I honestly do not know whether to give this game a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I was very excited for Fallout 4. since the third was one of the very first games that got me into gaming, and I also very much liked New Vegas. It just feels, however, that Fallout 4 is lacking that wasteland-rpg-feeling.
Pros:
Character creation at the beginning of the game is really good. It gives you a fair amount freedome to create your character.
The new perk system is good. I never find it logical witch the "fill up your skills with x points" mechanics in Bethesdas versions of the franchise.
Combat is much, much better than it was in Fallout 3 and new Vegas.
Weapon customization is fine. It could be better, and more balanced, but it is fine. Game gets way too easy after getting better gear, however. Sadly that takes away a bit of the challenge.
Cons:
The story is not very compelling, and the ending was a huge dissapointment for me. It should have ended about 3-4 hours before it did, and then it just stopped abruptly, and I could not feel that any of the choices I made during my two playthroughs mattered in any way. Only effect my choises had was that some of the factions was gone, and, of course, their quests.
Fallout 4 is badly optimized. I run the game at a GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB, an i7-4790 CPU @ 3.6GHz and I have the game installed on my SSD, and I STILL get about 25-30FPS in urban areas of the games, such as Corvega plant and around Trinity Tower (especially that damn quest). As a comparision I run The Witcher 3 maxed out at 60FPS, with a few drops here and there, and smooth 60 with hairworks turned off, or Foilage turned down to high. For a game that looks very last gen, with a few mods, that is not acceptable.
It is too easy, but that is just a ersonal preference.
Your spouse is absoloutely meaningless. He/she has no effect on the story, what so ever, but to act as a vauge backstory, which, in my opinion, was not that.. important. It just felt thrown in there.
There was a lot of promises after the E3 presentation that you could play the game without killing anyone, or anything. That is a utter lie. Eihter you shoot your way through the game, or you miss some of the best quests and/or gear of the game.
You can not be "evil". It is impossible to be a saddistic douche who kills all and everything with a smile on their face. From the very beginning, you are the hero. You help the minutemen and everyone who gets in your way afterwards. You can, in some cases, ask for more money, use the sarcastic option (which is hilarious), and about 3-6 times you can choose to kill smoeone innocent, or something along those line, for money. Other than that, you are justa good guy/gal, and that is something you do not want to hinder the player in a game, especially if IT IS A RPG.
It is not a RPG. I would say it is more like Borderlands. IT is a shooter with some RPG-elements. You can not choose your origin, you can not make that many choices, small or big, you can not choose who you are as you could in, for example, Skyrim. There you could at least join the Dark brotherhood, or be on the grey side and help the Thieves guild. Here you pretty much are Messiah incarnate. With exceptions of the Brotherhood of Steal, but even there it is much more to ask for.
What I am trying to say is that the games is pretty much more about shooting and looting, and less about experience the world of Boston, interact with other people in this Wasteland and immerse yourself.
This is of course just an personal opinion, but I do not recommend it for players who liked New Vegas, or FO1-2. This is more like Skyrim with guns, and I can not but feel that Bethesda was too afraid of leaving Skyrimg behind.
If you want a good RPG, do not buy this game. Buy Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin, Fallout 1-2 or Dragon Age origins.
If you want a somewhat buggy shooter set in a post-apocalyptic Boston, buy it if it is your thing. I am just very dissappointed. But I would recommend you buying it when it is on sale. It is not worth 60 euro.
AND ALSO, WHY BETHSESDAHAVE YOU JUST FUCKED THE LORE OF THE GAME. SINCE WHEN DOES NOT GHOULD HAVE TO EAT?! Billy, I am looking at you.
5/10
