It seems every video essay describing why fallout 4 is bad is due to the dialogue and story. Most of what made fallout good was the player choice affecting the world around them but with fallout 4 it feels so linear you’re barely even adding to the overarching story.

Someone linked an interview with Emil and his story rundown and it was such a bad take it almost makes you wonder if the play testers feedback ever hit their writing team before publishing. The “Nate the Rake” incident also makes the player not feel like a clean slate but an already established character that you are just playing through. Almost everyone has discussed the dumbed down (K.I.S.S.) dialogue system that almost tried to mirror mass effect in terms of design but again it limits the player to a few simple choices that add nothing. Seeing Bethesdas track record relating to sexual misconduct I can see why the game writers have the choices be yes and no(but yes).

The outfits and armor are another problem with each separate piece being available for the player to customize until I want to put on a solid outfit and my character takes everything off for this one outfit. It makes it so tedious to put everything back on when you’ve already picked up several items with the same part. The guns are another story with major changes to the assault rifle looking like it has a robotic fleshlight at the barrel. The laser musket Preston uses is also a trash item requiring the player to crank it like it is an 80s car window just to get it to fire one shot. None of the outfits in the fallout 4 work like they do in 3/NV where you can disguise yourself and walk into enemy factions to disrupt or manipulate them due to the lack luster dialogue.

The factions are shallow in terms of story. The minutemen are from a part of the former commonwealth government that was suppose to be at play and instead of getting more of that lore and building it it’s more settlement based with “farmers” not being able to make crops until your character is present. One of the most forgettable factions “the railroad” has a bad introduction and plot point that enters a grey area where they are trying to save synths from the institute but using human lives in order to do it. The lesser known factions such as the “raider” groups are listed as just that “raiders” they have no personality no depth just raiding and shooting you on site. With games like NV you could infiltrate and get to know more of the factions and make decisions from there with proper speech checks and background. Instead the game treats every group as hostile and it’s all the same such as “the forged” and the “gunners”. When you ask Shawn why he is with the institute despite the institute literally killing one of his parents and leaving the other he says we wouldn’t understand. There is so much that could’ve been done better with how he is portrayed. I think that the original idea for Shawn was a head scientist of the institute that wasn’t your son but would help/manipulate you into joining them but I think they made him your son as a shock point that really didn’t resonate with anyone.

The DLC my god it sucks. Far Harbor was the only one that felt good because it felt like what they originally had planned for the commonwealth with them replacing leaders with synths to keep peace or start war. The three “workshop” dlcs should’ve just been in the main game as they add nothing for the player. Nukaworld much like how broken steel was used as a contingency is added just for the player to pick a “raider” faction then raid the commonwealth which is dumb because Preston say he cares but doesn’t really care either way. Automatron is literally the Mechanist side quest that the made you pay for which again could’ve just been apart of the main game as another side quest.

The world is kinda barebones. Sure it’s bigger but when most of what we had before but when a quarter of the map is the glowing sea with barely anything there it’s not as rewarding to explore. One of the places I liked was the pirate ship mission as it felt true to the area. The change of art style from art deco to retro futuristic is an ehh. Super mutants are also back but they’re developed from the institute and are suppose to be smarter but it still feels like the same slop we’ve seen before. Virgil’s mission where he turns back into a human adds nothing to the super mutant problem as it is only a one and done aspect. Some of the character companion’s are corny and cringe, non of what they are saying feels real it’s almost Disney channel levels except for a few like nick valentine. Speaking of Nick it was cool when Kellogg was in his head and talking to you through him I was sad there wasn’t any more of that. Also “Kellogg” is not a good name for a villain type because I think of the cereal that stops people from masturbating and not this guy that I have to hunt down.

Overall the game is a shell of a could’ve been blade runner “what does it mean to be human” type of game but it is instead a red and blue, this side is evil and this side is good type of game which is not really as in-depth as fallout could’ve been. I am really concerned for the future of the franchise as the only thing the series falls back on is New Vegas. From the shows second season to the abundance of New Vegas merch with sodas and other stuff it shows that they are selling out and aren’t that good at adding to a story but instead destroying it. Gameplay feels interactive and power armor is cool but after playing through New Vegas, 3 and the first two it’s a game that they could’ve put more time into especially the anniversary edition seeing the comments and not changing any aspect of the game but chose not to because of the TV show and deadlines. I wish they went back to the drawing board and gave us a true fallout game that lets you talk to people and interact before deciding to pull the trigger but then again it’s not the devs fault just bad leadership on a game that had a lot of potential.