TLDR? You're on a forum, that's all there is to do on a forum, read and write and I can tell you without reading it that your reply is WBTD.

Currently sitting on 86 hours played, finished the Bos ending and level 75 ish on that game, so unlike a lot of the folk I see here complaining after their "I've played for 7 hours and this game svcks" I actually have a lot more put in and have given the game a chance from a purely open minded perspective, this is not just some "I don't like this so I'm going to rage" post.

I've also had a lot of fun with the game so far, but, something has been nagging the back of my mind, some thing is not right, At first I was a bit underwhelmed by the small map, yet there is a lot in it, cluttered up around the same areas it does feel but it wasn't just that. So I took a break from playing to come and read what other people have said about it and it's not any of the new or removed mechanics. It's not the clunky UI on the pc or the total lack of information on what you're about to say to someone, This for me does detract from the experience but it wasn't what I felt was wrong, it's not my characters voice or any of the other superficial differences that take moments to accept and get used to, sure I would like a better idea of what I'm about to say other than "sarcastic" It's supposed to be me that's saying it after all and the voice doesn't matter if I can chose what it says. I can understand why people don't like these things but for me they don't make the game unplayable or terrible.

I don't mind the skills being removed, The new level system fits the game far better than trying to force the original fallout system into the new mechanics, that only resulted in it not fitting, it was forced in and sat there like a square peg in a round hole, It served it's purpose yet it was clearly "odd" NV tried to work on it but still it just did not fit with the 3d fps style (and yes I have played all fallouts, Still have the original disks) I wasn't sure about the perk system at first but it works well, It's made "Builds" redundant because there is no upper limit to where you can get so eventually you become god and are able to do everything, the new combat is a bit of a challenge at first yet as you level this challenge goes, the slow motion vats is better, No longer do I just need to sit 2 miles away and wipe everything out before they can even move never mind see me, Now I've to think and move, now I actually use stimpacks, Molerats/radscorpions tunneling and not knowing where they will jump out great! Ghouls rolling away from my stream of bullets and throwing themselves at me, nice mechanics, Being rag dolled by a deathclaw brilliant! A lot of good improvements in basic game play mechanics.

but where has the game gone?

It's nothing but radiant quests dressed up as working for factions.

What is the purpose?

Settlement building, it's cool, it's fun, but why? What is it for? it has no bearing on anything other than as a game filler, hours and hours of travelling back and forth with junk to build a base to have some settlers, to do what? not very much, oh my own shop? which by the time you have the perks needed to open the big shops you don't need shops because you've looted half the map to build the settlement and now have meds, caps and ammo coming out of your ears. Oh I can shoot a flare gun and have these paper people get shot before they do anything useful which in turn only serves to take more time to recruit more settlers at whatever rate the beacon summons them, contrast that with buying some grenades from a shop that gets me my own vertibird and it's not really that brilliant is it? when you factor the time involved considering they don't do anything that I have just spent hours having to do myself in order to get them then, there is no point. Why would I want some paper settlers when I'm stomping full dens of super mutants on my own because there is no level limit?

I thought perhaps it was going to lead into a separate war of attrition for territory thing with an actual raider force up against you, where they would come in and re take a settlement while you're attacking another of theirs or attempting to retake one that's fallen with some sort of effect on the landscape but no, too much to hope for it seems, they appear shoot someone then wander off again, it's nothing more than a time filler something to try and make the game seem much bigger than it is and as such it's disappointing another great idea with no execution, no depth, a good idea taken no where. it's just a long time for a random flash up message that says "Got to point A and kill group of monsters" with very little purpose or reward for the time spent. Endless "radiant quest" after "radiant quest" that's all the game has and it doesn't matter what faction, collect tech or clear area "radiant quest, radiant quest, radiant quest" It's repetitive, dull and not rewarding for the time put in, Gaming 101, risk-> reward, It's supposed to be fun, not feel like a job.

I had a run around for about 7 hours when the game released, you know just to try out the new mechanics, get used to things, have a quick test at crafting etc, then I wiped my saves and started out fresh, done a lot of exploring and then at about level 50 decided to see what the story had to offer because every "side quest" I found seemed to be "Go to point A and kill group of monsters B" occasionally "Collect item C" the only exception that springs to mind is one quest which involves walking through a memory in which you do NOTHING but listen. The main quest was no different and the Bos portion is the fallout 3 ending with a different skin, follow big robot to base, go in and kill group of monsters A, before going into a highly radiated area to use an item- on a machine, the only differences are the name of the enemy and the fact that it's a dad looking for a son and not the other way around. Did the writers think no one would notice?

I get sent to do something by father, After I manage to infiltrate the secret base and steal their secret files and all of their fancy hi powered tech couldn't detect a pre war cassette tape stealing their documents, not one person seemed to be bothered that a brotherhood of steel Paladin was wandering around stealing their stuff and plotting their downfall. I then get sent on a quest by my apparent enemy, so go on a quest and get the option to inform the brotherhood (which I do) an yet the quest still acts like I've not just betrayed the quest giver and wants me to do what I was sent to do, even after executing the friendly targets which are locked in a battle with my fellow paladins the remaining members still don't click on that I am a double agent and just stand there letting me shoot them point blank and then what awaits me after it? Am I hunted down for the double crossing snake that I am? Do other people start to mistrust me for my sins? NO the guy who I just betrayed REWARDS ME for my efforts, it's ridiculous, what's even more ridiculous? Him then telling me his master plan and even saying "Oh don't tell the brotherhood" When he should know full well that is EXACTLY what I am away to do since that's what I've been doing all along! I've seen more depth on a blank sheet of paper!

WHERE HAS THE GAME GONE?

So I think right I'll try another faction, I'll go through the game as a bad ass this time but guess what I CAN'T. I CANNOT choose to play the game that way, I get two options, help people or don't help them with little difference aside from which "point A" I am sent to and which "Group B" of enemies I've to kill, side quests? There is ONE side quest with a different skin on it. go here kill monsters, go there kill monsters, go there kill monsters and bring me this thing. That is all there is, that and either say no or yes when someone wants something, loads of great ideas that nothing has been done with or no thought put into "Right what now" and DLC's? "Were going to wait to see what the fans want" what they mean is they are going to wait and see what the most popular mods are and then blatantly steal them the same way they done with skyrim, houses, arrow crafting and x amount of "new additions" were all player made mods, Skywind was already being worked on and had created a lot of buzz before they added a small map of Solstheim, it wasn't the setting that people were hyped about with Skyind IT WAS THE GAMEPLAY, THE DEPTH, THE REPLAY VALUE, THE EXPERIENCE, not the arbitrary go here and kill x quests, have you forgotten what made you? Have you forgotten WHY you started making games? Or is it just that your publisher doesn't give a crap any more and just wants our cash and thinks that everyone's just going to swallow whatever time and time again, especially when you seem to surpass yourselves each time by realising blatantly unfinished games that have more issues than the previous, Are the devs aware or do they not care either? Is it that they aren't wanting to release it and have too? or do they honestly think that is the best they can come up with? because if that's the best then maybe you should start asking why it's not the best? Maybe you should ask why the best aren't working for you.

If I was to guess I would say that the entire main story what little of it there is has been hashed together to fit a deadline, that's what it plays like. For all the grand opening seemed to be leading somewhere it was a total let down, seems to me that it was all building up and leading to something but you've ran out of time and had to tie it all up and haven't even bothered to make it look like it was originally intended and if that is not what's happened then you've just not bothered your backsides and whether that's because you just didn't have many good ideas of what to do or just the publishers total lack of respect for the customers that got your company where it is, I don't know, hopefully the lesser of those two evils but considering games like Age of Pirates which you hijacked and released under the name "Pirates of the Caribbean" to try and milk money of the film and it never even had an end to the main quest (not to worry though eh, us modders fixed it for you) Then I am more leaning to the total lack of respect for your customer base. That's the problem hough isn't it, why should you fix anything or release something that is ready for release when you have a team of unpaid workers to do it for you and give you your dlc ideas?

You've succeeded in only ripping out the soul of this franchise and tried to hide it with filler, filler that's not even well executed and turns out to be redundant.

Yeah I am having fun in the game, or was, until I tried to play through again and IT'S THE SAME THING AS THE FIRST TIME, even the "faction" quests are pretty similar to each other, my level 75 is great at everything, the only character choice in the game is "What do you want to do first, fight or craft" There is nothing that he cannot do, there is nothing that makes me have to stop and think "right, how am I going to get past this" and it's going to be the same thing again each time I play, very little replay value, I know exactly where to make the save so that I have no need to replay, the total lack of depth in the game means that I can have a save point and then see the very slight differences in faction quests within an hour or two that's it and you can't even point to superb graphics as why there is nothing in the game "Oh we spent time on getting it to look good" because the graphics look dated for a brand new game with those sorts of requirements, Fallout 3 was new and exciting and for all it's faults it still had that newness, that sense of wonder. Yes you've really improved some of the mechanics in 4, but go look at what a large majority of people are saying "DO NOT BUY THIS GAME" I'm not saying that, I think I've given an honest and balanced view, It's a good fun game but it's wearing off fast and that is a death sentence for an open world rpg, it shouldn't get old quickly and if it does then there should be an entirely different way of playing, folk can make up their own minds, yet you've made a lot of minds up, a bug filled, cinematic action game which is advertised as an rpg has made a lot of minds up. Which is fine if that's what you want to make, I like many others enjoy them too, just don't advertise it as an Rpg then wonder why folk complain when it doesn't do what it says on the tin.

Better yet, go play Morrowind and try to remember what an Rpg is. Or will the boss not let you make those any more?