Yeah, there are a lot of good things about Fallout 4. The gunplay is nice, the weapon and armor customization is a fun idea (though it could use work because of the tedious "Loot, drop off junk, craft, loot again" treadmill), the voiced protagonist is better than I thought it would be, and I like a lot of the characters, particularly the companions.

But the settlement building is atrocious and it seems to have taken a lot away from the rest of the game.

The quests are generally bland and same-y even in flavor (of all the quests in the game, the only ones that have really stuck with me are the Silver Shroud questline and Pickman's Gallery before the anticlimactic end).

The lack of skills takes a lot away from the progression of the game, and the shift to the weird perk wall just felt off.

I still go back and play Skyrim when I get the itch (particularly with the Special Edition out now) and even Oblivion. I'm tempted to hop back into New Vegas and 3 as well (Tale of Two Wastelands is the bomb). But Fallout 4 every time I get tempted to play it I very swiftly remember how dissatisfied I was with the game as a whole. It has no sense of really getting stronger over time, just better equipped. Most of the perks are unsatisfying in effect, being boring damage bonuses or other "boring, but practical" stuff like increased accuracy in VATs or more banked criticals. The quests are generally unappealing largely because it feels like you, personally, have little effect on the world.

Looking at just the modern games, Fallout 3 is a very personal story, maybe not implemented the best, but your search for dad and picking up of his torch makes a nice arc, and you end up having a lasting effect on the future of the everyday lives of everyone in the Capital Wasteland. New Vegas puts you at the crux of everything in the Mojave. For better or worse you end up making or breaking nations by the end, even discounting Lonesome Road.

Fallout 4 is a lazy rehash of 3's instigator plot (find dad/find Shaun) and the consequences of your actions are relatively minor overall. The daily lives of people in the Commonwealth (and the fact that it took me like 30 seconds to remember the name tells you how engaging the setting was...) are largely unchanged by the destruction of the Institute. Maybe it's different if you side with them? But I doubt it.

It doesn't help that your choice of faction is between a group of *******s (the Institute), an even bigger group of *******s (the Brotherhood), and the Railroad who...exist, I guess. Oh yeah and the Minutemen. Forgot they were an option.

A lot of this stuff SHOULD have been right up my alley. I love base building stuff and getting to be the big man of an organization like you wouldn't believe. Restoring and upgrading the town in Assassin's Creed 2 was one of my favorite parts, I like Xcom, and the fact that you're the face of a major political/military organization in Dragon Age: Origins (and Inquisition...and the Mass Effect series) are my favorite parts about them. But all of those things have what Fallout 4 lacks in that area: Focus. You have one base, fortify, expand, upgrade it to your hearts content. You have a set of named advisors, underlings, and specialists to keep you up to date on the goings on of the world, and then you act and your choices shape things in at least small ways even if the diamond shaped plot does eventually merge again.

In Fallout 4 you say "Howdy Settler" to the unnamed peons, and desperately try to avoid the whiny, useless, loud, obnoxious, ENDLESSLY BITCHING, and often drug addled wastes of ****ing space that occupy Sanctuary. Your companions sometimes chime in on quests and that is hands down the BEST part about the game, but those moments are relatively few and far between and fewer and farther if you're rolling with a companion whose name doesn't rhyme with Slick Balentine or Swiper. Not that I mind that much since Nick is the best NPC in this game, but still.

This game is one of my biggest disappointments with a game in recent memory. I actually can't think of a game that so thoroughly dashed my expectations and hopes for it to the point that I actually didn't care enough to say or write anything about it until now, utterly bored at 3 AM on a Friday over a year after its release.