Kind of a breaking point for me with Bethesda. Their constant battle between world design prowess and weak storytelling comes to a head here and the former wins out by a clear margin. The narrative and RPG elements here are embarrassingly undercooked while the world of the Commonwealth feels both amazingly well-designed and weirdly ill-defined. There's nothing here to thread the story of this world together since all of the various threads lack cohesion to the point where they all feel like vague sketches of ideas rather than fully fleshed out parts of the world. I love exploring this version of post-apocalyptic Boston and the gameplay is markedly improved from prior Bethesda games, but there's a overwhelming feeling of missed potential here that's hard to ignore.

Reviewed on May 25, 2022


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