Hello all,

I've finished all the Fallout games. Was born in the same exact year first Fallout game came out - 1997, so y'know, I am not one of these 90s or 80s players who cant change on 3D. Still, I consider Fallout 2 to be the best in the franchise, even 17 years after release. Why is that?

Things I require in an RPG game are: good story, good dialogues and good atmosphere. Thats why Fallout 2 and New Vegas stand highest in my personal ranking. Enough about me, let's head on topic - Fallout 4.

What you've done well in my favourite universum;
- Exploring; you've created an amazing locations, Bethesda. The city and surrounding areas look brilliant. Too bad you filled it up with enemies, rather than interesting NPCs. Anyway, in my personal opinion it feels really like old, isometric Fallout games' and New Vegas atmosphere. There's Art Deco, there's Nuka-Cola, there's real Wasteland. Well done!
- Modifying weapons and armors - nothin' more to say. You really know how to make player able to customize himself.
- Feel of Power Armor - yeah, the walkin' badass tank. Luv it! Dont like the idea of fusion cores' though. Or the fact you receive the most powerful armor on the very beginning of the game.
- Combat - shooting in Fallout 4 is a nice experience. Improved well since 3 or New Vegas.
- No Level-scalling - great decision!
- No more Lyons' Brotherhood! - this decision saved East Coast Fallout in my eyes. Glad to see you undestood your mistake from Fallout 3.
- Music - something special. And I am not talkin' about 40s-50s-stylized songs only. Its about the soundtrack with radio turned off as well. You remember mr Morgan from Fallout 1 and 2? Well, it's the same experience here in Fallout 4. Good job!
- Magazines - I like the idea. They all are small pieces of Art.
- Artistic feeling - I can really perceive a lot afford put into Art values. I mean the artistic concept of Fallout 4. Its graphical and enviromental design, buildings and retro-futuritic vision. Your artists did well. My congratulations.
- Settlements - they are okay.

What you did bad in my opinion;
- It's more shooter than RPG - I hate mainstreaming/ simplyfying in today's RPGs. One question - why? Why not make your game a real challenge, not only for fingers - but brain as well.
- Dialogues - it was said million of times; you need WRITERS. It's my biggest problem with the game. The story itself isnt that bad (but still nothing special), but dialogues are really, really badly written. And there is not enough of them. Almost all characters are dull and not memorable. The things they are talking about and the style of their expression are nothing compared to Fallout 2 or New Vegas. You need WRITERS, Bethesda! You need them the most!
- Dialogue system - cant understand this decision. Like, at all. It is the same category as mentioned above - simplyfying everything! Dont treat your gamers like dumbs. Decisions in your dialogues dont change anything. Literally. Charisma is no more needed and where the hell is Speech perk? The best perk in Fallout franchise has been removed. It hurts me.
- Player decisions dont matter - yeah, I decided to point it out once again. My charisma doesnt change almost anything. You said different before release, Bethesda.
- The world is filled by enemies - the balance between angry, unable to negotiate ghouls and raiders and places, where I can find some quests or at least some interesting stories is shocking. I see building, what's inside - shooting. Wow, it's a village on the horizon, cant wait to see what's inside - more shooting. It's one of Boston's skyscraqers! Who is hiding inside? Super Mutants - once again, shooting. You get the point. Too much shooting. Its not a proper way for an RPG game. I want more dialogues - the good ones - and less shooting.
- some destructive decisions for Fallout lore - ghouls introduced as brainless zombies, presence of Super Mutants on East Coast ( I dont buy the idea of Vault 87), it's still not the same Brotherhood as in Interplay/ Obsidian games.
- Level-up! system - once again simplyfied. Stop treating us like ghouls dammit!
- Bugs - but I dont care.

To sum it up. Good game but not as good as Fallout 2 nor Fallout: New Vegas. I do care about the franchise so I please you - hire GOOD WRITERS! You need them to give your fans a perfect game. The best idea I did come up with is hire Obsidian to write script and dialogues for you. Like, really guys, your map and exploring abilities plus Obsidian's writing skills equal something SPECIAL for your fans.

Thank You.

Nice post

nice post. I agree with u on some part and other no.

Only 3 things i just strongly disagree with u, Super mutants, at least on Boston are different that DC the scribe speak about that one the Ship saying they need to update thier info.

And the ghouls are just the ferals and they where always mindless zombies, since Fo1 and Fo2

And there are decisions still like i speak my way out of the Vault with Valentine w/o shooting Malon (i think it was the name)

What does "cant change on 3D" mean?

OP, you basically said what I had in mind. I would also add serious shortage of deeper characters, but that would be hard to achieve with half-assed dialogues. An RPG needs more text and character building. If someone is a dum-dum or just dislikes words (be it written or spoken), perhaps they should go for shooters, there are plenty of great titles out there. Oversimplifying such a great franchise is sad.

BTW That Vault 87 idea seems like a cheap way of getting super mutants onto the East Coast. And since it's Fallout, it needed the muties.

After reading your post I just realized I haven't or atleast cant remember any other settlements/populated town except Diamond city. There is ofcourse the settlement system but even though I really like this new feature the npcs in it are all quite.. Dead. Nothing special about them and it certainly cant replace the communities you come across in other fallouts.

And what if I want to do a playthrough without settlement building? There would be no other friendly communities other then the farms with named npcs but they dont say much and when you do their quests it is so they join the minutemen.

While writing this I just remembered one settlement - Covenant. So thats nice. Please someone tell me I've just been unlucky in my travels and there is more small settlements not necessarily connected to the minutemen/settlement building! I'm fine in this playthrough since I'm doing a minutemen playthrough - rebuilding the commonwealth. And it puts some friendly faces out there in the wastes (even though they are quite bland boring faces its atleast something). But it seems my second playthrough will just be a very very lonely wasteland with only enemies around every corner..

I don't agree with a lot of it, but I wanted to say how refreshing it is to actually read an intelligent and well thought out post on the pros and cons.

Way too many "this game sux!" posts with out saying exactly what they don't like.

Once again, thanks for writing an intelligent post.

That's it? One example? Give me 20 more and I will agree with you.

Fallout always was about creating your own game style. Here in F4 you are always forced to do something. The example you showed is okay, dont get me wrong, but the dialogue after your 'charismatic' decision ruins it again. And - what's even worse - it's the only one I remember. Alternatives in Fallouts 1,2 and New Vegas are everywhere. Bethesda isnt able to create such quests' design. Unfortunately.

Noice. About the cons where you ask "why?", that's quite simple. It's easier, cheaper, and simple things attract the masses, i.e. profit.

What are you thoughts on the voiced protagonist(s) though? I won't ask about the heavily promoted "guns blazing" approach to quest solving, I think I know the answer to that (edit: and you've actually already commented on that with the "world filled with enemies" point)

Hey. Well, it would be nice to have a choice here, right? You want voicing your character by your imagination? No problem. You prefer discovering Sole Survivor's story as himself without your role in the world? Here you've got voice for him! Sadly, there is no choice but I cant call it as drawback because I really liked the actor playin' my character. I've always imagined my Fallout 2 character with very similar voice. But it's only me and I do realize most people had different ideas for main character's voice in previous Fallouts. Thats why we can see people complaining about it.

yeah there are alot more, i just didnt want to give more spoiler, but another example is saving paladin Dense life, or not getting shoot by that Old Paladin that is crazy (u can work around it trow another quest, but u always can encounter him first trow exploration like it happen to me). U can speed enter your way to Vault 87. And there alot more.

I agree isnt as deep as FoNV, but still is there.

Fair enough. Anyway, compared to metioned New Vegas or original, isometric Fallout games it does still look kinda poor.

He listed just a couple i found at least 15+ other ones so far and i am not rly that far into the game(mybe 30% done and not much of main quest at all stoped after saving Nick Valentine), now i am not saying theres as many of them as in original fallout but the reason behind that is simplified dialouge(mainly cuz of being voiced i presume- i do like that it is voiced though wud just like to see little bit more options here and there).

The only thing i rly miss with the new dialouge sytem is the old skill/stat checks that gave you aditional options since now they are only present for charsima and not some of the other ones as well.

I agree they need more than just run around and shoot everything or assigning settlers to make more food or whatever.

Overall I am slightly disappointed in the game. I think Fallout New Vegas was much better in many respects.

I also found leveling to be a chore rather than a pleasure. I do not like the chart you need a better idea there.

Why my thread has been moved from 'General Discussion'??

I wud assume cuz it includes some spoilers about the quests/encounters when people were commenting to your opinion.

Spoilers stated popping up in the comments, so it was moved (I'm guessing).

Oh, makes sense.