Yeah alright, so I have been playing for a few hours and I am inclined to say that this is not a particularly good game. I don't think it's bad, though; really, it's just mediocre and completely average.
I expected OBLIVION WITH GUNS right from the start, and this was still shocking. It really, really is Oblivion with guns. The waiting, sleeping, and leveling systems, the controls, the conversation... it is basically just a RESKINNED OBLIVION and I'm kind of surprised it took them so long to make it when it is essentially a thorough Fallout-themed Oblivion mod. The atmosphere isn't especially good at all, and this is sad because I've heard the previous Fallouts had an excellent sense of tone. I attribute this in no small part to the music-- it is as lackluster as Oblivion's was. Half the time it is just not there, and the other half of the time it is the most bland orchestral shit you could possibly imagine. I never listened to other Fallout's music, but if it was as good as many people said it was, Bethesda are idiots for going with whatever shithead composed this instead of him. Part of the appeal (maybe even most of the appeal) of the game is wandering around this wasteland, and they kind of fucked it up. It's still a wasteland, but it doesn't really FEEL like it, I don't think. It doesn't evoke any of the moods or feelings a collapsed society in ruins should or realistically would, and imo that is a huge failing.
Also, the combat blows. Really. I assumed they would've made some improvements since Oblivion, and they did, but it didn't do a whole lot. The melee combat is as atrocious as it's been in all of Bethesda's games, and the guns basically all feel very MAKESHIFT and not nearly as good as they do in actual first-person shooters. The pistol doesn't have recoil, for example. The VATS thing helps, I guess, but it's kind of cheesy tbh and I really don't want to have to fuck with it every time I fight another person. After a dozen times, it's not fun or cool to select someone's limbs and head and
BOOM HEAPDSHOT!!!; it is actually really repetitive and unfun, contrary to what trailers of the game would indicate.
And!!! the HEH... GOOD//EVIL thing. Give it a fucking rest already please!!!! No game that I've played and can remember has ever done this well, or even close. As Chef said, and as I expected, the writing is not good. I disagree with him about it being cringeworthy (I got to Arefu and Meresti or whatever and found it mostly mediocre//subpar, not cringeworthy! And I have played Star Ocean 3//Crisis Core//watched multiple episodes of Naruto, so I have a pretty good grasp on cringeworthy!!), but it is just not particularly good, ever, and at worst is actually quite bad. The characters don't come across as very human and aren't believable at all, basically. The voice acting is also not great, but that's really the least of the problems. Mostly, the problems are wooden/contrived characters (heh........im the law around these parts.....*chews straw*) and poor dialogue (both theirs and the options they give you). But yeah the GOOD/EVIL thing is really terrible and never has more than a superficial amount of thought put into it. The entire idea strikes me as being somewhat silly, but when all you are presented with as far as options go are THE GOOD WAY (help him repair his bicycle), THE EVIL WAY (kill him and steal his creds//meds) and of course the neutral way (feh....your on your own pal
), who really gives a fuck? These are literally the only options you are ever presented with: good, evil, and neutral (you can come back later if you choose neutral, though, since I think it also serves as the LET ME THINK ON IT option). None of it means anything because it's implemented in such an arbitrary and childish way. I have yet to encounter any type of main conflict that is not GOOD VS EVIL, and I am legitimately astounded that they're still doing this. In the vault, you've got your saintly dad versus the bad old vault-leader-person (don't remember the name for this guy sorry!!!), in Megaton you've got the stern but fair western-style sheriff vs the deceitful and nihilistic Moriarty (information dont come cheap...), and so on. It's such a tired idea. I didn't like it in KoToR, I didn't like it in Bioshock, and I don't really like it here!! There is also the part where the most quantifiable effect this will have on the game world is probably something really lame like people reacting negatively or positively to you in conversation. You.... I've heard of you... you're the Butcher of Megaton. Get out of my shop!!! man I'm glad I accrued all of those evil points solely so I can get slightly different reactions/dialogue options with NPCs I don't care about.
On a more preferential note, it is just kind of boring, I've found (Marcus: "Maybe you just don't like games..." YEAH MAYBE). So far, all it has really amounted to is PLEASE HELP ME... GO DO <MENIAL TASK> or PLEASE SIR... TAKE <RANDOM SHIT> TO <FAR AWAY PLACE> sweet thanks fetch quests and boring chores like FIXING PIPES are really fun for me, gimme more of em i wanna do em all. Seriously though, it is just petty task after petty task and most of them conveniently require great deals of trekking back and forth to do shit that is not really interesting at all. Oblivion had you RAIDING CATACOMBS FILLED WITH ZOMBIE MAGES for treasure beyond your wildest imagination and this game has you running to dilapidated supermarkets for 200-year-old cereal and irradiated instant mashed potatoes.
edit. added words, increased already ridiculous length of vidgame post
