tl;dr

Fallout 4 is a huge leap backwards from Skyrim in every regard. Its not a bad game per se, but keep your money until next year's christmas. The modders will have to work double shifts to finish this console port.



With the exception of the first ten minutes and what you saw in the trailers, this review is spoiler free.





The Pro's:

---------------

* there's a lot of Fallout in here

* modding support should be decent since its based on the Skyrim engine

* the combat feels fluid enough for a RPG

* ironsights for most guns

* VATS now slows down time instead of pausing the game (I like it)

* so far no gamestopping bugs except for constant crashes when I exit the game

* borderless fullscreen mode

* Apple/Android app is a nice touch for people who like to have the map open at all times, it works for me

* animated hair (PhysX?)

* not a single CTD so far

* Achievements not working (one of the stupidest reward methods ever conceived), Steam Overlay not working either so probably connected (Edit: Achievements suddenly started working, possibly because I started Steam in Admin Mode or they fixed something, Overlay still not working)



* Dogmeat is kinda useful now, he pins down opponents, occasionally finds loot piles and won't die five minutes after you found him (like he did in Fallout 3)

* Dogmeat goes into "sneak mode" when you do, looks very cute

* Dogmeat generally behaves like a "real" dog, he runs away from you to sniff at things, runs ahead or stays back for a bit ... he's no DD yet, but close



* conversations are much more natural than in previous Bethesda games (more than 2 actors involved, actions happening, etc,), but they're bugged to hell, more on that below

* you can move the camera arround freely during conversations and even run arround, the talker will continue to talk and wait until you focus him again to present your four response options, no more being tidally locked to a single NPC



* interesting armor system (you can strap armor on top of your armor, like shoulderpads)

* you can use the Minigun from the Power Armor without actually using the Power Armor (weird, but its Fallout)

* Ghouls have become semi-zombies, some are laying arround like a corpse until they notice you or continue to crawl when their legs are gone, try to jump & bite you without arms

* talkative enemies taunt you during combat while you fight your way to them, making the shooter part a bit more organic

* tinkering with your Power Armor feels like working on your own car



* I was sceptical about the voiced protagonist, but the female does a decent job, it will make modding quite a bit harder though

* If you play the standard female player character (the one shown in the trailers), Piper looks almost exactly like you. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but for RP-reasons I will pretend that she is my grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-niece.





The Con's:

---------------

* boring but also rushed prologue/tutorial in the most ugly environment imaginable

* yes, even more boring than the doctor's questions in F:NV

* the main plot quickly becomes completly redundant

* the forced straight marriage spouse and the baby fail to create any emotional attachment to either of them (How could they in the rushed 5 minute prologue?)

* getting the iconic Power Armor ten minutes into the game is an odd design choice

* no food/water required, a step back from F:NV

* "Survival" difficulty has nothing in common with survival games, not even F:NV

* Stimpacks heal limbs again, and you don't even have to target the broken one, just pop a Stimpack into your arm to grow a new foot

* not having to train skills to improve in them feels wrong



* the village building is vastly oversimplified (I demolished 3 buildings in 10 seconds, imagine woodchopping in Skyrim without ever swinging your axe) and feels like its been rushed on top of the game for feature creep

* the village building quickly becomes a chore thanks to the ridiculous UI

* still the same outworldy "hacking" of computer terminals (guess 4 times, then get locked out, although this time you can retry after 10sec), reminds me of Sudoku



* C-movie quality conversations, at least during the first hours, it gets better the moment you meet Piper but they continue to feel forced and out of place

* Bethesda took the easy way out of the problem with followers stabbing you in the back, get a perk that disables friendly fire damage, no need to teach Piper *not* to use that Fat Man next to you

* after spending a few hours with my protagonist, its beginning to feel like she has a split personality, mine (during normal play) and hers (during conversations), extremly limited conversation options are not helping here either



* holstered weapons disappear from existance

* enemies fall out of the sky, Dragon Age 2-style

* enemies regulary get stuck, jitter arround, generally bug out

* legendary enemies are pretty meh ("Legendary Bloatfly" ... uh-huh)

* cars still got built-in nukes that go off if you look at them funny (it's okay if you like it, I don't)



* extreme loading times even for small buildings, SSDs are a huge help, but still

* tons of loading screens in general, an engine out of its time

* ugly, washed out graphics, it could be my imagination but I remember Fallout 3 to be prettier and less cartoon'y for its time

* FPS rollercoaster, even though my Skyrim runs at constant 60 FPS with 2K textures

* don't even try to compare Fallout 4's landscape to Skyrim, it will make you weep (not talking green meadows, just detail and atmosphere)

* wax museum character models



* gigantic, oversized console UI (as usual)

* literally the most unintuitive UI controls for a PC game of all times, Bethesda tried really really hard to pi** off PC players this time, this goes especially to the Pip-boy handling

* EVE Online character creator with bonkers Gamepad-turned-into-Keyboard controls

* dialogs only offer four responses with one trying to be extra-witty, like those dumbed down Bioware RPGs

* talent tree looks pretty and funny, but also unnessecarily bloated (pro tip: you can scroll down!)

* most weapons take up a quarter of the screen, I'm not even talking about rocket launchers, just pistols



* loot menu pops up everywhere and ruins immersion, no more opening boxes to see what's inside, especially distracting in combat

* talking to sleeping people sometimes makes them stand up immediatly, instead of waking and getting up

* NPCs happily block your way in the best of Bethesda's tradition

* NPC AI seems to be from the 90's, melee's happily run into minigun fire with a pocket knife, grenades are generally thrown at walls in front of them (incinerating themselves instead of me), animals blindly charge avoid of all fear, etc. pp.





Edit: Figured out the console keys on the german keyboard. Its AltGr+Ö.





About the missing ACHIEVEMENTS, you may want to google it before falling back to kindergarten insults. My Steam Overlay is not working either and its a known problem. One of many.





About the marriage paragraph, let me quote one comment:

"Kaiser Fred VIII

The fact that you are forced to have a wife isn't a problem of social justice or whatever, the problem is that it forces a backstory on your character. It isn't yours anymore. You can't be a socially recluse engineer living alone, or some widowed businessman or whatever. You *have* to be a married vet with a son. It is not *your* character, it is Bethesda's character. That, combined with a voiced protag, pretty much killed any prospect of replayability and RP in this game to me before I even got my hands on it."







I think I will stop playing Fallout 4 soon and wait for the modders to eventually fix this console port. Thanks for all the comments, especially the kindergarten-level haters. You guys have inoculated me against anything the internet can throw at me for the next 100 years! :)

tl;dr Fallout 4 is a huge leap backwards from Skyrim in every regard. Its not a bad game per se, but keep your money until next year's christmas. The modders will have to work double shifts to finish this console port. With the exception of the first ten minutes and what you saw in the trailers, this review is spoiler free. The Pro's: --------------- * there's a lot of Fallout in here * modding support should be decent since its based on the Skyrim engine * the combat feels fluid enough for a RPG * ironsights for most guns * VATS now slows down time instead of pausing the game (I like it) * so far no gamestopping bugs except for constant crashes when I exit the game * borderless fullscreen mode * Apple/Android app is a nice touch for people who like to have the map open at all times, it works for me * animated hair (PhysX?) * not a single CTD so far * Achievements not working (one of the stupidest reward methods ever conceived), Steam Overlay not working either so probably connected (Edit: Achievements suddenly started working, possibly because I started Steam in Admin Mode or they fixed something, Overlay still not working) * Dogmeat is kinda useful now, he pins down opponents, occasionally finds loot piles and won't die five minutes after you found him (like he did in Fallout 3) * Dogmeat goes into "sneak mode" when you do, looks very cute * Dogmeat generally behaves like a "real" dog, he runs away from you to sniff at things, runs ahead or stays back for a bit ... he's no DD yet, but close * conversations are much more natural than in previous Bethesda games (more than 2 actors involved, actions happening, etc,), but they're bugged to hell, more on that below * you can move the camera arround freely during conversations and even run arround, the talker will continue to talk and wait until you focus him again to present your four response options, no more being tidally locked to a single NPC * interesting armor system (you can strap armor on top of your armor, like shoulderpads) * you can use the Minigun from the Power Armor without actually using the Power Armor (weird, but its Fallout) * Ghouls have become semi-zombies, some are laying arround like a corpse until they notice you or continue to crawl when their legs are gone, try to jump & bite you without arms * talkative enemies taunt you during combat while you fight your way to them, making the shooter part a bit more organic * tinkering with your Power Armor feels like working on your own car * I was sceptical about the voiced protagonist, but the female does a decent job, it will make modding quite a bit harder though * If you play the standard female player character (the one shown in the trailers), Piper looks almost exactly like you. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but for RP-reasons I will pretend that she is my grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-niece. The Con's: --------------- * boring but also rushed prologue/tutorial in the most ugly environment imaginable * yes, even more boring than the doctor's questions in F:NV * the main plot quickly becomes completly redundant * the forced straight marriage spouse and the baby fail to create any emotional attachment to either of them (How could they in the rushed 5 minute prologue?) * getting the iconic Power Armor ten minutes into the game is an odd design choice * no food/water required, a step back from F:NV * "Survival" difficulty has nothing in common with survival games, not even F:NV * Stimpacks heal limbs again, and you don't even have to target the broken one, just pop a Stimpack into your arm to grow a new foot * not having to train skills to improve in them feels wrong * the village building is vastly oversimplified (I demolished 3 buildings in 10 seconds, imagine woodchopping in Skyrim without ever swinging your axe) and feels like its been rushed on top of the game for feature creep * the village building quickly becomes a chore thanks to the ridiculous UI * still the same outworldy "hacking" of computer terminals (guess 4 times, then get locked out, although this time you can retry after 10sec), reminds me of Sudoku * C-movie quality conversations, at least during the first hours, it gets better the moment you meet Piper but they continue to feel forced and out of place * Bethesda took the easy way out of the problem with followers stabbing you in the back, get a perk that disables friendly fire damage, no need to teach Piper *not* to use that Fat Man next to you * after spending a few hours with my protagonist, its beginning to feel like she has a split personality, mine (during normal play) and hers (during conversations), extremly limited conversation options are not helping here either * holstered weapons disappear from existance * enemies fall out of the sky, Dragon Age 2-style * enemies regulary get stuck, jitter arround, generally bug out * legendary enemies are pretty meh ("Legendary Bloatfly" ... uh-huh) * cars still got built-in nukes that go off if you look at them funny (it's okay if you like it, I don't) * extreme loading times even for small buildings, SSDs are a huge help, but still * tons of loading screens in general, an engine out of its time * ugly, washed out graphics, it could be my imagination but I remember Fallout 3 to be prettier and less cartoon'y for its time * FPS rollercoaster, even though my Skyrim runs at constant 60 FPS with 2K textures * don't even try to compare Fallout 4's landscape to Skyrim, it will make you weep (not talking green meadows, just detail and atmosphere) * wax museum character models * gigantic, oversized console UI (as usual) * literally the most unintuitive UI controls for a PC game of all times, Bethesda tried really really hard to pi** off PC players this time, this goes especially to the Pip-boy handling * EVE Online character creator with bonkers Gamepad-turned-into-Keyboard controls * dialogs only offer four responses with one trying to be extra-witty, like those dumbed down Bioware RPGs * talent tree looks pretty and funny, but also unnessecarily bloated (pro tip: you can scroll down!) * most weapons take up a quarter of the screen, I'm not even talking about rocket launchers, just pistols * loot menu pops up everywhere and ruins immersion, no more opening boxes to see what's inside, especially distracting in combat * talking to sleeping people sometimes makes them stand up immediatly, instead of waking and getting up * NPCs happily block your way in the best of Bethesda's tradition * NPC AI seems to be from the 90's, melee's happily run into minigun fire with a pocket knife, grenades are generally thrown at walls in front of them (incinerating themselves instead of me), animals blindly charge avoid of all fear, etc. pp. Edit: Figured out the console keys on the german keyboard. Its AltGr+Ö. About the missing ACHIEVEMENTS, you may want to google it before falling back to kindergarten insults. My Steam Overlay is not working either and its a known problem. One of many. About the marriage paragraph, let me quote one comment: "Kaiser Fred VIII The fact that you are forced to have a wife isn't a problem of social justice or whatever, the problem is that it forces a backstory on your character. It isn't yours anymore. You can't be a socially recluse engineer living alone, or some widowed businessman or whatever. You *have* to be a married vet with a son. It is not *your* character, it is Bethesda's character. That, combined with a voiced protag, pretty much killed any prospect of replayability and RP in this game to me before I even got my hands on it." I think I will stop playing Fallout 4 soon and wait for the modders to eventually fix this console port. Thanks for all the comments, especially the kindergarten-level haters. You guys have inoculated me against anything the internet can throw at me for the next 100 years! :) Check this box if you received this product for free (?) Do you recommend this game? Yes No Cancel Save Changes