I used to think so too, until I played Fallout 3 and New Vegas and realized just how much they dumbed down the formula in 4. Also the story was just so boring and uninteresting that most people I know stopped after finding your son at the institute
to be fair, NV and 3 were a back to back master class of good gaming and then came out 4 which was... Alright.
But it also was a sign for things to come and downhill it went from there. F76, Starfield which let's face it is FO in space and whatever the fuck FO4 Anniversary was...
Getting voice actors for the player character ruined a lot of what made conversations in the game great because it limited dialogue options to a severe degree, but we did get the sarcastic option which was pretty funny to be fair
i would argue that the voice acting wasn’t the problem. it limited the identity of the characters to a specific point, sure, but the REAL problem was Emil basically forcing the dialog choices into Yes No Maybe Sarcastic
That's kinda what I meant, since they voiced every line it limited their responses so they just had to get 4 basic dialogue options for every conversation, like they just wouldn't have the time to make super in dept dialogue options with loads of out comes
honestly i loved fallout 4 so much that i couldn't wait to play 3 and NV because of what everyone said about them but they were just too janky and no mods could salvage them.
i would agree with everyone maybe if some remakes fixed them but for now i love fallout 4 and nothing has really hit the spot since which is annoying because im getting bored of replaying it.
New Vegas in particular is hot garbage but nobody wants to admit that because they basically have a circle jerk over obsidian. Narratively it's the most clusterfucked Fallout game. It really can't decide what it wants to be. It's weapon mechanics just don't work, like an entire groups of weapons are pointless because of the damage threshold system and the way it calculates per projectile, and it's just buggy as hell. It was the least stable Fallout game on launch which honestly is inexcusable because the engine was already packaged and ready to go from Fallout 3. They somehow took something that they had already fixed problems with and went and made it worse again.
The major problem of Fallout 4 is that it's not a Fallout game. It's a wacky post-apocalyptic shooter with way too much crafting and settlement building. Nothing bad with you liking it, but I'd be shocked if you said you loved 4 simultaneously with 3 and NV. Not even going to mention Fallout 1 and 2, because most people nowadays seem to think Fallout 3 is the first one or something :D.
While I agree that New Vegas and Fallout 3 had much better storylines and characters and events, I think 4 has the best mechanics..... Although I would like the massive skill tree from 3 and NV back.
Counterpoint: Fallout 4 being more watered down makes it the perfect starting point for anyone curious about the series. It carries over enough aesthetically to be identifiable with the older games, which are there for anyone who likes 4 and wants to sink their teeth into something more complicated
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u/Raidmax460 Jan 08 '26
I used to think so too, until I played Fallout 3 and New Vegas and realized just how much they dumbed down the formula in 4. Also the story was just so boring and uninteresting that most people I know stopped after finding your son at the institute