oh dear they [censored] up this game well.... How they even can call it Fallout ....... no Black humor, no Survival part, cities with Blocked house doors ,Immortall shepherd, there is almost no loot ,containers , items that you can interactwith like in fallout new vegas . Worst inventory and conversation HUD of all fallout games , AND THE DESTROYED SPECIAL AND PERKS TRADITION for this they will end up like Fallout Tactics

in my view last real fallout was fallout new vegas . this game have similiar only name other things svcks

This is an action game with perks, nothing more. I accepted it and now i am loving this game.

I'm having no trouble. I'm role-playing as an CIA / intel specialist and I'm pumping up my perception and intelligence and taking perks that make sense for my character.

and worst radio moderator

You can definitely RP the backstory.
Maybe you received a Medical Discharge and they gave you the house and the Mr.Handy as a stipend to prevent a lawsuit because you were testing defective Prototype Medical Power Armor.
Maybe your wife and son came about because you're gay and were afraid of being ostracized in this world so you got "married" and when people started asking questions you used artificial insemination to produce the baby. Maybe you two were just best friends before that.
Maybe you came home from the Army and started drinking and taking Psycho to cope with the PTSD and your wife used the GI Bill to become a Lawyer and she makes all the money while you sit around and spend it.
Maybe you were a desk jockey AKA a Chairborn Ranger and spent your time educating yourself and then when you served your time, went into college and became a Robotics Expert, so you ordered a Mr.Handy to tinker on and further your skills with.
There's a million ways to RP the backstory. It's all in how you spin it.

Sarcastic much lol 馃槀

-I've encountered a dozen speech checks like that already in FO4, even with random non named npc traders, but even in previous games those options still only lead to one of two possible dialog paths. usually a positive or a negative, the checks mostly offered some extra caps or useful items as a reward. With only the rare exception in the Main quests, usually towards the very end, that lead to completely different out comes. That was very rare, and so far I doubt any one has played FO4 enough to say that such choices do or don't exist yet.

-I do concede that having a voice that you hear, as opposed to a text prompt that you read, requires more effort to unimmerse yourself from for RP purposes. However it doesn't make it impossible like the op claims, just requires ignoring the dialog and using your imagination. only difference now is that your ignoring a sound, rather than text you read.

-I strongly disagree, aside from a couple characters (momma whats her face) every npc i've encounted has had either two times or three times more to say than in previous bethesda games, and the things they said seemed less generic and more responsive.

You make great points. Not having bought the game yet, I trust your synthesis. Still, the point I was making seems valid: "Role-playing impossible" is impossible. You can roleplay your way out of (almost) ANY pigeon-hole. If you want to role-play a 19 year old who is a non-veteran and has no spouse or child, obviously it is going to feel very awkward in FO4. I hear ya on that one.

But are any of those constraints that 'significant?' Does being advlt, having a kid, and a spouse really LIMIT what you can make your character into without breaching your suspension of disbelief? Maybe you are like the Buddha, and decide to turn your back on your past life at the age of 30 and leave your wife, kids and palace behind!

It does sound like the developers put the player character into a bit deeper and steeper pigeon-hole this time around. I imagine they did so intentionally, and I don't think they did it to "squelch roleplaying." In fact, they may well have done it to FACILITATE roleplaying.

Some folks need a bit of grist for the mill when it comes to roleplaying. I have DMed plenty of RPGs where at first, people had a very hard time knowing what they would like to do or be in the game. They depended on me or other players with more knowledge of the game world to give them some pointers. Maybe the developers felt that roleplaying would be EASIER for folks who were less adept at it if they slate were a bit less blank?

Certainly a completely blank slate is not what anyone would want, as that would amount to: "here is your IDE, a copy of Notepad++ and your C++ and ActiveX textbooks. Make your own game!"

Lol, you sure know how to solve a problem. ^^ Kind of reminds me of what my dear grandma when she told me that if I didn't like something, try looking at it from a different perspective. ^^

If I ever get to play FO4, I will indeed play it as a fps with some interesting rpg elements so that way I can save myself a ton of headaches. ^^ Maybe I should have done that with Skyrim but for some reason no matter how many mods I used to change it to my liking, Skyrim just didn't click with me.

I personally would've preferred that Beth scrapped the voice acting for the male/female PCs. Basically put that very expensive development budget into more quests, better PC/NPC animations, and RPG immersion. In terms of replayability, the voice acting will most likely become redundant and hard on the ear. And especially since the choices are so heavily scripted like the OP said. So for me, this seems to be a negative trend for Beth coming off of Skyrim. The silent protagonist has always been the superior way to go in terms of game mechanics IMO. Skyrim gave players the option to use their own voice for PC if you had Kincet. That was a far superior way to give a player RPG immersion with their PCs v. the heavy linear scripting we have now.

I see someone has no imagination. You can make up whatever character background you wish and play pretty much as you please, as is typical for BGS.

FONV was far worse than anything BGS has done. Spaghetti Western setting that cannot be avoided when Las Vegas and the general area, including California, are not like that at all. Boring vengeance storyline forced on you as well as a ludicrous identity as a Mojave Courier who was so good at his/her job that s/he knew nothing at all about the Mojave and its inhabitants, surroundings, etc. Forced into a boring conflict scenario where you could not care less about any of the involved parties because none of them are interesting or inspire any sense of empathy whatsoever. Boring companions with ridiculous quests that force you into specific actions without any choice about your karma/alignment.

I could go on but what's the point? Various people claim that FONV was excellent RPG but it is actually complete garbage as far as role playing is concerned (and not anywhere near the high standards of BGS as far as environmental storytelling is concerned).

If I want an excellent, story- and character-driven RPG, I will always choose a Japanese offering because they focus on character and story first and foremost with stuff like combat being merely a means to follow the story and character(s) through to the conclusion.

You might be better of doing the same since you seem to have mistaken goals for a Western game product.

^^

This. But I think the difference with MW, Oblivion and Skyrim was that there were many varied side/favor/faction/Daedric etc. quests for the player to be sidetracked with. FO4 has less than 4? factions the player can opt to join v. Skyrim's 9 factions. Also Skyrim in particular added random world events and radiant quests. And while ppl griped about Skyrim's radiant quests, at least they added to the immersion/side questing your PC could do while adventuring the wilds. That was in addition to giving players countless RP abilities to role play for example, a destitute wanderer who strives to become very rich. Whether this is honestly as a skilled smith/merchant, by courage as a Knight, or more nefarious means as a lowly thief rising to become TG Master. Regardless of the path chosen, the player's PC could escape their initial lowly status as a wretched prisoner to pursue adventure and become the Jarl of all the holds, Master of the TG or whatever guilds they aspired to join based on their character class.

So I've found FO3 and NV to be somewhat limited in this respect. Your're still unable to play a fanatical Enclave disciple from what I've seen of the game so far. If you're a devout BoS really devoted fan, you don't have the ability to depose (peacefully or otherwise) the leader of the BoS as a disaffected acolyte. Simply because this was not the story Beth wanted to tell with this generation of the franchise. Your PC's destiny and endgame has already been hard coded based on the black and white choices you're forced to make in Fallout. And yes Skyrim was the same in your role as Dovakin/Dragonborn. But there was far more room for shades of gray. You could be the upstanding Thane of Solitude, yet creep into your rich neighbor's homes and rob them blind to feed your 5 finger discount fetish ---provided you didn't get caught. Unlike past Fallouts where doing that gave you an immediate negative Karma hit. Skyrim and previous TES games made it a lot easier to RP as a humble farmer, smith, trader, hunter (enhanced by mods like Frostfall and Hunterborn) and NEVER feel the need to complete the MQ. Or any of the DLC for that matter. Also Fallout has never really emphasized the random world events and radiant quests until now. And even now, the number of random world event occurrences in FO4 is significantly less than in Skyrim.

If it has not been said, maybe consider creating 2 new save games (one for female, one for male) right before you leave the vault and get one last chance at choosing everything.

I feel like this will help people wash the taste of obligation out of their mouth. Especially since a lot of the interactions you can choose once you leave outside don't have to do with your son.

When did role playing become suddenly impossible for having been given a role to play?

While most RPGs offer some varying degree of constants in the character's life & background; from almost none, to almost entirely predetermined... This has never inhibited roleplaying the role, and it can't be coincidence that the best RPGs that I know of tend to lean towards the more predetermined PCs, than towards the amorphous. (Shape gives personal bounds, and personal bounds are what roleplaying a character is about.)

It seems rather that not being able roleplay a mostly arbitrary role is what's meant by 'impossible'; but that doesn't mean that roleplaying the role is impossible; not if there are character choices for the given character.

Wow, and here I was thinking that, in Fallout 4, I'm a middle-class lawyer with a muscle-head husband who taught me to shoot, a child I love dearly, and an affinity for fixing things.

Are we playing the same game?

So there's no extra dialogue options at all based on perks, actions, or S.P.E.C.I.A.L? I thought I just hadn't gotten any yet On of my favorite things about Fallout New Vegas was that there were dialogue options for EVERYTHING. T_T

That's pretty bad then; but not really unexpected.

Pretty much the same role i am playing! Why can't we give likes on this forum?

thats not true. they no longer tell you what attribute the checks are rolling for, but there are definitly still speech checks. I've encountered several.

I know, right!

And I have to say, I'm kinda liking the lawyer-gone-renegade role I'm playing.

Exactly this...

There are a ton of choices.

I started that way (with weak but clever build). Spent several game days in post-traumatic stress.

Didn't meet another actual person until 6 play hours...

Are you sure they weren't just charisma checks? Can you make an example? Because it would be very very disappointing if there weren't any and frankly I just want to know the truth, sorry for the disbelief, but some people here misinform in a way so that the game seems perfect.

They are not just Charisma checks. I have a pretty low Charisma and when i get options to persuade someone or barter for money i get a red outliner on my dialogue alternative. When i get asked about something that i can answer with Intelligence its either bright yellow or green, as in i will most likely succeed. But this is what i have gleamed from playing the game, there is no official statement to be found as of yet. Seems to be based on SPECIAL though. Also i prefer when it doesn't say "Intelligence 5/7" that breaks immersion for me, i don't need to know everything. The conversations in this game are alot more fluid and well paced then FO3 and New Vegas.

Exactly. I've encountered lots of SPECIAL checks. And it is FAR too early to be making blanket statements like, "There are none of X" in Fallout 4. The game has been out for less than 24 hours. I'm still discovering new NPCs and quests after 400 hours in Skyrim. For anyone to claim they've seen everything in Fallout 4 at this point is ridiculous.

I just discovered today that your Strength SPECIAL effects what you can DRAG in the world. How cool is that?

On topic:

Fallout 4 is no more an impediment to roleplaying than any other BGS game since Morrowind. You can make a save right before you exit the Vault, and you can skip ALL the predefined story and character building. Avoid Codsworth and you can pretend to be whomever you want.

Being a 19 year old kid of a scientist in Fallout 3 never stopped me from roleplaying, and in FO3 we had Three Dog mentioning you as "the kid" on the radio every 3 flipping seconds.

Not this again! Their there...............................