Hope you guys enjoy my topics of games I beat, hopefully its entertaining and insightful. On that note I just finished Fallout 4, which was one of the most anticipated releases this year. I just want to point out that this is my first fallout game and I have nothing to compare it to, not sure if that's good or bad but here it goes.
So the game takes place in an alternative timeline of our own where the fear of an impending nuclear outbreak that could occur at any minute lingers on into the modern world. So the culture and attitude of things from like the 50's move forward. It's interesting, the game has like this retro futuristic feel to it and I dig it. The lore is so deep though, I really enjoy the world that the game takes place in, the wasteland or the commonwealth as it's referred to in game is so rich with history of its own. The characters you meet have unique personalities, the locations are exotic, and the story of the game is intriguing and yet the game itself is riddled with horrible bugs, very long loading times and an archaic menu interface. Are these flaws enough to break a game? Let's dive in.
Graphics:
The game looks nice, everything looks pretty good and pretty shitty but seeing how the game takes place in a post-nuclear apocalypse then it makes sense. Also people were complaining that the game was too colorful? I think it looked fine, I'm glad that not all of the buildings are brown or whatever, I think the game looked pretty accurate to how a city or town would look like if it was bombed. Either way the graphics are solid and definitely help make the dead world you are in look alive haha, pun intended.
Audio:
The music is good in the game, if you are in a creepy or shady place, the music or sounds of the environment match, and if you are in a niceish area, the same. It's pretty good and I point this out because alot of games I feel misuse music especially in FPS's where you are usually some solider dude that is fearless and even if you are in a creepy or weird place the music is still all heroic sounding and it's like what the fuck. While in this game, it makes you feel like okay, where the fuck am I or shit am I gonna die?
What I really like the most was the use of actual cold-war era music that you can listen to as a radio station, I thought it was pretty fun to listen too, especially when you are listening to old ass music while killing mutants, Just adds more to the world that you are in and it's funny because who would have though that grandpas music could be so cool amirite? 
Gameplay:
The gameplay is pretty straight forward, it's a FPS but with "rpg" elements. Basically there's a system known as VATS that slows down time and allows you to attack an enemy at a more specific spot like their legs, arms, etc. It's here you can build up critical attacks or do more precise head shots. I'm pretty shitty at FPS's so this is pretty awesome. The hit percentage is based off your perception and the accuracy of the weapon itself. It works out fine.
The game is pretty deep sorta, you can attack enemies and do missions in many ways. You also receive power armor which makes you a walking tank. It allows you to pick up more items, in turn allowing you to move around with more weapons. Basically everything has weight in the game so it can slow you down if you carry a lot but power armor fixes that. It also gives you more defensive and boosts, allowing you to experience a slightly different gameplay.
As far as gear and weapons are concerned, you can customize them and mod them anyway you want, and like other rpgs you can get legendary weapons too which give extra perks which is cool. There are so many weapons and mods that you can have a different weapon or gaming experience as someone else playing the same game which is cool. I will say that the modding is very rewarding, for me, this game started off really hard, like I always died and have shit weapons but the more you mod and the more weapons you find, the more the game rewards you for being risky and going in that weird place only to come out with better armor and weapons, so that's great, I enjoyed that a lot.
Speaking of different experiences, the game is always exciting with many, many locations and characters and choices. You can influence how people interact with you and play scenes differently. In one scenario you can have it where a character dies, but in another they live, etc. It's pretty awesome and a great way to talk to others that play the game, its very interesting how everyone can have a different experience. The best way to really describe this is imagine Mass Effect times 10. You have many choices in a conversation and depending on how lucky or charismatic you are, or the correct choices you make in a dialogue can play out a scene or mission or even the main story in different ways.
With all of this being said the gameplay is pretty much solid except for it's terrible menu. The menu it's too shitty but it's pretty old and a bit much to navigate and the weapon or item selection screen is a chore to go through. The menus in Mass Effect 2 and 3 I remember were pretty good for a similar sort of game. It's not the same, just similar, I feel like the menu system is something that came out of a game in the early 2000's and it's not that great. I found myself looking at extra screens that may not even need it's own screen or going though a cluttered menu to find an item even after sorting and the menu itself is kinda ugly to look at.
The game however bugs the fuck out a lot. So much that I thought my xbox one was faulty. I would remember the game slowing down for no reason, freezing on quick saves, freezing on saves, freezing as I enter a building, freezing as I walk around. Like I would enter a building or a location and the music would lag and the game freezes in place and I have to reset the game to fix it. Another thing too would be that enemies wouldn't load right or certain characters wouldnt load right or do things right. I remember walking around and a fucking bear was standing above me in the sky, I shit you not, because I guess the game didn't load right? Or like I would enter a location and all the raiders appear to be dead and as you move pass them they start moving around from out of the ground and attack you.. I'm like what the fuck. Also dying is a nightmare because the saving in this game is shit so you constantly have to save and wait for shit to load or you die and pray that the game takes you to a checkpoint that wasn't from 10 mins ago.
I remember this one mission where a character was supposed to open a terminal for you.. now he is supposed to walk to it but for me he leaned against a wall and stood there and I wondered where the hell am I supposed to go now because I'm stuck. I thought, okay, maybe I missed something but nope. So I looked it up. Apparently I wasn't the only one and people had the same issue, they had to reset their game and then the character would move to the terminal and that worked. There would also be certain scenes where the camera would cut through a character model, show the character in a really fucked up angle or zoom in way too close to the character or an object. I also hated how your companion never always follows you or can't go where you can. Like they either cant walk up a staircase for whatever reason or when you need them for a skill they are never around and you would either have to wait for them to get to you or constantly order them to follow you. Like what the shit.
Also, let's not forget the loading times, sometimes I have to wait like 2-3 mins to wait for some place or something to load which is like insane. The game is open world, there's alot to explore so imagine you find a new location, gotta wait for it to load, you find a room with a door in that area, gotta wait for that load, etc, etc, there's too much waiting for shit to happen in this game. Now I get other games do this like maybe Batman, or GTA. I mean yes, GTA V has a very long load time when you first start the game.. but that's when you first start the game.. after that there aren't any other loading times.
Now I understand that this is a triple A game and I'm sure bethesda studios has a tight deadline they needed to work with to release the game but c'mon. Are deadlines THAT important? I much rather wait the extra month or so for the game to come out then have a game released that was half assed and full with glitches and bugs because it had to be released for the holidays. Fuck that. I much rather have a finished product. I'm sure this game would have been much better if it had a few more months, I'm sure people would have waited.
Story:
The main story is pretty straight forward in this game, your kid is missing, find him. That's basically it. However the mythology of the world you are in and the stories behind the characters you meet and the places you go to, that's where the story really shines in my opinion. This game is unique that the story of the world outshines the story that the game wants to tell. Usually it's the other way around, but in this game it's interesting to hear how the world fell or what started the war or how the new settlements started, or why these characters are around and act that way, etc. Like, I wouldn't mind watching a documentary of the Fallout World just to know more about it, that's how insanely awesome it is. The lore of this games world runs very deep and it's a great thing to experience.
It's hard to not give spoilers but I didn't like how the ending or endings went in this game. The game starts off so awesome and ends so... meh?? I feel like this deserves it's own topic where spoilers can be given and a more elaborate conversation can take place on this matter but yeah, to me, the endings were not as strong as the beginning.
Conclusion:
I can honestly go on and on about this game, it's just that deep. I feel this game is a must have for PS4 and Xbox One onwers. I recommend getting it for the Xbox One if you can only because it comes with a free copy of Fallout 3.
The game itself is a terrific, but it is cursed with a clanky menu screen, a slow point system menu that you would see in a game from the 90's and horrible game freezing, saving issues, check point issues, camera issues, people walking into walls or not moving when they should issues or the companion issues, then yeah the game should be fine.
This is a case of a great game that honestly needed more time to get its shit looked at and fixed before it was released. You can tell certain areas were rushed and it's just sad. I'd say wait a few more months until more patches and updates are released then buy this game and play it.
Overall:
Between a 1 being a dead withered feral ghoul or a 5 being Curie in a nice little nurse outfit, I give Fallout 4 a 4 out of 5.
Although for sure, I'll follow the series as it leaves Shepherd behind. Wonderful universe - my only regret is that I was f'd up when I went to buy ME3, and bought it for PS3 instead of PC, so I couldn't continue any of my plot lines (like Wrex).
But the Omega DLC made me feel a lot better, Aria should have been a full romance though :I
