Fallout 4 was kind of a disappointment to many fans of the franchise. RPG elements have been swapped in favour of more action oriented gameplay. For this reason I cannot give this more than an average score. I had fun for about 30 hours, which is a decent amount of time for a game. Spent this time mainly doing side quests and exploring - but eventually this burned me out. It's a fun time, for a while. But ultimately a reminder of what could have been.

It falls a bit short as both an RPG game and a Fallout game, but it's still a really solid title. It's a Bethesda game, so expect to mod it more than you play it, but at the end of the day, you should be able to tailor it to your tastes, even despite its shortcomings.

While Fallout 4 is a big improvement in terms of control, gunplay and such, it got heavily simplified on the RPG front; less levelup options, dialog wheel, there are lots of repetitive quests and tasks... And yet... it's still Fallout with that unique atmosphere, and background stories filled with personal tragedies, horrible experiments and war... war never changes. Also the base building feature can be quite addicting!

One of the stronger aspects in this game is the freedom of choice. Like building settlements, you get introduced to it, but it is not mandatory so feel free to leave it alone. Or pick it up later as a nice change of pace from killing and exploring. Even the settlement quests can be ignored if you prefer not to be involved. We can all agree your companions in the game can ruin experiences like trying to sneak and well, being plain buggy. You can choose to go without them (I personally enjoy not venturing alone). Even when you choose to not be involved these lesser developed parts of the game, it is so huge you'll still be enjoying countless hours of it! I'm okay with the graphics - they're noticeably better than Fallout 3 and New Vegas and it looks like Bethesda is trying to expand the sandbox - probably why the graphics aren't jaw-dropping. I love great visuals but Fallout is one of those games that we can forgive for not pushing the envelope in that department. I'm only a few hours into the game, but I already feel like it's a winner. With hundreds of hours ahead of me, I know there's plenty I haven't experiences but it's a Fallout game: I always enjoy them.

Fallout 4 is probably the most controversial Fallout game yet. Despite that, I can unconditionally recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it yet. The gunplay and gameplay mechanics are on another level compared to 3 or New Vegas. The main story itself is IMO just as great as earlier Fallouts, with realistic and well written factions, non of which are completely perfect and without any fault. The settlement system isn't particularly refined, but with mods and DLCs, it can be incredibly fun and satisfying. Despite all that, arguably the best part of Fallout 4 is the world. It has without a doubt the best worldspace of any game I have ever played, including other Fallout and TES games. The exploration is incredibly fun, although there could be more variety when it comes to weapons or loot.