So guys ! i finally got to play FO4....and it was everything i thought it would be xD
there's barely any improovement over FO3. the gun play feel better sure, the exploration is still fun, crafting is as extensive as ever, surpassing everything that Bethesda has done in the past, and it's ironically the less buggy game they released in years. However, all of get tainted by multiple problems within the game.
first of all, they really over did it with the streamlining. the character progression lost all the deph that it had in the past, in a favor of a generic tree based on S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes. as a result, your character can be good at everything as long as you have the requird stat in S.P.E.C.I.A.L., making the game an open world semi-action game, with a stats system you'd find in many shooters in the market, as some players suggested like STALKER.
the dialog options are laughable, but to their deffense, a lagre majority of RPGs nowadays do that, BUT it is no excuse for mediocrity nonetheless. they're basically the same as skyrim (which i hated), with dialog options not going over 4 and all of them are generic (Yes/No/Sacrastic/question).
the balancing of the game is a complete mess, and makes NO SENSE in terms of difficulty curve or lore (level 1 character, aka fish out of the water, with Power beats a big and mean deathclaw).
the world feel completely empty and devoid of life. sure there are random NPCs here and there, with some sort of radioactive "wild life", the usual stuff you'd expect in a bethesda open world game, but that's all there is to it: generic NPCs with no name and name alike, barely anything interresting about them (no interresting dialogue or personality, if there's a dialogue at all), making exploration not as fun as before and a lot more tedious.
the world feel like a big playground made by the devs for players to have fun, populated by lifeless dolls (aka NPCs) and a few bugs here and there.
the majority of the quests you can find in the world are "radiant" quests, like the ones you'd do for the companions in skyrim for instance, which is just ridiculous. the guild quests are even worse then they ever were in skyrim, with barely any variety (clear area of enemies -> get loot + xp -> report to quest giver) which was the same problem in skyrim (the quests for the theives guild were of the same nature for the Companions: no quests encourage you to use stealth or brains, just brute strength and you shut down your brain.). the only thing worth anything, at least for me regarding the quests, ironically, is the main quest: sure, the start wasn't that engaging, but once you entered the wasteland of boston and followed the intruige, it geniuenly felt engaging for me.
Now, the crafting is definitly the highlight of this game is definitly the crafting system. never has making weapons and suit/armors/outfits been this complex, at least for the new fallout games (from 3). the player can come up with over the top and crazy designs for the weapons and barely has any limitations to it. in addition to that, the player can now own and customize power armors, making Mechanical junkies and Iron man fanatics drool (i know i did XD, that was my guity pleasure). in addition to all this, now the player can make and customize settlements, making it's own metagame of management/strategy/trading. unfortuneatly, despite how fun and attaractive it can be, it gets quickly repetitive and becomes a chore without much reward. i couldn't help but feel that the developpers put it there just to distract the players, a sort of a camouflage if you will, to make them forget about the emptyness of the world, and how pointless most of the quests are. in fact, i'm willing to bet, that after rebuilding/making settlements, you might get lucky as to get a slight change in the ending slides.
to conclude, my final thoughts on the game, after 20 hours of gameplay:
FO4 isn't even a good game, let alone a good Fallout. heck! it's not even a good RPG. but it's not a bad game either
the game is brewing with filler content , with a few new features like the settlement building, which seems to bejust to hide how empty,bland and generic the world feels. it's even more bland and generic than skyrim ever was, and barely has any substance in it. it boggles my mind to just think on what they've been doing these 7-8 years of development cycle , considering how bad the content of the game is. the only response i can think of is that they spent their budget on marketing.
in fact, this game earns truly the title of "like Skyrim, but worse, and with guns", because it felt like a lazy fallout skin on skyrim, and i'm not even joking.
this game may get a free pass from many people, but not from me.
Therefore, my final verdict is:
6/10 , above Average
and you know what ? if they changed the names of the factions and other few things here and there, then took the name of Bethesda off of the game, as well as "Fallout 4", i bet every penny i have that the game would have NEVER got the praise it had, neither the amount of interrest of the general audience or the modding community.
hope you guys enjoyed my review.