Fallout 4

[druss]

I know there's another thread but it is nearly six years old and I am getting a red message telling to start a new thread.

I held off playing this for fucking YEARS due to the incredibly negative reaction from a large number of fans (user score of 5.6 on metacritic and it isn't just the rabid fandom of the first couple of games as Fallout 3 has a very respectable 7.9 on metacritic from fans and I didn't think F3 was particularly great). What a game I missed out on.

I've been playing it on survival mode from the start and it's the most fun I've ever had with a Fallout game. The story and writing obviously aren't as good as 1,2 or New Vegas but the gameplay on survival is so intense and fun, first time it actually feels like I am genuinely trying to get by in a post apocalyptic world. Fallout 3 enemies were ridiculous bullet sponges even on Normal but this feels a lot fairer, particularly now that I'm mid-level. The core gameplay loop on survival is a bit like Dark Souls too due to only being able to save occasionally, finding a bed is very much like finding a bonfire.

Best moment was one night where I was getting quite frustrated in Fort Hagen as it was late and I was being careless so died a couple of times. Finally finished the dungeon and thought I would hoof it to a settlement to save before going to bed and the

Spoiler alert

Brotherhood of Steel entrance when I got to the roof was hands down the coolest moment I've ever experienced in any Fallout game, up there with any game. First thought was "fuck am I going to get gunned down by this big ship" and then got goosebumps when the heroic music kicked in and they said who they were.

[close]

Not a perfect game by any stretch and it is very different from other Fallout games so I can understand why a lot of people were upset by the direction Bethesda took the game in but the number of 1* reviews from fans is bonkers, seemingly judging the game on what it isn't rather than what it is.

Last time I ever take majority fan reaction as gospel.

[oggyraiding]

I actually went to the midnight launch of this. I struggled to care about any of the characters or factions, but I found the combat and exploration decent enough. I think a common criticism I saw back in the day was the fact you get power armour and easily take down a deathclaw in the first 30 minutes. I liked how power armour worked in FO4, with it requiring fuel and having the feeling it's not just a set of heavy armour like you'd have in Skyrim. Could not be arsed with the settlement malarkey.

[druss]

I actually went to the midnight launch of this. I struggled to care about any of the characters or factions, but I found the combat and exploration decent enough. I think a common criticism I saw back in the day was the fact you get power armour and easily take down a deathclaw in the first 30 minutes. I liked how power armour worked in FO4, with it requiring fuel and having the feeling it's not just a set of heavy armour like you'd have in Skyrim. Could not be arsed with the settlement malarkey.

I guess the deathclaw depends on difficulty, was almost impossible on survival so didn't feel too grating. Characters/factions are probably more memorable than any other Bethesda game but that really isn't saying a lot and it's not one of the strong points.

[Mister Six]

seemingly judging the game on what it isn't rather than what it is.

I think that's sort of fair, though. The game is called "Fallout 4" not "New Post-apocalyptic IP", and it followed New Vegas, which pretty much gave a blueprint for how Bethesda's 3D world could be merged almost seamlessly with the design principles of the OG Fallout games. So to get something that strips out all the fun alternative routes through quests, presents a simplistic story full of forgettable characters, gives you a fully defined player character rather than a blank slate, limits methods of interacting with the world, hacks stat/skill/perk options down to a bare and boring minimum and reduces dialogue trees to single tedious thread with only superficial options was very, very disappointing.

A lot of it, I suspect, was done not even done to make the games more accessible to a wider audience (NV sold tons) but to simplify playtesting. Fewer variables, fewer flags, fewer opportunities for everything to get fucked up and require patching to buggery for months afterwards.

But as you say, it's a decent game on its own merits, and I did play a ton of it before eventually getting worn out and not even finishing the main storyline. I wish they'd made a world a quarter the size but three times as deep, though. So many quests are just "Go to X, kill Y" and are completed more or less the same way (accounting for whatever weapons your character specialises in). The Far Harbor DLC does add some skill checks for things, which is nice, but it's thin gruel.

[Thursday]

Been a long time now, I did enjoy it, the criticism it gets is harsh, but it is still a bit frustrating that they own the rights to the Fallout name, and yet don't actually make the game people want them to make with it.

[bgmnts]

If they just made the exact same game but as a new IP, it would have been beloved by everyone.

It's probably the most fun to play and fluid in its controls etc than any Fallout, but like MGSV we've seen that that isn't the be all and end all when it comes to a beloved franchise.

It's much better than their shitty MMO effort though.

[Thursday]

I do find it odd that we had

Oblivion: 2006
Fallout 3: 2008
Fallout New Vegas: 2010
Skyrim: 2011
Fallout 4: 2015

And now nothing for several years, I do not count Fallout 76 or Elder Scrolls online as sequel to these. I guess Starfield is happening this year which is the next "evolution" of these Bethesda open world games, I understand why it's at this point but it's' just strange.

[Inspector Norse]

I do find it odd that we had

Oblivion: 2006
Fallout 3: 2008
Fallout New Vegas: 2010
Skyrim: 2011
Fallout 4: 2015

And now nothing for several years, I do not count Fallout 76 or Elder Scrolls online as sequel to these. I guess Starfield is happening this year which is the next "evolution" of these Bethesda open world games, I understand why it's at this point but it's' just strange.

I think it's like that for a lot of the big open-world things though, yes the new hardware lets them make these games even bigger and more full of stuff to look at, but that also takes longer to design and program and there've been a couple of high-profile egg-on-face rushed releases. Even now they're saying Starfield might be getting pushed back again.

I played through a bit of Fallout 4 again in autumn because I realised I'd never actually finished it first time round: like others here have said, it was generally a fun experience, a neat gameworld with plenty to discover and so on, but a step back in terms of depth and variety from New Vegas. On my first playthrough I got more or less to the endgame but couldn't decide which of the three or four still-available final missions to do, and never did any; this time round I basically got to the point where I'd explored most of the map and dropped it.

The settlement thing I never paid attention to first time round, but this time I had more of a go at it, which was interesting for a bit, until I was in the middle of something completely different and started getting notifications that raiders were attacking a settlement, and before I'd finished whatever else I was doing, more notifications that they'd destroyed it. I gave up after that.

[Pancake]

This is me playing FO4 on my new telly when it came out I think that says it all

[Mister Six]

The settlement thing I never paid attention to first time round, but this time I had more of a go at it, which was interesting for a bit, until I was in the middle of something completely different and started getting notifications that raiders were attacking a settlement, and before I'd finished whatever else I was doing, more notifications that they'd destroyed it. I gave up after that.

The settlement thing would have been all right if there had been a way to jump to an RTS-type third person perspective, instead of having to do it all first person. Also if it had been possible to rotate objects on a Z-axis and sink objects other than concrete into the ground; it drove me nuts, having settlements that were all higgledy piggledy because of the limitations of the interface.

I gave up after building an elaborate metal fence with towers and turrets around a settlement, only for super mutants to teleport into the middle of it during the next attack. What's the fucking point?

Later, I tried to get the black companion fella, I forget his name, to join back up with me, but I wasn't able to as I had to go through an endless supply of accumulated "this settlement needs our help" messages before that option would appear on the shitty limited conversation wheel.

So frustrating.

[fit bird]

If they just made the exact same game but as a new IP, it would have been beloved by everyone.

I don't think so at all to be honest, the main character would still have the most annoying dickhead voice on earth.

[beanheadmcginty]

I just got addicted to collecting as much junk as I physically could and putting it in the scrap recycler thing. Until I realised I had inadvertently turned the game into a litter picking simulator and put myself off playing it any more.

[druss]

This is me playing FO4 on my new telly when it came out I think that says it all

Excellent!

I don't think so at all to be honest, the main character would still have the most annoying dickhead voice on earth.

Yes, I had to restart as female character who isn't quite as bad.

It's probably too big a task but I'd love it if any of these remakes in the Fallout 4 engine actually came to fruition, particularly if they managed Fallout 2 as I never completed it.

[Mobius]

I love the exploration but the finding your dad storyline, shit dialogue options, boring as fuck factions like minutemen/railroad, and tedious settlement stuff put me off replaying it more than i have (which is a lot)

can't beat stumbling across a vault though

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Strangely the thing that annoyed me the most about the game was the frequent spelling mistakes on the terminals or notes you found. There were even spelling mistakes in the open world. I remember a sign that was meant to read "Stationery" but instead it was "Stationary".

Like, did you even fucking bother here, Bethesda?