RAF74_Buzzsaw
Nov-12-2015, 00:40
I enjoyed Fallout 3, (didn't play New Vegas) and when Fallout 4 came out today, considered buying it.
But first I thought I'd look at some reviews.
The Gaming Press has almost universally given it high reviews... but the individual user reviews are the exact opposite.
Of 808 reviews I skimmed through on on one site, (Metacritic) 95% were negative and in fact scathingly negative.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/fallout-4
Complaints about the game being dumbed down, glitchy, mediocre graphics, converted from a role player into a poor FPS, player choice removed, etc.
The most common complaint is the complexities of the early games of the series have been removed to make it easier to play... removing choices and the players ability to create his own story.
Sample midrating review:
mrclopes
Nov 11, 2015
3
Welcome to Fallout 4. The graphics looks good, the dialog looks good, the story looks good, the gameplay looks good... But not!
GRAPHICS
The graphics are technically good. It have high-res textures, terrain tesselation, up-to-date shaders and last-gen video card effects. But they weren't able to use that in their favor to deliver stunning scenarios or polished graphics, in other words, it lacks artistic quality. I've played older games were artistic teams were able to deliver much more beautiful and polished graphics with much less in terms of technology.
DIALOGS AND NPCS
After I saw the "wheeled" dialog choices and the player character speaking in trailers. Mass effect came to my mind, but it's not even close in terms of immersion. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters in Fallout 4, and the dialogues were very unsatisfying, boring, uncreative, and the worst of it - DOESN'T MATTER AT ALL - No choices are really made.
STORY
The plot is so unimaginative that I never really felt involved or the urge to persuit something. And the side quests are ridiculous kill and fetch chores which doesn't add anything to the game or it's lore. I don't think the people who "wrote" this quests play games at all. I really felt intellectually offended.
GAMEPLAY
To simple put, it's a mess, the controls are laggy due massive drops in FPS for no apparent reason. The VATS feel more like a cheap "fix" for a broken and boring gameplay mechanics than a feature. It's neither a 3rd person tactical combat, nor a realtime first-person-shooter. A tactical combat would have something like cover, slow thinking combat or even a semi turn-based system, and a FPS would have bold physics, stable fps and well designed levels to guide a player trough them. Fallout 4 fails as much as a gameplay engine as in terms of level design. After few hours, combat were nothing but a chore.
VEREDICT
I always thought Bathesda games lacked quality in many aspects, specially artistically compared to other well-founded companies. But their games were ambitious and had unique concepts to get my attention. But in my opinion, they never really delivered top-quality products for me to consider their games an "A" quality. However, after Skyrim seemed to me that they took some criticism serious and tried to improve, but Fallout 4 proved me I was wrong, they don't give a s**t about quality.
However, I'm giving a 3/10 because bashing enemies heads with a melee weapon still fun, and the construction mechanics still have potential (if you like sandbox games). But other than that, Fallout 4 have nothing else to offer.
So suggest anyone who is considering buying it, read some reviews first and decide if its what you want.
Good news... its open to modding... so maybe something good will emerge in a year or two.... like TF. ;)
But first I thought I'd look at some reviews.
The Gaming Press has almost universally given it high reviews... but the individual user reviews are the exact opposite.
Of 808 reviews I skimmed through on on one site, (Metacritic) 95% were negative and in fact scathingly negative.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/fallout-4
Complaints about the game being dumbed down, glitchy, mediocre graphics, converted from a role player into a poor FPS, player choice removed, etc.
The most common complaint is the complexities of the early games of the series have been removed to make it easier to play... removing choices and the players ability to create his own story.
Sample midrating review:
mrclopes
Nov 11, 2015
3
Welcome to Fallout 4. The graphics looks good, the dialog looks good, the story looks good, the gameplay looks good... But not!
GRAPHICS
The graphics are technically good. It have high-res textures, terrain tesselation, up-to-date shaders and last-gen video card effects. But they weren't able to use that in their favor to deliver stunning scenarios or polished graphics, in other words, it lacks artistic quality. I've played older games were artistic teams were able to deliver much more beautiful and polished graphics with much less in terms of technology.
DIALOGS AND NPCS
After I saw the "wheeled" dialog choices and the player character speaking in trailers. Mass effect came to my mind, but it's not even close in terms of immersion. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters in Fallout 4, and the dialogues were very unsatisfying, boring, uncreative, and the worst of it - DOESN'T MATTER AT ALL - No choices are really made.
STORY
The plot is so unimaginative that I never really felt involved or the urge to persuit something. And the side quests are ridiculous kill and fetch chores which doesn't add anything to the game or it's lore. I don't think the people who "wrote" this quests play games at all. I really felt intellectually offended.
GAMEPLAY
To simple put, it's a mess, the controls are laggy due massive drops in FPS for no apparent reason. The VATS feel more like a cheap "fix" for a broken and boring gameplay mechanics than a feature. It's neither a 3rd person tactical combat, nor a realtime first-person-shooter. A tactical combat would have something like cover, slow thinking combat or even a semi turn-based system, and a FPS would have bold physics, stable fps and well designed levels to guide a player trough them. Fallout 4 fails as much as a gameplay engine as in terms of level design. After few hours, combat were nothing but a chore.
VEREDICT
I always thought Bathesda games lacked quality in many aspects, specially artistically compared to other well-founded companies. But their games were ambitious and had unique concepts to get my attention. But in my opinion, they never really delivered top-quality products for me to consider their games an "A" quality. However, after Skyrim seemed to me that they took some criticism serious and tried to improve, but Fallout 4 proved me I was wrong, they don't give a s**t about quality.
However, I'm giving a 3/10 because bashing enemies heads with a melee weapon still fun, and the construction mechanics still have potential (if you like sandbox games). But other than that, Fallout 4 have nothing else to offer.
So suggest anyone who is considering buying it, read some reviews first and decide if its what you want.
Good news... its open to modding... so maybe something good will emerge in a year or two.... like TF. ;)