Recent reviews by tf2f.wern

I want to like this game. I really do. But with the horribly balanced combat system, meaningless dialogue choices, boring quests and a pretty badly written main quest (even by Bethesda standards) I just don't like it very much. Is it fun? Yes. Is it addicting? Yes. But if you're looking for an old-style Fallout game, it's not here.



Now follows a rant by a long-time Fallout fan with mild spoilers (about game design, not story. You can spoil that by yourself.).


-Why are deathclaws so pathetic in this game? They do less damage than in FO3/NV, they lost their armor-piercing claws, they're slower and when starting combat that do that stupid roaring houl thing that feral ghouls used to do to make sure they never catch you by surprise. In return, they now occasionally dodge to the side every now and then. Wow. So scary.

-Skills? Who needs them? Hopefully not you because Bethesda decided FO4 would be better without them. I hear this was done to make your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. more important than in previous iterations. Well, they failed. Big time.
--TLDR: CHA is king, followed by STR and INT. The rest is worthless.
--Why CHA? No speech skill anymore, so success in speech checks is entirely determined by CHA. You want to build settlements? More CHA = more settlers, more settlers = more resources/money. CHA also influences store prices, so high CHA means you'll have more caps than you'll even need.
--F04's puts heavy influence on loot, and more STR = more loot you can carry. The high level STR perks are also very powerful.
--More INT = faster leveling = more perks. 6 in INT also gives access to gamebreakingly powerful weapon/armor mods.
--Get PER up to 4 to pick locks. That is all it's good for.
--AGI and LCK are only needs if you like VATS. I never once thought I needed VATS.
--END gives health and health regen. But why bother with END if Power Armor makes you practically invincible?

-I mentioned Power Armor. The lowest tier of Power Armor that you get for free in the first town in the game is protects more than twice as well as the highest-tier of non-Powered armor that takes about 50 hours of playtime to get. Yeah, I think there's some balance issues here.

-Weapons. They really ♥♥♥♥ the bed with weapon balance. Lets get started.
--There are so few weapons in this game. There's less than there was in FO3. There's two shotguns. There's two laser weapons. There's one plasma weapon. They included .50 cal ammo, but they neglected to add a weapon specifically uses it. You have to rechamber one of your pistols/rifles to use .50 cal ammo (and it's not even worth it since .50 cal damage is extremely underwhelming.)
--There are two types of weapons in this game, worthless and incredibly powerful. The 'incredibly powerful' weapons are this either because they have a very good price per bullet to damage ratio, or they just do crazy amounts of damage. The Combat Rifle is an example of an extremely efficient weapon for its ammo, and the Deliverer/Gauss Rifle/Plasma weapon/Gatling Laser are examples of weapons that just do insane amounts of damage. Yes, I know these examples are late game weapons, but they just SO MUCH DAMAGE compared to what you're upgrading from. For example, you'll probably replace your Hunting Rifle (44 damage) with the Gauss Rifle (210 damage).

-'Legendary weapons'. WHAT THE ACTUAL ♥♥♥♥ BETHESDA DID YOU THINK THIS THROUGH AT ALL?! Sigh. I hate these things so much.
--Ok so basically 'Legendary weapons' are basically regular weapons with enchantments on them. They're dropped by randomly spawned 'Legendary enemies', which are exactly the same as regular enemies except they get one free full heal when about to die for some unexplained reason. They then drop one weapon or piece of armor with an 'enchantment' on them, such as 'Ghoul Slayer', or 'Irradiated', or 'Violent' or something like that which gives them some sort of combat bonus.
--This would be great but 90% of these enchantments are worthless. Ooh you got a pistol that does a little more damage against ghouls or molerats? Or a neat little shotgun that sets people on fire for a little bit of damage? That seems good until you get a Legendary w/ Two Shot, Explosive, Crippling or Wounding and show you that any other enchantment besides these are a joke. These enchantments on the right weapons completely removes any combat challenge whatsoever.
--Yes, getting the right enchantments on the right weapons from a Legendary enemy drop is random. BUT DON'T WORRY! You can buy them too! With a half-hearted effort you can find merchants that sell Explosive SMGs, or Two Shot Combat Rifles less than an hour after leaving the Vault. And since you're a smart player with high CHA, buying them won't be a problem either.
--So yeah. Bethesda added magic weapons which drop from enemies which magically heal. This system replaces FO3/NV's unique weapons that were scattered across the world. Remember when you would scavenge across the world and come across the Terrible Shotgun, or the thrill of diving into the Deathclaw Sanctuary for Vengance, or completing a quest to control an ancient orbital laser weapons platform that you could use on anything? Yeah you're not gonna see anything that in FO4 for the most part. You'll just find more 'Legendary' weapons with a punny name rather than something truly unique.(Full discloure: there are a few special things to find, but when I say few I mean it. Like two things.)