[Spoilers] Finally Beat Fallout 4 Main Storyline - My thoughts on Fallout 4

Gaming
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Finally getting around to this. Got the GotY Edition when it came out in September. And i have to say… WOW. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. The main storyline, that is. And usually, with Bethesda games, it’s the opposite.

The story was really intriguing and i DID NOT see that twist with Shaun leading the Institute. I love bold, hard-to-take-in plot twists like that. But i have to say that now is unarguably the era of edginess. Bethesda tried too hard with the story to make it impacting in a bold way. It worked up until the point where you finally had to make a decision with who to side with. It’s basically as if the writing is non-existent once you pass the revelation that Shaun is much, much older than you expect him to be - and that he’s leading the Institute. Seeing him on his medical…electronic sarcophagus thingy when raiding the Institute just wasn’t impacting at all. And just felt like filler at that point. It didn’t hit hard. There was nothing substantial. But most of all, i couldn’t WAIT for the story to be over. For some reason - and i can’t pinpoint WHY - Fallout 4 made me play extremely thoroughly. I’ve never played a Bethesda game and looked through every single square inch while exploring. Perhaps because of crafting? Not sure. But what i’m getting at is that everything OUTSIDE the story was very well done. Side quests felt more like main quests from other Bethesda games.

I felt a lot more when Paladin Danse was exiled rather than leaving Shaun in the Institute. I actually have some sort of connection with these companions - these characters you meet in the game world. And i almost forgot child Synth Shaun. One GIANT question mark if you ask me. Another attempt at being bold - but ends up just being dumb edginess. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Honestly. Maybe it was just intended to have a psychological effect? And i love how Skyrim’s overall karmic neutrality carries over greatly into Fallout 4. There is no black or white side. It’s just a GREY that just seems convoluted and insecure with itself. Hideo Kojima likes to use ambiguity in his games. And it just sort of works with how the player can interpret certain parts of the story. But Fallout 4? EH…

I don’t know. I wasn’t a fan of the main quest line. I couldn’t wait for it to be over because of how complicated the different paths are. I had to carefully RESEARCH everything before i made decisions. It’s really irritating. I’ve reloaded saves so many times that i couldn’t even make a nearly accurate guess of how many times it’s been.

And on to the good. It might be an arbitrary point. But ho-ly-FUCK the music. The soundtrack - especially the tracks which clearly sound influenced by Celtic music. They add in a kind of atmosphere i haven’t felt in such a long time. The first time stepping into Diamond City is truly unforgettable as a gaming experience. It reminded me of Chrono Cross - specifically Termina. And other bits of Chrono’s soundtrack. And i love the way Power Armor feels and performs. The game actually plays like an FPS now. Instead of Oblivion with guns…

So yeah. What does everyone else think of the main quest line? Sheesh, what a mess.

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As soon as I got to the point where Shawn was running the Institute I was over it. It was already a chore to get to that point. The story was too predictable, IMHO Fallout 3 and Vegas had much better stories. I still today can’t bring myself to try to finish it.

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Wait theres an end? I keep finding more shit to do.

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I have never gotten past the Institutionalized quest.

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I really disliked the settlement system at the beginning, but carried on, and now it’s literally the only complete game I have on Steam!
Mods add a lot to it, and the survival mode really does “change the game.”

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Another thing to consider is that it may be trying to bring some form of closure to aging gamers. Stories involving children never really bothered me until I had one of my own. The change was quite sudden, and surprising. Now, damn near any story involving a kid is grounds for waterworks flooding.

I think Bethesda may have been trying to tie up that piece of the story for the gamers-with-kids crowd. Maybe the thought of playing the entire game, hoping to be reunited with your kid, and then being left with nothing would make you feel exactly as empty as someone in such a situation would probably feel. I imagine that could kill quite a bit of the replay value.

And after aaaallll of that, I still said “damn near any story involving a kid.” Fallout 4 was an exception. I see what they tried to do there, but it would have been nice if there was more story after getting into the Institute. More time with Shaun prior to his death. More instances of wanting to spend time with him, but not being able to, because the Institute’s threats are bearing down on them. And most importantly, not just being a straight up substitute for old scar face.

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Far Harbor is so well done compared to the original quest, it really puts it to shame. I really love it.
Nuka Word was such an exhausting slog I dont even know or care if I finished it or not.
Automotron was a nice one off, I don’t think I’ll do it again.

Exploring and picking fights is really really fun.

The problem with settlements is that it’s really fun to get into, but when you do, the functionality is just not there.
You build this big beautiful functional settlement and the settlers are so retarded they dont make use of it. you can’t even build a private house without 17 settlers coming inside, not closing the door, and sleeping in your bed. Its so frustrating, I can’t stand to build anything anywhere besides homeplate.

I also cant stand the moralizing the game does for you; it’s not possible for you to be bad.
Your dialogue options are good, really good or sarcastic. that’s it, 99% of the time. All bandits are immediately agro-ed, no option other than Kill on sight. Want to kill/take over fenway park? Nope, there’s like 20 non-killable NPCs, so after the fight, you’re effectively banished. want to be lawful evil; do the main quest but have a nice little criminal network on the side? nope.

Basically, Far Harbor fixed every problem they had in the main game by asking "what would Obsidian do?:thinking:"
You can be evil, by manipulating each faction, your actions actually matter in the story, you have options with real consequences, the aesthetic is really nice, the hotel mission is very old-fallout-esque. the only issue was the stupid hacking minigame. It makes the game playable.

That and mods. mods are a requirment for enjoyment

EDIT: also, with the main story factions - There’s no grey. The Railroad is the objectively best playthrough, morally, the brotherhood is so stupidly narrowminded you are forced to play along even though no one agrees, and the institute playthrough is so on rails that you cant fucking do anything besides be selfish. The most obvious thing to do would be to, as the fucking LEADER, to reform the institute and open it up to the outside and stop synth production. but no, 3 factions, 3 options. also fuck the minutemen, a shitty excuse for radiant quests.

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It was exactly the same way for me. I tried to revisit it a few months ago, but couldn’t get into it again. I haven’t played Vegas or 3 yet though.

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I kept thinking of that heavy rain glitch where he screams “SHAUN!!!” during the main gameplay. I wasn’t the only one though.

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Honestly, I didn’t like the story for Fallout 4. I don’t know why but I just didn’t care about Shaun, and I honestly thought some of the factions were rather shallow. The only ones I even remotely empathized with were the RailRoad, and The Minutemen (despite how annoying Preston is)

Particularly, the Brotherhood of Steel going back to their old self destructive, technology hording ways. I was wishing for an option to take them over and force a policy change where they actually make some intelligent decisions.

I haven’t finished the DLC, only barely started Nuka-World, but I hope it’s far, far better.

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Holy SHIT… What have you been doing? But yeah, i partly did the same thing. I’m assuming you did also for the same reason? I think this song perfectly summarizes my feelings about the story. Mind you… NOT from the get-go. But after a certain point. I couldn’t phucking take it anymore…

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Probably about 50-75 hours are actually prior characters. A chunk of the time was exploring every single location on the map and doing every single non-story quest I came across, I think I actually managed to do every non-DLC sidequest on my main character before I stopped playing. A bunch of time, especially towards the end, was me getting settlements sorted. Surprisingly little time spent modding since I almost never had issues with them that required actual fixing.

Some settlements looked pretty all said and done.

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But yeah, the actual main story was of FO4 was pretty underwhelming. The Minutemen had great potential to have an amazing story, but it didn’t feel fleshed out in the actual game. The BoS felt like the player was just a cog in the machine. The Railroad was better, but being locked into only being able to help one faction ruined it. The Institute would have been amazing if there was the ability to change certain aspects of how they function.

The game had choice, but the choices were very limited IMO.

As an aside, I put like 70 hours into New Vegas right after FO4, and I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m probably not going to love a vanilla Bethesda RPG ever. They’re fun, but I always get bored with them after a while.

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Holy crap you’ve put a lot of time into your settlements. I sort of don’t have the patience for them. I tried creating walls on the concrete foundation where a house used to be in Sanctuary, you know what i’m talking about? And the walls aren’t the appropriate width to match up perfectly to the end. So i’m assuming that’s just a non-construction zone for the building aspect of the game? Using something as a guideline like an old house foundation?

So yeah, i just bought a couple of Monsters and i’m ready to play the game again after a few weeks. Far Harbour looks like the best DLC. OMFG! In the Misc section of my quest list i came across an objective from Nick the robot detective dude. And i came across some Japanese family and figured out that was the gateway to Far Harbour. So i’ve been staying away from it. I played all DLCs from Beth games in the order they were released. I guess i’ll do the same for FO4. Is there anything else i should experience before continuing with Automatron?

I did the Chinese submarine quest and found the little boy pointing to it totally by chance. I’m just wondering what else i’ve missed because running into quests like that is both super fun, and also based on luck. But that’s also what i love about this game.

Any other recommendations?

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I don’t know if I was completely burned out on Fallout 4 or what but I did not really enjoy Far Harbor. I felt myself dragging my feet through the mud. I think the investigation was an an interesting part but other than that I did not have too much fun exploring then island. I spent probably a good 60% of my play time on settlements. I do have 332 hours played so its not like I didn’t get my moneys worth. I spent and insane amount of time replaying Fallout 3 in the past on the 360. Oh joy plenty of freezes that occurred after long points of not saving.

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Hmm… yeah. I’m kinda feeling the same way. I wanna play the game more. I know there’s many many more hours of gameplay left. I have around 70-80 hours in.

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I really did feel like returning since I still need to finsih nuka world and one more I forget the name of the DLC.
I should just hook it up to my TV and play it casually. I might have gotten burned from playing and struggling playing on hardcore. Got strong enough to defend myself alone with a power suit. Would return by night fall, save and go back out.
I had tons of mods, a reason for returning to home at night was because of the insane sleep deprivation hit and the fact that the lighting mod I had made it pitch black at night where only stars were visible and the moon gave off a slight glow but not enough to let me traverse alone in the dark.
Lamps mod was a must for me.

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Went to Dunwich Borers to do some radiant Railroad thing. Legendary raider pops out of cover with a fully auto assault rifle. It must’ve been some FUCKING legendary weapon effect on it. Because he just sprayed me for a full two seconds and burned through my health. I got FUCKING ICED by this raider. I reloaded and did it a couple of times again to see if the same raider pops up. Nope. No luck. I think i fucked up and should’ve been more careful. Would have loved to get my hands on that weapon.

And that’s another part of the game i love. It’s addicting. Finding some badass weapon you never expect. I love putting on Power Armor and hunting down legendary Deathclaws and such in the Glowing Sea.

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Like a Fat Man with the Two Shot legendary effect. Add the MIRV launcher mod and things get real exciting.

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But isn’t the Big Boy sold by Arturo in Diamond City the only Fatman with that effect? I think i read on the Fallout wiki that it’s the only possible one you can get and you can’t actually find a Fatman with a legendary effect. Or perhaps only one available. Idk.

Came across an Instigating Missile Launcher. Installed a Quad Barrel and Stabilizer. And have the Big Guns perk maxed. And i think one or two ranks in Demolitions expert which increases damage even more. Plus there’s still a couple more ranks to go. Now THAT thing is already pretty much a battle ending weapon. I’ve only ever fired a shot of a Fatman before. Can’t imagine what the two-shot one’s like. I hear MIRV makes it dangerous to use.

I love fighting Mirelurk Queens with that thing… But i don’t find them often enough. :frowning:

I was overwhelmed a while ago by a group of Mirelurks and a Mirelurk Queen when in X-O1 armor. Teehee… not anymore.

Honestly, though. I think Lurk Queens are literally the most intense enemy you can come across… And it’s kind of disappointing considering how much firepower you can have. Ran into a few Legendary Deathclaws. Even my Terrible Shotgun with advanced receiver is enough to bring them down and be more than competitive.

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mmm fal;loutt

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