Recent reviews by Sly

The A.I. is still absolutely awful, and the game still lacks mechanical depth other Paradox games have. There is a neat feature where you can direct your general's to specific war goal task (taking territory, or defending), but they consistently get confused, and instead of taking a fort to keep occupied territory, the A.I. goes in an endless loop taking two tiles. The diplomacy doesn't give you many options either, allies can peace out for you, regardless if your occupied territory is part of the war goal or not, it will be given to the enenmy, even at absurdly low war score for the enemy. Additionally, in EU4 you can go through territory if you don't have access rights during a war (in exchange for a penalty), but this game doesn't give you that, so if you lose your ships for travel, your screwed. I play this game, and feel like I always end up being annoyed or frustrated. What really frustrates me is when the A.I. runs away, and since your A.I. can, and will get stuck, you have to micro manage chase tiny armies running away, it isn't fun in other Paradox games, it isn't fun here.

Also, I was kinda hoping for more of the civil side of the Roman world. I think it would be splendid to be able to produce works of art, or steer the Roman culture from Greek influence, or stay more Etruscan. As it stands, the Roman senate, and government only allow for law changes from a decent sized list, or to keep popular support so you can wage war. This game is still so bare-bones, and the war apsect is so frustrating, like somehow Carthage hardly uses mercenaries despite being known for it, but instead it seems like they have more levies from a desert than I do in the Italian peninsula.

Fallout 4 is a fun game. I have played several play-through's on the Playstation 4 before getting it on Steam. The game, like previous Bethesda Fallouts thrive on modding, so you will defiantly have fun with this one after the main story is done.

Overall the presentation of the game is nice, from the music to the art design. Of course not all people agree on certain design choices, such as the inclusion of the make-shift pipe weapons in the world of Fallout. Despite this the world of the post-war Commonwealth in Fallout 4 is very detailed, and includes many aspects of American culture in the 20th century. One line I recall vividly is Mayor McDonough calling Piper a "muckraker" as one example out of many. The theme of consumerist America works well in this Fallout as it did in previous entries in the series.

One of my favorite aspects of Fallout 4 is the map (in my opinion the best Fallout map out of Fallout 3, and New Vegas). It is large, and is filled with places to explore, and things to kill, and loot. Going further there are many instances of unique encounters, or NPCs that dot the world, two of my personal favorites are the blind Super-mutant, and the Norwegian speaking Ghoul bandits. The game gives you reasons to explore the world, and entices you to learn more about it. The characters, and places are memorable, especially if you enjoy the theme of 20th century America. Nick Valentine is one my favorite companions, because he is a slick detective, complete with all the slang you would see in a Noir movie.

The game-play is not anything revolutionary. The gun-play is fine, better then previous Fallout games though. In Fallout 4 Power-armor is not something the player can wear all the time anymore, but instead is a sort of vehicle the player uses at the cost of power-cores. Guns, armor , and power-armor can be customized to improve the effectiveness of them or to change them to suit your game-play stlye. The quests you find are usually fetch-esque quests, meaning you go somewhere, and shoot things. There are memorable unique quests, but it would have been nice to see more variety in your standard side-quest. If you enjoy building, then you will like the Minute-Men because you build settlements, and protect them from attacks at a minute's notice. You build, and manage the resources of a settlement with a certain budget allotted (can be increased with mods, as well as add more building items). If you do not enjoy this type of game-play, you can it ignore entirely. Companions finally don't feel useless in combat. Fallout 4, in my opinion, also has the best cast of companions (as well as the best companion quests) out of Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 3.

One major flaw of Fallout 4 is the more "casual" approach Bethesda took to this entry. What I mean is that they removed RPG mechanics well known in the series such as karma, settlement opinions of the player, leveling up skills through use (such as lock-picking, or explosives) to name a few. I also think Charisma doesn't have enough opportunities to really make it worth while. Also, the charisma "check" is a roll now instead of just the game seeing if your charisma level was at least a certain level to pass.

The story is something I liked, and enjoy. Personally, I like the fish-out-of-water plot. The story is straight-forward where multiple factions duke it out, and you pick one to side with; the Minute-men, Railroad, the Institute, and the Brotherhood of Steel. Honestly pretty standard Fallout stuff, however despite choices you make, the ending is climaxes the same, except with your faction choice as the victor. This is where the game is weaker compared to Fallout: New Vegas, but it is still enjoyable. One flaw of the game is that the voice-dialog choice typically does not impact the outcome of an interaction as it would in Fallout: New Vegas. This in my opinion hurts the role-playing aspect of the game.

Mods absolutely make this game better. If you do not like the new dialog-wheel, there is a mod for that. Want cut-content like the Fallout 3 assault rifle? There is a mod for that. There are mods for new quests, guns, armor, cosmetics, or whatever a Modder can think of. Don't bother with the Official mods, you can get them free online usually, or an alternative.

Overall, Fallout 4 is a solid game that you can have a lot of fun with despite the changes to the RPG mechanics, and other flaws.