izigame.me

For context, I played Fallout 4 at launch on Xbox One and had the majority of my hours on that system. I only recently picked it up again on PC because of the steep discounts from the Steam Summer Sale.
This game deserves far more credit than the vast majority of the gaming community gives it. Over the years, many people have used this game as 'proof' of Bethesda losing their core values of player choice and multidimensional storytelling whilst using previous Bethesda titles like Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas as examples of the Fallout universe done right. While certain aspects of this argument do have merit, I generally disagree with this narrative.
In my opinion, Fallout 4's main questline serves as a boon to the overall game, contrary to what many people say. In comparison to Fallout 3, the choice between siding with the Minutemen, Railroad, Brotherhood, and Institute certainly offers more depth than the simple Evil vs Paragon dilemma between the Enclave and Brotherhood in Fallout 3. While I do believe that Fallout: New Vegas offers more flexibility in regards to how the player can tailor the outcome of the main story to their ideals, I find that Fallout 4 mitigates this epilogue sequence. For example, in Fallout 4, if you sided with the minutemen and didn't like the authoritarianism that the Brotherhood brought to the table, you can destroy the Prydwen and evict the Brotherhood from the Commonwealth. If you were playing as a Brotherhood character who aligned more with the Lyon's interpretation of the Brotherhood, you could play out the Brotherhood ending and then help the Minutemen restore their former presence. In New Vegas, I find that the pliancy of the ending is degraded by the fact that the player can't see their choices play out in the New Vegas that they forged. For example, if you decide to convince the Brotherhood break out of isolation in New Vegas, there isn't much impact on the game other than a ten second slide during the ending slideshow. Additionally, the Fallout 4 ending missions are just plainly fun. Killing a few legionnaires and then destroying Legate Lanius in an anticlimactic fashion doesn't compare to blowing up the Prydwen and then nuking the Institute in the Railroad ending, even if the process of getting there was slightly grind-like (The process of getting to the Minutemen and Railroad endings aren't the best, but I find that the Institute and Brotherhood questlines are pretty rewarding).
The open-world is extremely rich and rewarding to explore. The lore behind all of the locations and characters in this game can only be matched by games like The Witcher: 3 and Elden Ring. You'd be hard-pressed to find any location that doesn't have some sort of lore behind it. In addition to the richness of the lore, the visuals also hold up pretty well, even compared to modern games. Areas like Far Harbor and the Glowing Sea give off such a dreadful atmosphere with their dark, menacing lighting, whilst areas like the Atom Cats Garage bring back that "Wacky Wasteland" feel.
Despite the fact that the main characters' backgrounds were already semi-established, it doesn't take away from the player's immersion when trying to tailor a character's actions into the world. I'd actually argue that Fallout 4 does a better job with role-playing features than other RPGs do simply because of how vast the world is and how deep the atmosphere is.
The gunplay is also greatly improved over the previous games, and still makes a good accounting of itself in comparison to newer RPGs. The new Power Armor system (Frames, Fusion Cores etc) is also a very nice quality of life improvement.
Another thing that Fallout 4 does very well is the use of miscellaneous items. It feels like every item has a purpose. From teddy bear to circuit board, every item can be used in some capacity, whether it's creating weapon modifications for a laser rifle or applying a jet pack to your power armor.
While I do think this game is considerably better than most people think it is, I'm not oblivious to the obvious errors that Bethesda made while making this game.
For starters, while the settlement building system is a good idea in theory, the actual mechanics behind building in this game are so janky that it almost makes it a chore to have to build settlements.
Additionally, while I do like the combat in this game, the actual weapons themselves are ridiculous and immersion breaking. While weapons like the Laser Rifle and Gatling Laser feel like actual additions to the universe, weapons like the Laser Musket and Assault Rifle make the game considerably more tedious to play with their ridiculous design. Don't even get me started about the Pipe guns. You don't really get to have fun with the guns until you start seeing cooler guns around, which happens a long way down the line.
Speaking of which, the gameplay early in the game (first ten levels or so), completely sucks. You feel so puny having to use some pistol made of a piece of tubing or using a pool cue as a melee weapon. Combined with the rusty early game power armor that breaks if the wind blows in your direction, and the early game is definitely the worst part of the game. While games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance actually make you weak in the beginning to add depth to your character, Fallout 4 makes you weak in the early game for no reason, especially considering that the second(!) mission in the game consists of you wielding a minigun and storming through a pack of raiders with power armor.
Finally, it's unacceptable that I'm locked in at 60 FPS regardless of settings without either having to tweak the local files or download mods. The Bethesda Creation Engine sucks SO much. For reference, I have a 3060 and a solid 11th gen processor, and can run demanding games like Total War: Warhammer 2 on high settings with over 100 FPS.
I would write a conclusion but I feel like I wrote enough to convey my opinion. Fallout 4 gets a 7/10 in my book.