I was wandering what you people think about this one.
Personal I agree on the main points, I loved New Vegas put never finished Fallout 4.
EDIT
Since so far nobody has bothered to watch the video (and I don’t blame anybody for it… It’s a long ass video), I asked Ai to give us a summary.
Introduction and Initial Impressions
The Fallout series has a history of inconsistent quality, with games like Fallout 1 and 2 being masterpieces, while Fallout 3 was a 3D game with a new world to explore, and Fallout New Vegas being a great comeback to the series’ quality 00:31.
Fallout 4’s story is a confusing mess, with a bizarre and unengaging plot that fails to materialize into anything meaningful, despite having the building blocks of a good game 02:05.
The game’s introduction, where the player character enters a vault and is frozen in cryogenic sleep, is poorly designed and full of nonsensical elements, such as the vault’s entrance being exposed to the outside and the player character being expected to respond rationally to orders after being thawed out 03:40.
The game Fallout 4 has a fully voiced main character, which limits role-playing options and forces players into a predetermined emotional response 09:48.
The conversation options in Fallout 4 are limited and often don’t match the character’s actual dialogue, making it difficult for players to role-play effectively 12:15.
Story and Narrative
The game’s story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Boston, where the player must navigate various factions, including the Minutemen and the Institute, to find their missing son 12:43.
The game Fallout 4 has a sequence where the player must find an escaped Institute scientist to help enter the Institute, but this involves hiking through the Glowing Sea, an area filled with deadly toxic radiation storms and mutated life forms 19:51.
In Fallout 4, the player can venture into highly irradiated areas without proper protection and still survive, which is unlike Fallout 1 where radiation can silently kill the player if they are unprepared 20:53.
Factions and Characters Super Mutants in Fallout 4 are portrayed as big, dumb, and screamy NPCs, unlike in other Fallout games where they have a rich history and interesting characters, such as Marcus, a former soldier of the Master’s Army 22:18.
The game’s factions, such as the Raiders, Super Mutants, and Triggermen, lack conversation, motivation, and backstory, making them one-dimensional enemies to kill, unlike in Fallout New Vegas where factions have their own stories and motivations 24:26.
The Gunners faction in Fallout 4 seems like a unique and interesting faction at first, but they are automatically hostile to the player and lack any meaningful interaction or storyline 26:57.
The Minutemen have no real in-universe reason to resemble historical Minutemen and lack goals, motivations, or ideology beyond protecting people 29:20
The Institute is a ruthless and evil organization that abducts people, replacing them with identical synths, and is the main villain of the game, with the player eventually infiltrating their base using a makeshift teleporter 31:46
The Institute’s director, Shaun, has a questionable standard for determining whether his parent loves him, involving completing various challenging tasks in the Commonwealth 37:12.
The story of Fallout 4 has plot holes, such as Shaun’s ability to control technology but not intervening to help the player, and the lack of explanation for Kellogg’s age 37:56.
The Institute’s portrayal in the game is criticized for being unrealistic, with its members lacking personal lives, free time, or leisure activities, making them seem like robots 41:27.
World-Building and Environment
The world of Fallout 4 is compared to those of previous Fallout games, with the latter feeling more real and alive, while Bethesda’s Fallout worlds feel dead and empty 45:21.
Diamond City appears to be poorly sustained, with only two tiny crop fields and no apparent use of available space for farming or other purposes, and its inhabitants live in rickety shacks despite having the resources to build better housing 46:25.
The city’s use of stadium lights for illumination is impractical and wasteful, especially considering the scarcity of power in the post-apocalyptic world, and other locations like the SUS Iron Works seem to have an abundance of power without explanation 47:08.
The game’s world-building is lacking, with many locations feeling dead, empty, and static, and characters like the inhabitants of the Drumland Diner living in squalid conditions without basic necessities like beds or toilets 49:26.
Ghouls in Fallout 4 don’t need food or water to survive, contradicting the main quest of Fallout 1, where the water chip is crucial for the vault’s survival 55:36
Gameplay Mechanics and Choices
The game puts the player in a position of power, making them the general of the Minutemen and director of the Institute, but this has no significant effect on the world or plot 57:16
The game’s approach to artificial intelligence and androids, such as Codsworth, is inconsistent and raises questions about their sentience and treatment by factions like the Brotherhood of Steel and the Railroad 01:00:14
Game Reviews and Community Reception
Games journalists cannot provide meaningful reviews due to the need to constantly produce content, and their reviews are surface-level, lacking investment in the game’s IP, history, and themes 01:05:29.
The review process is influenced by the potential loss of early access to games and ad revenue, leading to overly positive reviews, such as Fallout 4’s 9.5 out of 10 score from IGN 01:06:02.
In contrast to Fallout 4, games like New Vegas have a dedicated fan base, with a cult following and real-life meetups, showcasing a genuine artistic product with a lasting impact 01:06:38.
I mean… Im not a fan of 4, felt like they removed most of the dialogue options and just made it a looter shooter. Especially since the 4 options for dialogue you do get are, “yes”, “no”, “later”, and “sarcastic yes”
The game stopped being about ideas and started being about stuff. It became a financial success and a creative dead-end.
I didn’t play it when it came out in 14 and only started the franchise in 22, was it being setup at the time do you think for item purchases as that was kind of vogue, or just that variants as downloadable content was becoming standard in games…? Either way I think you’re right it was kind of to directly or at least leave the door open for monitisation, and the game suffered as a result. I still dgaf about crafting.