I don't worry about weapons too much any more thanks to the Settlements. It's much easier to craft a safe or something and put it in "my house" and remember where I have everything stored.
I haven't had a chance to play a ton due to hosting the holidays and then a test my first day back to class, but I really want to just get high enough to get Gun Nut and be able to craft a silencer. My woman stalks in the night and takes no prisoners.
Finally fixed up my new PC on Friday, and played this for a couple of hours last night.
From what little I have played so far it seems that Bethesda has addressed almost every major complaint of the previous two games. The lack of immersion, the wooden voice acting, clunky gameplay etc. But in the process they seem to have removed the roleplaying elements that made them great. Fallout 4 feels less like an RPG, and more like an action game with some basic RPG elements.
First, the good:
I have played two hours and so far I have barely left Concord. It's so fun just exploring this world. It's very immersive. I've spent half my time exploring empty buildings with no loot, and I don't feel like I've been wasting my time doing so. More importantly, this world is actually intimidating and you feel in constant danger when you are travelling through it. The voice acting is a huge step up, and the action sequences are very fun. Also, power armor is amazing.
Those are the positives. Now for the bad...
I am very underwhelmed with the RPG elements. It seems that choice and karma have been completely removed from the game. Take the first quest in Concord; you come across a bunch of raiders attacking a group called The Minutmen. You only have two options in this quest:
A: Help the Minutmen
B: Walk away
That's it.
Compare that to any quest from Fallout 3 or NV and it is very underwhelming. Look at the choices in the first quest of NV, in Goodsprings. You can:
A: Help the town fight off the raiders
B: Help the raiders destroy the town
C: Kill everybody
D: Walk away
Fallout 4 seems to want to push me down a particular path. You only have two choices; Be the good guy, or be the good guy with a bad attitude. Which is a big step down from the previous games. For me personally, freedom of choice is what I like most about Fallout.
It was bad enough that you could only choose to side with The Minutmen, but I was even more disappointed when I find out there was only one approach to completing the quest. You HAVE to get in the power armor, and you HAVE to mow down the raiders and the deathclaw with the minigun. It's the only way to finish the quest (if there are alternative options, it isn't obvious!).
I dislike the dialog wheel too. Not in principle but in execution. Mass Effect demonstrated you can have a variety of options with a system like this, but the difference between Mass Effect and Fallout 4 is that the choices on the dialog wheel actually matter and change the nature of the conversation, and also, the writing in Mass Effect is amazing...the writing in Fallout 4 on the other hand, is lame.
One more thing! As I said, I like power armor a lot, but why did they have to give it to you for free in the first quest of the game? It would have been so much better to keep it as a rare late game item that is hard to acquire. Kinda devalues it if it's common and disposable. That whole first quest in general sucked.
I get it. They wanted to kick things off with a bang. But it was too much too soon. When I first entered Concord this huge Radiation Storm was just hitting, and I was sneaking around this eerily quiet town expecting danger around every corner. When I first heard the sounds of gunfire I was cautious, and even considered leaving the town entirely! But I didn't. And what followed was a ridiculously crazy action sequence, during which you kill one of the most powerful enemies in the game with a minigun, and find yourself wearing armor that makes you almost untouchable.
Way to kill the vibe! Why should I be fearful of anything from this point onward?
It's early in the game, I know, and maybe things improve. Those of you who have been playing it longer will be better informed than me!
Also, don't get me wrong, this is a great game and I've had a ton of fun so far. My character Amelia (designed to look like Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction for some reason) is trapped with a bunch of raiders in the Corvega Assembly Plant, with low health, no armor and little ammo. Fun!
I agree with pretty much everything you said Wikey. I am liking it more as it goes on though. The lack of choice hasn't changed too much so far (though it's been better than that first quest at least) but I've kinda just accepted it and am enjoying it for what it is; like you said the exploration aspect is immense. And the quests have been pretty decent outside of the Minutemen ones. The only one of those that I actually liked was Storm the Castle, other than that they're extremely repetitive
I purchased and played a bit of Fallout 3, and from what I've played, I feel like I'll have a better time easing into the worlds, whereas before, I thought I would have no clue what was going on. I don't really have any intention of playing New Vegas, but I'll probably keep going with 3 until I get my hands on this game.
I'm trying to avoid as much spoilers as possible, but with my excitement, I've already seen a lot of the early stuff. I'm pretty much prepared to spend my days building the perfect Sanctuary.
1.2 Patch has rolled out or will be rolling out soon depending on what you're playing on.
Quote
New Features
-Number pad keys can now be used for remapping (PC)
-Remapping Activate now works on Quick Container (PC)
Fixes
-General memory and stability improvements
-Performance improvements inside the Corvega Assembly Plant
-Optimizations to skinned decal rendering
-Fixed issue with player becoming stuck in terminals
-Fixed issue where equipped weapons become locked after completing Reunions
-Fixed issue with "When Freedom Calls" where the quest would not complete
-During "Confidence Man" fixed issue where player's health would continuously regenerate
-Fixed crash related to jumping into water and reloading saved games
-Fixed issue where Launcher would not save God Rays Quality setting properly (PC)
- Has anybody run into a creature called 'Swan' yet? I ran away, I'm not ashamed to admit it.
- Entering Diamond City for the first time is really cool. Nothing is static and clunky, there are people milling about and vendors shouting things left and right. It feels alive. After this set piece I really wanted to see what the place was like at night...it was kinda dull (:
I was expecting some New Vegas Strip debauchery, with drunken people milling around etc. I guess Diamond City is full of prudes. It fits with the oppressive government angle I guess.
- I tried assassinating the mayor for shitz n gigz whilst he made a speech. I was gunned down in seconds, but he's probably immortal anyway!
- I found the combat zone, which seemed cool, and I wanted to talk to one of the raiders about the arena, forgetting that raiders shoot on sight, and they cannot be reasoned with no matter what. Boring! They also have a seemingly magic ability to tell when someone is a raider or not a raider.
- Dogmeat is a total shit. He constantly gets you into trouble and then blocks your path.
- Raiders have unlimited Molotov's and Grenades. Fighting them is very frustrating sometimes.
- Speaking of grenades, the key for throwing them is the same as the key for melee attacks. This has already led to many accidental suicides.
I'm liking this game the more I play it, but I still haven't seen anything that has convinced me it is better than Fallout 3 and NV yet.
Which is a shame because with a few changes I feel it would blow them both out the water.
Swan is pretty frightening the first time you see it, especially when you're in the pond and it shoots out of the water right in front of you! Anyway, running away is important to survival. lol There's a spot nearby where you can hide and attack from where it won't follow you...I think there are raiders nearby though who should leave you alone if you don't venture too far into their territory while fighting the Swan.
