I love every Fallout - yes, even 76. While the roleplaying takes a hit (see caveat below), 4 has the best gunplay is the series. I see the story get criticized a lot, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. You spend so much time searching for your son and when that search is over... Well, I don't want to spoil it but there are a lot of subtle notes in that meeting that I think fly under the radar of many, particularly those who aren't parents. While dialogue options take a hit and you essentially play as a predefined character (sure, you can change how they look or decide which of four dialogue options to choose), there are still some great possibilities for roleplaying. You awaken from a deep freeze to an unrecognizable landscape filled with destruction and danger. Will you strike out and explore bravely? Will you try to rebuild? Will you cling to the training and tradition you knew from your time in the war, before the bombs? I went with the latter - the shock of awakening in this world drove my character to rely on the regimentation of military experience. The familiarity and rigidity of military life provided a sense of comfort. I helped out the Minutemen at first but then I met the Brotherhood of Steel and that was that.
I played this shortly after it released on Steam and loved it. I've bought it twice now for much less than the price of a AAA release. It's an absolutely inspired and engrossing game!
... that I'll have to wait who knows how long for another Brotherhood game. They're all fantastic!
As many other users have mentioned this game does not run as-is and requires extensive tinkering to even get it to launch. It should not be sold in this state and should either be fixed or delisted from the store.
The game is awesome. They are trying to emulate a late 80's/early 90's gaming experience, and that's great, and they do it in a way that pays homage to those games. It's technically better and that seems to be a wise design decision. This game represents pure and peak nostalgia and it's a complete success for doing so. There is simply too much good to say about this game. It looks excellent, it plays excellent, its incredible attempts to make art on tire spinners nostalgia succeeds, and the story has enough to keep momentum going. This is the best game I've played in possibly three decades and I've been playing games since the Atari 2600 was hot new tech. Just an amazing experience from start to a few hours finish because I couldn't wait any longer to post this review.
The demo on GOG is a slightly older version than the one on Steam. It's cool to be able to compare the two, but it's a disservice to GOG customers to not provide the same version of the demo here. It definitely makes me less interested in purchasing on GOG for fear of receiving an inferior product, or one that is not kept up to date.
No, it isn't everything that was promised. But it's still something truly special. I've run into all of the bugs you can see in the youtube videos: 2D vehicles in the distance, sometimes disappearing when they reach a certain point; character models not fully rendering occasionally; wonky physics messing with in-game cutscenes. I guess those just don't bother me enough to take away the enjoyment that playing this game gives me. Main quests are varied and interesting - right now I'm sneaking through an abandoned mall taken over by a gang in a failed commercial district. There are also plenty of copy-paste quests (gigs) for gaining levels, loot, and money. The city is.. well, it's beautiful. I don't even like cities. Hell, I don't even like the cyberpunk genre, but I can't bring myself to fast travel. I'm about halfway through the main quest and I haven't used fast travel yet. Instead I hop on my bike, blast Ritual FM, and cruise across the city.
