Fallout 4 - Codex Review

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The RPG Codexs 'Bubbles' has produced a comprehensive review of Fallout 4 titled '13 Shocking Facts about Fallout 4 That Will Forever Change the Way You Think about RPGs'

After you get to a certain stage of the kidnapping investigation, the main quest abruptly transitions to faction warfare. At the heart of the conflict is a group of synthetic humanoids, or "synths"; these lifeforms have been created by a group of mad scientists to infiltrate and manipulate human society in the Commonwealth. The nuanced and complex ethical issues surrounding artificial life have been reduced to utterly simplistic faction philosophies that can be understood even by Xbox One owners: the Brotherhood of Steel are racial supremacists who want to exterminate all non-human sentient life, the Railroad believe that synths are 100% equal to humans and must be freed of all shackles, the scientists from the Institute are abusive slave holders who treat the synths as mere objects, and the exceptionally dull Minutemen just sort of care about people, you know? You must align yourself with one of these factions to take control of the Commonwealth, and you may very well end up having to kill some of your former allies and companions to accomplish that goal.

"Wow, that's great!" you might think, "finally I get to engage in some dynamic, open world warfare powered by the legendary Radiant AI!" Unfortunately, Bethesda were either unwilling or unable to implement the kind of robust faction system that Obsidian already realized 5 years ago in New Vegas. There's very little actual warfare or conquest going on in Fallout 4, and the main quest makes a rapid transition from "all right, now it's war!" to the final mission and the annihilation of your faction's enemies. And yet, I found these rushed final missions far more interesting and engaging than all the "Where, oh where is my little baby boy?!" stuff of the preceding 85% of the main quest. In a better game, the inter-faction conflict could have been the centrepiece of the main storyline; the developers could have taken advantage of the inherent open world nature of warfare to integrate side quests and exploration gameplay with your character's personal objectives to create a much more coherent story experience. I do not understand why Bethesda's Fallout writers have become so enamoured with these insipid family-based storylines when there are far more interesting and entertaining options available.
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More information.
 
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I felt bad for the reviewer and admired him at the same time.
Its like a food critic reviewing the newest McDonald product.
 
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I've only read the first shocking fact fully and its's totally on point.
But indeed you can't expect a gourmet meal when you go to McDonald's.
 
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I think it is a fair and informative review. It would not hurt if some of these mainstream review sites would even occasionally show similar kind of attitude to big AAA games. Nobody can claim that the reviewer did not play the game enough or that his criticism was unfair.

I haven't played fallout 4 and judging by this review i'm not in a hurry. Fallout 3 was a fun themepark ride, but left me wanting more real fallout feeling. Thankfully later Obsdian delivered that real modern fallout game.

Sadly Bethesda didn't continue to that direction. For them fallout is not a serious setting. Obsdian proved that the series could have a more serious tone, but thats not clearly what Bethesda wants…

I like open world games, but everything i've read about fallout 4 seems to suggest that I should buy it much later from steam sales if at all. Bethesda understands elder's scrolls because it's their creation. For them its the serious setting. Fallout however is this wacky and goofy science fiction universe. Thats why any kind of "inner logic" is not very important to them.
 
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It's easy to play Fallout 4 and conclude that it sucks, but much harder to lay out all the reasons why. Thankfully there are Top Men like Bubbles on the case.
 
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Look, the rift between mass market consumer RPGs and smaller hardcore RPGs is widening in each passing year.

We, hardcores must face the inevitable that Beth wanted to create a AAA consumer experience - and this is not the RPG *we* want.
On the other hand, my friend, who is so in Gears of War, really liked FO4...
... so I, the ever cynical wiseguy, consider it as a minor success anyways, because:
1. he will be curious of the "other" fallouts,
2. therefore he will play FO3,
3. which leads to FO3: NV,
4. so he will try out FO2 just for curiosity.
5. and by that time, he will surely like it, and definitely want more "proper" RPGs...

And his soul will be ours, my fellow RPGers...
MUAHHHAHAAHHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!
 
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duerer said:
Look, the rift between mass market consumer RPGs and smaller hardcore RPGs is widening in each passing year.

We, hardcores must face the inevitable that Beth wanted to create a AAA consumer experience - and this is not the RPG *we* want.
On the other hand, my friend, who is so in Gears of War, really liked FO4…
… so I, the ever cynical wiseguy, consider it as a minor success anyways, because:
1. he will be curious of the "other" fallouts,
2. therefore he will play FO3,
3. which leads to FO3: NV,
4. so he will try out FO2 just for curiosity.
5. and by that time, he will surely like it, and definitely want more "proper" RPGs…

And his soul will be ours, my fellow RPGers…
MUAHHHAHAAHHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!
Click to expand...

Our plan cannot fail Lord Duerer! :mwahaha:
 
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Dez said:
Sadly Benthesa didn't continue to that direction. For them fallout is not a serious setting. Obsdian proved that the series could have a more serious tone, but thats not clearly what Benthesa wants…

I like open world games, but everything i've read about fallout 4 seems to suggest that I should buy it much later from steam sales if at all. Benthesa understands elder's scrolls because it's their creation. For them its the serious setting.
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It's called "Bethesda" btw. ;)
 
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I finished FO3 (eventually)…but I only spent about 30-40 hours doing stuff in FO4 and then just ran out of steam. I simply can't face going back to it. It feels weird - but I have 0 desire and every time I think of trying to jump in again, I groan and play something else.
 
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booboo said:
I finished FO3 (eventually)…but I only spent about 30-40 hours doing stuff in FO4 and then just ran out of steam. I simply can't face going back to it. It feels weird - but I have 0 desire and every time I think of trying to jump in again, I groan and play something else.
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For me it's similar. I encountered a bug when I attacked the BoS Airship from the Minuteman base where the battle just didn't complete and no more vertibirds were incoming.
So I suspended playing the game and planned to come back somewhen. Never did and most likely never will.
 
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booboo said:
I finished FO3 (eventually)…but I only spent about 30-40 hours doing stuff in FO4 and then just ran out of steam. I simply can't face going back to it. It feels weird - but I have 0 desire and every time I think of trying to jump in again, I groan and play something else.
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That kind of my experience as well. I spend also 30+ hours on it, I only had fun playing it as a diablo like shooter. But that got old as well and I don't think I will ever go back to it.
Same thing happened with Skyrim.
 
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Am I one of the few people who knew they wouldn't like FO4 so they stayed away from it y/n
 
Sacred_Path said:
Am I one of the few people who knew they wouldn't like FO4 so they stayed away from it y/n
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I knew I probably would not like it but I was curious. Since I didn't give them 1$ for it, I had nothing to lose.
 
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Sacred_Path said:
Am I one of the few people who knew they wouldn't like FO4 so they stayed away from it y/n
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I am one of those people who owns FO1, FO2, FO3, New Vagas and FO4 but not played any of them! I don't know why I do this to myself :lol:

The theory was that I plan to play them in order but I doubt that will ever happen unless I divorce my wife and put the the kid for adoption :)
 
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lostforever said:
I am one of those people who owns FO1, FO2, FO3, New Vagas and FO4 but not played any of them! I don't know why I do this to myself :lol:

The theory was that I plan to play them in order but I doubt that will ever happen unless I divorce my wife and put the the kid for adoption :)
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Same here, but once I realized it is not about the energy weapons and mutants, but about the satire of 50's Americana disguised as a western - I was sold.

Mind you, the western aspect is even more developed in Wasteland 2, so you may like WL2 better. It's more straightforward.
 
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Stingray said:
It's easy to play Fallout 4 and conclude that it sucks, but much harder to lay out all the reasons why.
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It's not hard at all to list reasons, but sorry, IMO the game doesn't suck. It's certain designs inside that suck, some easy to mend with 3rd party solutions (norespawn mod), some impossible to get around (easy to make a godlike character).

But it's IMO.
While the review is awsome, I just can't agree with it's 13th point. FO4 is not a bad game.
I'm not saying that just because the review author forgot to notice that in FO1/2 there were no endless mobrespawns present in FO3/4. I'm saying that because I had much fun with the game and unlike other recent Bethesda's openworlds that were utterly broken and still are not completely patched, FO4 had ignorable amount of bugs on it's release.

Sure, it's a bad RPG. Sure, it's not a masterpiece of a game and definetly won't remain a game we'll point out after a decade as a mustplay before dying. Sure, it has bad design choices and halfbaked ideas that could have been implemented better.
But unlike Oblivion, FO3 and Skyrim it never bored me, it never annoyed me and I never had an urge to uninstall it because I couldn't take it any more.

The review is awsome, so much better and with so much detail other reviews skipped or didn't dare to mention. But it's conclusion is IMO wrong. FO3 was a bad game. FO4 is a huge improvement and while not good RPG, IMO is a good game.
 
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joxer said:
Sure, it's a bad RPG. Sure, it's not a masterpiece of a game and definetly won't remain a game we'll point out after a decade as a mustplay before dying. Sure, it has bad design choices and halfbaked ideas that could have been implemented better.
But unlike Oblivion, FO3 and Skyrim it never bored me, it never annoyed me and I never had an urge to uninstall it because I couldn't take it any more.
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But isn't that a case of "Yeah, it sucks but I still enjoy it", then? There are lots of cases of games that - when looked at objectively - suck in varying degrees, yet I enjoy them. Nothing wrong with that - everyone has guilty pleasures ;)
In any of those cases, there is just "something" about the game that works for me.
However, I'd never claim them to be good games.
 
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