I've made it no secret that I friggin' LOVE Fallout 4. It's not the BEST game ever, and according to a friend of mine, it isn't the best Fallout either. In fact, when I told him F4 was my first Fallout, he said "that's why you like it." So that got me thinking about Fallout 4's many faults; the more I thought about it, the more flaws and faults I found in the game. So I compiled a list of what I thought were the WORST flaws in Fallout 4.
Worthless Perks: There are a few perks in the game that are absolute garbage, and you wonder "why the hell are they here anyway?" I'm not talking about perks that become useless the better you get in the game, like Awareness (lets you see an enemy's resistances) I'm talking about Perks that are WORTHLESS. Perks like Lead Belly (allows you to eat food without taking radiation damage) or VANS (let's you see the path towards your goal) The former is worthless because:
a) The radiation you get from eating food or drinking untreated water is minimal
b) The healing you get from said food or water is pathetic.
The latter perk is worthless because it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to get lost in the game! Seriously. the Commonwealth might be big, but it's not a maze! Although the Far Harbor DLC makes VANS more usable, it's STILL next to worthless because gaining 2 Perception ISN'T THAT GREAT, especially considering Night Person does exactly that PLUS it grants 2 Intelligence PLUS it doesn't need DLC to be obtained!
Power Armor too early: Although Power Armor is cool and kicks ass, I could make the argument that you get it too early in the game. Thing about Power Armor is that it increases your Endurance, carrying capacity, and provides excellent armor, to the point that a Deathclaw cannot OHK you. And this is great! And the game lets you modify your Power Armor, too! So, why do I get it in like an hour of gameplay? Seriously, Power Armor is clearly meant to be this big game changer, the difference between mowing down enemies without mercy and needing a shit ton of medpacks just to stay alive!
An item like Power Armor, especially a FULL SUIT of Power Armor, should either be saved for later or be seriously nerfed at that point of the game. Make the armor impossible to repair OR modify without investing a point in the Armorer perk! Or make the Power Armor you get in Concord be only an bare skeleton and have the player find armor pieces in the game to help modify it!
The ONE drawback to gaining Power Armor this early (battery running out) is mitigated by the fact that, by going just a BIT out of my way, I can find not one but TWO Fusion Cores before I get the Fusion Core at the museum's basement! "Oh, did my battery die? No worries, I HAVE SPARES!" It's ridiculous!
I can modify a bazooka, but I can't make a Pipe Gun from scratch? Seriously, it's even in the lore itself: pipe guns are home made weapons. I have weapon stations that allow me to turn a simple bazooka into a four barrel, computer assisted super-bazooka. But that same work station won't let me take plywood, a brass pipe, a screw, and some springs for me to make a Pipe Gun???
Settlement Building is a pain in the neck! This is strictly from a mechanical point of view. While I PERSONALLY enjoy making settlements, I have to admit the MECHANICS of that part of the game are beyond sub-par. Your camera is stuck to the character, so your perspective is grossly limited. You can't fly above your building, do a 180 degree review of what you're making, and the snapping mechanics are HORRID! One time, I was trying to make a latrine by combining a shack wall, a corner wall, and a toilet, but I couldn't make a door for it so I had to use another mini-wall. Tried giving the wall a 45 degree angle, but when I FINALLY got it the position I wanted it to be, the wall was a good ten inches away from the latrine! And before then, the wall just automatically snapped itself onto the latrine, sealing it shut!
The dialogue options are very limited: For a game that gives me the option to choose my words, said words are grossly limited in not just content, but impact as well. It doesn't help that on most missions, dialogue trees have two branches at most, but 4 choices; and the Sarcasm choice is not only often inefective, it's debatably unfunny most of the time. Further, most dialogue options have very little impact on the game. It's JARRING AS HELL to, say, act like a total dick to Codsworth and then ask about his well being with a concerned voice in the EXACT SAME CONVERSATION, LITERALLY SECONDS APART! And no matter what, Codsworth will always ALWAYS suggest going to Concord to find your family, regardless of how you treated him! There's no change in characterization! What did acting like a dick get the player? NOTHING!
The game's lack of a true Karma meter makes dialogue options all the more limited. If choosing certain options would sway my Karma one direction or another, then I'd say the game's dialogue mechanic was brilliant. But as it stands, it's just a waste of recorded dialogue.
SHUT THE FUCK UP, PRESTON! I like having side missions. I like having the option of going off track and finding a new dungeon, getting a cool reward, and then safely going back to the main game a bit stronger, a bit richer, and way more experienced. Sadly, Preston Garvey and the Minutemen abuse my patience by giving me a never ending stream of sidequests. On one playthrough, before I knew it I had done no less than 10 side missions for the Minutemen before I ever got to Diamond City. Hell, I was given the mission to storm the Castle at level 15! That was some baloney.
This criticism also applies to the other Factions, who ALSO give me a seemingly neverending stream of side missions. It's just that the Minutemen are the most well known offenders.
Half the DLC is geared towards Settlement building: Wasteland Workshop, Vault-Tec Workshop, and Contraptions Workshop make up half of the available DLC for Fallout 4. They add nothing more than new content strictly for Settlement building. These are all PAID DLC, not free. Imagine payin 15 dollars American total, all so you can do things like build zoos and elevators on your Wasteland shacks. What, hate settlement building? Then too bad!
This was a serious mistake on Bethesda's part; not all players like Settlement building, and as I stated before, that mechanic is grossly flawed to begin with! Focusing half the DLC on that mechanic WITHOUT FIXING IT was a huge miscalculation on Bethesda's part!
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