OK, I know we had a discussion on here previously about Fallout 4 so I'm going to post a short review, based on what was discussed before.
Took the day off when Fallout 4 came out and did the preload. Was disappointed to find it had so many issues initially however this was to be expected.
- Pixalated Textures
- Flickering perk chart
- Erratic Lighting / Shadows
- Broken VSync
- Poor mouse acceleration
- Locked key bindings
- Slim UI Settings
- Basic system settings
- Poor UI Implementation (Things like [Hidden] taking up a very LARGE part of the screen when sneaking)
- Locked FPS
So I was hit with all of that ^ hot mess on Tues morning, 1 AM. You can just imagine how FRUSTRATING it can be to have to spend game time fixing most of these issues which should have been properly addressed prior to shipping the game. Alas, thanks to the Reddit and Nexus Community as well as putting in hours of my own personal time, ALL of the above issues has either been resolved or a sufficient work around implemented.
As for the game play itself, it's excellent. It immediately feels familiar to COD and Halo players. The map is large although maybe not as large as FO3. Still, it's large enough to provide a satisfying experience. The one thing I didn't like about the map was how you don't start in the center like in FO3. Which means, quest wise you have fewer initial options, other than to just basically proceed in one direction and pickup those quests. You meet companions along the way and encounter a variety of enemies as well.
AI in this game is excellent. Enemies will not only give chase, they will hunt you down if they can in groups. My Hardcore Survival Character has learned that in this game sneak is your best friend because everything hits like a truck and ammo is scarce. A harder difficulty mode takes more time and time is something I rarely have anymore, however it's more rewarding and Fallout 4's additional content is very rewarding. Things like "Weapon Mod Kits" (WMK) and "Iron sights" (IS) are included with the game along with several other things that were mods made by the community in previous Fallout games.
I... cannot... tell you... how... FRUSTRATING it was in Fallout 3 and to a lesser extent New Vegas, trying to get WMK to work, trying to get IS to work. It was awful, it was like a cruel joke. Because you'd have to:
- Check the latest version of WMK, then check the posting for bugs and reviews on that current version
- Then check it again to make certain it's stable with current Patched Fallout version
- You might have to check for compatibility with other mods like FWE or yes, IS (either by itself or w/ FWE) or any of the nice texture packages people put together (Millenium for example), any total conversion mods you used
- And then, IF something wasn't compatible you were in a world of sh8t, esp if WMK was already installed (because then it was a part of your character save file). You'd be up all night going thru websites on all corners of the internet looking for a comp patch w/ WMK and say FWE or whatever... it was alot of mods that had this problem. You'd be leaving posts on forums - which would either never get answered, you'd be told to flff off OR you'd get banned for asking a question. Yes you would. flff off Nexus.
- Anyways and even if you found a compatibility patch, it would be obsolete a week later.
I could keep going on and on and on. Thankfully, Bethesda and Todd Howard listened to the community, manned up and installed WMK and Iron Sights and lots of other previous mods into Fallout 4 and as a result, ALL of this ugliness is a thing of the past. You could even say that the developers finished what someone else in the community started but I would argue these things should have always been apart of the game to begin with, Fallout 3 essentially. And dealing with Nexus moderators and some of these mod makers that produce one good mod and suddenly they're better than everyone else, isn't really helping anyone. (Esp if they stop supporting their mod)
So... *sigh* moving on. The graphics in Fallout 4 are fine and for me, was never a big expectation anyways. Because on Nexus or other sites some artistic folks are showing off their talent with shaders and tweaking the color scheme, things like that. BTW folks, ANY game review that knocks Fallout 4 solely for its graphics is bogus although sometimes people will write a graphics review for video cards purposes, which is fine. Graphics are important however is also something that can almost always be fixed unlike a sh8tty story line or incomplete dialogue. Any review that puts down Fallout 4 because of it's graphics, ignoring all other aspects of game play is garbage and it's written by shallow people because all that matters to them is what they see and it proves those types of 'people' (if u want to call them actual people) are really quite shallow.
In game music is really appropriate for the game setting. It's not as great as Destiny's in-game soundtrack however it's also not overdone like Civ 5's. Radiation damage is now something to worry about, it's very easy to get killed from Radiation exposure because it lowers your health. So you have to pay attn to your Rads count. Everything hits like a truck, so it's best to stay in Stealth as much as possible and pay attn to the landscape as well because generally speaking enemies like to attack in groups and having the high ground is important.
Power armor is very realistic now, requires power cells and actually feels like your wearing power armor. Enemies wearing Power Armor are virtually untouchable until later on in the game. Settlement building is alot of work. Alot of work and is perhaps, not something for everyone. At least not right away. Luck and Endurance perks are so far, paying off very well for me personally. Leveling is slow however I think it's fair. It's not a cash-cow like in Fallout 3 where you could advance like 4 lvls in 15 mins if you knew where to go.
And finally, there's the character editor where you 'sculpt your face'. Eh... I didn't really care for it. You can try it out and decide for yourselves, I can use it to make a great looking character, it just seems that unlike other games like ESO, you really have a poor preview of changes made and it's hard to gauge how 'sculpting' really changes your characters facial appearance. It's weird, however was something else I was eventually able to just deal with.
So in conclusion, once you get past the initial problems (if any for those not on PC) and get used to how different Fallout 4 can be, it's a very rewarding game, game play being much more difficult than previous titles along with a lengthy and very intriguing main quest will keep you interested (including side quests) and always looking at your Weapon & Mod stats, always checking your armor and watching your back which makes your time worth it and provides a wealth of satisfaction over just shooting everything and forgetting why you came.
