Well, I'm a day into the game(24h+ playtime). So far I'm having a blast! The weapons are fun, crafting and building is awesome and finally the ghouls are more than just an annoyance when you start.

I love the gameplay and exploring the map. I've upgraded my PC to experience the wasteland at its best looks and I've not been disappointed in that regard.

The world is awesome. A playground for hundreds of hours. Tiny details you can find in Raider hideouts, like wars among the groups, kidnappings...superb. I would have loved even more background on that.

Scavenging for supplies, working towards the next upgrade for your armor or weapons...becoming a part of rebuilding the wasteland is really well done. Still, I'd gladly trade some of my settlement-locations for some more existing settlements with NPCs and quests in them.

But...I've mentioned abysmal.

The whole main quest arc is a utter disappointment. You're forced to search for a son you couldn't care less for as the player. Especially when my character suddenly seems to have emotional breakdowns(which are the only points so far where I'm really hating the voiced protagonist) because he wants his son.

You see, I'm one of those guys who wants to play for the ending he wants. So I looked up the endings on youtube, I don't really mind the spoilers and let's just say...I played Fallout 3 before they changed the ending, so I'm a bit traumatized by Bethesda.

I saw the four endings...I'm not sure the word "abysmal" even does this justice.

It all starts with the big factions:

The Brotherhood of Steel

I loved the BoS when Elder Lyons was in charge. Caring for the people. Building up what was destroyed. Compassion and example. What have we got now? The extremist faction with the best military technology, coming to cleanse the unpure mutants. Kinda like a mod for Wolfenstein to switch sides.

Oh boy, what do we need the enclave for? Seriously, too bad Arthur was a kid in FO3 because I would have loved to vaporized him before he turned into this monster.

The Institute

The enclave meets the think tank and Mr. House. Basically nothing more.

People who think they know what's best for the world and stop at no point to question what they are doing. Kidnapping people, experiment on them and/or replace them with synths. On the inside all is shiny and white and most are friendly towards you. It was the faction that interested me the most, but I was horribly disappointed. None of them even considers something like "the ghost in the machine" with the synths. It's all just a malfunction. At no point you can make one of them question his/her morals.

Oh, and BIG SPOILER: Shaun leads them! So like it or not, you either join them and fulfill your son in his sixties his last wish of giving the science-gone-wrong-faction all the energy they need and pissing off every other faction, or you get two awkward moments with "Shaun": Crushing everything your son has built in his live and meeting the ten year old synth-version of your son, suddenly calling you dad. And after watching him getting scared of you at first and being shut down like a rampaging Mr. Handy...this is just uncomfortable, I think. Not to mention: The person who frees you from the Vault and kills every other dweller in there? Shaun, your beloved son.

They kill two factions and piss off the other one.

If you could make peace with the Minutemen and shine some light on the whole "are synths sentient beings"-topic, maybe even close the Synth Retention Bureau, I'd probably had less beef with this one.

The Railroad

Another Boston-faction I really looked forward to and got miserably disappointed. I expected idealists who work for a good cause, but instead I found the brood of hipsters, beatnicks, the characters of the movie "Top Secret!" and the resistance from Wolfenstein The new Order.

The Minutemen

Probably the most pacifist of the group...strange, considering that they are a mix of mercenaries and civil army. And probably one of the better written factions.

I guess Bethesda tried to create some morally grey plots and factions. In the end...all of them are extremists who kill their opposition. The BoS only is likeable due to some of their members, but the faction itself now stands for total technology-control and the "cleansing" of humanity. Pretty much the same with the institute. Not really grey, more like black with a few white sprinkles.

To be honest: My wish for a DLC would be a different main story. Practically a Fallout 4.5, with lots of things to do:

-Slightly expand the pre-war-section. Maybe a barbecue on the even of October 22nd. Get to know your neighbors, their jobs, their skills and hobbies

-Scrap the kidnapping of Shaun and the murder of your SO

-You awake due to a malfunction in the Vault. After you save your family, you have a short time to save some people from their pods before the rest suffocates. While you go and look for others, your SO saves the doctor and his wife from the pods next to her

-With the people you freed from the Vault you go to Sanctuary

-Everyone else didn't take the cryo-sleep and escaping the roach-filled Vault as good as you. Especially your infant son needs medical attention.

-The doctor checks on your son and states that Sanctuary doesn't have the medical facilities to help him. But if you bring some stimpacks and chems, Shaun can be stabilized for now

-After searching in Sanctuary, Codsworth points you to Concord to find the missing stuff in the local pharmacy. As you reach the pharmacy, you find traces of the Minutemen, then the quest with Preston follows like before, only that you get the rest of their chems, once you saved them and brought them to Sanctuary

-Now comes the part where some new gamplay-mechanics are needed: Sanctuary needs to be fortified in order for the people to survive. If you don't like the Settlement-system you can put your significant other in charge of the building, causing a chain of quests that revolve around gathering mats for Sanctuary. The settlement then grows step by step with preset structures.

-Your neighbors/fellow dwellers are not just settlers, but provide boni like cheaper crafting, new building- or crafting-options, doctors, cooks, vendors, farmers...

-Now you need to find the medical equipemt to save your son. Buy it, steal it, scavenge it or rise in the ranks of the Institute or BoS to acquire it from there.

-Afterwards you're free to play as you like with the quest-target "build a better future":

Maybe abandon your family?

Expand your settlement, ally with other settlements, let them join your growing faction, conquer or destroy them? Some quest-arcs included.

Lead Sanctuary to greatness, either by being its soldier in the wasteland, the creator inside or both? Or just leave the fools behind and build your own legacy by joining another faction and abandoning your former home?

Build your own version of a faction, accept mutants and synths or don't. Build an utopian marvel, create a chem-empire or plunder the wasteland.

Factions react to you, resulting in good/bad standing. Accept Synths? Expect some resources and intel from the Railway but eventuall fear attacks from the institute or BoS if you're not respected enough. Sanctuary has reached a certain level of scientific development? Maybe some scientists from the institute want to join you then. Depending on how you use your tech, you might find yourself being assaulted by the BoS or idealistic "Lyons"-BoS may join your ranks, allowing you to produce power armor.

Want to kill of a faction? You probably won't be able to do that alone. If you lack the military might, experience parts of the former main-story as you side with other factions to kill your common enemies. Maybe you just want to take over the Faction or help someone else(who might be more to your liking) to the top.

Would be a hell of an DLC, but I think it would be worth it.

I think you're tying too much to the spouse/child side of the story in your DLC ideas. Many here are totally against the fact there's a spouse/child at all. Making that bond even stronger, more prominent would only make things worse for them.

I LOVE the idea of letting someone else manage the settlement. Kind of like having a steward for your homestead in Skyrim. Just supply the caps and maybe some resources and let someone else manage it while your character goes out and actually plays the game. Not that settlement building isn't part of the game, it's just that Bethesda svcked all the fun out of it in every way they could.

Do wish there were more options with the factions and ending also. But ... well this is Bethesda we're talking about.

Honestly, I hate the implementation of Shaun as it is. Rather no kid at all. He could have died long before my character leaves the Vault, for all I care.

I was surprised that I actually like the wife.

As for the spouse and kid in my idea: I don't know what else to put in as motivation for the PC, without recording too much new VA-material.