Fallout 4 First Impressions [no spoilers]

I think I might remove this game from my wishlist.

There's plenty of far more interesting games out there or about to be published that I'd enjoy. Not to mention my backlog!

Don't get me wrong Sue, when this game is good it's great but it has some drawbacks and those are not what most people usually complain about (like the streamlining because frankly that part is great). It has atmosphere and it is a great sandbox but just like Skyrim the main story is balls and I find myself looking for ways not to get into the main story (just like with Skyrim).

My advice would be to wait for a really good sale which will come sooner or later (they will probably come up with an ultimate edition in a year or two and by then it will have more mods than Skyrim).

That sounds like good advice Cara

Do what I say not what I do.

Seriously, considering the size of our Steam libraries there is absolutely no need to go out and buy a game full price especially in this day and age with all the sales, bundles and special offers that become available sooner or later.

If I didn't have a very sweet deal I wouldn't have preordered Fallout 4. It's good but it's also a constant reminder of missed opportunities and how great it could have been.

I would definitely recommend getting it on sale. You just have to go into it knowing that the quests are are nothing more than excuses for you to go someplace and kill some things. Basically, don't expect good writing. Though, I will say, this game has the strongest characterization that Bethesda has ever produced.

It's a fun open-world sandbox. I honestly had more fun with the settlement building than anything else. Build, loot, and shoot. That's Fallout 4 in a nutshell.

Quote :

this game has the strongest characterization that Bethesda has ever produced

Very true although considering Bethesda's record on that front it's not much of a feat.

Bloody YouTube. I stayed as far away from FH spoilers as possible but every now and then a video with a bloody spoilery title pops up. Even with zero knowledge I already know about a lot of stuff that's going to happen down the line.

And yeah, I would have to agree about character depth -- I said it before but the depth of Cait's character was quite surprising. In start contrast, though, I found Curie's "SCIENCE!!!" character to be pretty weak and unidimensional. Even after her personal quest.

Also, I have a confession to make -- I hate Skyrim, but I am replaying it. Shameful.

Thanks for sharing the spoilers.  

I've been playing Far Harbor for hours and I haven't been to a ***** and I haven't met any --- --------- yet...

Quite right. Fixed.

Still, it's pissant to be passively spoiled especially when I have been trying my damnest to steer clear. What is the sodding point of putting SPOILERS in the title when the TITLE ITSELF AND THE THUMBNAIL ARE SPOILERS!

I edited mine as well.

Replaying Skyrim after Fallout 4? I don't know, some parts could be fun even if combat is not that good and the story is a collection of missed opportunities. Sometimes I feel I didn't get enough of that game.

Well, I didn't plan on replaying Skyrim but I out of the blue remembered the password of my other Steam account and found out I can share games between accounts on the same PC, so I can access Skyrim on my main Steam account.

I am playing an Assassin-type character (which shouldn't surprise anyone), but I also supplemented it with a hefty use of Destruction. I've taken one-handed for those up close and personal kills and I sacrificed plenty of enhanted items to boost Enchanting and made myself some nice Soultrap items.

I joined up with the Stormcloaks, and this only furthers my point of how good of a story the Stormcloaks VS Empire could have been. Much more so than this Dragonborn bollocks. I understand where the Stormcloaks are coming from, and I would have loved a full campaign to completely root out the Empire. But, in a way, I suppose the Stormcloaks and the DB interconnects as the last few DB quests kind of fall into what I would expect a full Stormcloak story arc to go.

But, as per every good Bethesda open-world, the main quest can go fuck itself. I've done Dark Brotherhood (which in retrospective was slightly better than it was in Ob) and the Mage's Guild.

The crafting system isn't that bad -- I added a mod that clearly shows ore veins because let's face it those are very easy to miss, and I also like that the Dwarven metal picked up in Dwemer ruins can be smelted into ingots. I spent a few hours playing scavenger to craft some Dwarven gear. Alchemy also isn't that bad, and they fixed Ob's cheese when you could level up at lightning pace by simply making a bazillion Restore Fatigue potions from food.

Combat is indeed terrible and yeah, I agree that there is a ridiculous amount of missed opportunities. But you know what -- I hate to admit it but I am not having that bad of a time with Skyrim. I haven't really dabbled with mods yet -- I prefer to make a vanilla playthrough and then mod everything.

Having fun is what matters. I've been playing Sword Coast Legends lately and I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Skyrim can be fun if you focus on what Bethesda did right (the same principle applies to Fallout 4). Both games really shine when it comes to spending time just roaming around, looting, hunting and exploring without giving a damn about quests.

Alright, so GMG had Far Harbor for 25 quid and with a 20% off voucher it totaled out to 20 quid. I probably could have gotten a better price during a sale but 20 quid on GMG VS 35 on Steam isn't a bad deal.

Have fun BZ! Judging by what I've seen so far I think you're going to enjoy it. Don't go in expecting something radically different. It's still the same game with the same flaws.

Yeah, but the DLC main plot has some interesting moral dilemmas, like The Pitt in F3. I did use console commands to skip that stupid memory puzzle garbage and honestly this felt to me like unnecessary padding and artificially lengthening the DLC which doesn't really need it as the size of the map adds a hefty dose of exploration and some of the sidequests gave me a few chuckles, especially the murder mystery one you'll eventually get.

I like some of the new weapons like the Radon Rifle and it's nice to see a competitor to Nuka-Cola, which for the record references Moxie, the iconic New England soda. Which I will need to order from SPC pretty soon.

But I digress -- I had a good time with FH and I am stil not done exploring the map.

I've restarted F4 with a character that (with mods) looks like my favourite FNV courrier and it makes the game much more enjoyable:

Spoiler:

I made a mistake in my first game, I maxed out Charisma early and it made all the dialogues incredibly stupid (my guy could convince anyone anywhere and change their minds about anything), even less consistent than what could be expected from a Bethesda game.

In any case my current character is fun because he doesn't pass all persuasion checks and doesn't get a free ride.

On the other hand putting 9 points in Agility allowed me to pick up Blitz which works wonders with Ninja. Far reaching Vats melee sneak attacks are simply awesome.

Last but not least, not focusing on crafting makes looting weapons a lot more interesting and not getting dragged in the Minutemen questline means that I don't have to worry about settlements being under attack every 5 minutes.

If you hate the bloody Minutemen like I do you'll be in for a treat when playing Nuka-World.

I don't hate them, it's just that they can't take a dump if you're not there to wipe their asses. I swear that questline turns you into their flunky. Not only that but they keep bitching and whining all the freaking time. They are a bunch of idiots of cosmic proportions and only Bethesda could come up with Preston and his crew (and don't get me started on Mama Murphy and all the whining about how she died). I regret going down that path in my first game, it was a HUGE mistake.

Regardless, you'll be able to give them a hard time with Nuka World.

But yeah, first thing I do is remove their essential tag and slaughter them, especially that whiny bint Marcy Long. Fuck that bitch.

Blitz is great, and with Big Leagues, Ninja, Mister Sandman and Sneak there really isn't much that can stand in your way and at some point you end up doing X10 critical damage which is ridiculously OP. My dude is a shotguneer as backup but Melee does most of the job. The new melee weapons mod added by Nuka-World are pretty nice too and it gives baseball bats and sledgehammers new life.

Indeed. You don't even need all these perks. Blitz really helps with sneaking because you can keep your distance and still land melee attacks with Vats. I thought it was cool before but now that I'm using it I'm liking it a lot. It's a great way to chain sneak attack ghouls and raiders without wasting ammo. Hell it even works on supermutants.

As a backup I prefer a sniper rifle and a laser rifle but my guy still has a collection of handguns and a sawed off shotgun simply because there is no reason not to lug one around.

In my previous game I focused a lot on crafting and building and skipping that (or at least not focusing on these aspects) feels refreshing. I'll probably invest in science down the road but right now I can afford to mix things up a bit.

So far I've avoided perks that boost damage because I'm concerned it would make enemies too squishy. I could up the difficulty but that would probably turn enemies into bullet sponges forcing me to invest in damage increasing perks... I like Ninja because the bonus depends on the situation, you have to try and figure out how to make the most of sneak attacks it's not just about making every attacks hit harder. Not sure if I'll invest too much on Vats perks either as they feel a bit like some sort of god mode. I like the idea of a challenge (if it's not frustrating) which is why I went toe to toe with the first Deathclaw instead of getting into the power armour (terrible design by the way, exactly what a clueless pen and paper DM would do i.e. put a monster that can only be taken down by a "magic" weapon that happens to be conveniently placed nearby).

I loved the idea of Charisma being powerful and not being a dump stat but I'm enjoying my run in which I only pass a persuasion attempt once in a while a lot more probably for the same reasons and I suspect that I'd lose interest if things were too easy.

I'm certainly not doing the Survival Mode thing though. I'm fine with not using fast travel but not being able to save sounds like a terrible waste of time and that's something I can't afford losing.

Fallout 4 is on offer on Steam right now. What, if any, of the DLC's are any good?

BZ will be able to give you an extensive description of the DLC, I have the Season Pass but I've only played Far Harbor so far and it was pretty good. I haven't played Nuka World yet but BZ is saying good things about it.

BUT I would suggest starting out with the base game and adding DLC if you see yourself playing this extensively because the base game is pretty big already and if you really like it you could always grab the Season Pass during the Christmas Steam sale (it's very likely to be on sale then as well).

Sue77 wrote:

Fallout 4 is on offer on Steam right now. What, if any, of the DLC's are any good?

Automatron is on the short side, but you get a robot workbench, and if you are so inclined and have the resources to spare, you can build robots and assign them to do the same work settlers would, so it's one way to not bother with the stupid bloody MinuteWankers and still get farming going -- salvage, crops, water, etc. Plus, you can mod some of the robot companions into absolute walking death machines.

Far Harbor is much more meatier, has a pretty big map to explore, and the plot offers a lot of choices and moral dilemmas. There's also an ending which I thought was great for evil bastards. Except for the stupid bloody memory puzzle, it was overall a fun experience.

Nuka-World is the largest of the DLC, and as far as I am concerned, also the best.  I am not going to spoil anything, but I absolutely hate the MinuteWankers and it was great giving them a hard time. The new weapons are great, and I liked hunting down and hoarding all the Nukas. I've not played it through to the end, but it eclipses Far Harbor.

Don't bother with Contraptions and Workshop. Both of those can easily be replicated with mods.

So in short -- Nuka-World is a must, Far Harbor is good and worthwhile, Automatron was fun but I find it hard to justify it's price tag. Unless you get a ridiculously good deal on the Season pass I'd go with Nuka-World and Far Harbor.

Thanks BZ. All the DLC's and the Season Pass are on offer too. Time to check my daughter's haven't already been Christmas shopping on Steam!

If you're getting all the story DLC you may as well get the season pass if it's on sale (saving some dough while getting all the official content which some mods may require). 50% off for the season pass is ok but don't pay more.