... and two steps backwards. Fallout 4 had so much potential just looking at their ancestors: Fallout 3 and New Vegas are almost flawless games with one of the best settings, characters, stories and DLC's among the genre. I understand surpassing them with Fallout 4 was not easy, but the minimum required is at least being on the same level.

Fallout is supposed to be an RPG, which includes the keyword "Role". Well, Fallout 4 manages to strip almost all the role potential out of your main character in the first 10 minutes of the game. The game throws you the role of a distressed parent in search of their kidnapped baby. You like it? Good. You don't? Too bad, that's who you are for the next 100 hours.
I understand is impossible to make a system where your character says and behaves just like you would like to role them, but games like Fallout New Vegas managed to offer you a complete array of dialogue options and actions to make your playthrough unique, which clearly Fallout 4 is far from achieving it.
Talking about dialogue, instead of the dialogue options box which EVERY single RPG has because it WORKS, Fallout 4 presents a unique and revolutionary system where you always have four options: "YES", "NO", "MAYBE", "SARCASTIC". And you have no clue on what your character is gonna say, you literally just play the dialogue roulette.
1. Who in the hell thought this was a good idea?
2. What is the advantage of this system? Either technical or gameplaywise.

I don't have too much of a complaint about the main story and secondary quests, it's not amazing, but makes the game fairly entertaining and with a decent number of locations and characters, the game can assure you some hours of fun at least.
While compared with other modern Fallout games you have a lot more companions available (more quantity = good), they're plain and almost none of them have a side quest (less quality = bad). I don't understand why your relationship with your companions must be limited to a quick chat when they like you enough, instead of having a development quest just like other games.
Some locations were copy-paste between them (hospitals, office buildings, raider camps all look the same), but some others are unique and worth the exploration time.

Okay, the "R" part of the game is clearly a disasterclass, but let's go through about the "PG", playable-game.
Well, let's talk about the few "ahead steps" first: the combat is fun and presents a high improvement compared with F03 and FNV, the enemies move like actual being trying to kill you instead of just run-towards-you bots. The perk system is innovative and pretty fun to use and plan, as well the weapon and armor modding system. Although I miss the different ammo types and preset mods in NV, I think Bethesda did a decent job with the weapons and equipment in this game.

And the MASSIVE backwards step can be summed with a rethorical question: WHY THE F*CK THE GAME WANTS ME TO PLAY MINECRAFT?
I'm playing Fallout, I want to shoot things, hack terminals, talk to people, uncover pre-war mysteries. NOT BUILDING A FENCE, NOT SUPPLY SOME UNNAMED FARMERS, AND OF COURSE I DON'T WANT TO BUILD ANOTHER F*CKING SETTLEMENT, PRESTON. I genuinely don't understand why the building and settlement management system is so integrated inside the game. For example, Skyrim did a good job with this stupid crafting hype. Wanna build a house? Cool, you can do it, don't bother me when I'm playing the real game tho. Bethesda spent so much time developing the crafting system they forgot to develop a competent game in the important sides. That crafting and management sh*t was modders job, not developers. Every time I was playing a MAIN quest, and the game asked me to build some device I legit wanted to punch the screen, it just doesn't make any sense.
And another feature that infuriates me are the radiant quests: I want to play meaningful quests that, eventually, go away from your PipBoy. Letting you a satisfactory feeling of finishg all the tasks the game presents to you. But fear not buddy! Want to retrieve GenericArtifact#5 from GenericLocation#7? Oh boy, it's your lucky day! Now you can do the exact same meaningless quest over again, and again, and again ad infinitum. And one may think, hey if you don't like this kind of quest, just don't queue up for them. That's the best part! If you talk to a character, THEY GIVE THEM TO YOU WITHOUT ASKING!
Now on a serious note, radiant quests are just a lazy mechanic that not only makes the game generic, but the time developing these errands could be used to develop a real game.

About the DLC's yeah, likewise, let's go first through the forward step: in previous Fallout games, DLC's were as important as the base game, as they were even better than the actual game, gameplaywise and story wise. And fortunately, (some) Fallout 4 DLC's play the savior role of the game: Far Harbor is a "miniature what if" if Fallout 4 would have been a good game. Cool concept, interesting story and characters and a whole new island to explore. Nuka World makes the cut as well but fails to deliver as it funnels down to the settlement management system AGAIN.
But Fallout 3 had 5 DLC's which made a good game in a GOTY and Fallout New Vegas had 4 DLC's which completed a perfect game into a masterpiece. Where are the rest of Fallout 4 DLC's? Well, there's Automatron, which features 5 quests and a robot crafting system, which I (reluctantly) accept as minor DLC. But the good news is there is no one, no two but three: CRAFTING DLC'S, HELL YEAH! Which feature the ludicrous amount of NONE quests, NULL characters, ZERO weapons and equipment; but HUNDREDS of f*cking furniture. At this point I think Bethesda just wanted either to pander to Minecraft players or make fun at the expense of the real Fallout playerbase.

The artistic side is fine, the OST is good and is on the same tone as previous games, and the graphics present a natural improvement compared with past modern Fallout games.

Fallout 4 is not a bad game, it isn't even boring, it’s really fun if you play it with the right lenses. But as a Fallout saga hardcore fan I can't recommend this game to anyone expecting this game to be a Fallout. If instead of advertising back in the day the game as Fallout 4, they did as "Wasteland Settlements", I wouldn't lose the expectations and hype for every modern game, and for sure I would have had so much fun playing a really good game, but a fallout of a Fallout.