Literally read a single word out of the entire post and ignored everything else to make a snarky comment. Well fucking done.
Anyone who posts 'well that's just your opinion, man!' like it's anything more than a non-response deserves to get called out on it. It's an annoying, pointless retort, and people are getting sick of it. We all already operate under the assumption that unless otherwise qualified, the personal statements of a poster represent their opinions. Just pointing that out like it's not already implicitly understood serves literally no value.
It's like, where you responded to complaints regarding the companion characters by just saying 'opinions', you would have been much better served by pointing out that the quality and reliability of the companion characters are subjective, proceeding to then back that up with positive impressions of those characters stemming from your own experiences or those of others - essentially communicating the same point in a manner that doesn't come off as being so dismissive.
I'll give you a substantial response to your original post since you seem to want one.
I think people really need to go back and play Morrowind. Everytime I see it held up as this unique thing that feels out of place in comparison to what Bethesda has released since then, I just roll my eyes, ignoring of course that they have two entirely different rpg "systems."
I don't follow. It's been noted time and time again how several factors converge to keep Fallout 4 from imparting even Oblivion or Skyrim's base level of roleplaying possibilities on the player. Moreso than ever before, Fallout 4 funnels players toward a rigid storyline with rigid characterizations and contextualization ranging from NPCs to the player character alike, and that negatively impacts how the game is perceived as an RPG.
This is a very good video on the subject and if you've got the time I suggest you throw it on 1.5x speed and give it a quick listen.
1. Most character models/animations are simply embarrassing in 2015/16.
Unsurprising given it's based on the same old engine, that was originally meant to be implemented on current gen systems. If they are STILL using this system on TES VI, then we can whip out the pitch forks.
I'm honestly one of those people who think that Fallout 4 makes tremendous strides in the quality of its character models and animations, at least relative to their previous titles, and accounting for the sheer scale of their game worlds and the number of interactable NPCs therein. I do understand how people could be disappointed by what's there, though - even despite playing through Fallout 4 on a high-spec PC, I ran into a fair few instances where NPC models would look or animate strangely, and not up to standards established elsewhere within the industry.
2. What a steaming pile of shit the settlement system is. How about explain how some of it works via in-game tutorials Bethesda? Why do I have to google half of the functionality to use it properly? Why do I need a fucking perk to distribute my resources across settlements? Why do I need to wait for a settler to randomly come back to my settlement to cancel a trade route? The answer: the settlement system is a half-baked tacked-on turd to try and sell more copies of the game. I honestly said fuck it after battling with the system and having my crops glitch out for the 5th time and not be able to loot them. I'd rather go play Viva Pinata if I wanted to grow a settlement.
Horribly explained, and definitely glitches in some areas (items left after taking over a settlement now count as stealing even though they didn't belong to the settlers that now live there), however you do not have to use it.
Fallout 4's settlement system is moderately robust but it's finicky to an aggravating degree and the game doesn't do nearly enough to teach players how to effectively use it. And all the while, it serves very little active gameplay purpose, where it could have been contextualized far more strongly, and ultimately suffers due to its own inherent limitations (object placement and clipping problems, low building allotment, undesirable unscrappable objects/decorations, etc.). All in all it's a novel idea that falls completely apart due to shoddy implementation. Of course you can ignore it almost entirely but it's a damn shame that it's so half-baked to begin with. It could have been so much more appealing, accessible, and relevant to the core Fallout experience than it is.
3. Why are there no percentages in the tooltips in most of the perks? "Has a good chance to occur!" is not a very fucking useful perk description Bethesda! People shouldn't have to conduct experiments on Reddit to figure this shit out!
Streamline. It's not THAT kind of RPG. They aren't Obsidian or Larian.
That's a non-response. Borderlands 2 is about as streamlined as it gets and yet that game sees fit to furnish its players with mostly accurate descriptions as to how unique weapon properties impact their performance. Describing mod effects as "+5% Recoil. +10% Damage." as opposed to "Moderately more damaging" would only help to clarify their true ingame value, without imposing players or infringing upon Fallout 4's streamlined nature.
It's not like you need to be Obsidian or Larian in order to get why hard numbers and percentages are generally preferable to vague hints regarding stat changes, when you're powering a stat-based game.
4. The companions are just a nuisance and get in your way constantly, which is sad because I love dogs.
Same as it ever was.
That supposed to make it any better somehow? Because it doesn't, it's still a negative facet of the game. I played through much of the game using a mod that made it so that companions immediately moved out of your way if they were in it. It's strange that Bethesda didn't implement something like that themselves, considering just how much less aggravating an experience it helps to make companions in tight quarters.
5. Half the time I didn't know what my dialog choice wheel will actually say, so I stuck with the safe default answer.
Are they REALLY that obtuse? Honestly now. Subtle isn't even close to what I would call the dialog wheel choices.
When you're endeavoring to use the available dialogue options to characterize your player character with, not knowing exactly what will be said (or its inflection or general tone) means that you're not quite always going to end up saying something you would actually like to say in that moment. I ended up modding my copy of the game so that each dialogue choice on the wheel would display the spoken line verbatim to mostly deal with this problem, but that had the nasty side effect of exposing the general inflexibility of the dialogue in general.
6. Dialog options are: be a dick, be a sarcastic prick, be a decent person. And half the time they don't change the outcome of the conversation at all.
No they aren't.
Yes, they really are. There are occasional exceptions but that mod I had just mentioned only made this clear to me - you're given very little actual choice during conversations other than to follow the exact narrative path that Bethesda had already determined for that situation and for your character, and there's very little meaningful change between dialogue options, typically amounting to
- I agree/I will help
- I disagree/I'll still help
- I disagree sarcastically/I'll still help
- I will not help (ends convo until you decide to help)
or
- I like thing/idea
- I'm cynical about thing/idea
- I'm placid about thing/idea
- Tell me more
at which point any given option taken besides conversation enders will continue the conversation along a predetermined and inflexible path that usually culminates in you as the player adopting the role of good guy errand boy. If you've got counterexamples then bring 'em.
7. Characters are forgettable, except Valentin, Piper and Dogmeat.
Opinion.
I already addressed the whole 'opinion' schtick, but while the quality of companions is subjective, it certainly is arguable that outside of the mentioned characters, most of the available companions have
- little context connecting them meaningfully to the events of the Commonwealth and your own adventures both before and during the duration of the game
- unsatisfying and totally self-contained quest arcs that resolve completely neatly, rarely mentioned or impacting the ingame world or narrative after the fact
- uninteresting personalities and backgrounds, backed by flat voice acting delivery
- backwards-thinking friendship mechanics wherein your companions come to idolize you based on superficial elements like whether or not you've been sarcastic or picked a bunch of locks, with each companion progressing to points where they will express, in a similar manner as the last, how you're (stage 1 - a cool guy | stage 2 - someone they can confide in | stage 3 - a true friend | stage 4 - literally jesus), before never mentioning their relationship with you or having it come up in any meaningful context again.
8. Random chance on conversation options is just fucking annoying.
Opinion and has been in their system for years. It is a way of making the CHM stat useful.
'Opinion' is a non-response. 'Has been in their system for years' does nothing to address the flaws behind this system at all.
On paper it makes sense as a way to impart value into the charisma stat, but in practice it has nearly the opposite effect - chance-based speech checks enable save-scumming, ensuring that with minimal effort, any player can bruteforce their way through any skill check in the game just by quicksaving and quickloading. This was a problem in Fallout 3, but New Vegas elegantly sidestepped the issue by giving skill checks hard requirements and broadening the range of skills and SPECIAL stats that could be checked during conversation. Fallout 4 returning to the previous system, which is far more easily manipulated (devaluing the charisma stat as a whole), is a definite regression, especially considering that in Fallout 4, players can simply quicksave during the middle of conversation, making bruteforcing more viable than ever. Hard stat checks would have been preferable but it's moot as Fallout 4 rarely features charisma checks alone to begin with, and when it does, they're almost always related to how much money you can squeeze out of someone.
9. Most of the perks are simply damage increases or a random chance to do something. Also, my thought when unlocking a perk, should not be: "Oh thank god, that was such a tedious part of the game!". I'm looking at you Local Leader Perk. There are others too.
Define "most." I did a build where it wasn't until level 20 that I actually got anything that increased the raw damage I was doing and I'm struggling to think which of those they are that aren't tied to weapon types. Local Leader is definitely tedious but worth it if you are going a certain route with your build.
I could have gone for some more unique or situational perks but I thought that the perk system was perfectly functional in terms of how your character progresses in Fallout 4. I'm not so miffed that many of the perks relate to percent increases to attributes of specific types of items, seems perfectly sensible to me, especially in lieu of skill points.
10. Combat is not very enjoyable, I went with a melee build with some shooting mixed in. Using V.A.T.S with the Blitz perk caused all sorts of weird shit to happen, including clipping through walls or simply failing to attack properly. Same old press attack many times to win by shooting or beating a health bar to 0.
Opinion and honestly what did you expect from a melee build?
Fair enough, but still, combat has always been a sticking point in Bethesda games, and you would think that they'd have their melee combat in particular at a more polished and satisfying point at this stage in their history.
11. Crafting system causes you to horde everything you find. Which may not sound like a bad thing, but when paired with a terrible sorting UI and 500 different items that contain various different materials. Good luck finding a material that breaks down into the raw material you need. If I subtracted the amount of time I spent picking shit up, I'd honestly have about 5 hours less play time.
Use the tag system. I only know the types of materials in the game. I certainly have no interest in knowing what every object in the game is. If there are materials I need for upgrades, I simply tag it from my inventory and look for the glow removing the "good luck finding. . ."
You actually need level 2 of the Scrapper perk in order for tagged objects to glow in the game world - something that I feel should have probably just been an inherent player trait, considering just how much you do have to loot or at least inspect rooms and objects one by one when you don't have it. In a game this large, packed with so much loot, the sheer act of looting alone can become an imposing prospect. I remember that for the first 50 or so hours of my playthrough I'd clear locations of enemies and quest content first and then spend about 30 minutes to an hour just going back through and picking shit up.
12. Armour is limited and very boring looking.
Upgrade your armor stats and complete the quests to get access to better armor.
If he finds the armor boring looking then the later-game unlocks are probably not going to change his mind on that, but I wouldn't call armor 'limited', there's plenty of it out there and often one specific type of armor will have several different in-game appearances depending on the color, weight, and size of that particular instance of equipment.
13. Gun modifications are decent, but really just limited the variety of overall weapons.
100% do not agree with the final statement. At all. I do not remember having access to a plasma rifle that can tag and track enemies a la Far Cry in previous games.
I understand where you're coming from, but at the same time, just take a look at
this list of weapons from Fallout: New Vegas and tell me that something hasn't been lost. Those weapons were more sensibly grounded in the game world, with lore-friendly naming conventions, their own sets of mods, and sometimes even their own quests and backstory associated with them. I do think that the modification and legendary systems in Fallout 4 did some damage to how successfully weapons are contextualized within the game world. (It also doesn't help that the lack of a repair system just plain floods this game with viable repeats of the weapons you've already seen a billion times.)
14. Definitely not the glitchiest Bethesda game I've played. I had 1 crash and my fair share of falling through the map or quests failing to progress properly requiring a reload though.
Based on user experience.
I echo his experience - I've had a few minor annoyances along the way but nothing anywhere near as game breaking or obtrusive as some of the shit I ran into during Fallout 3 or New Vegas. Performance-wise I had a good time with F4 although I played it on a high-spec PC.
15. Power armour; meh - annoying to babysit.
Confusing sentence. Remove power core and move on. Map shows you where the armor is, and if parked at a fast travel location is always there (assuming it's unpowered).
I love Power Armor but if you keep more than one suit then the things can be annoying to babysit (as in keep them where you want them whenever you're not using them, sometimes necessitating a fast travel trip or two), or switch out to craft/re-position within your base, or so on and so forth.
