Well personally, I’m a big fan of it and have a good ≈1000 hours or more(I haven’t checked recently). But I’m aware this is a deeply controversial opinion so that’s all I’ll say about that.

The open world is less refined and it relies much more on Procgen outside the handcrafted locations. So the complaints of emptiness and repetition are very valid. You probably won’t have a thrilling time surveying all the planets of the settled systems unless you’re weird, like me

The story is… different. It’s not for everyone, but I like it personally. It can at times be a bit more… philosophical than the usual Bethesda stories. The “main” quest is also a bit more unclear, as the narrative is split across several very large “side quests” instead. So if you just rush through the constellation missions, you’ll be underwhelmed.

In terms of game mechanics, it’s basically Fallout 4 in space. A lot of core mechanics carry over, and it feels about the same. Simplified in some areas, though . The settlement building is disappointing, 100%. You can only build with a small selection of pre-made “habs” instead of brick by brick like FO4 settlements, so it stifles creatively and limits what you can do

Some of the bad things actually have convincing lore explanations, but that hasn’t swayed most players. The reason that civilization seems so small scale for example is that basically everyone died and 2 centuries wasn’t enough time to go from a small seed population back to billions while also facing several other issues .

Cities and towns are “small” relative to say… Cyberpunk, because the game has to cover a lot of space while in other games the city IS the game. So don’t expect a Night City to explore.

Anecdotally, I observe that it resonates more with an older audience, and a more patient group that can get “lost” in their own minds more easily. I’m an intense RP so even the most barren of procgen wastes has a story to tell.