replaying this is after playing ~45 hours of it in 2015, never getting very far in the shameful main story, but... this is one of the greatest failures of storytelling bethesda have ever mustered. it requires nothing short of the total suspension of disbelief every second of playing it to give a shit about anything you're doing. to its... uh, credit? i enjoy a big open world game i can explore, and this one feels pretty good to move around in, but every single line of dialogue fills me with a mirthful disgust. nothing else presumed to be a "role playing" game makes me want to be an asshole like this one does. i cackle with delight when some npc spouts bullshit and an experience gain is triggered, activating my "idiot savant" perk and a dumb giggle from my character. i don't care about this world. i don't care about the must-find-babby plot. i almost want to see it through to its end just to hate it and shit on it in every way i can. my rating doesn't really reflect as much because i have my own fun with the game—i like to wander a big place and creep around in the smaller parts of it—but i think fallout 4 is an embarrassment and that bethesda should be shamed into making a better game next time around. i can only hope that's why they're taking so long...

The problem with this game in one example:

I was working with The Railroad, an underground movement attempting to take down the Institute.

The Institute made me their leader after I infiltrated them for the first time.

I thought, okay, now I can go back and relay to the Railroad that I'm now the leader of the Institute. You know, the group that our whole goal is to take down.

You can't. I felt like I was going insane when I walked back to the Railroad base and desperately tried talking to everyone to reveal this critical information about the war I was participating in. In that moment, the veil was lifted. This is not a world, it's a shooting gallery.

What is the point of even having a dialogue system if this very common occurrence that the main quest forces you down creates this level of dissonance due to a lack of options? Why even have factions? Why have dialogue? The game would not be any better or worse than it is now.