Christ what a travesty of a game ....
- almost every NPC, no matter how minor, is immortal
- dialogue is neutered beyond belief and suffers frome "Bioware syndrome" ( my chosen option is often drastically different than what is actually spoken by my character )
- preset character background, sexual orientation, martial status etc
Yep, totally, and... yeah. I lucked out with my high cha and int character having the background of "lawyer", but I was disappointed to find out that that's static. It's also weird having voice acting.
To be fair though, New Vegas also forced us to have been a courier. And that history is rather central to the plot (even though the player doesn't know anything about it, which is a cardinal sin of storytelling unless the character has amnesia...grrr). I guess the main differene is that FO4 forces us the PC to be happily married, whereas we don't know how the Courier felt about their job. Or their orientation or relationship status.
(Seriously though, it's fucked that the Courier remembers the backstory of Lonesome Road but the player never does. That creates a *huge* disconnect between player and character, and is so very easily fixed by having the Courier receive amnesia and a change of personality from their traumatic head wound. Fuck the word-of-god.)
- complete failure at storytelling ( how the fuck im suppose to get attached to my husband/wife and child if i spend less than 5 minutes with them before shit hits the fan ?? Does the concept of "Developing characters" mean anything to you Howard ?? )
Nah I thought the intro scene established everything it needed to, concisely. I didn't want it to specify more about *my* character. I spent at least half an hour in it, too, though maybe half of that was crafting my husbando and me.
It worked, too, I did get attached.
- Bethesda is still completely shit at worldbuilding ( edible food after 200 years, working weapons, no signs of rebuilding etc )
The food's sterilized by radiation. They actually try to address the weapon thing by introducing "pipe" weapons everywhere, though it's not a perfect explanation by any stretch... But style is more important than realism. This isn't "what would happen after a nuclear war", it's "what would 50's pulp fiction think would happen".
And there is rebuilding happening everywhere... The Commonwealth is covered in prosperous settlements, there are three towns, and the bandits/gunners have built fortresses and are re-inventing the feudal system of government.
- just like every other Bethesda game world feels completely empty, featureless and unresponsive to my actions
- it takes 15 minutes to get Power Armour ( which my housewife is somehow familliar to the point she can operate, fix and even modify it ) and minigun
It's really shitty power armor limited by fusion cores.
But lorewise yes, it bothers me that anyone can operate it. I... guess the husband may have taught the wife how to use it, and they're teaching the settlers "off-camera". And... the bandits... are orks?
It doesn't make sense, they just wanted to show off their fancy power armor. So you're right.
- everything is so fricking SHALLOW - Dogmeat trusts you without even slightest work to earn his trust, you can be a Minuteman general without actually doing any quests etc.
- and many many other shitty "features"
I really hate the multi-part armor. It adds so much hassle, can't be tracked with the "favorites" button, and is not worth the mild novelty of wearing mismatched equipment. It really highlights the failings of the inventory system, which worked well enough in NV. Even Skyrim let you tag items as important without *DEDICATING A FREAKING HOTKEY*
Only thing that i liked was the settlement building ( makes me in the mood for some Fallout/post apo mod for either DF or Rimworld ) and weapon cutomization ( especially NAMING THEM ).
I'm glad people like the settlement building, I personally don't care for it. But I'm glad they added it.
I also liked the removal of skills because its a cardinal sin of an action-rpg-fps hybrid to trump player skill because of character skill.
If we consider Fallout to be the same sort of series as Borderlands, sure. But I do not. Fallout 3 was a first-person RPG in 3D. Character skill trumped player skill in combat, as it did in Fallout 1/2. Because the challenge wasn't supposed to be "aim well, hug cover" like an FPS. It was to design an effective character then use their SPECIAL abilities to complete quests. The game was easy to complete without firing outside of VATS, *if* you leveled your character well.
NV changed that significantly, putting massive emphasis on the player's FPS skills. For the first time, good character design wasn't enough to win fights, and I think that was an unfortunate change. But NV did better than 3 in making the non-combat abilities useful, and was a very good game in other ways. No amount of character design would let you snipe effectively if you (the player) couldn't aim, but sniping was never strictly *necessary*. So it could still be played by a RPG enthusiast. I think I could complete New Vegas using only VATS, with some difficulty.
FO4 went the rest of the way. It's basically one of those shooters with RPG elements to increase grind, now. The skill system is gone and the perk system, while fancy and fun for a bit, practically doesn't matter. SPECIAL is a ghost of its former self. It has redeeming attributes, and fortunately I'm decent at shooters, but they have abandoned what made Fallout 3, uniquely, an immersive first-person RPG.
If i would had to give a numerical score it would be a very forced 5/10.
I'd say 7/10. I'm enjoying it, it just shouldn't have been Fallout.
And they should lay off with the freaking zombies everywhere, cripes! Lazy as hell. (Yes this applies to Fallout 3 as well
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Topic: Fallout 4: It Just Works (Read 842886 times)