Trying this out again with the PS5 update. I never played this game on anything else other than my OG PS4, got the plat back in like 2017 and I never touched it since. So it's kinda crazy seeing it in smooth 60 FPS.

Anyways, this game singlehandedly carried me out of Destiny jail back in the day, the gameplay loop was more than addictive enough for me. Pick a spot in the map, shoot all the bad guys there, loot everything, haul it all back so you can upgrade your equipment, and repeat. The gunplay is quite solid, especially for an action RPG. And the weapons customization is just so fun to do, mfs be trembling at the sight of my glow-sighted drum-barrel powerful long-barrel automatic pipe rifle.

Then you have the Commonwealth open world itself, which nails the 50s retrofuturistic aesthetic that Bethesda really likes to focus on. And Fallout 4's colorful-yet-rustic art direction creates a lot of varied atmospheric locales to explore. Bethesda also handles their typical environmental storytelling stuff quite well, so there's usually some interesting tales to stumble upon.

Speaking of stories, there's no escaping NPCs in this game, and the actual dialogue driven stories that you'll be experiencing are just so flat, aside from a couple exceptions. The RPG aspects unfortunately doesn't extend to its story, and even in the dialogue choices, it doesn't feel like you're carving out a path for yourself. It always feels linear and limited, which is not good for a series that has made a name for itself with big narrative playgrounds. And the general quality of writing is just meh. A lot of the dialogues don't convey enough personality, and it can come across as toothless and boring. I do quite like the company of some characters like Nick Valentine and Piper, and there's some good story moments scattered all over the main and side missions, but overall it is not the driving force of the game's fun factor. They did made Far Harbor, which basically transplants an actually good RPG storyline with memorable writing into the game, so it's not like they can't do it. I guess they don't care enough or something.

But yeah, that's it really. Fallout 4 is a fun time when you don't have classic Fallout fans screaming at you. It's a very wide inflatable pool that has a lot of floaties to play with, but it's still an inflatable pool, and you'll probably yearn for the sight and sounds of the real sea at some point.