#so many things fall under 'YES it's more realistic but it doesn't actually improve the experience'

[elkian]

An incomplete list of thoughts I have playing Fallout 4 so far:

Whoever decided VATS should default and solely slow time instead of stop time is my enemy and I WILL take them down.

Yes I’m mourning my spouse, child, and entire world BUT this thing has Donkey Kong!

Yes I was by all accounts a soft civilian suburbanite but sure I can just... murder a dude and steal his clothes.

And that doesn’t even go into taking Radroach meat in the Vault, like that’s something a pseudo-50s-housewife-type is gonna do without impetus or comment.

I found a dog GOTY

The dog is my friend GOAT

The laser gun has to be pumped whose idea was this.

After I find the VATS fucker I’m coming for whoever decided Grenades should be Like That.

Sometimes hot keys just straight up don’t work even if I’m standing still. I have to punch them like 3 times to get a result. At least New Vegas is known to be buggy and janky, what excuse is there for this?

Very convenient in fights.

Yeah, this isn’t actually an RPG.

I do like the settlement system but MAN I wish there was some kind of eagle’s-eye view to work with instead of just walking around.

Yes it makes sense for houses in a suburb to be similar or even literally identical but, and I cannot believe I’m saying this, I wish the game had avoided this bit of realism.

It’s all fun and games until you lose your own damn house 5 times.

W...what do you mean fabricated doors can’t fit into the existing house doorways what???

The very first real conversation I had in the game (post-bombing anyways) involved the subtitles failing, and then failing AGAIN when I had to reload bc I messed up.

The way conversations work in this game is like the suburbs thing all over again: yes, it’s more realistic, but that doesn’t mean it actually improves the game.

Sometimes I talk to someone and just straight up get nothing from them.

This is fun when trying to barter.

You know that post about Jurassic World with the T-Rex posing in front of the erupting volcano with music going as a more thematic, dramatic experience that felt superfake? Anyways my level 2 character killed a deathclaw with a minigun after a car exploded.

I don’t hate the Perks-Skills-Leveling system but it’s very strange.

I legitimately tried to keep to the main story bc that was my plan going in but honestly -fucks off into the wasteland-

The difficulty curve is completely incomprehensible so far, sometimes it’ll be bloatflies and roaches and then it’ll be raiders with turrets and absurdly strong grenades with no apparent pattern to the matter.

The mole rats exploding from the ground is kinda cool but it’s also really annoying waiting for them all to pop.

Too much of the settlement system is me going “Why can I THIS but not THAT??”

i wandered into a random shack, killed a bloatfly, and turned around to find a Super Mutant attacking Dogmeat. It’s the only SM I’ve met so far and immediately after we were attacked by... 3 more bloatflies.

No more Super Mutants yet.

I respect the new Feral Ghoul design decisions. I’m not sure I agree, and they’re more unsettling that NV’s in some ways, but I respect it.

You know that post about the skeletons being left around in places frequent even though that would be ridiculous? Yeah one of the only trading posts in the area just has a skeleton chilling 3 feet from the door.

None of these weapons feel good. I like the concept of the modding system and I liked modding but it feels kinda inconsequential when i can get 13 of the same base gun and 4 of the same modded version by killing a pack of Raiders.

The jumping also falls under “more realistic, but worse”

The radstorm and variable weather in general is pretty cool!

This has been p negative so far so here’s a compliment: this is visually improved A LOT. I especially like the level of detail in character creation.

Now back to complaining lol

The game, past the first two or three areas, feels really bad at leading the player anywhere. I basically got tired of the main quest and fucked off to explore pretty quick.

Also: there’s a lot of landmarks close together that... feel like they should interact more?

Hello little farm do you want to talk about the raider corpses over that away? no? hey is this trunk full of *checks pipboy* chems and body parts belong to you? no? even though it’s in clear view of your farm and an area you should theoretically control?

I actually love the little icons for areas on the Pip-boy, it’s a nice touch and generally more helpful than just the flags while not feeling intrusive.

Some of the little animations are pretty great.

Okay but fr who said “you know what this game needs? It needs you to worry about a companion running off and attacking things while you try to use a workbench”

JUST LET ME FREEZE TIME AGAIN, BETHESDA

Ironically, they gave the player-character a voice in a game where I have nothing meaningful to say.

I bartered with someone and left the convo and she cussed me out for ‘wasting her time’ A+ dialogue branching.

A lot of the vistas and locations are pretty damn cool looking.

The sound design hates me personally - by which I mean the sound is directional but not in a way that actually correlates with the game world. I’ve heard raiders talking in my left ear and turned... only to realizing I’m facing an outside wall and there is literally no way anyone is over there.

This is especially noticeable and heinous bc there is some really good music and decent voice lines.

It’s not all bad, but I gotta say... aside from the settlement thing (I WISH NV had the ability to break items down into components, that’s really cool), pretty much no part of this game feels good. Combat feels bad - frantic, I have weight and yet my shooting is super floaty, and the lack of GUI affecting targets makes it much harder for me to spot what I want to shot. I don’t even get a target name without VATS in some situations. The sprint is good, but jumping feels ridiculous. Every conversation makes me want to chew on my arm. I know this isn’t an RPG but that makes the RPG veneer so much worse. It makes me think I can do things that I can’t. And I spend a lot of time asking “why CAN’T I do this?” and “why is this like this?” (that is my most-asked question by far).

Ultimately, it just doesn’t actually feel like an improvement enough anywhere to justify existing. But I’m only 8 hours in so I guess we’ll see.