EDIT: HEAVY RANT INCOMING!!! BE WARNED!!!
i haven't played this a lot, but actually had my roommate putting over a 150h into it and i watched a lot of that and must say it seems like a better shooter than ever before. however the new dialogue system i found to be super dumb and this was the first fallout game where i couldnt identify with the protagonist in any way, and i usually play as females, so i can whore around in the wasteland.
the new system with the four choices is totally stupid and when my buddy was halfway through the game i really wasnt interested in it anymore, yet of course i watched from time to time until he got to the end.
i really like the setting, the commonwealth looks awesome, but i also feel like most places dont have a distinct character to them, maybe the glowing sea. it reminded me of fallout 3, which also disappointed me for it's dumb story and for a bethesda game very weak world building with in itself awesome, but samey looking locations and a very drab feel to it, like the worst, boring kind of bleakness.
i loved new vegas though, even if it has stupid parts, too. all in all i found the world and the story more coherent and akin to the older games, that i played religiously in the late 90s. in fact, my very first pc game i bought myself might have been fallout 2, and so far i still think that in terms of player agency and world builiding, the first two are still the best games from the series.
worst part in this game was the big twist when you finally get to the institute. some people told me they think that was actually super clever, i just thought it was super dumb. i thought the whole premise of the story was stupid.
it's like he wakes up from cryosleep, is super determined to find his kid, doesnt even think about the fact that he may have been in cryo for hundreds of years, his child maybe long dead. of course we as the player know when the story takes place, and that it's not too far off in the timetable, but the protagonist doesnt know. in a shooter with a shallow story, this is alright, but this is a story driven game.
anyway, so the mission is to find the kid. oh look, power armor, sweet! oh look, a deathclaw, better get in that power armor! oh scrap, sweet, i think i'll set the urgent quest aside to play a bit of mayor, build some towns, and so on... it was just totally unconvincing.
maybe i just don't like the writer's style, in the end he did fallout 3, too. f4 had a more convincing world, where there is actually an explanation as to why stuff is how it is, but it still feels dumbed down a lot from any fallout black isle or obsidian ever made. it's like eveytime bethesda does a fallout game it's like a lame and campy jock version of it where it's all power armor, laser rifles, kill all raiders, kill the other faction, just kill anyone. it's like their games are all about the protagonist becoming a demigod.
in fallout 3 and fallout 4, everyone waits for you to show up and do something about everything, the whole world is dead and immobile without you. like the guy in front of megaton begging for water is a really lame kind of exposition to show you people have no water, yet there is a whole town behind him full of people and they all seem to have enough water to get by, there's no countdown until it runs out like in 1/2. it just makes no sense, you have to take it as establishing the genereal info about the water problem, and everyone talks about it, altho everyone seems to have friggin enough water. player actions in the first two games and nv actually changed shit in other locations and cared to explain, why things were the way they were, where the food comes from, where water comes from, who is in control of those ressources., you could also kill npcs and companions, thus making their questlines disappear and thus alter any effect they would have on the storyline, too. in fallout 4, my buddy in the end was basically the leader of every faction, lover of every companion, even the ones that hate or go to war with each other. last thing to do is actually not a real complex decision that has meaningful choices, you just choose the one faction you want to align with in the end and then go on a genocide against their enemies. it's just crazy dumb...
my final gripe is with the protagonist. charisma and intelligence actually dont really show anymore in the dialogues, so it doesnt matter if you build a stupid or super smart character, it wont affect speech. charisma also doesn't alter dialogue that much anymore, and i just thought the protagonist is a stupid asshole. i just don't wanna play as this dude/chick, if i can't really influence his speech and if him/her being stupid/smart does only matter in relation to repair, science and medic skills. it's just not a real rpg. watching it and playing it for a bit, it reminded me of a much weaker STALKER.
anyone digging F4 should definitely try to get the STALKER games, if you like a shooter with rpg mechanics, any STALKER game is a much better choice than
F4, and purely looked at as an rpg, F4 is just weak as fuck. STALKER has a better inventory/weight system, much, much better gunplay and also an open world to explore, with a much less heavy handed narrative that isn't very complex, but vague enough to fill with imagination and coherent enough to seem realistic.