I agree, and disagree to some extent. The voice acting does limit your character's background and personality, and I think it allowed for NPCs to have better voice acting than those in any Elder Scroll's game; Desdemona's suspicion and Elder Maxson's outburst would have been awkward in reply to a voiceless character.
The main story... I am not sure if Bethesda has handled it well with Fallout. It has been argued if Bethesda even understands what Fallout is about but that is a digression. I am in complete agreement about the main story. It assumes far too much for what people could expect from a Bethesda game.
How do I justify being a stone cold killer? How do I justify being a sociopath?
You did mention she was a lawyer, right? Silly remarks about people who are often not how media portray them (violent and psychotic) aside, I did just that. My female Sole Survivor did an internship at one of the Poseidon companies (also a way for me to justify her familiarity with energy weapons) and found herself not all needing to rationalize being involved with their shady practices; people with diminished empathy need not bother, and they need little motivation to kill if something of theirs was taken.
For me the voice acting wasn't bad at all. It was pretty great, for the most part. It's the writing that made me cringe.
And yes, you can find ways to justify violent characters, but again - mental gymnastics. You still have to think around all the stuff that's pre-existing. It's harder for people who don't know the lore very well (myself included).
But whatever... The more I look back on this post, the more I find myself remembering the good times I had in Fallout 4. It really isn't a bad game. Just an... ungraceful one.
I loved it too, but this is one of the reasons I don't play it much anymore (the main reason being that I no longer have the time). My first character was perfect, because I naturally slipped into a 'good guy' role that matched the backstory and voice of the male protagonist. My next character was not so good. I honestly felt that I couldn't make another male character with the same voice as the first one. Since I spend most of the game in first person, the voice is all I perceive of my character! How can I help but feel that the new character is a continuation of the previous playthrough?
So I made a female protagonist. And I don't like her voice.
However, there was one element that made me forgive the game for everything, and that is the follower personality. O my, the followers were good. They were far above the boring Skyrim companions, yet at the same time not as dramatically deep as the companions in for example Dragon Age. And that fit so well with Bethesda's open-world style. The experience is mainly in exploration and discovery, yes, but it got so much better with some people by your side rather than pack-mules. I frequently forgot that my Fallout followers could carry stuff - they weren't backpacks to me at all, they were friends.
Anyway, that was just my personal experience with the game. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
'Ralof of Riverwood.
'Lokir of Rorikstead.
...
'Wait WTF? Oh hell no. I can't say that.' *deep inhale* 'Left bracket apostrophe apostrophe apostrophe right bracket caret semi-colon comma comma semi-colon caret right bracket apostrophe apostrophe apostrophe left bracket. >8C '
I didn't dislike the game. As a consumer, however, I feel that I'm entitled to criticize a product for, what I consider to be, it's flaws. There are plenty of good things I could say about Fallout 4, but I feel they've mostly been said by other people.
It's always annoying, though, when you like something and someone else decides to bash it. Trust me, I get that. The thing I've had to learn is that there will ALWAYS be someone who hates what you like, regardless of whether or not their reasons are sound. You just have to accept that as a fact.
Our opinions and experiences as human beings are too diverse for anything to be universally liked.
I agree, but I still don't see the need to share those opinions here. People come here because they probably enjoy playing Fallout/Skyrim. I don't think they're searching for reviews or other perspectives of the games they already enjoy.
I see posts like this on both the Fallout Reddit forum and here, and it's getting quite tiresome really...
There are few times when I agree with Overhate and this is one of them. Every time I read a review or comments on something I take great interest in the negative stuff. I'm not a hater, but I am interested in knowing the flaws of a game. This way I know what to avoid if I deem it worthy of my "play time".
Yeah, the Poseidon bit is quite obscure, and for the most part, I used arm-chair psychology (not much of a difference from real psychology when you think about it) to justify her ease into a violent living more so than lore, much of which concerns the western US. And when you think about it, (good) character building is primarily arm-chair psychology.
And I don't like her voice.
Them's fightin' words. I enjoy her voice. It has a sultry raspy texture to it, and I find her sarcasm far more believable than Nate's. A male character with a goatee and a scar when his sarcastic tone sounds like Saints Row 4's parody of the 1950s? Nope.