A quick, short pimping of my "Welcome to Fallout", inspired by learning I could make corpse paint in the game. Warning: Fowl language. Spoiler Free.
Let's talk about Fallout 4!
I am only about 10 hours into the game and I already have a lot of loves, and hates about the game.
Hates:
Molotovs and Grenades: Enemies spam these, they are practically insta-kills, and enemies take no damage from their own (and usually very little from yours). I watched a Super Mutant spam grenades at his own feet to kill a turret. This adds an absurd level of difficulty on normal. I have even had grenades thrown through walls at me. It's even worse that they are thrown not just with pinpoint accuracy, but often at point-blank range. I have had to turn down the difficulty because this combined with enemy damage make even NORMAL far too difficult for my liking.
VATS: While it is cool that they've made it less game breaking to use, it doesn't stop enemies from lighting you up while it takes its sweet time kicking in the game slowing. I have hit the VATS button as soon as an arm poked around a corner, just for it to kick in with a molotov about to hit me dead in the face. It also has a lovely tendency to give me a 0% chance to hit at point-blanc until I have let the enemy finish hitting me.
Skills: This is a double edged sword. Perk Points for skills makes leveling lock picking and hacking so much better to level, it sort of takes away my feeling of skill growth.
Dogmeat: Heresy, I know. But he does nothing but get in the way and alert enemies to my presence when I am sneaking, by attacking them.
Bethesda AI: I'm on the bottom floor, you're on the 7th floor. My dog just killed a mole, you now know where I am at all times and spam grenades down a hole in the center of the building. I thought we'd gotten over this.
Crafting: Every survival game needs it to an extent. But this system, while a little awesome at times, feels incredibly bloated, and needlessly complex. To borrow a description of Skyrim: "As wide as an ocean, as shallow as a puddle". A fantastic idea, implemented very poorly.
An Average Feeling Note For An Otherwise Fantastic Year: Even MGSV, which was unfinished, was on board with this year's trend: Changing the Formula. Bloodborne took the souls series and made it fast paced with no shields. Witcher 3 broke into a much larger, more organic map and added fast-travel. MGSV completely revolutionized stealth infiltration in more ways than I have space and time to mention right now. Batman, with it's predictable writing and much less deep map, at least tried with even more skills, challenges, options, and the mostly annoying Batmobile. Like I said, they at least tried. Nintendo created a competitive online shooter that is original, charming, and fun! Mad Max has a game! And even though it is a paint by numbers sandbox game, its stunning visuals made us feel like we were in a wasteland like none other. Fallout, did none of that. Except changing up VATS, and changing power armor, they did very little to break the mold.
Loves:
Power Armor: Power Armor now feels like actual power armor. It requires power, it protects the living crap out of you, the HUD is awesome, and every move has this hefty, powerful, lumbering sway to it. This game makes power armor feel like power armor should feel.
Story: Avoiding spoilers; At first feels like a role reversal of Fallout 3's story, opens up to being something even crazier. I just hit an early point in learning what's going on, and I am so excited.
Radio: Though I miss Three Dog, the Diamond City Radio DJ is so hilariously awkward. Combining the best songs of Fallout 3, and even some new ones, I am absolutely loving the sound track so far.
Pip-Boy: Absolutely beautiful!
Setting: The drab greys and browns are still there, but color is now the name of the game and that makes me so happy!
Voice Acting: Some of my friends prefer none in games where you create your character, but there is just so much personality that can be added, and so much is lost with short text you choose.
Animations: NPC's feel more alive than ever in this game due to animations.
Face Textures: No more flesh eating virus for everyone!
Speaking of NPC's and Voice Acting: It is far better than it has been almost ever. It's sitting up there with Witcher 3 for me. Pressing the activate button to skip a line of dialogue makes your charcater go, "Uh-hu, yeah" like they're comically only pretending to listen.
Everything Else: There is seriously not enough space in a single post to talk about everything that has improved and is worth loving ! I know I said it did very little to break the mold, but the changes to ghouls, and new kinds of enemies combined with the refinement of the mechanics makes this game an incredibly enjoyable experience.
I wouldn't give it Game of the Year, I'm reserving that for Witcher 3, but it is neck and neck for second place with MGSV.
Did I miss anything fun? What are your thoughts on the game so far? Any thoughts on my thoughts? Gather 'round the camp fire, and tell us tales of your wasteland travels!
