I agree that a lot of the characters were two dimensional in New Vegas and that I didn't even feel anything towards Boone even when his sob story was drama-fied to us.
FYI Bethesda didn't write the dialogue script nor the story for New Vegas, that was handled by Obsidian whom are pretty good at constructing a complex RPG story and good dialogue, but they skimped heavily on world-space in New Vegas.

Have to say I was a little bleh'ed out too by the intro, 1 trip through the house, Sales Rep shows up, go to bedroom, nuclear war. All went by a little too fast.

I guess I'm the only one who is incredibly invested in this story. But then, I actually prepared a backstory ahead of time and, in my mind, my character sees Shaun everywhere.

Like, my character was walking the farmstead and saw the intersection. I just stared and whispered to myself, "Shaun", as I imagined my character stuck in traffic with Ellie (I renamed my wife, eh) and Shaun.

Hell, Codsworth is finding out that, me being away from home so often, he didn't really know what I did before the war at all. Despite me being the one who suggested we buy Codsworth, Codsworth was really only acquainted with Ellie and was in for an ugly surprise when he found out that my character has always had a mercenary outlook on life.

I'm incredibly invested in this story, because I actively participate in telling it. That's not to say that I'm saying that the introduction is very good. In fact, I wish we could have seen more and had more control over the background, perhaps a bit like how Dragon Age origins did it. Still center it around a war veteran's idea, but adding in details like, "I was just a plumber before the war". Details about how the family was founded, perhaps with a perk to illustrate.

I'm no literature expert, but it seems to me
Bethesda is in a no win situation. People want a super engaging intro/story, but Beth must do so without providing any detail about the main character.

As far back as Oblivion people were losing their minds that Beth had the audacity to write a backstory for the character as deep as "you start in a prison cell"

They can not win.

Wait...there's a story? I thought we were just supposed to destroy the wasteland with the awesome guns?

yeah but i think beth realize this and that's why they went with the compromise or whatever we see here

i would have preferred if they fleshed out the back story and characters more. while i do like the 'be who you want'-aspect, i'm a lot more engaged with it all if i'm thrown into a good story

that being said, i personally really enjoy what they did with fallout 4. it's probably the best story they've given us so far i think - but that makes it all the more frustrating why they didn't do more with it

It would be nice to have more people complaining about how it would have ruined their RP choices.

yeah i enjoy it to. But from the forums there are to big groups 1 that like or dont care about the background story, and the other one that want to have 0 clue or imagine all about their story.

I do remember the complains about Oblivion story and how u where tide to the assassin guild too.

You know I think this is how I'm going to frame it in my headcanon. Thanks for the tip. The entire thing from beginning to end was so completely "meh".

Ok, so I had this husband that I didn't choose, this kid that I didn't want, with an irish name that I didn't pick and my family would absolutely have an apoplectic FIT over, and I care why? Nevermind that NONE of that could ever REMOTELY happen in my life, so it's not my character, but it's not a named protagonist,either so I can't just play her (or his) story and watch that life unfold. It's supposed to be me and my decisions, but one major one was already made for me. Thanks.

It was all done very poorly. New Vegas and 3 may not have been the pinnacle of storytelling, but at least they didn't make me absolutely HATE my character and the dialogue whenever someone brings up this ridiculous farce of a marriage.

fallout and tes have very different premises - no story or background for your character in any tes game makes more sense what with all the different races and so on

i'm getting really tired of being the super special snowflake having to save the world in every tes game, hence why i'm more than happy playing a veteran from the pre-war period here. it gives the character an edge and makes more sense with how he's able to work his way around the wasteland like no one else can; because he practically has no knowledge on how things are supposed to be done lol

Warning: Post contains intro spoilers:

First let me say that I have played as the female and male Sole Survivor, and found the intro to be somewhat underwhelming for both of them. The story was all kept so secret that I figured it was going to be something really special. I was not sure if I was expecting something as poignant as The Last of Us opening, but definitely something more emotional than what I felt.

The entire intro seemed a little short and didn't give me enough time to form an attachment to the characters. I would have liked to have been able to spend a little more time in the pre-war world.

Probably the thing that bothers me the most is how our SS reacts to their spouse dying. Just grabbing the ring and leaving them there without much of a goodbye made me really sad. I'm not sure what I hoping for but I just didn't feel much of anything at all. It was all like, "let's get on with our protagonist's life now" too quickly.

You're not. I loved the story, from start to finish. I just thought the beginning could have been abit more fleshed out, other than that it has been an amazing journey. I think they achieved the goal they wanted with the voiced protagonist and the background they had, but it sure pissed off alot of people. I wonder if it will be worth it in the end. After all 90% of people playing this game will never come here and post, and i know alot of Bioware fans have jumped on this game because of the voiced protag and romances. They gained a new following aswell. Guess i am just lucky that i am somewhere in between.

I think that's because Shaun was kidnapped and the SS thought that the kidnapping happened a while ago.

How could that be possible? As far as SS knows, the killing and the kidnapping happened just moments ago.

Well you can roleplay however you want.

My guy stood in front of his wife for hours game time.

Debating whether he should refreeze her or not on the OFF chance she might be revived some how.

That's what I meant. Maybe not being a native English speaker made me choose my words badly...

Also this. When my SS saw the world outside and realized that a lot of time may have passed between those freezings, he just sat in his house and listened to the recording his wife left hi a several times. He also left Shaun's room intact and put in a few new thingies a kid could like, hoping to see Shaun there again.

My character later also returned to the Vault 111 to see her again and I plan to return back there again after the "Battle for the Bunker Hill" quest to discuss Shaun with her.

But, a lot of other folk need the game to have them do it so I guess they need explanations for gameplay actions... which I think is that SS thinks that Shaun just got kidnapped.

That holotape was a gutpunch btw. Great job from both voiceactors.

I think it was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

Bethesda is getting huge flack for INSISTING you are married and not getting to the game fast enough.

Then it gets damned for not making you care.

This is pretty much how I see the entire industry at the moment. Doesn't matter what you do you're not going to please everybody.

Sometimes I really think that so many people don't understand how building games like this works. You can't have everything this game has, plus options for every conceivable backstory you want, plus emotionally engaging storylines which react to that backstory, plus the ability to be whatever sixuality you like, plus the world react to everything you do, plus being able to complete every quest ten different ways, plus every character being able to share a lifetimes worth of knowledge with with full voice acting, plus.......

And you can see where I'm going with this. There will always be something that isn't done right, or enough. What we gain in one area we lose from another. That's just reality.

NV was like a rich menu at the restaurant full of crappy dishes. Fallout 3 and 4 are one single fantastic dish. One has multiple crappy choices, the other ones have no choices at all but what they offer is charming.

That's kind of what I thought, too. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, I just didn't get the emotional impact from the intro that some did. I haven't finished the game yet but did get to the part where

but in the beginning we don't know that.

I thought the voice actors did a good job, overall. The tapes were a nice touch.

Also one thing I don't understand is

I haven't finished the main quest yet (so PLEASE no spoilers) is this explained in the ending?

Yes, it's explained in the ending.

The Institute had a reason for turning everyone's life support off but yours and your spouse's.

TELL ME A COMPELLING STORY!!

But don't define the protagonist in any way, shape or form.

Ken Levine said those two things were completely contradictory and the lack of definition actually prevents roleplaying in many respects.