I really enjoyed it, and honestly I don't understand why it seems so frequently hated on. Granted I've never played another Fallout title, and this was my introduction into the series, but it really felt incredibly fun and expansive. The world was absolutely huge, and to date I think it's the only open world game where I haven't managed to explore every inch of it; it just felt like if you ran for long enough there was always another location with something going on, even if that something was simple, like an infestation of mutants. The plot was really engaging and the 'big twist' honestly had me jaw-dropped to the point of negatively affecting my opinion on the game, because I had been incredibly invested with the driving plot of the game in a roleplay sense and having that thread answered in such a way was shocking and left me with a 'what now?' kind of feeling. But I didn't think that was bad; it felt like a good twist and made perfect sense. If anything, my only criticism would be the lack of options to continue engaging with that such that my character's shock and almost depression after that reveal matched mine.
The companions were all fun and there were so many of them, it was a really lovable cast of characters. Customisation was great and incredibly expansive, there were so many options for ways to approach, to upgrade your character, little interactions with characters and nuances to those interactions. When I discovered settlements and settlement-customisation I was completely flabbergasted, it felt like a post-apocalyptic version of The Sims contained WITHIN a whole other game. I was completely amazed by how much there was I could do, I'd spend hours on hours distracted from game objectives just customising settlements (and there were so MANY of them! Preston always had another one that needed help! Always!)
The environments were gorgeous, graphically it was great and everything felt incredibly interactive; nowhere I went felt 'empty'. I loved the radio system, something about running through ruined nuclear forests while a city blinked in the distance and old-timey songs crackled over my radio had such immense atmosphere to it.
I remember on a new playthrough I decided to side with the Brotherhood of Steel, something I'd been very opposed to on my initial playthrough, and felt like I was having my mind blown doing all the new quests because it felt like a completely different game. I was amazed by how much content there was. Honestly, I felt this repetitively throughout the whole game, there was just always something I hadn't done, and pulling one thread could lead to something massive that I had no idea was in the game. I spent a LOT of hours in this game and enjoyed it massively, and to me that quantifies it as a good game, certainly a good open-world game. If nothing else the sheer amount of stuff there was that you could do deserves credit. There were a fair few glitches, I'll give it that, but they honestly always felt pretty funny and lovable, and never really negatively affected my enjoyment of the game or engagement with it. It might not have that much to say, but I don't think it really needed to. It was a lot of fun and I always enjoy coming back to it.
The companions were all fun and there were so many of them, it was a really lovable cast of characters. Customisation was great and incredibly expansive, there were so many options for ways to approach, to upgrade your character, little interactions with characters and nuances to those interactions. When I discovered settlements and settlement-customisation I was completely flabbergasted, it felt like a post-apocalyptic version of The Sims contained WITHIN a whole other game. I was completely amazed by how much there was I could do, I'd spend hours on hours distracted from game objectives just customising settlements (and there were so MANY of them! Preston always had another one that needed help! Always!)
The environments were gorgeous, graphically it was great and everything felt incredibly interactive; nowhere I went felt 'empty'. I loved the radio system, something about running through ruined nuclear forests while a city blinked in the distance and old-timey songs crackled over my radio had such immense atmosphere to it.
I remember on a new playthrough I decided to side with the Brotherhood of Steel, something I'd been very opposed to on my initial playthrough, and felt like I was having my mind blown doing all the new quests because it felt like a completely different game. I was amazed by how much content there was. Honestly, I felt this repetitively throughout the whole game, there was just always something I hadn't done, and pulling one thread could lead to something massive that I had no idea was in the game. I spent a LOT of hours in this game and enjoyed it massively, and to me that quantifies it as a good game, certainly a good open-world game. If nothing else the sheer amount of stuff there was that you could do deserves credit. There were a fair few glitches, I'll give it that, but they honestly always felt pretty funny and lovable, and never really negatively affected my enjoyment of the game or engagement with it. It might not have that much to say, but I don't think it really needed to. It was a lot of fun and I always enjoy coming back to it.