Fallout 4 is actually pretty good but....

[votemarvel]

So I've been playing a lot of Fallout 4 recently and have really been enjoying it but it is a game not without its flaws.

I like to play it in third person, where thankfully the animation is decent this time around, but you can tell that they don't want you playing like this. As the game goes along each conversation or area transition zooms you in a little more. I swear if I didn't take the camera back out it would soon turn itself back into first person.

The game crashes a lot and seemingly at random. I had thought it was the mods I had installed but I removed them all, 'repaired' the game through Steam and the crashes just keep on coming. As a habitual saver this isn't a huge problem but its a devil when it happens at the end of a long conversation.

For me, and it's a complaint I have against all Bethesda open world games, the world is far too big for the amount of content that is in it. I am actually enjoying the story and missions but can't help but feel that the mindless slog across the landscape, as pretty as it can be at times, just drains a lot of my interest. It isn't even as if there are a lot of enemies to fight, going from location to location I encounter more non-hostile creatures than I do hostile ones. I can't help but feel, as I've done in the previous Bethesda open world games, that they would be a lot more interesting if the world was a quarter to a third smaller.

Settlement management is so dull I can't even bring myself to properly rant about it. Suffice to say I started to enjoy the game a lot more when I stopped bothering with them.

I've taken a break from the main game to delve into Nuka-World and it's pretty interesting so far. Hopefully I'm going to keep on enjoying the game despite its issues. I think this is the first Bethesda open world title where I'm willing to look past the issues.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

I gather the current update caused some stability issues, but I thought that was rolled back on PC? I'm on Xbox but tinkering with the load order and swapping out a weather overhaul made things much better. The Financial District can still be a horrible place to travel in/around, though, as all my nastiest and most frequent crashes in the past occurred there.

Third-person: heh, I can't really stand 3rdP for TES or Fallout, so I'm just fine with its design. But yes, it's clearly a first-person game at heart, with a half decent 3rdP option.

As for size? Hm, I tend to disagree. I feel the map's horribly and unrealistically cluttered as it is (even worse than Skyrim, which was conveniently small), and the respawn rate is obscene (that can easily be fixed on PC, but I've still not seen a cell spawn frequency mod on console yet) making regular foot travel a right pain.

Settlement building: I frikkin' adore it. ;-) Frankly I find that the most engaging RP aspect of the entire game; Fallout 4 is more or less an anti-role-player, in that you have no real freedom as to what role you 'create'. But [modded] settlement building? There lies the game's true and only real method of self-expression and genuine creativity. Each player's creation is their own, and it encompasses everything from lazy prefab builds where the only thing that matters is having enough beds/water/power/def, to meticulously crafted living spaces or mini outposts that can see to the happiness mechanic, but primarily exist to look believable or simply subjectively 'cool/awesome'.

I gain little satisfaction or sense of reward in finishing another bland radiant quest. But a helluva lot every time I return to my lovingly crafted home with its barn conversion workshop, or think up a new idea for an already established site and start the process of figuring out how best to create it.

Overall it's a fairly dumb, empty headed game, but it's a finely crafted worldspace with pretty decent combat, and - for builders - an impressive and creative feature than can often soak up far more hours than actual exploration, combat, or narrative/faction progression. In some ways it's the most fun I've had with a Bethesda game since Morrowind, but yeah, part of that's because of mods. Vanilla Fallout 4 would be a much harder thing to enjoy given the lack of content and frustrating build restrictions.

 

[happyninja42]

I like to play it in third person, where thankfully the animation is decent this time around, but you can tell that they don't want you playing like this. As the game goes along each conversation or area transition zooms you in a little more. I swear if I didn't take the camera back out it would soon turn itself back into first person.

Can't speak to this bit, I play it first person.

The game crashes a lot and seemingly at random. I had thought it was the mods I had installed but I removed them all, 'repaired' the game through Steam and the crashes just keep on coming. As a habitual saver this isn't a huge problem but its a devil when it happens at the end of a long conversation.

Really? Wow that sucks. I've had zero stability issues with the game. I think I've had like...one, maybe two issues that required a shut down or restart to fix, if that. Sorry to hear your system isn't enjoying it.

For me, and it's a complaint I have against all Bethesda open world games, the world is far too big for the amount of content that is in it. I am actually enjoying the story and missions but can't help but feel that the mindless slog across the landscape, as pretty as it can be at times, just drains a lot of my interest. It isn't even as if there are a lot of enemies to fight, going from location to location I encounter more non-hostile creatures than I do hostile ones. I can't help but feel, as I've done in the previous Bethesda open world games, that they would be a lot more interesting if the world was a quarter to a third smaller.

Have to disagree with you here, but that's a personal preference thing so, that's always different. I like the layout, and the size of it. Having to actually plan out my route, so that I can have places to save (I play on the Hardcore/Survival mode) has actually made the game more enjoyable for me. The layout actually matters now, instead of just teleporting around via fast travel, making any depth of the journey moot.

Settlement management is so dull I can't even bring myself to properly rant about it. Suffice to say I started to enjoy the game a lot more when I stopped bothering with them.

I mostly agree here, except again the Survival mode makes it more enjoyable. As having supply chains, and a widespread settlement network is highly useful when exploring. Having a location you know will have clean food and water, and a place to sleep nearby, is vital in Survival mode. And being able to utilize the crafting supplies via the supply lines makes it where you don't have to keep trekking back to a specific location to craft things.

 

[Saelune]

Bethesda games were never meant to be played in third person. Its just there to look at your character and nothing more.

Now, less bugs are better, but Bethesda games are big and ambitious. Something most games arent.

I blame the compass. Morrowind was fun to explore, but that didnt have a dungeon finder compass. If you had to actually look for things, I bet it would feel more exciting to explore. Unmarked locations are always the most interesting, even when its just an easter egg, well thats all of Morrowind.

Settlements I am iffy on. Its fun for some, not for others. I dont want it in an Elder Scrolls game though, so I hope it doesnt pop in in TES.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

The idea of Fallout 4 being spread over too much bread is a common and legit one. There really needs to be...3 times as many quests, little side missions that don't even trigger as quests like some dude was stung by a radscorpion and needs an antidote or caravan under attack from raiders. Something.

Because during my mindless walks through the wasteland, things are pretty good. Got me minutemen, robots and caravans just walking around mowing down raiders and beasts left and right, and its not bad at all.

As far as settlement management, I actually enjoy it. But I can spend 10+ hours meticulously assembling and painting Warhammer models, so my brain is backwards.

 

[pookie101]

i tend to play it in third person only usually switching to first person to pick up items.

as for settlement building... well its the reason ive got 1654 hours in the game

 

[Kyrian007]

3rd person... its ok for an unarmed or melee build IF you are doing a twitch stream. That's kind of a niche though (btw, when are we getting more "Agatha Fisty: the one punch gran.")

Crashes, its crashed once on my PC. In over 700 hours of play. Hell, in that time I've only had to key in a command code once to correct a glitch (it was the Ft. Hagen blur glitch.)

Size... I like it. It's more comparable to FO3 that had interesting landscape and something around every corner, rather than FO:NV which was just a big empty brown you had to sprint in some direction for minutes to find something to do.

And settlements. I don't get the criticism and never have. You don't have to do it. It's completely optional. A blank spot to build a couple of machines does not count as "settlement building." It's a very... very dumb complaint. Sorry that's just the way I've always seen it. Yes, in fact I have played through to completion with a character and never built a single settlement.

 

[votemarvel]

I've been playing the Nuka World DLC and have encountered the bain of my existence, the collection quest.

One or two Items I can usually tolerate but the mission at Star Control requires that I find 34 Star Cores with only that a certain amount are located in one area. I loathe this sort of quest.

Do you get anything for finding them all apart from the suit of power armour? I really don't mind missioning out of the suit if that is the only thing that results from finding all the cores.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I think it's crashed on me once or twice in the first week of playing, never since even with mods. It's a good game, but my main problem with it is how very little new it brought to the series in terms of story quality and something else unique or new.

-Since it's obvious that most games these days aren't going to give us the pure absolute brilliant quality dialogue like Fallout 2, I'm also good with a voiced protagonist.

-The gun play is *much* improved and a very welcome change.

-The weapon/armor upgrade system is probably my most favorite improvement.

-The new power armor mechanic is nifty, but the fusion cores are just an annoyance and goes against the lore.

-Followers are pretty good for the most part, even if their dialogue and quests is a bit lacking in quantity.

-I actually found the game world too small, but it is better detailed that the previous games.

-Settlements are good way to kill time and screw around, but a bit lacking on an actual effect on the game. And not being able to utilize many interiors or existing structures is baffling. But them being optional relegated them to being a toy at best, when it could have been more.


Overall I like it quite a bit, but I'm disappointed at how quickly Bethesda quits making new content for their IPs that make them trainloads of money. Still though, I easily felt like I got my money's worth.. Which is more than I can say for a number of other games that have came out in the last year or two.

 

[wings012]

Haven't yet bought the DLC. Considering most of them is crafting shenanigans, I feel it is a rip off.

As usual Bethesda creates a nice big playground. There's lots of fun to be had, especially those into exploring and searching for things....

And where Bethesda fails is making it feel meaningful.

You can build a nice settlement, but it is for its own sake more than anything else. Besides breaking the game's terrible economy with your endless supply of purified water. Which you will do if you want to craft anything worth a damn due to the absurd about of adhesive needed. Unless you find searching for bottles of wonderglue that fun. I do wish instead of all these empty settlements which you can fill with generic NPCs, you only had one settlement. And you seriously built it up, attracted proper NPCs who actually added to your settlement instead of being a statistic. Instead of building a silly lemonade stand which happens to sell guns, you attract an actual gun dealer with a caravan. Maybe you gotta rescue his mates to get on his radar, help him out a bit and impress him with your defenses. Just give it more impact rather than some masturbatory exercise in how nice your couch looks against that wall.

Though that said, I do enjoy the crafting. What I don't like is how things were balanced. Damage basically doubling with weapon perks is fairly absurd - so you craft around your character's build rather than for tactical options until you are high leveled to spec in everything. A bunch of weapons are basically obsolete really quick. While weapons being tiered is pretty common and that's fine and all, there needs to be variety within a tier? Like how the Combat Rifle completely obsoletes the SMG and Hunting Rifle, despite the Hunting Rifle being able to be upgraded to the rare and expensive .50cal which... adds a paltry increase in damage. You can tinker with your guns in all sorts of ways but often your end result is already set.

Also the story is kinda butts along with the final resolution. Help one faction murder the other two in a nutshell. I decided I didn't want to do any of that so I chilled with the Minutemen, but one faction just has to pick a fight with me resulting in a half arsed ending that lacks the questline of the other factions.

Jetpack Power Armour is amazeballs and you can never convince me to leave that thing unless I have to interact with some world object that doesn't allow me to stay in it. Fusion Core supply stops being an issue at the end.

Do wish they make the Power Armour more personal. Random arse Raiders have it, you can collect a stupid amount of suits. By all means give you the first suit in that initial fight with the Deathclaw, but have it completely break down or something. Then have you slowly rebuild it with random scavenged pieces. Maybe the power supply is trashed, so you have to make do with Fusion Cores thus not having to bugger with the lore. Power Armour could be biometrically locked or something, making your suit special.

Also disappointed in how little there is to do underwater. They do allow you to clomp around down there with the PA functioning like some kinda deep sea diving suit but there is nothing.

TL;DR too much generic shit, not enough bespoke shit?

 

[Zombie Proof]

Haven't yet bought the DLC. Considering most of them is crafting shenanigans, I feel it is a rip off.

As usual Bethesda creates a nice big playground. There's lots of fun to be had, especially those into exploring and searching for things....

And where Bethesda fails is making it feel meaningful.

You can build a nice settlement, but it is for its own sake more than anything else. Besides breaking the game's terrible economy with your endless supply of purified water. Which you will do if you want to craft anything worth a damn due to the absurd about of adhesive needed. Unless you find searching for bottles of wonderglue that fun. I do wish instead of all these empty settlements which you can fill with generic NPCs, you only had one settlement. And you seriously built it up, attracted proper NPCs who actually added to your settlement instead of being a statistic. Instead of building a silly lemonade stand which happens to sell guns, you attract an actual gun dealer with a caravan. Maybe you gotta rescue his mates to get on his radar, help him out a bit and impress him with your defenses. Just give it more impact rather than some masturbatory exercise in how nice your couch looks against that wall.

Though that said, I do enjoy the crafting. What I don't like is how things were balanced. Damage basically doubling with weapon perks is fairly absurd - so you craft around your character's build rather than for tactical options until you are high leveled to spec in everything. A bunch of weapons are basically obsolete really quick. While weapons being tiered is pretty common and that's fine and all, there needs to be variety within a tier? Like how the Combat Rifle completely obsoletes the SMG and Hunting Rifle, despite the Hunting Rifle being able to be upgraded to the rare and expensive .50cal which... adds a paltry increase in damage. You can tinker with your guns in all sorts of ways but often your end result is already set.

Also the story is kinda butts along with the final resolution. Help one faction murder the other two in a nutshell. I decided I didn't want to do any of that so I chilled with the Minutemen, but one faction just has to pick a fight with me resulting in a half arsed ending that lacks the questline of the other factions.

Jetpack Power Armour is amazeballs and you can never convince me to leave that thing unless I have to interact with some world object that doesn't allow me to stay in it. Fusion Core supply stops being an issue at the end.

Do wish they make the Power Armour more personal. Random arse Raiders have it, you can collect a stupid amount of suits. By all means give you the first suit in that initial fight with the Deathclaw, but have it completely break down or something. Then have you slowly rebuild it with random scavenged pieces. Maybe the power supply is trashed, so you have to make do with Fusion Cores thus not having to bugger with the lore. Power Armour could be biometrically locked or something, making your suit special.

Also disappointed in how little there is to do underwater. They do allow you to clomp around down there with the PA functioning like some kinda deep sea diving suit but there is nothing.

TL;DR too much generic shit, not enough bespoke shit?

Everything save your gripes about the underwater stuff is fixed by survival mode. Trust me and the two characters and over 400 hours I've spent doing it (741 hrs spent including characters in vanilla mode).

With the readjustments to balance, every gameplay element has gravity and relevance. No more instant gratification and trite gameplay elements that fall by the wayside and get ignored. Everything must be considered in the crafting of your character and gameplay style. The extra level of gravity and nuance means that EVERYTHING matters more.

Also, who in their right mind has trouble finding adhesive hahahahaha. Plant batches of Mutfruit/tato/corn in every settlement and BOOM, endless amounts of adhesive. You're welcome.

*edit*
Oh and this needs to be said:
If you're going into a Bethesda game without viewing it as a toolset with which to craft your own RP-ing experience a-la tabletop dungeons and dragons, you're doing it wrong. You're your own dungeon master. If you're expecting a narrative to give you motivation instead of crafting your own with the unparalleled amount of elements they supply you with, you really don't get Bethesda open world games.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Although it's such a rich and vibrant game, I've never excused Bethesda's glitchy releases. However, I did not have too much trouble with Fallout 4. I did run into some major problems with hanging and even launching after going a tad overboard with mods though. Especially with all the post-processing and textures/skins overlapping. I was very saddened by the removed feature of holstered weapons (back slung, hip or leg slung) especially because I played New Vegas just before starting my first run of Fallout 4. It even became very hard to re-implement this through mods, due to the weapon/armor item classing system. That was when I played, maybe there's a decent workaround now since the GECK release.

-The settlements: Either you get right into it, or you do the bare minimum. I did a few and got bored, then started going apeshit building them up, deciding to keep 3 main areas (Minutemen Fortress, the first settlement, and the Red Rocket). Was going to do a mega build on that island off the map until I realized there was an item limit, which when exceeded drastically makes the game run poorly. So I put it to rest.

-The levelling system: Didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, though I still do prefer the old system. I still had quite a niche character, full handcannon-wielding gunslinger all the way, was a crapload of fun.

-The dialogue was well it fell over a little for me. Not the voice acting (which was incredible), not even the story which I found engaging enough, but the player responses. Never felt like I was making much of an impact or decision for some reason, well not like New Vegas anyway. I even played with the full dialogue mod, and still didn't manage to get the character to say quite a number of things that they would otherwise in previous games.

 

[votemarvel]

Well I've played some of the DLCs now and find myself somewhat disappointed.

Nuka-World is the main game in microcosm. Nothing about it feels particularly special or unique. It offers nothing that the main game does not.

Automatron was pretty fun and the final battle was tough as I was reduced to melee weapons by the end of it.

The Vault-Tec Workshop is just more Settlement building. The twist of you running your own vault just can't get me interested in building yet another settlement. I don't want somewhere extra for Preston to keep sending me.

So just Far Harbour for me to dive into before finishing off the main quest. I feel kind of bad that I am going to have to pick someone to betray. Each of the factions are enjoyable.

 

[mojoismydog77]

One of my major issues with the game was the ending and the lake of resolution at all especially for the smaller faction. I honestly miss the ending slide show are all the variations of it. The factions felt meh also with the Bros of Steel being jerks, Minutemen quest being super annoying/ the minutemen being super useless, and the railroad/institute were fine but not as flush out of the factions in past games. Also, weapon diversity as definitely downgraded from previous games.

With that being said, I did enjoy the game. The companions were much better done than previous games and more flushed out. The non-random unique weapons/armor was really cool. I actually enjoyed the settlement thing although I wish the settler had a bit more personality. Plus I really enjoyed the atmosphere.

I am excited to see what Bethesda does next.

 

[Raddra]

Honestly my critique for F4 is that the world doesnt seem big -enough-. I want more. It gets to the point that wherever I am I know exactly whats around me, and that gets boring.

 

[votemarvel]

Well I finished the game by siding with the Minutemen...and was left with the feeling of "that's it?"

I was actually enjoying the storyline of the game but this proved to be a major letdown. It's pretty much killed my interest in replaying as without a good ending I don't want to go through again.

Fallout 4 has proven itself to be a game worth playing, I'm just not sure it is worth replaying.

 

[happyninja42]

Well I finished the game by siding with the Minutemen...and was left with the feeling of "that's it?"

I was actually enjoying the storyline of the game but this proved to be a major letdown. It's pretty much killed my interest in replaying as without a good ending I don't want to go through again.

Fallout 4 has proven itself to be a game worth playing, I'm just not sure it is worth replaying.

Yeah it's not like New Vegas, where you get a proper "ending", and the game you know, ENDS. With resolution and stuff. No, it's like Skyrim in that it just keeps going after it's over. Which is annoying for a lot of people, and an understandable criticism.