A few nights ago I had a realisation, that despite seemingly being close to the end of the main story of Fallout 4, I just had no desire to finish it. And I don't mean in a good way either. I've played some games and had no desire to finish it because I didn't want it to end. This is different, this is me having no desire to play because I don't find it good. Or rather, there is something lacking and it hasn't held my attention.
The general feeling is that the game is lacking. The story is lacking too but I can hardly say 3 or New Vegas had compelling main story. It's the world that is missing something, and (I think) how you interact with that world that is the biggest failing point.
The area known as the Commonwealth is filled with masses of landmarks, as you would expect from any open-world game these days. Many of these look impressive, or at least intriguing when you come across them. But, too many times you wonder in, clear out a bunch of ghouls or raiders, then pick up some loot. If you are lucky you pick up some interesting back story to the place. Take University Point. Previously a university (duh) it was re-settled after the bombs fell and became a thriving little community. One of the community members discovered notes regarding the research that was being done at the university before the bombs fell. Looking to sell this research, news reached the Institute who wanted the research. An escalation of events led to the Institute wiping out the community.
Sounds great, but you gleam all this from notes left behind. Your only interaction in the area is clearing out the remaining enemies, looting what stuff has been left, and uncovering this past. What would have been far more engrossing is being there to witness it. Maybe even influence the outcome. As with all of Fallout 4, the life of the world is contained within the notes and logs left behind. Rarely do you see anything interesting happen.
It's hard to describe the problem. Perhaps it comes down to expectation? Fallout 3 and New Vegas created a world. I would argue New Vegas did this more so, but that is probably a point of debate for many people. Fallout 4 is just a chunk of land. It still serves as a game, it has a story, solid controls and a world you can interact with. But none of it compels you further in. None of it says this is what gaming is about. You have an illusion of freewill in what you do, but too often you hit against the sides of the straight and narrow it is forcing you down. It's like they streamlined their previous games, to make them more accessible and to enhance what they considered to be their strong attributes. Yet, in doing so, they lost what made you play the game to conclusion.
My experience with the Fallout franchise has never been the compulsion to play the main story. It has been about creating a character and seeing what they find. Our exploration of the world moulding the character I began to shape at the beginning of the game. Fallout 4 kind of misses that. Through limited dialogue choices (only 4 at a time) your conversation always seems to go roughly the same way. The only difference being how much you're going to get paid to complete the quest. Customisation of the character through skill points, perks and SPECIAL points have been reduced to a solely choosing a perk each time you level up. (Yes, I know, you can up your SPECIAL points if you wish instead.)
Within the world your ways of dealing with a situation are simple. Talk your way out of it or shoot your way out of it. No more unique dialogue based on your Science/Repair/Gun skills, etc. It reduces any desire for me to play again to see what other possibilities there are. That is, if I finish it once.
Allow me an example of where the game falls down. During the main quest you are sent to find/rescue someone from a Vault. After being left with little choice but to murder everyone I see (stealth is not a great mechanic in this game) I reach the conclusion. My rescue target is stuck behind a sealed door, being threatened by some tough guy. Listening to the conversation I realise the tough guy is getting worried by something my target says, so he leaves to find out the truth. I decide to hide and let him leave, rather than kill him. He leaves and I then free my target. We both then head out to leave. We leave that immediate area and go through a small corridor, only to find our tough guy friend just standing there. This didn't seem purposeful. He didn't appear to have reached his boss, or had some epiphany that my now companion was just scaring him. No, the game basically doesn't appear to have been built to expect me to avoid conflict. His path just ends there. The game fully expects you to kill him. Kill him or you essentially just break the game a little.
I think this is fundamentally what has lost it for me in Fallout 4. A lack of choice. Not just in story beats, but in game style too. This is no longer an RPG, this is just a shooter with RPG elements tacked on. The game fully expects you to entire each and every location and annihilate everything. Stealth isn't a means to avoid conflict and reach your objective. Stealth is just a mechanic to delay the inevitable fight until you are in a position to score some extra critical hits. I hasten to add that even with good stealth perks, and equipment, the idea of hiding in the shadows is nothing but wishful dream.
The lack of choice doesn't end there. New Vegas had groups a plenty to side with. Just take the opening couple of areas. From almost the get go you decide the fate of Goodsprings, either rising up to defend it, or taking it over and killing everyone. Then in Primm, when they're looking for a new Sheriff you can either enlist the help of the NCR, use your science skill to reprogram a robot to be sheriff, or use either your wits/caps or goodwill (depending on who you sided with in Goodsprings) to infiltrate the now overrun prison and recruit an ex-sheriff to run the town. In Fallout 4 the best I've been able to do is decide whether or not to kill someone, and ultimately which of the 3 (arguably 4) main factions I want to side with.
Ultimately what happens in Goodsprings and Primm does little in the grand scheme of the plot and how the rest of the game plays out. But, it crafts the world. Your world. You were involved and now that world is that much more personal to you. You yourself decided their immediate fates and helped craft how the world will look when you leave it. Fallout 4 is lacking in this area. Your actions don't seem to shape anything. You might kill a few extra people and get another companion to add to your list, but nothing seems to have any impact. The game comes close, but never really makes it stick. Take Vault 81. At some point in there you can decide the fate of a child.
In conclusion perhaps the game is a victim of it's own success? With Fallout 3 (and I guess Oblivion), Bethesda defined what an open-world RPG should be considered as. Perhaps it shouldn't be considered an RPG any more? Changing tack and calling it a shooter would go some way to manage expectation, that is if they continue on this path of limited customisation. That part of the game is solid, but as I've probably eluded to, that isn't the reason I go into these games. But, by classing it as a shooter I perhaps wouldn't have considered the rest of the game as lacking. The genre RPG brings weight with it. When RPG is mentioned I expect customisation, I expect choice. For me those go hand in hand with what RPG means. I'm that character, I decide what to do. The game shouldn't be penning me in, making it so obvious that I'm following this path. I like to go off the beaten path, see what happens if I do something potentially unexpected. Kill Mr. House? Well, he hasn't really done anything wrong to me, but ok. Kill those Ghouls that want to get into Tenpenny Towers? You did try and get me to blow up MegaTon and your residents all seem a bit prickish, but what the heck. Fallout 4? This strange cult at the amphitheatre are a strange lot, lets go along with it and see if I can't get something interesting out of it. Oh, you can't? I can sign up then basically realise it is a scam and either threaten them or resort to violence. No feigning ignorance or joining up?
Maybe I've just hit the nail on the head? I don't like this game because it doesn't allow me to act out what I want. Instead Fallout 4 has this predetermined idea of what you will do. You may think you want to do x and y, but we know better and you want to do z. I'm going to keep hitting walls and breaking immersion whenever I try to play this as my character, rather than the character the game has already cooked up for me.
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