Fallout 4: My First Impressions

Ben Soto

Ben Soto

Professional Salt Shaker
I'm eight hours into F4 and have come to an important realization.

It doesn't suck.

That doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I was expecting a layer of immense bullshit as opposed to a decent open-world FPS with RPG, survival and city builder elements. The problem I have, primarily, is with the dialogue cross and the perk system. The voiced protagonist is mostly an issue in concept and (at least for the female protagonist) could've worked well under different circumstances.

I'll write a full review once I'm done with the main quest, but as a whole, the game is fairly solid. Had each of these elements been explored in their own titles (survival, pre-determined character, city building) they could've been great. Sadly, the game tried to do everything.
 
I had fun too, for the first 30 hours. Wait till you get to the city and explore more of the map.

I mean, it's not the worst game in existence, but that doesn't not make it good.

Or wait, till you come across asylum or can factory or giant hole in the ground with bandits.

There are plenty of moments that will destroy your brain cells, trust me on this one.

Anyway, goodluck with the game.
 
I used to be like you, boy. All hopes and fun. Fo4 is a slow burn. 50 hours later, if you aren't a traitor, you may or may not feel almost disgusted :drunk:

Btw, no mods. That ¡s cheating.
 
@Hassknecht @Ediros @Arnust I've already had all the mind-numbing moments spoiled for me, so I'm not too worried about it. I'm playing this game as if it were just some random game as opposed to a proper Fallout game.
 
I honestly don't like shoot 'em up games, and there are so many far better building games out there.

I honestly don't think I could get any enjoyment from Fallout 4.

It's a true shame that a series which was once my favourite has reached a point where I don't even like the type of game it is.
 
I like my first impression when I picked up the pipboy and the game broke and I had to begin a new game.
 
At first it might not be bad, even though there are lots of small red flags, but Fallout 4, it really IS the worst AAA at least in "8th console generation" times simply because it's half-baked with lots of issues modern game developrs even forgot how to run into.
 
0wing said:
At first it might not be bad, even though there are lots of small red flags, but Fallout 4, it really IS the worst AAA at least in "8th console generation" times simply because it's half-baked with lots of issues modern game developrs even forgot how to run into.
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I dunno, we've had Assassin's Creed Unity...
 
I have been calling Fallout 4 "Fallout derp" mostly because the poor game has no idea what it's supposed to be doing.

My first impression of the game was, well to say rather upsetting. My expectations of the baseline requirements for a FO title were not there, which defeated the point of the purchase.

I strongly feel if the game wasn't marketed as a Fallout game it would have done much better.
 
1. RPG (Fallout 4 is not a RPG no matter how much you strain your definition)
2. Actual character customization (Fallout 4 perks system killed that off, cosmetics don't actually count towards this)
3. Immersive world based in the Fallout universe (I just can't even with this without ranting)
4. Sufficiently stable lore and canon use (I can forgive some issues, but those provided by Fallout derp generate one intense hangover's worth)
5. Post apocalyptic (People need to actually be suffering + tie into the plot, and impart their misery on the player instead of just wander around asking you to repeat a quest.)
6. No more family story plots, I was actually surprised that they didn't learn from Fallout 3.

I'm going to end this list here because dragging this back up makes me want to rant.
 
If you've played through the prologue, where the male protagonists says "war war never changes" and then proceeds to glorify war (including the nuking of hiroshima), consumerism ( saying stupid shit like "nuka cola, my favourite" ) and generally everything the fallout games criticized in the past while shaving in his real-life tranquility lane home flirting with his sexy lawyer wife and his fucking butler moments before the bombs fall out of the blue (no cause and effect to be found here) to end his american dream, and think that the game doesn't suck, i don't know what to say.

I can't even remember things like that without cringing. The game is an insult to the fallout series, possibly even more so than fallout 3 which at least pretended it was a fallout game and was somewhat satirical of the "pre-war" way of life. And what about the dialogue, the new lore, the writing, the repetitive quests and the damned cheerfulness of it all?
I suppose i could forget that it's supposed to be set in the fallout universe, but even if i did what is there to like?






Ben Soto said:
survival
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what survival elements are you talking about? Seriously. Sleeping in a bed?





Ben Soto said:
pre-determined character
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what predetermined characters? Was that even a feature beyond the pathetic voice and if so what did you like about it?


Ben Soto said:
city building
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I mean, i could see myself enjoying building for a while, had there been more freedom, but is it really any fun after a while?
Ok, though, i'll give you that.

what else is there to like though?

Combat's definitely worse than new vegas. It's basically fallout 3's combat with even less guns and some terrible additions like the "legendary enemy has mutated" thing.

Crafting? Yikes.


No seriously, what did you like about this game?
 
@Tiny Tim Firstly, let's run down the list of things you responded to;

Survival - This is more of a tonal thing than a gameplay thing. There's a theme of survival running through the game. If they had focused on this entirely, it could've worked well. Perhaps a non-Fallout survival game? This also ties in with settlements and crafting.

Predetermined characters - Guy's a vet. Girl's a lawyer. They're happily married and have an animatronic they've convinced themselves is a baby. If they had focused on this predetermined narrative entirely rather than trying to have their cake and eat it too, it could've worked wellish. Perhaps a more linear, level-to-level Metro-esque spinoff game instead?

City building - I like it. The resource collecting is a little annoying, but once you've gotten all the basics down it's fairly easy. There's an annoying lack of options in certain departments, but it's not too bad.

Combat - Again, I liked it. It felt nicer than New Vegas's (admittedly clunky) combat. Legendary enemies are pretty stupid, but the shooting feels a lot nicer.

Crafting - I feel it's a nice extension of the weapon mods system in Fallout New Vegas. The one thing Bethesda learned from Obsidian was that mods for your weapons is kinda neat.

The biggest problem with Fallout 4 is that it wants all of these systems rather than just picking one and sticking with it. The linear narrative doesn't really work with the open world or the emphasis on side activities, and it drags the whole game down. That being said, this game is an absolutely massive improvement on Fallout 3 in that I don't want to kill Todd Howard when I play it. I just wish that this wasn't Fallout 4. Calling it Fallout: Commonwealth or something would've made a lot more sense.
 
The biggest problem of Fallout 4 is that it has a lot of decent ideas, but the game design is so lazy and even incompetent that every single thing is so glaringly flawed that it really ruins the little enjoyment one could get from what there is.
The old saying of it being as wide as an ocean and as shallow as a puddle really fits here. And there are parts where you think "Wow, is that Atlantis or R'Lyeh over there?" and then you walk over and it's just another small rock with a lot of bird poop on it.
It's frustrating. All the time you find things in Fallout 4 where you think "Well, this could have been nice if they actually had put any effort or thought into it".
 
I also did not think it was bad at first. Wait until you have to kill the same generic enemies in one place for the third time. Happened to me at Suffolk County Charter School.
 
Well, at least you can do solid Famicom-esque pixel art in Fallout 4. That's nice I guess...
 
I have encountered a problem that I don't think many other people have. The game wants me to think the Institute is evil, but their leader is voiced by Tony Amendola, aka Master Bra'tac from Stargate, aka the best Wise Old Guy in the history of television. I can't take anything he says as evil.
 
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