably the worst of it. With a decent UI, almost half the problems with the game would instantly disappear.
• Voiced Protagonist. Ties in with the above. Personally, I find the voice actors did great jobs doing this, but it still doesn't fit, and completely removes the ability for me to make a character of my own, which was a large part of the appeal. I can't get wrapped up in this character's problems. I can't bring myself to care about his/her plight on the Earth. I think this is mostly a matter of poor execution. A voiced protagonist would work fine if they also managed to keep the character's motivations ambiguous, and not have it so heavily reliant on a pre-established backstory.
• They dumbed down the "RP" in "RPG". It's now an FPSrpG. I want my perk/skill based dialogue checks back. I want there to be moral choices that shape how my character is seen. I want there to be a karma meter that shows how I'm perceived in the wasteland.
• Gamebyro and all of the issues associated with it.
• Terrible PC options. You'll have to go directly into the preferences & initialization files to change things like mouse acceleration and FOV.
• No holstered weapons. This irks me more than it should. (Clarification: I meant that when a weapon is holstered, you can't see it on the player model.)
  

Final Verdict:

60/100

Don't buy this game if you want a true role playing experience like Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas. It's a glorified open world shooter with a perk system. It would be a sham to call it an RPG, or anything close to it. It's closer to Borderlands than Fallout. If you want an open world shooter with a solid crafting system, and you don't mind not having much content after the main story, then get this game. You'll enjoy it. If you're like me and wanted an inclusive Fallout open world RPG that was in depth and full of rich story telling and interesting characters, don't buy it. You'll only be longing for what this game could of been. Just play New Vegas with some mods. In my opinion, New Vegas is the best game in the series. Let's hope Obsidian makes another Fallout game, and takes from what Fallout 4 improved on, and makes a a great RPG.

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