So I love the game. It's all I did till I beat it besides sleep, work, dream and daydream about It. The gun modification? Genius. I didn't know i was into that sort of thing. I loved the combat and while going stealth sorta makes the AI look stupid, (not searching a little longer after finding a new dead friend every minute) Still the game consumed me, and here's about the time I'd wait a month, load up some mods and jump back down the rabbit hole, But...................

Tod said he'd look at the feedback with the upcoming dlc in mind so I hope they see this, and I hope it's in the right place.

In New Vegas and Fallout 3 before it, My super scientist character would rock the hell out of the satellite array missions. My medic characters would save life after life while my grunts would have to watch NPCs die. My sixy lady would get to kill her enemies while she was in their beds. My brute would watch people run from under his shadow and my all-around smart guy would tell Dr. 0 that people wouldn't confuse his name for the letter O if he put a slash though it. They sounded like they knew what they were talking about when they should have know what they were talking about. Missions had more endings and consequences. Where did it all go?

What could justify the cut of such a big and immersive aspect of the game-play? Was it the voice acting? I loved the voice acting, it was so beautiful in those perfect moments and time to time I'd get a chill. Was it worth it for me? Not even close. I'd like both but if I had to pick, it's no contest. Please bring it back. It's what I'm here for. It's what I THOUGHT I was buying, I'd never imagined it could have been cut. Every mission I didn't see it made it easier to put down the controller. I want to want to pick it back up.

Same here... it is a deal breaker for me because even if the game is good overall, this was something that defined the fallout series since 1.

Somehow they decided to make the game less of an rpg - for what reason, I have no idea. Many reviewers say the same thing about the dialog system, RP and consequences.

But I doubt that any feedback here will be heard by anyone. The only feedback that you can manage to convey is through your wallet...

Funnily enough, although I agree with you, I wouldn't say there aren't any consequences. I won't be posting any spoilers, but a lot of the time I would choose to kill someone in a quest or do something a specific way and later I would hate myself for it because 1. It either bit me in the ass or 2. I ended up hurting someone and ruining their lives because of it.. However I only have about 30 hours so far. I heftily agree with you on the whole "Specialist/Know what you're talking about" aspect though. Perhaps it was a necessary cut due to budget? Thankfully I have seen some forms of "skill" checks. I've had situations where I needed a certain perk or a certain amount of a SPECIAL attribute to repair a generator, for example.

While I agree that this is supremely disappointing and not as awesomely cool as it once was it IS entirely justified.

The Lone Survivor has a prewar education, Nora is a Lawyer and Nate is a soldier and they presumably both have a basic education and scientific know how none of them are into school medicine and theoretical sciences.

It is in character for them to not be all egghead scientists, Nate has enough basic medical know how to inject someone with a stimpack or perform basic first aid but isn't a trained surgeon and wouldn't know much about the intricacies of human anatomy beyond what is necessary to shoot and hit it where it hurts the most.

For Nora to talk knowingly about advanced physics and radiation mechanics would be out of character.

This is actually reflected in the perk systems, it is all practical knowledge rather than theoretical one.

My fannon has Nora's law degree either be for the JAG or earned through military scholarship but that's just my delusion.

For example nuclear physicist gives a concrete bonus but doesn't infer the academic know how.

Science! lets you use high tech mods but doesn't grant knowledge about how FEV works.

None of them have PhD's and meta roleplaying justifcations aside, (the Vault Dweller from F1 and Lone Wanderer from F3 have Vault level of schooling) it can be quite immersion breaking with instant unexplained knowledge of say entomology when you have only ever seen a radroach.

Try asking your average GROPOS about advanced molecular structures or genetic biology and unless they are specialized in those fields they would most likely not be able to discuss it with any high degree of proficiency.

You are grasping at straws here trying to justify the game's shortcomings through your imagination and a obscure "supposed" lore.

But you are saying the same thing - unlike other fallouts, which did give you a story but they also gave you the RP freedom to roleplay whatever you wanted, here, the RP possibilities are very limited.

Ya that just proves OP's point. You can't RP as much because the character is pre-defined, which also makes it so you can't RP as much.

Bethesda must REALLY hate RPGs since with each offering they strip more and more RPG elements away. Fallout 4 is something, but an RPG it ain't.

Imo it is an RPG, just closer to the Witcher type of RPG than to the Fallout or TES type. Which is still a big net downgrade mind you.

This is what I don't really understand. F3 we're given a teenager who has spent most of his life in the vault. How does that give you creative freedom? Scientist? Couldn't have studied that much since being restricted to things in the vault. Medic? With what actual experiences in the vault? A sprained ankle maybe

You are the super dweller who gets a BB Gun at age 10 and automatically becomes a 20 year war veteran destroying everything in his path

It's not so much the background that limits the creative freedom to roleplay, it's the complete lack of options to continue developing that person through different ways of solving quests, experiencing consequences etc. It feels like you start out as one person...and then continue being that person because you're stripped of all those things OP mentions. It's uber bland.

I roleplayed a nice housewife that slowly spiraled into an unforgiving [censored] and it seemed to work pretty well. Idk.

Ooo, I think I met her! Mrs. Donohue??

Yeah that makes sense. I've just seen a lot of people complain about the character we're given from the start. They did something different this time around and some people like it, some don't mind it, and some hate it. It'd be silly to expect them to stay the same forever and not try anything new. Some won't like those changes and some will like them. I'd like it to be more open but it doesn't ruin the game for me. svcks to see that it's ruining it for some poeple but that's everything in life. Car redesign, some people love it some people hate it. It happens.

There's a HUGE difference between a game having RPG mechanics built into it (Fallout 1, 2 & NV) and playing pretend (re: making things up in your head which are not part of the game's design).

That has nothing to do with my point or the post I replied to. Thanks for your input.

It is not "grasping at straws" to explain why you hold a particular viewpoint. I agree with Bleak that the character's specific background makes hyper-specialization seem silly. I don't see what you describe as shortcomings in the game, just the way the game works. I think the game works just fine.

You are also putting words in Bleak's mouth. They did not say the RP possibilities are limited. That is what you seem to be asserting, which is fine, but it's pretty crappy to twist people's words.

I say the RP possibilities are wide open. Especially if you let yourself get svcked into the role of the protagonist. To try and relate to what they've been through and then figure out how to proceed from there. That is roleplaying.

Excellent.

The first thing I did once I got out of the vault was set up working lights in Shaun's nursery around the crib.

I chose a female protag initially for aesthetic reasons but accidentally found myself having to figure out how a mother goes on living in a situation like this.

I personally did not like the beginning of any of the new Fallouts. I think Fallout 3 & 4 should of been continuations of the original Fallout story. I think it would of been neat if the new Fallouts had centered around Arroyo, and the descendants of the vault dweller from vault 13; something appealing about watching a village your character created in the first game grow, change, etc as time goes on through each installment of the series.

And for some reason, I think they might of wanted to do this, but felt it would alienate people not familiar with Fallout.

Over time I added scars, different hairstyles and the like. Even gave her bloodshot, darkened eyes. And a forced smile! Because she forgot how to.

We do not know which division of the army Nate served in and Nora could have had another career before her law degree. So there is as much creative freedom in Fallout 4 as the other Fallout games. Nate could have been a nuclear physicist before his time in the military.

Agree, fallout 3 suffered from the same confinements with regards to your background story. Never liked the recovering lost family trope, recovering an abstract futuristic gadget such as the water chip, G.E.C.K. or platinum chip was a much better plot device imo.

Nicely done.

I'm not that far yet- Lv18 and haven't even been to Diamond City yet- but I'm going in a similar direction. For me she is going from stunned and dismayed to a relentless battleaxe. What wouldn't she do to find Shaun and avenge her husband, and what is the cost of that change. I like the altering of her appearance gradually- great idea.

You were more out to kill Benny than find the platinum chip. But I agree.

Aye, I thought so! She sorta went nuts after a while. She was addicted to like... 3 different drugs. Mainly because drugs are OP but it fit the character haha