Fallout 4 Review (Jamick)
This is a very cautious Thumbs Up. I would honestly have picked a middle option if it was available.
FO4 is such a frustrating game for me to talk about. Each element of the various game mechanics irritates me in some way, while at the same time doing JUST enough things right that it keeps me coming back for more.
Some examples:
Settlement building can be fun, but after awhile managing and defending settlements turns into a full-time job with very little payoff. But if you enjoy games like Animal Cross, Minecraft, or Star Dew Valley, then you might take a liking to it.
The main story lines for all the major factions are poorly written and are honestly boring to play through at times, but the games various companions and their associated missions are actually pretty well done, especially Nick Valentine.
Crafting weapons and armor to custom-fit my individual play style is super cool, but the amount of investment required to unlock all the necessary materials, perks, and settlement structures needed to get them honestly makes me forget they exist half of the time.
Unless you play a Strength-based character and unlock specific perks, Carry Weight in this game is a joke.
The game is (especially the sunrise/sunset effects) visually very impressive for a 2015 release, but all the games NPC's have 0 complex facial animations and it makes each character in the game look like a gargoyle.
The dialogue choices of *Yes* *Sarcastic* *Maybe* and *No* are used for every NPC during every conversation and ultimately don't matter because regardless of what choice you end up making very few choices in the game actually matter. You can save mid conversation, pick the *YES* option and hear how the NPC responds, then reload the game and pick the *NO* option and the NPC will more often than not respond the EXACT same way 90% of the time. Role playing in FO4 through conversations is essentially impossible, which sucks because Charisma is one of the most important SPECIAL stats in this game for settlement building and all it does is occasionally give you small EXP rewards when you make a successful speech check.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea by now. FO4 is game with a good foundation and interesting concepts that expands the Fallout series, but IMO ultimately falls flat when it comes to trying to execute them into a satisfying game play experience, especially when compared to FO3 and New Vegas.
If you do play it this puppy will require heavy modding to be even remotely functional, but be warned, modded games will be unable to get Steam achievements. (You can get a mod that fixes this though, so it's a non-issue, but still).