(This review is made after completing the game with the Restored Content Mod installed, which is the only way to experience the full intended game in its entirety)

Obsidian does it again. They brought us away from a relatively on the rails story with a pseudo open world (exactly what Bioware is known for, see: Mass Effect) that is Knights of the Old Republic, and presented us with the option to actually do whatever the fuck we want to in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

Despite Revan the first game’s protagonist being the actual Dark Lord of the Sith, it never really felt quite right or fulfilling playing as a Dark Side character. You HAD to help the Republic, yes you were given the option to reclaim your throne from Malak but it never really made any sense narratively. Fundamentally KOTOR 1 is about saving the Republic from the Sith Empire. KOTOR 2 is about deciding the fate of the Jedi order post-Revan, and there is much much more validity to the idea that a disgruntled Jedi Exile (our player character) being manipulated by a Sith Lord (Kreia) would actively participate in ensuring the downfall of the Order. Playing and choosing the Dark Side options feels natural even if cartoonishly evil at times, and not at all out of place as in the first installment where it felt like they were added out of necessity. There is a whole nother real story being told as you kill off the remaining Jedi holdouts, it doesn’t feel like you’re an evil character stuck carrying out the path of a hero; you are an evil character with your own motivations and desire end point.

Once again just like the first game, the party members are A+++. Games like this live and die by the characters and their journeys, and this game knocks it out of the park. Whoever came up with the idea to allow you to train your companions as Jedi/Dark Jedi deserves endless praise showered upon them for the rest of tim.

Additionally, this is the best implementation of Dungeons & Dragons rules in the Star Wars setting by far. About the only thing KOTOR 1 edges it out on is the leveling system, the 20 cap in DnD exists for a reason and was handled better by Bioware in the first installment of the series.

The party members and DLC save an otherwise underwhelming end to the series. So much up is built up over 3 installments, our choices mean so much through all of them up until the final color wheel selection. And maybe I wouldn’t mind as much, if any other color besides Red made any sense at all.

Also, a personal fuck you to whoever decided that the Rachni return no matter what choice you picked in the first game. This was the second biggest slap in the face after the ending, and sadly just one of many disappointing retcons.

Too short.

There was potential here for a banger spiritual successor to Fallout 1+2, the game doesn’t stick around long enough for that to materialize.

Act 1 is nearly flawless, the story and setting are compelling. The companions are cool and have their own motivations. Reputation system is wonderful, I do so love a game where you can’t make everyone happy and that includes your own posse.

Everything after Act 1 feels like a skeleton of a game. Did they run out of time? Side quests become tedious, the payoffs from the intrigue that was established in Act 1 do not feel satisfying.

Ultimately we learned the correct choice at the end of Act 1 was to control Maelstrom and have it destroy the Dome because the rest of the game is such a letdown.

The leveling system including the level scaling is rough af too.

Not the New Vegas follow up that we wanted, but still a worthy successor in many regards.

The dialogue system is pure Fallout and we’re here for it, how you spec your character actually matters in that regard. Unfortunately the game’s combat is painfully easy even if you completely dump everything related to it on your character.

The setting is great, who doesn’t love rampant anarcho-capitalism? Corporations out of control. I almost want to knock the game for the OUTRAGEOUSLY exaggerated cartoonish evil that the corporations display, but I think it’s part of the charm.

In practice however, the clear and rational choice (morally and narratively) is to fight The Board. I appreciate that there’s an option to side with them, but there isn’t any compelling reason to do so. But I will note the game does a good job keeping the pacing for the evil path on par with the good path, it establishes some roadblocks that make sense as to why you wouldn’t be able to just skip to the front of the line.

Companions are neat and they have personal sidequests and some character development but the game is far too short for anything meaningful beyond surface level: “I’m more confident now!”.

The game is too short! The game is too short! I’ll say it over and over. I have much higher hopes for the sequel at least in regards to the scope.

I absolutely HATED this game when it was first released, but I have grown to appreciate it for what it is.

I’ll start with the good, and there is actually a lot of good.

Building off of the gunplay enchantments from FNV, Fallout 4 comes out fucking SWINGING with amazing combat. Enemies take cover in ways that feel natural, they poke just their head out or their gun out. It’s so awesome. For the player, aiming your guns doesn’t feel as stiff as it did in FNV and 3, you feel like a badass running and gunning; and speaking of running, they added sprinting!!! (This was a common mod for the previous two installments in the series). VATS no longer freezes time it just simply slows it down like a bullet time mechanic, I’m neutral on this feature but I imagine many who complained that Fallout FPS combat was slow and didn’t really require any skill must really really like this change.

The crafting system, I don’t even know where to start.

Takes everything great from FNV weapon mods and boom makes it even fucking cooler. Adds armor mods, wow oh wow the armor system in this game is so much cooler. Fucking power armor?! We got that. Can you mod it? You bet your ass you can. Oh and you actually enter the suit like it opens up for you, it’s so much better than I ever could have imagined.

Campfire/Workbenche crafting is majorly improved and tbh even the simple animations of your character cooking at the fire just make it feel more rewarding.

Now for Settlements, first off the new Junk system is beautiful. Bravo to Bethesda for that one. Junk is not only used in part to mod weapons/armor but it’s also used to build Settlements!! (Again another one of the most popular types of mods for previous installments in the franchise.) In theory it’s really cool, in practice it’s still pretty cool but not perfect. There are multiple locations to build at that offer their own unique advantages and disadvantages, the actual building is so much fun tbh I spend a lot of my time going to places like hospitals and research labs to get as much rare Junk as possible so I can build more hahaha. The recruiting of settlers is top notch, I love the variety of people that can show up and also those names NPCs that you can invite! My one complaint is the defend mechanic, enemies can spawn behind your defenses and wreck your shit and there’s nothing you can do but this is minor if you keep your Defense high these attacks don’t really happen.

The world is beautiful, it’s a beautiful open world with so many cool landmarks and communities. The graphics are amazing, you really get to appreciate The Commonwealth’s unique aesthetic in a way you wouldn’t have been able to with New Vegas level graphics.

Companions are very cool! Dogmeat returns to thunderous applause. They have their own quests and character development and they’re all very very cool. You can romance some of them, something the series has badly needed because up until this point any intimacy in the series was a fade to black with a prostitute essentially.

If I could single out one thing in particular I really really like the mutated creatures, Deathclaws are so intimidating as usual but they actually made Radscorpions (really only intimidating at low levels previously) so freaking scary. The creature mechanics with the way they run, they dig, they jump. Bethesda did a great job making irradiated monsters as terrifying as they actually should be.

“This review sounds so glowing, why did you only give it 3.5 stars???”

There’s a lot of bad about this game, but the one thing that alone is the real albatross around its neck is the dialogue system. Gone are the dialogue trees of previous installments, instead we are given: Yes, No (Yes but not right now), Sarcastic Yes, Yes but give me more money. It’s just heartbreaking. Fallout has always shined in it’s dialogue, the dark humor, the political commentary, the moral dilemmas. But now we get to be a Yesman (and we don’t even get to be a Securitron!) who can barely ask for more information let alone make meaningful choices. I’m just so unbelievably crushed, we already saw in Skyrim a neutering of the RPG elements in TES and I guess I stupidly thought they wouldn’t bring it to Fallout as well. Completely ruins the story, I do not even care this point about the story you cannot actually meaningfully engage with the world when you can only say four things.

Story is mediocre as it stands. There was potential with the different factions but they’re really caricatures and it blows.

Railroad is my usual go to, they’re pretty straightforward as far as who they are and what they’re about. It builds on the little nugget we got in Fallout 3. I don’t have anything negative to say about them other than they’re kinda boring, probably morally correct but definitely really boring.

Minutemen are a walking joke. I can’t take them seriously, it’s not really feasible to have an organization spread that thin be the ones to save the commonwealth. Helping them thoughout your journey makes sense but choosing to side with them in the end is pure idiocy and absolutely unrealistic even by Fallout standards.

Brotherhood of Steel… did not need to be in this game and certainly didn’t need to have all their established lore undone from 3. Actually you know what at least it wasn’t the fucking Enclave again. Bethesda should have learned from Obsidian, it’s OK to have the BoS take a backseat. It worked out very well in FNV, they still felt like a major player in the game despite them not being overbearing like in 3. In Fallout 4 the kind and generous Capital Wasteland BoS has regressed into a caricature of the west coast chapters of the BoS. The basic idea makes sense, their position on eliminating the Institute makes sense. The fanatical obsession with destroying Synths is so overdone it’s almost funny. Then the fucking blimp and the fash vibes get doubled. Ultimately the BoS needed to stay out of this one, the game creates all these cool new factions and they just let the BoS vomit all over your screen repeatedly instead.

The Institute, over the top cartoonishly evil. The justifications never make any sense, they just don’t and you’re never really able to call Father out on them?? Like killing innocent people for “science” (read: fun) is in no way justifiable but the game expects you to just accept it. Yes you can shoot Father on the spot, yes you can blow up the whole place. I don’t know want to just blow up the bad guys, I want to be tempted to join them. Somehow they designed a less sympathetic villain faction than Caesar’s Legion.

Come for the updated graphics and beautiful open world, stay for the world class gunplay and the base building. 3.5/5