I have a complicated relationship with this game, for all my whining and criticism I keep coming back to it, and the simple answer is its addicting, at least the gameplay loop is.

I may also be an insane person who liked to try to roleplay as characters in a game where roleplaying is limited and I think that is in turn the biggest problem.

it's like this game is stuck between its origins as an rpg, and its new identity as an open world looting and shooting crafting base building game, with a more pre established protagonist.

in previous fallout games you are much more of a blank slate and part of that is also due to how your character has no voice which makes it easier to imagine the tone you say things in, yeah you are a vault dweller, or a tribal, or a courier, and things like the lonesome road dlc give the courier some backstory but its still enough freedom to make players courier different, in a similar way to the protagonist of knights of the old republic 2 also made by obsidian.

in this game you have to play as a husband/wife which firstly removes any option of playing as a gay or lesbian character without mods and the game really feels like its more meant for the husband with a war backround, so he can say the funny line, that the wife doesn't get to narrate despite me liking her voice better.

pre established characters in Rpgs like this can work, Geralt from the Witcher or Shepard from mass effect both work in their own ways not without those games respective flaws, but they work much better there than here, of course Geralt is a book character and since books are for nerds that is cheating.

the issue isn't that they went for this angle despite the previous games I am for them trying something new, but the fact much like a majority of the writing in this game, its just poorly done.

this is an issue with fallout 3 but finding a lost family member is so fucking boring compared to the other main quests and those are usually a quest for a McGuffin, which works in 1/2 because you are trying to save an entire group of people making the stakes higher, as well as those games being on the clock, each area getting you closer to your goal, this game tells you how much your son means to you and how much you want to find him but also distracts you with quests that lead to infinite radiant quests. there's a disconnect between player and character and the main character just isn't that interesting of a person like geralt or has an important job like shepard, I think that your character should have a more defined role and personality if they wanted to go this route go harder hell even limit roleplaying more to make your character more defined, a good example being V from cyberpunk 2077 who feels loose enough to make certain choices but enough of character that you can get into their role and the world of cyberpunk, and maybe it has to due with the fact that game has choices that really feel like they matter and overall better writing of its world, which they did have a lot of material from the tabletop to use. fallout 4 on the other hand seems to want to limit your roleplaying with phrases that lead to the same results with exceptions quite a lot of exceptions, unless that character is essential.

Preston Garvey is a joked character and before playing the game I thought the internet was exaggerating as they do, but my god its like they designed him and his faction to be the most boring generic and unlikable parts of the game.

people will rag on me or others because "no he is secretly deep" which let me say a little secret it doesn't matter how deep a character is if their backstory and personality is executed poorly, no disrespect to the voice actor but he sounds like he is talking to me like I am a child, who after being told that what you think is your baby son got kidnapped, he goes "damn, anyway here's why I need help saving some farmers" you can ignore them but you'll most likely run into them if you do what the game says which why wouldn't you, for the exp. and even if you have the dlc that lets you side with the raiders at most he hates you but no you cant kill him because uhhhhhhh settlments and if you piss off the other factions, which i get but if daggerfall and morrowind can let you fuck your main quest over then I think this game should to, especially when there is so much to do. a game giving you an annoying character in a game where you can kill a lot of characters you may not like then saying "not this one" really sucks.

their faction is mostly boring and more just a narrative backdrop for settlements, which is an admittingly fun system, to build a perfect player home for yourself in the wasteland even if you can't clean certain areas.

the best two factions in terms of gameplay are the ones I morally disagree with the most but clearly have the most time and effort put into, being the brotherhood of steel and the institute, the railroad just making third place for me for its rewards/characters and actually having missions.

they are essentially doing the institute playthrough but if you want to be the good guys, but doing the bos and institute have "are you sure you want to do this quest the other faction will hate you" but only for bos/institute but not for the railroad which really makes me believe it had a lot less effort put into it.

and personally this game should have been the new factions and maybe a small brotherhood faction with more effort put into the new factions to flesh them out, the issue is this game wants to have 4 main factions like new vegas but those factions had actual real life political ideologies, that real(but maybe awful) people can have. this game is very much, are robots slaves/atrocities of man/deserve rights, they never explain why they want to replace people with realistic robots especially when they say they just want to be left a lone which is a fucking lie. the brotherhood is a whole can of worms but I honestly cant blame them too hard for how they are written this time around, I assume because how they were just "the good guys" in 3 people wanted them to be more flawed again, so I understand why they are like this despite being poorly written extremists with no nuance like the ncr or brotherhood in new vegas where they had an internal struggle. people rag on the railroad for focusing on syths but in fallout 3 they do focus on people as well its just there is not as much slavery in the commonwealth as other fallout games, why? idk, but it is a reason. I also feel like people would be less hard on them if the games were more in line with what fallout 2 built with more functioning post war societies instead of rubble but I'm sure you heard that song and dance before by people smarter than I. and the minutemen have NOTHING to do with the main plot, but maybe they could have. instead of supermutants and the brotherhood appearing again, we could have commonwealth versus the institute and have that be the major focus.

theres hoops you have to jump to join the factions that are actually fun I feel in terms of why would my character do this and that is why I did it and ill admit it was fun to come up with those characters despite the limitations of rp.

I will praise the institute for having some fun quests that also allow you to make certain decisions that feel like they have an impact, and I will praise the creative team for the sleek design of their faction being something new and different from what we've seen before, in a weird fucked up way they are my favorite faction despite how stupid they can be. also props to them for giving you a companion for your institute playthrough when maybe the rest of your companions hate you.

I said before but companions are my favorite part of these games or at least what got me interested in them. while not as good as new vegas they are a huge improvement from fallout 3 and its insanely dumb karma system so the jump from 3 to 4 was a big one that I want to give credit where it is due.

I think most of them are charming and well written and may have influenced me to side to certain factions. the best being nick valentine who got even more in the far harbor dlc. I also enjoyed danse's quest despite the fact it really leads to nothing on how he treats other synths supermutants or non feral ghouls. macreedy is nice, deacon is funny and I like how he disguises himself its a cute detail, curie is adorable and I love the quests she's tied to vault 81 being one of my favorite towns in the game. and I will admit I have a big stinky crush on cait because her accent and her issues.

companions will only open up to you if you gain enough affinity with them and heres where the problems come in. companions will like/dislike basic actions like lockpicking stealing being nice/mean and its like its catagorized into "mean companions like when you are mean and ask for money" and "nice companions like when you are generous"
I feel there needed to be more nuance like do nice npcs need to really care if I am asking more money from a shady business murderer. or do the mean ones have to care so hard that I am helping the orphans, it makes the positives about the companions feel less impactful when its so binary on what they like and what they don't there is some exceptions and some that fall in-between, but unless you know what you are doing and rotate companions to which one you want to boost affinity with to say the right options, or pick the one based on what kind of character you want to roleplay it can be frustrating, especially when you can spam things like lockpicking or upgrading.

I guess its a good time to move on to the actual gameplay, its different from previous games which isn't bad but mmm its hard to describe this perk system and why it maybe works? its fun for planning, although it wants you to diversify your playstyle because its mostly "which one do you want to pick right now" because you will probably eventually get to ones since you cant get to the higher versions of a perk til you are higher level, so its best to put into something crafting or direct upgrade related instead of just focusing on the few you may want.

there is one that lets you do more damage and carry more if you fly solo, minus your dog who also doesn't judge your actions which is why he is the best. but it is cool they catered to a playstyle that compensates players who don't like companions that's actually really good for different styles and I wish they did a bit more of that.

gunplay is improved according to the internet, but I have a confession I don't play fallout for the gunplay, I play it for the rpg mechanics. making the gunplay better is also probably why VATS no longer stops time but just slows it down which I will admit I modded that out, again just to make it more like an rpg, because the shooting is better, but its not on the level of what I consider to be a good fps game, its not terrible though, customizing guns and naming them is a blast, legendary weapons are cool as hell, bobblehead collecting is back from 3 something I actually enjoyed. and adding to that they added comic books to collect that also boost stats and I love those as well very good addition.

another gameplay hot take is I really don't care for how power armor is handled I know it makes you feel like you are in a giant armored suit, but I perfer it being just armor you wear thats really strong it is more of a game feel and how my character controls, also I want my cool armor to stay looking cool and if it breaks apart it doesn't look so cool anymore especially if it uses a resource which I know there is perks to make the cores last longer, but maybe the issues is giving you power armor in the first hour of the game and having you fight a deathclaw because ooooooogh so cool instead of a reward for a long quest even in 3/nv if you found power armor you needed training to use it, which makes sense, and it feels rewarding to finally get. instead of instantly getting things so gamers don't get bored.

I'll say there is plenty of fun quests to do and locations to visit the open world and the main quests structure is lacking but plenty of quests are fun and locations are interesting and hell even some choices to make are interesting. I know I've been negative most of this review but I do keep coming back to the game for some reason maybe its good fun slop to play but when you think about it in a analytical sense you see all the cracks in the game.

imo either go harder with what you actually want to do or go back and make the games what made them good in the first place.

Its hard to say if this game is just a straight up improvement over the original, because for everything this game does right there is just a smidge of something I wish they didn't do.

as the game starts you have to go through a dungeon each time before getting to your village and being able to explore its something that transfers over to the modern games that isn't new vegas despite the change in developers.

This game is fallout 1 but bigger but that doesn't always equal better but this game still manages to be solid nonetheless

gameplay feels just a bit more smooth this time around despite it being very similar, but it allows fun freedom that a crpg has, it's also REALLY easy to exploit if you know what to do but that isn't really a criticism. An large improvement to this game is companions went from meat shields that you have to barter with to carry things, to actually useable partners that feel like they can survive throughout the game.

with the ability to equip the best equipment, and better Ai, it makes sinking points into charisma for a maximum of 5 companions seem worth it depending on your playstyle.

and there is a lot of them some almost repeating, some almost have quests tied to them that were unfortunately cut from the game, such as Cassidy and Sulik, two of my favorite along side goris the deathclaw, marcus the supermutant, vic the trader, lenny the ghoul, and K-9/robodog. making the companion list not only one of the largest in the franchise but also one of the more diverse. they are a large appeal to me and are what got me into this franchise in the first place, also a bonus is that you can marry a man as a man and a woman as a woman in this game and for this era that's super impressive and progressive, they aren't good companions but its still a neat addition to the roleplaying and amount of companions in this game, but even without them fallout 2 has an amazingly designed main quest.


much like the first game you must get the McGuffin for your tribe (replacing the vault from the first game) and I have to say I love the fact you play as someone from a tribe its such a unique start that this series never does again minus the courier with 3/4/76 all being vault dwellers again. the second game doing something new.

but like the first game the quest mostly relies on you going from town to town asking information and seeing the problems of the townsfolk and having multiple options how to handle situations depending on how you roleplay/ your playstyle.

this sounds standard but I guess my modern baby game brain is just impressed what games were capable of back then and how multi staged a lot of the side quests are especially when compared to the more simple ones of the first game that feel they take place in one or two areas the biggest being the brotherhood of steel questline in the first.

the quest to get the highwayman working in 2 is kind of tedious but it is so worth it for the end result, traveling the wasteland at high speeds feels so great after 1 and a half games of moving slowly and being worried about a deadly encounter, that sense of progression is wonderful.

the main quest is so good because how it unravels through its worldbuilding of you doing quests for everyone, I love how much has changed between 1 and 2 the progress of society, the formation of governments, the fact the brotherhood is kind of lacking compared to everyone due to their reclusive nature. meanwhile the new antagonists the enclave are like the brotherhood but actually using the technology they stole and developing even stronger tech out of it, and their plan to wipe anyone they see as "unclean" really contrasts well with the fact that you are a tribal and not someone living in a cozy vault, and the aforementioned companions being seen as "freaks" tie it together for motivation, despite maybe a lack of companion quests they still feel like they belong in this universe and this party with you.


one thing myself and some others I have heard is that the game is WAY too heavy on the pop culture refences, don't get me wrong the identity of this series is based on pop culutre,

and maybe a few here and there are cute and funny, but when you start putting a whole Monty python sketch in the game then it gets a little TOO silly, and this is a game where you can become a pornstar, and sleep with a guys wife/daughter and have your bastard be the new heir to a rich family in reno. you can get hit in the nuts by a soda can flying out of the machine like this and the first game are silly in a lot of ways and I think that stuff is funny versus just pop culture references.

it is probably why New Vegas has wild wasteland so you can turn off the a bit more insane bits from that game.

another issue may be a bit mmmmm hard to word properly but I get this is a messed up world with messed up people but only having it be if you are playing as a woman for a character to drug and SA you is kind of in poor taste, plenty of guys will allow you not to pay if you are a woman by sleeping with them which is scummy but at least gives the player the option, this one may be a controversial take but I think when you write things like SA in your story it should be for a better reason than shock value or dare I say to show how awful a character is.

even with those flaws I found myself laughing a the games humor that did work for me which is a lot, I found myself being invested in this world and enjoying the gameplay much like the first one, to say if its better is a hard one because one is more compact and solid but with less content, and the other has more content that has high highs and maybe some lows. either way I am exited to get into more crpgs in the future