Full Main Quest spoiler alert!

Dear Bethesda,

Seriously, it's getting absolutely ridiculous. It's kinda hard to role-play any character other than being either psychopath or mercenary because every quests or every exploration requires killing and killing and more killing. It's getting really boring when every location is always filled with bunch of baddies, some notes/computers and that's it.

Few examples, that Robot Racetrack? Ya know that cool place that has announcer and bunch of people gambling on robots to see which robot is the fastest. Hell, there's even a note on one of the dead mailman where it says that a guy is gonna bring his robot to race too. Simple, cool backstory but... unfortunately Bethesda thought that they didn't have enough violent areas so they turn it into a another violent area to kill and loot. Instead of it being harsh but friendly enough to allow players to gamble. They could even give player an option to cheat by hacking one of those terminals to slow down other robots or something.

Combat Zone, that place where Raiders are betting who's the best fighter in the arena? Yea. Great job, Bethesda. Once again you refused to make Arena(Bethesda planned to make Arena in Skyrim at one point but didn't finished it). That place is just filled hostile raiders, loot and a companion you can hire after... killing everyone. Why not make it a place where players would need to pay... 200 caps to enter the Combat Zone where they could interact with bunch of Raiders who aren't hostile. Giving players a chance to talk to Raiders, learn more about them and maybe join the fight in the Arena. Another wasted potential.

Gunners. Really Bethesda? "We need stronger enemies for players to kill... hmm. Talon Company? Nah, it wouldn't make sense. Oh I know! Gunners. They are basically like Talon Company buuuuut! They wear green uniforms.". You guys could've at least given them same AI as Scavenger has on hostility. When you get close to scavengers they usually aim at you and warns you to stay back or they'll shoot. Why not give that same AI to Gunners? Right now it feels like that Gunners are worse than Super Mutants or the Institute itself. They are everywhere! They shoot to kill everyone they see, except few who are related in some Quests. Why not make them less hostile? Perhaps allow players to join them and have awesome battle between them and BoS? Once again, another wasted potential.

Main Quest. It's almost bad as Skyrim's main quest. Every quest requires you to go and kill, kill, kill, talk and then back to kill. I know Kellog has been discussed much but why we have to kill him? Just because he killed our husband/wife? He's a mercenary! They do what they get paid for and they won't stop for anything. I wish there was an option to talk and perhaps get him as temporarily ally until Institute business over and then we could have nice duel with him or something. I mean we can be friends with Benny in New Vegas who basically shot you in the head, but we can't be friends with Kellog?

And final thing that bothered me the most... the thing that made me hate Main Quest so much that I ended up speed running MQ and start new playthrough. Father, or also known as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0uCWjQ6Og! Once again, it's neat twist Bethesda provided buuuuut.... after few minutes of talking he sends me back to wasteland to capture one guy who is guarded by hundreds of raiders in a dangerous docks. ... ... wat? Why not have lengthy conversation about his goals, ideals and etc. like Caesar/Mr.House do in New Vegas? Allow players to negotiation him, tell him that he's wrong at certain stuff but no. Nothing. All we get is few lines and back to killing.

You see what I'm talking that we can only play as either Psychopath or Mercenary? We got no choice but to ask reward, yes or no. Bethesda thinks that player characters should always be dumb idiot who only cares about kill and loot. This stuff is the most obvious in Brotherhood of Steel. Few NPCs treat player as he/she is a complete idiot, and worst of all! So is our dialog options.

Why have so many violent locations, quests and people? Players usually remember all the funny dialogs, scripted events and etc.

As MrBtongue said in his http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZM2jXyvGOc.

"Slow down the violence, not stop it, slow it down!"

Btw, I love F4 and it's big improvement from F3 and Skyrim.

I do agree, the Downs and Combat Zone would have been so much better if they hadn't been instantly hostile.

And yeah, the Gunners are effectively high level loot pinatas same as Talon Company was.

I'll admit it.

The combat zone, and the race track were disappointing loot pinatas.

I really wanted to throw down in the thunder dome too >.>

It's well known that FO4 kind of went the combat-heavy route.

I also admit that I was surprised when everyone started shooting me in the Combat zone.

yeah, it does seem as if a lot of the role-play and puzzles have been removed cos... combat! best combat ever! real guns! ironsights! explosions! EXPLOSIONS!

I get that people wanted the combat to be better, but it's turning into COD slowly...

(still fun, but I totally get the OPs point. Go explore spooky house.. and shoot all the things! um..)

--edit : the Racetrack would have been a fantastic settlement, where you could build it up then people could come and bet on your robot races. Good way to earn caps. Actually, I'm going to GECK a workbench into the racetrack anyway, just cos.

It's quite clear the Combat Zone was origianlly intended as an arena, but Bethesda took it out last minute. Like seriously, its really evident. The exact same thing happened in Skyrim when we saw leftover parts of an Arena faction after the CK was released. Maybe they hid it better this time and we won't see the actual evidence, but look at the trailer. You saw fights going on in the Arena. In the game, you can't even see the fight before Cait kills him and all the raiders turn on you (without TFC). There are quite a few other parts in the game I've noticed Beth definitly said "Nope, we're done quick put some boards on that door and we'll pretend it was intended to be that way". I think their main quest is beatiful (best one ever), but sadly the game lacks in the sidequests. Not really a big deal for me, when they come out with all the DLC they'll be plenty to do.

As for all the killing....this is Fallout. There is meant to be a clear distinction between Skyrim and Fallout. Skyrim has lots of towns that you can walk around with and interact with peaceful characters. In fallout, if you do any act out of kindness, the person think's there's something wrong with you (Preston). Likewise, theres only a few 'nice' characters in the game (Nick, Piper, Dogmeat....yea Dogmeat I can't think of any others...) and that's the way its intended. Now, if you meat a well-equipped traveler wandering around your bandit camp during your race you've never seen before, or know he's the general of an anti-bandit group known as the minutemen...you kill him.

There's only one time that made me mad because I had to kill him, Kellog. There wasn't a single option to even try to spare him. Which makes sense, 90% of fathers would kill the one who kidnapped their son in a heartbeat, but our character is supposed to be that other 10%...

Well...

fallout 4 is an excellent action shooter

I agree with everything you said OP. I was genuinely confused when I got shot at in The Combat Zone and again at the race track. "What? My caps are no good here?" was my reaction. It was also pretty clear who was in charge and who was just hired muscle when Shaun was taken. Me shooting him in the face made me no better than him in the end. Not to mention killing half the Commonwealth in search of my kid. I chose charismatic and intelligent because of the pre war law degree. I should have played a neanderthal though, would've made more sense in the end.

I agree with a lot of what you sadi about the Combat Zone and the race track, so I won't comment too much there.

However, I disagree about Kellog and Shaun. Kellog wants to kill you, not necessarily the other way around. Kellog lowers his guns and gives you some answers out of respect, but he makes it clear that he's going to kill you.

As for Shaun, I honestly don't agree about you being "rushed off" to fight raiders. That happens after a lengthy quest where you do nothing but explore the Institute and talk to the scientists about their lives, motivation, and work. You make it sound like Shaun sends you to fight raiders the moment you meet.

Yes, but what kind of son he is? Sending his mother/father back to hostile wasteland instead of giving players an option to be for example, a scientist. It's like he knows our characters are psychopaths and we need our daily killing or our need to explore dangerous ruins. In fact I feel being used by Shaun all the time when playing the Institute quests.

This made all the emotional scenes very off putting because how the hell am I suppose to feel sad for Shaun? The guy who didn't even bother to send anyone to Vault 111 after being unfreezed? The guy who never thought about bringing his mother/father to Institute with teleport? We had to go through HELL to get there. The Glowing Sea, hundreds of Synths, the one crazy Courser.

I get it why Bethesda did all of this but c'mon. it reminds me of Fallout 3 where everyone is stupid or annoying.

Yea, it's shame what happens after it.

Yes it is.

I will definitely create some combat maps when GECK gets released.

Indeed and if you're on PC you can try "coc CombatZone2" and check out the unfinished small little area they built for Arena.

I know this is Fallout and I know killing is part of the thing. It's just too much in F4. Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas had less violent paths and you could finish almost everything without a violence due to skills or speech or finding another path. It's a damn shame to see Bethesda do more combat stuff than alternative paths. As Niamh said "I get that people wanted the combat to be better, but it's turning into COD slowly..."

I wish we had more quests like the Covenant one. Difficult choices with option to finish it without any violence.

I was just passing through the Robot Racetrack a day ago. A raider started shooting at me and I returned fire... only for the robots to run by at that very moment and for one to take a stray bullet. They all turned hostile, I couldn't yield so I had to kill them all. It's just quiet and depressing there now.

It's because the game is a shooter and not an RPG.

No, that's normal. The place is always hostile. Stay too long and they'll send the robots after you. Whatever you do, you'll have to kill them all.

It's because the game is a shooter.

That part really annoyed me too, cause at least I really wanted to speak with him about the abductions and scientific ethics.

This one does seem a lot more "shooty" than FNV or even Fallout 3.

So far I don't think I've even had the option to not shoot my way out of a situation.