My biggest fear of weakness for the game ended up being it's biggest strength.

Balance.

This game, unlike any previous Bethesda game, is rigorously balanced. I've played for a game time total of 2 days and 8 hours, and the flow of weapon and mod drops has been beautiful. Even Ammo is set to arrive in quantities based on your level.

Skyrims blacksmith was kinda of over powered. It being a Bethesda game however, it mattered little, as the game is what you make it, and there's no wrong way to play. So I limited my blacksmithing when I did use it.

For Fallout 4 I wanted to see if I could avoid crafting and see what the outcome would be, and I was NOT disappointed.

While using crafting will allow slightly different advantages for weapons, because of the level caps on the perks, you still don't have an advantage over a non crafter. Mods on weapons are part of loot. And you'll find amazing mods likely before you can use the skills to make them. I have this incredable lazer rifle with the BEST capacitor AND sniper barrel, along with the best auto barrel, and have zero science or gun nut perks. Crafting in this game is what it should be, rewarding but not necessary.

This brings me to balance through mods. Like ammo, a lazer rifle at level 5 just isn't a lazer rifle at level 35. Just because you have a lazer rifle doesn't mean that you have the best weapon. With mods increasing the effectiveness of a weapon, and those mods being behind a level barrier, they're able to balance the effectiveness of the pot of available weapons, without you feeling like you're available weapons are ever limited. As well as letting you keep a favorite weapon competitive. (Accept for that wonderful little pipe weapon XD)

And even still, with max crafting and every weapon, you're STILL not king. You have not hit the ceiling. To do that, you've got to get out there and explore. This is achieved through the various enchantments. VATS enhanced and MIGHTY weapons. My VATS enhanced assault rifle absolutely DESTROYS. This is where Bethesda games shine. Reward through exploration. Expore for a better tool, so you can expore better, so you can find a better tool....

Another absolutely genius balancing act are the perks and specials. Any fears of it being dumbed down ( people have been whining about it sense Oblivion. I'm sorry but, morrowind is un playable if you haven't played it before.) Picking a perk or deciding to level a special is just so damn intuitive. Letting you get amazing perks at level 2, but having the evolution of EVERY perk be their greatest strengths, barred again by level barries, allows you to still play your own roll BEAUTIFULLY. Character plays WAY different than my friends. I started with 10 luck and only have 3 others perks outside the perk tree at level 37. Even without a level cap, I'm still planning out my next characters build. It's such a clean system. Skyrims system was honestly, broken. Perks that didn't work, perks that were useless (anything having to do with criticals or armor penetration) but these new perks are varied. No one perk is boring and basic. And they're all, pretty much, good. Certainly better than Skyrim.

After 2days and 8 hours, and just now starting the main quest, I can safely say this is the best Bethesda game. Through all the occasional bugs, what makes Bethesda game shine is done better than ever before in Fallout 4, and in my opinion, it's because its the most BALANCED.

Good for you.

Well done for spending your time actually playing the game instead of reading how someone on the internet thinks it's going to play for you and then coming onto the Forums to criticise a game they haven't played based on how someone else told them it would play.

I've read some complaints about the "arbitrary" level requirements on perks, but I'm a fan. The idea of a character level is already arbitrary and gamey. Level requirements on perks just serve to make that already arbitrary number actually have meaning.

There's an argument to be made for ditching levels altogether, a la White Wolf PnP games, but as long as level is a thing, intended to represent relative power, it's a good thing that I can be sure a level 5 baddie won't have five ranks in his weapon skill.

Yeah, I see a ton of salt here XD.

Eventually the people who love it that FAR outway these impossible people will actually take a break XD.

Honestly there's ligitimate critique the game deserves and even needs thats totally lost in these, I hate to say, trolls.