While some of your comments ring true, this one does not. Bethesda has always been about dynamic environments that invite you, the player, to create the story around it. The addition of radiant objectives also was a step in that direction. It’s the very fact that we have required quests that are linear (story) that rankles a lot of the players. We enjoy that dynamic environment. You stumble upon a mini story of someone that left loot somewhere and you follow along, seeing that they were murdered for it, etc.
Real examples:
The story in the Bowling alley in Far Harbor
The Vault Tech rep you meet in the beginning
The Giddyup Buttercup inventor
What was going on at Dunwich Borers
The Cheers Bar
I mean, a lot of them aren’t quests, but they are small peppered stories all around the game. And I love that. It makes things seem so much more inviting/scary/sad when you get engrossed in them. Sure, log entries are kind of a cheesy mechanic to relay some of these, but … how else would you do it? It’s hard to convey some background information in a totally graphical game. It’s even harder when it is a post-apocalypse where the majority of other characters are out to kill you. Who is going to sit you down to tell you a story? Fallout 1 and 2 had the advantage of a text based story playing out with on screen movements/characters/battles. I’m still quite impressed with what is in Fallout 4, despite agreeing with your point about the main quests.
This is the youtube channel that you will want to use. Oxhorn does some really cool and comprehensive lore/history videos for Fallout 4 and a bunch of other games too.
I played 180+/- hours of Fallout 4. I did think the reveal in the institution was done really poorly, but Fallout games are more about the getting there than the ending itself. I recently re-played Fallout 1 and it’s not like that game has a great ending either. Better, but not great.
I hate crows in real life and it gave me some satisfaction to shoot them in the game. Now I have justification to shoot crows in Fallout 4 other than the pleasure of seeing the red stain they leave.
Disclaimer: I don’t shoot crows in real life even if they sit in trees and shit all over my car and laugh at me while doing it.
Similarly I have tried hunting in real life when I was younger, it didn’t take with me for whatever reason. But I love hunting in Skyrim. I’ve even downloaded a mod or two around hunting as a form of making money in the game.
Fallout 4 also has little things like that I really enjoy, namely building the neighborhood up or your home, or your weapons/armor, etc.
I have definitely found a new pastime. I was up on the roof of Publik Occurrences when I went into stealth mode with a silenced sniper rifle and started shooting every bird I saw. It was actually fun and I got a good laugh out of it as well.
I’m trying to figure out where my “main base” will be in this game. First playthrough I built up Sanctuary like everyone but I want a new place for all my companions to hang out. I was thinking Red Rocket but the cute family farm way to the south is nice too. I don’t have the airport yet but that’s a great compact space.
Also, slight spoiler alert I guess but…
In my initial playthrough I took all of the settlements for the Minutemen including Hangman’s Alley. But this playthrough I’m slowing down the Minutemen recapture and playing a bit more of the Railroad storyline. They now want me to take Hangman’s Alley as a safehouse.
Question:. If I progress a bit more in the Minuteman storyline will it ever conflicting tell me to take Hangman’s Alley now? I didn’t know Settlements were up for grabs by different factions, interesting! I’m wondering if I can improve the safehouse just like a Minuteman settlement.
I vaguely recall being able to capture the farm near the Sanctuary for BOS (by bribing the settlers) but I had no idea RR also had this option, very interesting indeed. Especially since Hangman’s Alley was my ‘main’ base on my last run, and if I’m going to side with RR this time I’m definitely going to capture it for them.
I had more fun in Fallout 4 during the free weekend than I was expecting. And it was only down to $10, so I said why not? So I guess I’m back in. I know from this thread that eventually when I do the main story, I’ll probably start disliking the game, but during this first 39 hours of the game (mostly played at launch when I rented the game for a week), I’ve always been surprised at how much I love it.
You can play 100+ before feeling the need to do the main story, although as you explore and meet the various groups you will be pushed towards the main story.
I enjoyed Fallout 4 regardless of the ending. You play this game for the exploration, not the ending. The ending is what you do when you finally admit to having explored enough of the world.
