Nebrule Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 (edited) I've really given it a good run, I'm lvl 31, got plenty of mods, game looks and runs great (now that i've toned down the rainbow bright color palette), but... the more I play it,I just want to go back to FO3 or NV. FO4 just feels like a half ass shell of what the previous titles were. There's just no draw to it... The story is ok for what it is, but man I'm really not a fan of the voiced protag and predetermined Identity at all. I feel robbed of my own character. The map at first was amazing but after hitting about lvl 20 nothing really surprises me. There's a serious lack in misc aesthetic and unique items, what little there is, is overtly repetitive and placed in the world without reason or care. In nearly every other open world bethesda title, this 'junk' was meticulously and strategically placed with purpose and logic. There's also very very few interesting 'random encounters' or freeform side quests, for instance if you're lucky enough to find a message or note it almost always leads to nothing at all, just filler bs. There's literally no 'underworld' compared to the other titles, there a few subways sure, but not miles and miles and miles of them as in F03. There's only a couple shallow caves, instead of dozens and dozens of deep interconnecting ones as before. Besides a military bunker or two there's zero fallout shelters... I mean WTF? it's FALLOUT! Another huge let down is the fact that literally upwards of %90 of all structural buildings are boarded up and inaccessible. That's just inexcusable. What little are, are either meaningless or directly linked to a quest line. In the other titles, each accessible structure from caves and bunkers to houses all had some unique interesting merit to them, often a micro storyline if you took the time to notice. FO4 has this in only a handful of instances. Honest to god, I think the eastern 1/3 of the map in FO3 (DC area) has more content in it alone than F04 does as a whole. The settlement system is obviously a copout feature and time killer to both make the game seem deeper than it really is and to cater to the poor pitiful moddless console versions. I mean it's interesting on the surface, wow cool I get to build and manage my on outpost, but I just keep asking myself... yeah, but whats the point? There's no real purpose behind it, no storied incentive outside of recruiting. That all adds up to the general hollow impression I keep getting the more I play. In Fallout 4 as a whole, there's hardly anything uniquely different about any location, environmentally the entire map is universally the same indoors and out. I just don't feel like I'm really going any where. There's no real impending threat, everything feels 'taken care of' already and the world doesn't really seem all that dark and dangerous. In other words the Common Wealth just feels like far too safe of a place... and what kind of wasteland is that? I'd like to treat this like I did Skyrim, beat the main quest-line then hang it up until next fall when more than enough great mods will be out and possibly a DLC, but unlike Skyrim, I just don't know if mods and DLC's will be enough to turn this one around for me, but if anything can save this, it's the nexus. Edited December 16, 2015 by Nebrule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcdenton2012 Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 As much as I hate to admit it... this is one of those games where you are honestly better off waiting for all the DLC to drop until you dump tons and tons of time into it. The main reason for this has to deal with the actual main story and how you demolish most of the factions just to save 1-2 in the game. Without knowing for certain if there IS going to be a main story DLC like Broken Steel for Fallout 3, there is little to no incentive to dump large quantities of time into a game whose final outcome may leave you jilted by the time we know what our final options and limitations are going to be. For all we know, this is all the story content we are going to be getting regarding the 3-4 main factions, and who you choose right now will be the end of the game contents main plot. Thus, you can either wait for all the DLC content to drop and know for certain whom you want to back based upon completed content, or you can screw around in the game and delay the inevitable until you finally give in and complete the game only to know you screwed up and need to replay a significant chunk with a prior character save thus negating a lot of your hard work later on from a DLC release's alterations to the endgame missions. The counter to this is that you could always start another character and do everything over again, but... I honestly have no intention of doing another run through because like most people... I prefer a game which respects my time. So, for those of us who only want to do everything once and only once... we have to wait and see what the DLC are going to be. Assuming you are in this bracket of people, you like me are screwed. The Settlement system was... poorly implemented with a lot of minor issues which only become more and more annoying the longer you play. This includes settlement happiness and settlement attacks, the later of which I turned off with a mod because it was eating up time when I could have been exploring. Overall, it seems as though it was poorly tested given how easily the AI brakes when you're not around. Regarding the map size, actually... the complete map for Fallout 3 IS roughly the same size as the one from Fallout 4. The collective city cells for Washington DC added to the Capitol Wasteland main map is roughly +15 to +20 cells in addition to the space consumed by the 20 cells in the Capitol Wasteland Map. The reason why they are built in separate worldcells is because they each consume to much space and generate a significant amount of overlap with one another with the pipboy icon map, and they would additional create overlap if they were all inclusive to the main worldcell. Furthermore, I can tell just by walking across the map in Fallout 4 that while it is bigger than the one from Fallout 3; however, it is also scaled differently. The 2034x2034 scale you normally use when designing maps appears to have been decreased to (best guess without a geck), around 1800x1500. This means that the cell size of the map you see in your pipboy is actually blown up, and the larger amount of cells used in this overlay, does not represent the maps true size. If you were to scale the maps the same size the Fallout 4 map would still be larger but only by (guessing by comparison once more without a geck), +60 to +80 cells. This is still a lot of content, but not the amount being shown to us... +200-+300 cells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geekminxen Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 You're not alone. I found 4 to be very shallow, especially compared to NV. I didn't like being told who I was (in an "RPG"), the world is not as interesting...basically everything you pointed out. I did finish the game, but the DLC is going to have to be awfully spectacular to make me want it. I'm also really hoping that mods will come along to "save" the game for me, but I just don't know. It's really lacking compared to the other games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SayinNuthin Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 First off I haven't finished the game/main quest (I'm taking it easy) but I can already see what the O.P. is getting at. I ground up to Lvl 18 then ditched that character and started over as a much less 'nice' person who basically tells the settlers to sod off as I've other thing to worry about. But the 90% empty thing, I see as an opportunity and I think this will be the greatest modded game ever! Because feebs like me who are just not up to 'proper' scripted quest mods have a huge canvas of potential locations for some good 'ol dungeon building. So the empty stuff becomes potential.. and the game has (for me) lots and lots and lots of potential once we get the GECK or whatever. So yea between the we-are selling-you-half-a-product-here DLC thing and not having a creation kit it feels to me like I'm playing a beta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moraelin Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Well, I'm not going to say that you should finish a game if you don't feel like it. In fact, if you don't feel like it, don't. But I'd add a factor that you might use in taking an informed decision. Namely that it takes very little time to. From choosing a faction to nuking your enemies and winning the game, assuming you're a decent level and have reasonable skills and equipment, you only need a couple of hours if you focus only on that and ignore all side quests. So, you know, it's not all that much more effort to see the ending and put your mind at ease. IF you're at all curious, that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boombro Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 I stopped playing waiting for dlc, because then I would be so high in level it would be boring, and they may add weapons that make a new build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebrule Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 (edited) You're right SayinNuthin, what do you call vanilla with out the vanilla? That's what we got. The empty structures will be taken care of for sure, just like that great 'DC Interiors' mod did for FO3, but what we're gonna need the most are some mods that really focus heavily on immersion. I've never been a hardocre survival mode, remeber to press 'B' to take a breath immersioner, but we're gonna need some of these mods to add some depth to this mess. I've suggested it in the mod request area before, I think if someone can figure out how to implement some kind of Karma system into the game, that would at least try to mimic what FO3 had on the surface, it would do a lot for FO4. Also, I'm really hoping some folks take their time and do some massive "new lands" areas with towns, quests ect, like some of the goodones for Skyrim. Edited December 16, 2015 by Nebrule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boombro Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 You're right SayinNuthin, what do you call vanilla with out the vanilla? That's what we got. The empty structures will be taken care of for sure, just like that great 'DC Interiors' mod did for FO3, but what we're gonna need the most are some mods that really focus heavily on immersion. I've never been a hardocre survival mode, remeber to press 'B' to take a breath immersioner, but we're gonna need some of these mods to add some depth to this mess. I've suggested it in the mod request area before, I think if someone can figure out how to implement some kind of Karma system into the game, that would at least try to mimic what FO3 had on the surface, it would do a lot for FO4. Also, I'm really hoping some folks take their time and do some massive "new lands" areas with towns, quests ect, like some of the goodones for Skyrim. Aren't quests that fill the CW is what really needed right now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebrule Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 Sure, absolutely... but there's a great many things that need to be taken care of foundationally as well, and should probably take precedence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boombro Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 I personally think what really makes the game meh...is the sheer lack of mid-long side quests. That the biggest problem of fo4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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