Finished my first playthrough of Fallout 4 (no mods, about 160 hours) and I fucking love the game. Never been a fan of Beth stuff so didn't expect that at all. Some thoughts...
- Combat is very fun even if simple and the enemy variety lacking. The movement and weapons feel good. Never liked magical items in non-fantasy settings, but it's a minor annoyance. Still wish they'd gone for something more realistic. Also sad about the lack of different types of ammo. A lot of the gear also looks hideous. I don't use VATS, so too many of the perks seem like useless nonsense. Otherwise I don't hate the perk system even though character building options are very limited.
- Exploration is also fun even though there's not a lot to most of the locations. Some more horror-leaning setups like in Dunwich Borers and the Museum of Witchcraft are pretty cool. But my favorite location in the entire game is Corvega. Really well designed combat area with multiple approaches.
- Not much here for people looking for good stories, but I read books for stories and weak storytelling in games has never bothered me. If I stumble upon something good, then that's just a pleasant surprise. Lore butchery or inaccuracies aren't a big deal either (I love Fallout Tactics, too, btw). Some of the companions here seemed pretty well done. I mostly went around with Danse and really liked what they did with him. It's easier to write more colorful or loud personalities, but I think they got it just right with Danse who's a more grounded character and I feel like he breaks a few molds, too. They could have gone for the stiff moralism of a knight/paladin type character but he's just a good guy with some personal biases and a healthy but not completely inflexible respect for rules. Could have gone for the brash hypermasculine super soldier type but he's not that either. There's a good mix of professionalism and friendliness, toughness and vulnerability, a good depth of characterization achieved with fairly small amount of dialogue and some non-verbal reactions. He's a tragic character but not really defined by tragedy. (Contrast this with someone like Boone from New Vegas - there's barely any character there beyond his loss and trauma and desire for vengeance.)
- Most people seem to consider Far Harbor the best this game has to offer, but while I enjoyed it, I kinda prefer the main game. The quest design is a little better in Far Harbor but the constant fog is somewhat annoying and the limited visibility makes some of the exploration more about following compass markers or map instead of checking out anything interesting actually seen. The inclusion of puzzles was interesting, but that section goes on way too long.
- Nuka World was fine. Siding with raiders didn't really fit my character so I just ended up killing them all. Too bad Gage is tied to that storyline because he seems kind of fun. The park was still decently enjoyable to go through but it also included some of the most extreme unfun I've had in a game (the Fun House in the Kiddie Kingdom).
- Settlement building I first hated, but then sort of started liking at some point. It's clunky as hell and the settlers are fucking useless, but it's okay. Shouldn't have forced it on some quests, though.
- Was unable to complete the Automatron stuff because it kept crashing in the Mechanist's Lair. Other than that I had only two crashes and one case of audio breaking (playing on Linux).
- Didn't try survival mode yet, but it sounds exciting except for the saving restrictions. I wish games just let us customize difficulty.
- I thought I'd hate the voiced protag, but I don't. Limits role playing and too bad if one happens to dislike the acting, but I thought the guy did a decent to good job most of the time and is pleasant to listen to.
- The worst things about this game are the main plot (could have been decent I guess, but it's just never gonna work in a game like this and it was very poorly done) and the inventory system (FFS).
Absolute heresy, I know, but I'd say this is a solid 8/10, even 9/10. Just a thoroughly comfy and fun gaming experience.