Here's the thing though - it is entirely possible for a game to have great writing, choices, questing, etc. no matter how the game works mechanically.
My favorite examples are the Witcher series.
Each game is fairly different in style and scope, but what did they retain? It doesn't take long to guess - they retained and exceeded in each title, from the very first:
- in telling an engaging story you want to see what happens at the end,
- giving the player choices that really do matter (even carrying over to the next games),
- offering side quests that are actually 'interesting' telling their own sub-stories and sometimes as an extra tying into the main plot even though they are optional
- fairly consistent universe
CD Projekt managed this despite changing, each time, in how big the world was or even how combat worked. The Witcher 1, for instance, has a unique hybrid combat that mirrors a cross between classic type game combat and newer games around the period it was released. Their latest iteration was their first 'open-world' concept, again changing combat to be fluid with a focus on action, but still requiring skill - despite the mechanical changes they remained consistent with superb storytelling, creating great characters you care for, making side-quests even more interesting/complex/unique, etc and so forth.
Ok, now that we have the CD Projekt stroking out of the way, when we look at the Fallout games the obvious difference is the style/scope/mechanical differences from the switch from Tactical to FPS. However, what FO3 somewhat tried to retain was choice (but really failed on meaningful levels), but New Vegas did better in trying to fix those issues.
Now we have FO4, which has tried again to increase scope while trying to fix other areas such as first-person perspective combat, adding other content such as crafting, voiced dialogue (not really a "fix"), etc. - but by a combination of design decisions has failed on the absolute core of FO (that is the choice to resolve the situation in multiple ways), especially for an RPG series.
As an example, let's look at a specific area and quest in the beginning of the game (
SPOILERS):
Museum of Freedom
In this area you can help the local residents in getting rid of the raiders in this area and if you do the citizens will give you a quest. What choice do we have here exactly to resolving this situation?
What are the problems here? Well that's pretty obvious right away, since you have one choice to A. Do Nothing, can't attacked by Raiders or B. Kill them, get a quest.
- The enemies are purely cannon fodder, there is no exploring of who they are or what their motives may be
- It forces the world to revolve around you, your PC is supposed to 'care' and help these people with only the one option to 'saving' them from raiders
- There is no way to continue the main story unless you actually help them even though character is supposed to be a blank slate
If you want to play as a Pacifist you already screwed. IF you are hoping to be able speak with someone leading these Raiders by using means dialogue to figure out what the hell is going on, you can't. (missed opportunities for skill checks/dialogue - intelligence, perception, charisma, etc.) Want to be evil and join the Raiders? No, not an option. Want to trick them or otherwise carefully diffuse the situation? No, not an option.
Let's move on to what solving this quests leads to:
When Freedom Calls
So the only way to get this quest is
one pathway to reach the Minutemen holed up the building. And of course, as explained earlier, a bunch of hostile no-name Raiders are in your way. What does this all lead to?
OF course, learning about some Power Armor to "deal" with the remaining Raiders. What choice do we have here exactly to resolving this situation?
- Surely by the now the PC is questioning his/her existence... oh yeah that's right they are "military" so the only solution is killing obviously
The obvious problems here are AGAIN total lack of in-depth ways to resolve this. You can not suggest to Preston Gravy that the situation could perhaps be resolved through bargaining or dialogue. Nothing else is explored here with any Skill Checks.
- Again, resolving this situation and quest is by more body count made easier with Power Armor, because of course you're military and this shit is easy!
- Who are these Raiders again? And why should I care about any of this? Oh well, kill stuff. Maybe they have families that are starving? Don't know, pull the trigger.
Already I can think of many ways this could have been WAY better explored by offering as many choices as possible.
- Guns blazing
or
- Using 'Intelligence' to parley with the Raiders and explore
their goals/interests
- Using 'Agility' or 'Perception' to disguise yourself as a Raider, infiltrate their group and find out what they are doing here (this could even branch off into joining the raiders instead to simply say FUCK it and help them kill every last Minuteman; OR sneakily causing chaos within their ranks, turning them against one another; or simply trying to get them to abandon the area in some way)
- or a Neutral approach by not siding with any of them and simply getting the hell out of there
Except there is none of that. And it repeats ad naseum throughout the whole damn game from many quests already posted on guides. The game fundamentally doubles down on dialing way,
way back on choice and very limited approach to these situations. It's more or less like playing a Fallout game; that pretends to be an RPG (there is some dialogue choices so it must be an RPG or something right!), but feels more like a linear FPS game (if going mission to mission, rather than "exploring") where the choice is simply how you are going to kill some Raiders as with the above examples.
