I've been playing this lately. I have had some fun but it's got a lot of problems. I don't hate it as much as Skyrim because it's basically Skyrim with guns, which is a bit better. Some really obvious issues and some less obvious. Overall it looks pretty nice and feels nice to play. I just wish it was deeper and made more sense. I am using ENB and a few small mods. Here's my thoughts on it if anyone cares, although probably out of date now that newer games exist from them:
+ Super armor works ok. I'd prefer if it didn't change the UI. And having to refuel the cores is a pain, they should last longer. But it was ok, less clunky than I thought. Being optional I find weird.
+ They finally let us set up a hotbar, almost. The UI is still a monstrosity. Maybe it makes sense on consoles but on PC it is stupid. But at least now I can pin items on the number keys and it shows them in a little pop up window. You can assign stuff to keys in Skyrim too but it doesn't show you and it's like a secret. I think they don't want to admit that hotkeys and a hotbar make sense because they have been resisting using them for 30+ years.
+ I got a leg armor item that triggers stealth if I'm attacked in melee. It actually works. Nifty! I never thought they would figure out how to have interesting items.
- The tone of the game is just weird, it bothers me. It wants to be fun for the family with the floating robots and stuff, but they say "Fuck" and there's lots of gore etc. They have to pick one. Is it a family friendly game? Or is it grim and violent? Only degenerate corporate whores would try to make both.
- A big part of that ^ is the stupid kids TV style of bad guys in this game. It wants to be a grim, bloody, post apocalypse... And yet... I break into a building and shoot a dog. All the bad guys say, "WHAT WAS THAT?!" just so every 12 year old player knows that there are enemies nearby. They investigate for a few seconds and then they say loudly, "IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE WIND." Or with robots they say, "ENDING SEARCH, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A SENSOR ERROR". What the fuck is Johnny 5 doing in a game like this? It's just so weird. Like Scooby Doo, Home Alone, bad guys.
Remember the character's family is supposed to be murdered/kidnapped, everything has been nuked to shit. There are blood soaked human carcasses strewn all over the roads and impaled on spikes, dozens of bloody heads hanging inside nets, etc.. Characters saying FUCK THIS, etc. It just doesn't suit having Teenage Turtle bad guys.
Also even besides the shitty tone, in gameplay terms it is terrible too. The enemies are dumb as shit, they don't search anywhere. They only care about the room they are in. And they loudly announce their positions and motives etc.
Youngens would probably be better suited to a game like Borderlands. And 18+ deserve a new STALKER or something similar. I hate stuff that doesn't know where it stands. You can't be a grim realistic post apocalypse, and a Disney adventure at the same time. Pick one.
+/- I get it's an RPG and levels are important but it just seems weird when I get attacked by giant mosquitos and I'm unloading on them with my assault rifle and each shot is only doing 10% damage. So weird, Uncanny Valley. It's a mosquito ffs it doesn't matter what level it is, a single rifle shot should splat it.
And yet I appreciate it too, it looks and feels like an FPS but it's got some RPG under the hood. You have to use the right weapons for the right enemies based on their resistances. I have a sniper rifle with 999 ammo so I've been trying to use that for everything. But it is very weak. I shoot a guy in the head from stealth and it only does about 20%. So I have to switch the my stronger rifle when it matters.
The weak guns are a constant issue though. I tend to try to run at enemies a lot and use shotgun and VATS to blast them in the face. But even that doesn't kill some things and often he misses the VATS shot even from duh distance. So I get beat up a lot. I've been wandering a bit and most of the big battles are just too hard. I can win but only if I use up my mines or lots of ammo. The weird creatures that mutate mid battle, just too much of a drain. So I'll find them later hopefully. I killed a few.
- It is far too linear and empty. Exploring sucks. There are enemies that are too hard so I am expected to grind and go back I guess. But also most of the world is empty. And post apocalypse is no excuse. There are mutants and dogs and shit, but there just aren't enough. I had a bugged quest so I had to run to somewhere without any markers after finding out where it was on google. It was like 20 minutes of running through completely emptiness. Occasionally I see a battle between some friendlies and some mutants or something. But mostly the game seems pretty empty.
- Overall it feels a bit weird. It's neither FPS nor RPG. The weird unrealistic things make me crave for STALKER instead which feels similar but is more serious. Or an RPG where I get to think about stats and stuff. This doesn't really let me do that. The guns I sort by DMG and that helps me choose them, but mostly it's just about levelling up to whoop lower level stuff. And using big weapons but with limited ammo. Or weak weapons you can spray. It's ok but I would like a lot more RPG.
- Also running around with Paladin Vanse or whatever his name is, was a bit better. Creatures jumped him which let me run in and do heroic shit. It feels more like an RPG with a party. But it's also janky. You can't give any kind of controls to him. And it's hard to shotgun a giant insect in the head when it's on a guy and you don't want to shoot the guy. But you can just do it in this game because it's a silly RPG posing as an FPS and doesn't know which it should be.
- VATS is still just odd. I like that it's more like bullet time now. While I'm thinking about which limb to shoot, the creature is still leaping at my head in slow mo. That's pretty cool. But it still just all sits wrong with me. What even is this game? It rewards me if I snipe stuff from miles away. Yet things can get on top of me too and it doesn't matter. I press Q for godmode slow mo. It's like Max Payne bullet time, only you get to aim at body parts. You can also pause time completely, switch weapons, eat some food, etc. Is it action packed? Is it tactical? No. No it is none of those things. I don't know wtf it is but Bethesda seem to love it.
- Fast travel is still stupid.
