You're a writer. Try to avoid this and see why Fallout 4 fits the definition and the old games don't. I don't care how clever the companions act when they have amnesia like you blowing up The Railroad and Piper saying "I can't believe you did that" while fucking you the next sentence never to mention it again. Compare that to Fallout 2 where Marcus would freak out and gun you down if you fucked up. The whole plot is filled with idiotic writing like not being able to talk out some sort of deal where you run the Institute while working for the Railroad WITHOUT MURDERING EVERYTHING! I mean you are head of the factions in name only. The player has no control. Bethesda is awful at trying to write like Obsidian.
Okay, this is going to be a rather lengthy post:
Fallout 4 is not a bad game. Fallout 4 is a
mediocre game that I still enjoyed a great deal. It has bad elements and a lot of unfinished half-assed qualities but the biggest problems, for me, are that it is underwhelming rather than it causes people to bleed out of their eyes from its offensiveness. I'm of the mind the game doesn't actually have a bad plot, necessarily, but that it didn't handle it well.
I think part of the issue is what people wanted from the game and whether or not you wanted a sequel to
New Vegas or
Fallout 3. Honestly, I think both sides were disappointed in that respect because I was ching for a sequel to Fallout 3 and eager to get into elements pre-established by my second favorite game in the series.
What did I want from Fallout 4?
For me, I was excited about F4 taking place in Massachusetts and the commercials which advertised the Brotherhood of Steel as possible enemies. I was a huge fan of the Replicant plot in F3 and wanted to see the supposedly paradisaical Institute surrounded by the pain and death of the Commonwealth. More so, I wanted a follow up to the legacy of Elder Lyons and Sarah Lyons, two beloved characters from the franchise who I had a strong pre-established affection for. One of the elements I liked a lot about Fallout 2 was the fact it followed up and showed the legacy of your character in the first game. I was definitely interested in seeing how the Brotherhood of Steel and Capital Wasteland had been affected by the Lone Wanderer and was hoping for a lot of Easter Eggs related to that.
What I got
Overall, I actually liked the Sole Survivor's plot because I was willing to follow Bethesda's pre-made route for the most part. I allowed myself to become invested in the fictional family of the Sole Survivor and was angry when the Spouse was killed, eager to murder Kellog (not the least because I actually wanted to travel the Wasteland with my Spouse since i spent an hour on her appearance), and roleplayed a character desperate to find Shaun. I even slaughtered hundreds of Raider bases across the countryside because my character assumed the Gunners were the faction which kidnapped Shaun.
The ending was where the game and I found ourselves diverging, though, because it was clear the game expected me to follow the "Destroy Institute" plan. The problem was there was absolutely no interesting story to be had there. In
Skyrim, hate it as much as you want, siding with one faction or the other will screw over likable NPCs. There's no real moral ambiguity in going against the Institute save the heavy handed death of Patriot with the Railroad--which is still more than anyone else gets.
For me, ultimately, I didn't feel the story had enough drama and when that happens in a Bethesda game then you have to create your own. I chose to side with the Institute and turned against the Railroad as well as Brotherhood of Steel despite the fact both had been good to me and I'd been planning a slave revolt. My Sole Survivor couldn't justify destroying the Institute, one of the few cities left in the world as well as centers of technology, even though he was convinced his son was insane.
The resulting end to my story was bittersweet and I liked all the condemnation I got from my companions even though Piper and Nick Valentine reversed on it (mostly because I did Nick's quest afterward). It was a decently written story of Gray and Gray Morality which I enjoyed. It showed me the game wasn't unsalvable writing wise. Later, I would watch the other victories and was grossly disappointed as everyone treats the nuking of a civilization as a triumph for "good."
Still, the result of my playthrough of Fallout 4 was mostly positive because by focusing on the family element to the exclusion of others, I got a story I was able to enjoy. That tells me there was potential in Fallout 4. Potential that I was able to realize even if it could have been better. Certainly, by having friends in all four factions, destroying the Brotherhood of Steel had a lot more drama than it ever would have had with a stereotypical "Good guy" choice.
I talk about the best way to play Fallout 4 here in
"The Moral Ambiguity of Fallout 4"
For me, what I wanted from the Brotherhood of Steel was a big thick strawberry milkshake of fanservice and what I got was a steak and fries. There was almost no fanservice from the Lone Wanderer who wasn't even mentioned at all in the game, something that bitterly disappointed me. However, I really was invested in the Arthur Maxson story. Why? Because I was invested in the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel. I don't give a shit about the West Coast Brotherhood as, as far as I'm concerned, they're a group which should go extinct but I love the East Coast Brotherhood because that was built with your efforts as a PC.
For those who actually care about the EBoS over the WBoS, it was amazing seeing them turned into a conquering feudalist society and a force for brutality as well as racism. I felt the pain of watching Elder Lyons and Sarah Lyon's "dream" corrupted and turned to evil, even though I predicted that was what they were going to do YEARS before Fallout 4.
See my essay:
"The Moral Ambiguity of Fallout 3" which is really just about how the Brotherhood of Steel in that game is hopeless flawed. It was also written in 2012, BTW. I predicted when we next saw the EBoS, they would be brutal racist conquerors out to enslave the Wasteland because the seeds were laid in F3 if you bothered to look for them.
Still, the BoS was full of likable decent people and ones you enjoyed. They were what I wanted from the ENCLAVE of all people, the chance to see the fascists from their own heroic perspective. It was painful to side against them and blow their zeppelin out of the sky--not the least because you saw Squires and children drawing crayons on the ground.
That was good writing. To show the true horrific cost of war. To see the children of the Institute and know you're going to kill them or make them homeless if you don't. Either way you sided with the Institute or Brotherhood of Steel, innocents were going to suffer. That's why it was the most compelling plot of the game for me.
But you needed to engage with the characters first.
The fact I gave a shit about all of this shows me Fallout 4's story wasn't unsalvagable. It just really needed more work.
