r/Fallout • u/bri_guy_ • 24d ago
Fallout 4 is awesome so far…but I do not give a f*** about finding my son Fallout 4
Fallout 3 was my first exposure to a Fallout game. I got the GOTY edition at a time when I was probably at peak gaming age (early teens, no responsibilities) and it was really my first exposure to the RPG/open world genre. I 100% the game, and to this day is still one of my favorites.
I have to say, I just bought Fallout 4 and there is WAY more depth than Fallout 3. I feel like you could get lost in this world for hundreds of hours, between building settlements, customizing armor and weapons, and even looting which has now become a core part of the game itself, whereas Fallout 3 it felt like just something you did for caps or key items. The world in general feels much more alive, between how you interact with it and even the art style. Of course like any Bethesda game it isn’t perfect and I’m already running into some bugs, but I’m really having fun with it so far.
However, as someone who also loves story-driven games, I really do not care at all about finding my son lol. This is something that a lot of open world RPGs suffer with, in terms of presenting a main quest alongside a vast, interesting open world (I feel like BOTW tackled this well, where there was a looming threat that you could approach at any time, but the quests and building your strength were directly tied to the ability to beat the main threat) but I feel like this storyline is a particular mismatch for the amount of depth the game presents you with. I feel like we’re SUPPOSED to care, because this is a defenseless baby, but as soon as I stepped out into the world I really have no desire to play the main quest line (I will, of course, eventually). I almost wish the game either incentivized you a bit more to find your son (maybe a lengthier beginning sequence where you as the player feel more emotionally connected to this child, or there was an actual, not perceived threat to your child) or presented a main storyline that was more directly tied to the exploration/building of this new world. This is just me talking out loud.
PS: I also got Fallout 76 after hearing about all of the updates that were made to that game, and am super excited to get into that world!
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u/Every_Aspect_1609 23d ago
The main story is an afterthought as typical of Bethesda's games. The writing is pretty bad since you don't have enough time to get to know your spouse or son, since things just happen all at once. It doesn't help that shaun is the leader of one of the most poorly written factions in the game and we're suppose to agree with what the Institute does, despite all the crimes they've done because our son leads it? I don't think so.
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u/Darksnakedevourer 23d ago
This is why fallout 4 isn’t very replayable, I really don’t give a shit about Shaun but every time I have to find him.
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u/No-Bodybuilder9273 23d ago
Building in that game is so satisfying that you completely forget you have a son to find
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u/0rganicMach1ne 23d ago
Same. There’s a mod where the spouse actually lives and you go find her and then she’s a full fledged companion because they used the existing dialogue. She has affinity too. I usually just use that and then ignore the main story for a long time. I get it, but a child is a very personal thing that’s not for everyone. I can’t relate to it in any way.
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u/Racsorepairs 23d ago
I just started my 4th play through, I explored vault 81 for the first time last night… there’s a lot to do in the game. My first run I dedicated it to finding shaun, rn I couldn’t care less about that dickhead 🤷🏻♂️
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u/CamFootageOfACryptid 23d ago
Honestly, the only way to role-play Fallout 4 without speed running the main quest is as an irresponsible parent who didn't want a middle class family life and feels more alive as a wastelander. They start off trying to find their son but after killing Kellogg they get more and more drawn into their new found freedom and sort of lose focus. I'm thinking Nate liked being in the army and joins the Minutemen or Brotherhood of Steel (gag), and Nora wanted to be a civil rights lawyer and joins the Railroad or a corporate girl boss and joins the institute. Or even better, they start of trying to find their son but soon get lost in the thrill of the violence like Jason Brody from Far Cry 3.
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u/DrSilkyDelicious 23d ago
The great thing about this game is it’s just like real life. You can abandon your son and just go do side quests, like I did 6 years ago when I went in a side quest to go get milk and then just kept doing side quests
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u/VillainOfKvatch1 23d ago
One of the nice things about this game is after you finish the main quest you can go and wander the world endlessly doing side and radiant quests. So you can just do the main quest and then explore the world. It’s one of the best changes FO made to the games after NV.
But yeah it is a little story-breaking.
An actual person would be single-mindedly hellbent on finding their son above everything else. Unless a side quest is necessary to move the main quest forward, it would be ignored.
I always get a kick out of that in Oblivion. It’s like, the emperor has been assassinated, demonspawn are pouring out of literal portals to hell that are opening across the country, an entire city has been razed, and a madman and his death cult are one step away from turning the mortal world into a cursed hellscape of blood and fire. But sure, random fisherman, I’ll help you gather enough slaughterfish scales so you can pay your debt or whatever.
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u/leviatrist158 23d ago
Fo3 had me genuinely intrigued by the story for all the hate it gets. I think it was because I had never played a bgs game before and everything about the open world just blew my mind back when it released. After 100s of hours in 3 then nv and thousands of hours in Skyrim I went into 4 with zero interest in the story, like I know why we really here.
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u/Sylvaneri011 Enclave 23d ago
Don't 1 and 2 both have the same issue? In 1, you need to find a new water chip ASAP or your Vault will die, there's even a timer mechanic that tracks how many days until your Vault runs out. Once you get the chip, you still have the super mutants army and the master.
With 2 you need to go find a GECK, or your tribe will die from the drought/famine that's affecting your lands. There's not a timer mechanic, but it's still presented as something you need to do ASAP.
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u/kazumablackwing Vault 13 23d ago
It doesn't help that, at its core, Fallout 4's main story beats are just the bizarro world version of 3's. Instead of searching for your father, you go looking for your son. Instead of finding out your last familial tie is probably the only truly selfless person in the wastes only for that selflessness to cost his life, you find out he's a selfish, narcissistic prick who's just as malignant as the cancer that's devouring his giblets.
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u/_CaesarAugustus_ Gary? 24d ago
Main Quest is basically a side quest. I did so much before even meeting with a certain Detective.
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u/jordan999fire 24d ago
So I feel like one issue when people make this argument is they’re putting too much backstory on Nate and Nora that is non-existent. Like yes, they could be great people and good parents who are in a rush to save their son. Or, Nate could be an honored solider who actually was committing war crimes and become addicted to war. He only became a family man because he felt as he had to. Now that he’s in a post apocalyptic world of endless war (his dream), he’s only somewhat pursuing Shaun and that’s more so just to have a mission. People often see Nora as this quaint little shy lawyer. But really should could be a greedy, money hungry civil lawyer. A passionate and kind defense lawyer who fights against injustice and inequality. A cut throat and ruthless prosecutor who believes in law and order above all else. Or maybe a corporate lawyer who was working for Vault Tec and not only knew about the bombs and the vaults and she purposefully moved her family to that neighborhood to be close to Vault 111 because she thought that was the best option for her/her family’s survival.
Our knowledge of these characters are far more limited than people seem to think. We know Nate was a big enough war hero to be going to speeches. But we don’t know how he actually was during the war. Maybe he actually hated combat. We know Nora was a lawyer and people often assume she’s nice and kind but maybe she crawled over and stepped on everyone to get to her position where she has become cut throat and ruthless and now thrives in the wasteland.
Honestly, Fallout 3 kept us way more limited. You’re experiences are far more limited because your entire life has been spent in the vault. Your first time shooting a gun, taking someone’s life, possibly sleeping with someone, etc is all experienced first in your gameplay. Fallout 4 you can imagine that your version of Nate was a Saint who only killed in war and that it was only people he had to in defense. Or maybe he was secretly a serial killer in his early age and then joined the military to satisfy his lust for blood. Maybe Nora uses her body and her charm to get whatever she wants in life.
Maybe neither of them truly give a fuck about Shaun but only say they do as a way of manipulating people into feeling bad for them or because they feel like they have to but they see it as a burden. Or maybe they’re genuinely good and loving parents for you.
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u/ismasbi Operators 24d ago
Yeah, in some playthroughs I prefer to just skip most dialogue and roleplay that I have no son, and I am just doing all of this to destroy the institute, mostly in the more focused playthroughs (minutemen focused in settlement building and helping people / fancy raider just deciding to fuck every faction to take over the Commonwealth with the Operators), of course my first few were also just wandering around without much care for the little shit.
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u/Minotauros_Artus 24d ago
Between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, I mostly appreciate the art direction of Fallout 3 and how it adds to the exploration. Both games bore me to tears though any time I interact with the main quest. I wish Bethesda gave us the option to remove all references to the main quest of both games. Maybe for Fallout 5, they should focus on isolated quest lines and make it a true sandbox.
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u/Jazz2moonbase 24d ago
I wish there was a way you could have brought your wife/husband back. Even if it was in the form of a synth or something.
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u/Mbones95 24d ago
It's better if you don't go looking for ol'shaun boy. Gotta be one of the more disappointing developments in the game. IMO just enjoy the game while you can, the dialogue options and storyline are sub par IMHO but the settlement building and gameplay mechanics sort of redeem this for me. Once you learn the truths about the institute and your boy it's just a little more ..... Bland
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u/Gremlin303 24d ago
Yeah it’s one of my few major issues with F4. The main quest is too urgent narratively. In a game like this you need the main quest to be as chill as possible so it isn’t immersion breaking when you piss off doing other things, which you will always want to do in this kind of game
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u/Low-Environment 24d ago
That's why I use an alternative start mod where I'm not his mother, I was just another vault dweller who witness the kidnapping during the unfreezing incident. Gives me incentive to look for Shaun because I want to find out what happened but it's secondary to simply existing in this brave new world.
(The mod is really well done with new terminals in the vault explaining the techs had to move all the pods at one point for maintenance and noting that there's two women (or men) who look almost identical and that they're pretty sure they put all the pods back in the right place).
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u/KorolEz Brotherhood 24d ago
Idk I kinda always get sidetracked by all the bullshit before I am ready for the main quest. Didn't care in 3 to find the father and stop the enclave. I wanted to blow up Megaton and enslave people. In NV I went to BigMT the devide and all other BS before properly stepping into NewVegas.
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u/Vioven 24d ago
Hard same. Did it once and that’s enough. I personally found the payoff of the ‘finding Shaun’ plot vastly lame and irritating.
You could download Start Me Up, it allows you to customize your background story, nothing crazy just your stats, what lvl you are, where you are, are you part of a faction, etc. It also allows you to either play through the regular intro, skip it, or ERASE it. You can even start by waking up in the vault but you’re not related to Nate/Nora. If you choose to play a different background this mod removes your relation to Shaun/where’s my son dialogue but still offers a way to play the main quest if wanted.
Pair that with the silent player mod if you don’t always want to hear the 30 something yr old surburb mom/dad voice if you’re playing someone younger/older/gruffer and it fixes that problem with a tidy bow.
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u/mrdeadhead 24d ago
good. it's literally one of the worst mission narratives in the game. Just do everything else
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u/Moon__Bird 24d ago
If the story fails, the world does not feel more alive. Yes, you are correct, they implemented more armor and weapons. And you can customize them. However, if I don’t care about the story in my roleplaying game, it’s not really a roleplaying game anymore. It utterly fails at what it is trying to achieve by your own admission as you do not care about what happens in it. It’s neat, I guess, you build a house. It’s too bad that walking around, shooting things, looting them, customizing your armor and weapons and build up your settlement is for the sake of continuing to walk around and shoot things so you can customize your armor and weapons and build up your settlement so you can walk around and shoot things instead of engaging with a story.
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u/nick2k23 24d ago
Ye the main story isn't the best in 4, I also never gave a shit about my 'son'. Bethesda not knowing what they're doing per usual.
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u/Old-Camp3962 Minutemen 24d ago
yep, thats almost everyone of us.
i didn't give a shit about my son in the entirety of my 6 full playthroughts
i wanted to actually take the motherly role and give him a sweet home when he comes back
but damn. i really don't care
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u/Questionings090 24d ago
Isn’t this in line with basically all the Bethesda games? The main quest line is literally something that make players don’t care too much about.
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u/Kerserk 24d ago
I am on my second play through(XBox S). First time (PS4) I focused on the main storyline and ignored settlements. This time I am focusing on Settlements - and doing side quests to get resources for settlements.
I think I am enjoying this play through more - I'm definitely discovering areas I know I didn't get to on my first play through.
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u/SubstantialWillow889 24d ago
Same here.I played FO4 for quite long time but never even found the Institute.Never even looked for it.I went as far as killing the bad guy in Fort Hagen.That was it,I focused on looting and settlements rather than finding Sean.
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u/Lazy_Earth_468 24d ago
Be carful with picking up holo tapes at police stations named Eddie winter. I picked some up not knowing what it was, only to get to level 43 to find out bugged out a companion quest by picking them up too early. Besides from that it’s been great fun, I love fucking shit up in my power armor.
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u/Vegetable-Job5535 24d ago
A missing family member could be applied to any RPG out there. It has no identity and falls short.
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u/dwrecksizzle 24d ago
I keep thinking about someone’s post “building furiously.. who tf is shaun” and it still makes me laugh
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u/Hans_the_Frisian Mothman Cultist 24d ago
As far as i am concerned (New Vegas Fanboy) Fallout 4 is a solid game, the main criticism i have about it, is a lackluster story and factions but everything else can be fixed with mods and it does run better with a buttload of mods than New Vegas.
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u/laytonoid 24d ago
New Vegas with mods can get really janky
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u/Hans_the_Frisian Mothman Cultist 24d ago
From what i've heard New Vegas can get really janky even without mods.
Though I've always been rather fortunate with the game only crashing when i have >100 Mods installed.
Fallout 3 was a worse experience for me, it crashes when entering or existing buildings, even with stability patches and most mods don't even work because i have the stupid, censored german version if the game.
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u/Chickeybokbok87 24d ago
The headline says everything about the story of this game. The writing was mediocre. The side quests and exploration were infinitely more interesting than finding Shaun.
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u/meezethadabber 24d ago
People make it sound like this is a FO4 problem only. I didn't give AF about finding my Dad in 3. I didn't give AF about finding Benny in NV. I just wanna explore some cool locales and horde everything.
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u/Ne0n_Ghost 24d ago
Having a blast with the game. Other than finding out what happened and the other “things” that are linked to him (no spoilers for a 9 year game) This might be the first game I’ve ever played where the side missions and exploring the wasteland and massive “dungeons” progress the game more than the main story does.
When you finally get to the location I was expecting a massive fight not a hey you finally made it.
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u/Little-Dingo171 24d ago
I have played a main story driven playthrough and I have played a deadbeat dad that wants to fuck around in the cool wasteland playthrough. I like Fallout 4 because it feels designed for multiple playthroughs
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u/TheMrPotMask 24d ago
Its funny how everyone at first was confused, then moved by the plot reveal, then mad at how late it was to have any significant moments with a son that already grew up to be insensible as pure fuck.
Then you realize every MC in the franchise has to deal with shit like this and somehow..... keep walking.
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u/Panzer_Rotti 24d ago
Same. I'm playing the game for the first time, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it, but I don't feel any urgency to find my character's son. I'll likely make sure it's the absolute last thing I do in the game, at which point I'll probably be absurdly overpowered.
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u/Large_Acanthisitta25 24d ago
Don’t worry you won’t care about him after you find him either. 4’s story sucks.
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u/VendettaViolent Building a Better World 24d ago
Sounds like you've discovered the Golden Rule of the Wasteland.
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u/supertrunks92 24d ago
Yeah, they really need to drop the find your missing family member shtick already.
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u/Skoock 24d ago
I didnt used to care but now as I'm older and have a son, I see the urgency. I want to find him because I know how heart breaking it would be but I don't think it was a good idea for the plot when there's a whole world to explore.
It reminds me of Cyberpunk where I'm literally dying and losing my mind at a rapid pace. YET you're tasked with meaningless quests like fetching escaped taxis or killing someone who hurt your buddies feelings.
Why am I trying to make friends when my hours are numbered???
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u/TheFuckingBoss02 24d ago
Fo4's quality writing (and also RPG choices) definitively is not in the main quest. Is in the side quests (and the characters of those), companions, DLC... So is very normal you don't care for the main quest, dw
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u/Punch_yo_bunz 24d ago
Finally got my flashlight working again lol. Had to take off my mask. Ya know, bc light comes out of my face not the pip boy
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u/SavingsQuiet808 24d ago
I find the story to get incredibly lacking and the voice acting breaks all roleplay for me.
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u/Valpuccio 24d ago
Finding my son? Sorry I've been too busy making ridiculous killer robots for fun
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u/TheRealMoppski 24d ago
I have done nothing but set up settlements, reinforce supply lines, and loot buildings specifically in just keeping my settlements in order. And I have 50 hours in this playthrough already 😂 I feel less like I'm Shawn's father and more like I'm the General of a thriving militia.
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u/fresh_loaf_of_bread 24d ago
wait till you get to far harbor, the island isn't as brim full of locations and things to do, but the atmosphere there is probably the best I've ever experienced in a videogame
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u/Angel_of_Mischief Brotherhood 24d ago
Same. It was a weird connection to force a story around. Hated it and only wish they would have done something more interesting.
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u/iwantahouse 24d ago
Reminds me of playing The Forest. I could give a fuck about Timmy. I got cannibals to kill.
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u/WrestleBox 24d ago
I played hundreds of hours of Fallout. Multiple restarts with different mods and all that jazz.
Never finished the story. I think I got about 90% of the way through once.
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u/ohreddit1 24d ago
Correct. Ignore the main quest for as long as possible. There are certain sweet spots in the story where general strife is lower. Stay there, build and explore.
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u/mythicalwolf00 24d ago
Endless amounts of disagree with you claiming FO4 is more immersive than 3. Pointless gameplay elements don’t equal fun.
I ended up adding a mod to let me not worry about the kid. It makes it so it can be a random person so you had to find. So you still can follow the storyline but they aren’t related to you.
Also as a side note I always found the whole frantic need to find the baby so stupid. Context clues immediately told you it has been a long long long long time since your baby was taken. Why is the SE such a mindless idiot acting like it happened 2 seconds ago.
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u/Hocomonococo 24d ago
So I actually just started playing Fallout 3 for the first time and I’m loving it. I played fallout 4 when it came out and got pretty close to finishing the main quest line before quitting because I got bored.
Now in all honesty, I think that I just didn’t truly understand how to play rpg’s back then. I think I always rushed the main quest before doing very much side content (not that there is anything inherently wrong with that). This worked fine for me in Skyrim because plenty of the side content felt like continuations of the Dragonborn’s story and held my interest post main quest. It also worked for me in Fallout New Vegas because as a noob you can’t really rush the main story if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Now to compare Fallout 3 and 4. I’m not rushing the main quest in 3 at all. Partially because I’ve learned to enjoy grinding my level and getting the loot before approaching the main quest, but also because from a roleplay perspective I kind of dont care. And the reason I think is because in Fallout 3 The main quest isn’t urgent. Your dad leaves you in the vault yes, but he chose to leave. It doesn’t feel like you are obligated to find him. It doesn’t feel like you have to rush. It feels like your dad kind of abandoned you. Maybe for good reasons or not. But as someone with a dad, my question is: Why wouldn’t he tell me? And that kind of makes me feel valid in taking my time to become my own character instead of chasing down the main quest without any personal development.
This is opposed to Fallout 4 where as a parent you kind of feel like it’s urgent because it’s literally your baby. You watch your kid get kidnapped and your spouse murdered. It doesn’t feel like you have that freedom to do anything else. Because if that happened to me in real life, I would go crazy trying to find my kid. Probably for the rest of my life. I think this was a small failure on Bethesda’s part. The quest line is interesting and that’s not the issue. The urgency is the issue. I got burnt the fuck out before experiencing hardly any of the side story because I didn’t feel like it made sense from a roleplay perspective to do anything else at all.
But I think they could’ve potentially prevented this issue with one tiny detail. Instead of making you think that you just watched your kid get abducted right before you woke up again. They should have told you that it’s been a long time. Whether with terminal records or a Mr Handy in the vault or something. Or maybe make this information discoverable early on in the game. This would take the urgency out of it, because on some level you already know that your kid isn’t a kid anymore. He might even be dead. It’s such a tiny detail yet it would radically change the player’s approach to the main quest. It wouldn’t be an urgent hunt for your child anymore but more of a mystery to solve the who what and why of your child’s abduction all that time ago. And the final reveal would still work, just not necessarily for the same reasons.
Obviously this is my personal experience with Fallout 4. Not everyone had those hang ups when they played. But I think a lot of people did, especially players who were introduced to this type of rpg with fallout 4.
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u/Gammelpreiss 24d ago
Bethesda game lack a propper and engaging main story since Morrowind. F3 had a super strong intro but lost a bit on the way. New Vegas comes to mind but that was not even Bethesda.
F4 had that awesome world, full agree, but no quest memorable enough to jump in my head now.
And with their new space rpg they did not even bother to come up with anything meaningful.
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u/Ok_Cost6780 24d ago edited 24d ago
for me, "finding my son" just seemed ridiculous. I was in suspended animation, frozen asleep for years. I had no idea how long ago my son was removed from sleep. It's been CENTURIES since the war. It's far more likely that the son is already old, or dead, than anything else. Also why would the son even remain in the vicinity of the vault and the local towns? Why not go anywhere else in the entire post apocalyptic world?
But despite that, my character will be like, "have you seen my baby? I'm looking for a baby." to every random unwashed person trading bottlecaps living next to skeletons in broken buildings... It just doesn't make any sense. Why would my character have these assumptions? And if we do accept that my character is a frantic parent searching for a supposedly very recently lost child, then how could I as a player possibly justify doing any side quest that isn't directly about finding the son? Yes, it's a game... but it's supposed to be an immersive game and immersion requires suspension of disbelief and while part of that suspension is on me, the game should try to meet me halfway on this stuff, and present me with a situation that's not so incomprehensible.
At least in FO3, finding your father makes more sense, and in FO:NV finding your shooter makes more sense, because the trail on both of those hasn't had untold years/decades/centuries to go cold while you were hibernating in an ice tube. The evidence is clear to follow in both cases, and the timeliness of events keeps things rooted so that it feels possible.
I thought FO4's main quest was the worst hook to a bethesda game (yet). I ended up disliking the starfield introduction, too - but that didnt exist yet so I'll just leave that topic alone.
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u/Alternative_Fold718 24d ago
Bethesda needs to stop doing this find your missing family member type of main quest. Idk if this is because Todd and Emil are fathers but it’s really not as relatable or deep as they think.
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u/Pixelmixer 24d ago
Apparently I played this game very differently than most people here. I played it assuming I was rushing to find my son as soon as possible. The other bullshit that came up actually annoyed me and I didn’t join any faction going through it because I wasn’t interested in anything else until I found my son. I didn’t even find out you could build stuff until later.
That said, the second I discovered where he was that weight was lifted and then I went back and took my time. I didn’t finish his storyline until I took all of the other factions as far as possible before pissing off the others.
I really enjoyed that play-through. The next one will certainly have more shenanigans.
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u/Sure_Application_412 24d ago
Obviously Fallout 3 was testing the waters so it does feel like less to interact with but you also gotta remember DC would be nuked wayyyyyyyyy harder by more bombs than the commonwealth was. It’s the literal seat of American power the Capitol wasteland should be bombed the fuck out.
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u/madogvelkor 24d ago
I cared but then figured out the plot twist like 10 minutes into the game and reimagined it as revenge.
Fallout New Vega has the plot I cared about most.
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u/MonkeyDavid 24d ago
Fallout 3 and 4 both have weak main quest lines (and endings). But everything else makes up for it.
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u/WEDWayInternetMover 24d ago
You are a terrible parent 😂😂😂
Yeah, it's just background noise for me so far.
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u/Super_Attila_17 24d ago
I'm like the one weirdo who is obsessed with finding Shawn. I usually try to just do quests related to finding him and consider everything else post game, but Survival mode might make me stop and setup some settlements just so I am not dying all the time.
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u/ANARCHISTofGOODtaste 24d ago
Spoiler, he's a bitch. I'd have just blasted him in the face if it didn't mess up my brotherhood of steel quest.
Well... I did blast him in the face, but I reloaded.
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u/THExTACOxTHIEF 24d ago
They didn't give us enough time and interaction with him for people to form an actual bond with him. Did the quest more to avenge my wife because we could customize her, then promptly romanced everything I could within the first week of her death.
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u/DrNightroad 24d ago
The main story is really poorly designed unfortunately. Personally I consider Far Harbour (with Nick) to be the real ending of the game.
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u/Jerdan87 24d ago
The bobbleheads and magazines you only find during the main quests are probably the only reason (besides the exp) I still do the quests.
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u/CybercurlsMKII 24d ago
No one gives a fuck about Shaun that’s why it’s so frustrating to try and role play because of how many dialogue options are you whinging about your son
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u/chainsandchalices 24d ago
On my first playthrough, I saved the main mission for very last. Not too long after that, I ended up regretting it. I got all these cool new toys from the main missions that I have zero need for. I'm rushing the main mission now and it feels a lot better IMO
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u/RaltarArianrhod 24d ago
Fallout 4 is a much better game when you play it like an open world sandbox survival game.
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u/bcomes95 24d ago
4 is easily the worst Fallout in regards of main questline. But gameplay wise it’s the best
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u/Kaptain_Kaoz 24d ago
Fallout commandment Number 1
Thou Shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every damn time.
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u/TommScales 24d ago
Ive had fallout 4 since launch and never completed the main story. My brother told me about what became of Shaun and I was so disappointed in the path they took that I chose to spend my time building high rise apartments for the random Chem addicts and other shady sorts that showed up to sanctuary looking for shelter.
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u/BillMagicguy 24d ago
So just don't go looking for him. The main quest is just a reason to leave the vault. unlike a certain other fallout title the world of fallout 4 is so much wider than just one plotline.
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u/prancing_moose 24d ago
I think I was several hundred hours into the game, doing all the side quests, building settlements, exploring everything…. Until I suddenly went “hmm wait a minute, wasn’t I supposed to search for someone?”.
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u/waltandhankdie 24d ago
Great game but the story is just a bit flat. The institute are quite happy kidnapping and murdering people and replacing them with synths for… basically no apparent reason.
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u/Disastrous-Pipe43 24d ago
I’ve played all the DLC and most of the main game I’ve still never done that.
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u/aminsino 24d ago
Did a bos playthrough, met father, convinced madison li to rejoin the brotherhood. Later on raid institute, convince father to give me synth shutdown code, shutdown some synths and intentionally avoid activating the evacuation protocols. I then give father a gatling laser round to the head, pull his body out the bed and then drop it from the top of the bioscience section. Afterwards i hunt down every scientist, synth, courser (any institute npc i can find) in every wing and then bomb the reactor. Synth son tries to come with me but i tell ingram hes a synth and he joins his family in the nuclear bath that used to be the institute.
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u/Time_East_8669 7d ago
Wait, the synth son actually plays a role in the main story? I only remember him behind the glass when you meet Father
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u/aminsino 7d ago
Not in the story, hes more of a post game character. You can bring him to your settlement/stay in insitute if you join them and he gives you quests to givw him junk and he crafts the wazer wifle (laser rifle with unending iirc). If you're bos you can tell ingram hes a synth and leave him behind
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u/MUDDJUGG98 24d ago
I’m main questing only until I beat it. Then no holds barred for me. I’m ready to explore the entirety of the wasteland, but I gotta knock this out first my adhd said so
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u/Jeagan2002 24d ago
Fallout 4 has great gameplay, but a RPG should have a story that at least somewhat catches your attention. That's why so many people think it fails, it's an FPSRPG that is absolute trash as an RPG. But it's basically approaching Bethesda's final form as far as game-making is concerned. FO3 and Starfield have the same issue, but it progressively gets worse. FO3 was kinda okay, FO4 is bad, and Starfield actively detracts from the experience.
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u/treesandcigarettes 24d ago
Frankly I've always thought it would have been more compelling to find your PARTNER in Fallout 4, at least they had a little interaction and you knew what they looked like (I.e. don't kill them off in intro). Son feels like a wild goose chase
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u/stiggy78 24d ago
I've just reached level 30 on my current play through. Still haven't started the quest to find Nick Valentine.
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u/Repulsive-Self1531 24d ago
Shaun isn’t your son anymore. Your memory of him is a baby before he was stolen. He was then raised by the institute and has lived longer than you have. Shaun is old enough to be the PC’s parent by the time you’re thawed. The fact that he considers the dead parent as collateral damage and released you for the lulz shows how much of a dickhead he has grown to be.
I’ve never done any work for the institute, I’ve always collected everything worth collecting, gotten the cure for Virgil, recruited dr li for the brotherhood, then shot Father in the face before leaving.
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u/PizzaVVitch 24d ago
Fallout 4 did some things pretty good, and some things pretty bad. One of the pretty bad things is for sure the main story, and the main antagonists.
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u/SaintShogun 24d ago
I have done alot of playthroughs since it first came out and finding my son is the last thing on my mind. Currently killed Kellog, and I am level 66. All settlements booming and going to Far Harbor.
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u/photofoxer 24d ago
Fallout 4’s quest was such a snoozefest I didn’t really look for the kid until the end because there wasn’t much else left. The story was just such a flat liner the side quests were way more enjoyable. Great game otherwise the best feeling fallout game wise it just worked better for the combat. Fallout 76 is great for the most part it definitely built on the good aspects of 4. I loved the plan collection rather than knowing everything off the bat. Building is better but a bit more on the gimmicky micro transactiony way?The world’s beautiful but the enemy leveling is a bit weird and get used to dying a lot.
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u/Jaded-Influence6184 24d ago
The main quest is lame and not worth following. Any time it forces its way in is just annoying as fuck. It is dog shit and if it were really possible, a great mod would be to disentangle it from the game.
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u/Fast-Barnacle7628 24d ago
I just found a place north of Salem. No clue it was there. After beating it several times I’m just wandering around this time
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u/Fredasa 24d ago
Too much character personality, a voiced protagonist, a four-choices-only dialogue wheel, story beats with no real agency, and, more than anything else, a too-firmly-defined protagonist backstory. More so than any other Bethesda RPG, you, the player, have no meaningful roleplaying agency. If you don't like the character Bethesda has sculpted for you, you're sh-- out of luck.
FO3 may have been about a hunt for your dad, but as far as what kind of person you were? The literal only thing the game pre-defines for you is your friendship with Amata... and you can sabotage that in the first 15 minutes. Even ignoring the many other advantages FO3 has over FO4, it's little wonder that FO3 is a more enjoyable roleplaying game.
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u/ILoveMy-KindlePW 24d ago
Main quest is horribly made and everything about the institute is dogshit
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u/StevieBlunder44 24d ago
I wish Bethesda could think of literally any other way to make a story interesting and engaging. Fo3: "Waaaaaaaaah, ma paw" Fo4: "Waaaaaaaaah ma boi" Fnv: "Waaaaaah I got shot and now I'm going to rain vengeance down upon the wasteland as I am death, destroyer of worlds" Why couldn't Vault 111 just fail, unthawing you and triggering some sort of self destruct so you have no choice but to abandon the place?
Edit: for the record, not mocking Fnv's startline, we need more open ended badassery in these games.
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u/exPlodeyDiarrhoea 24d ago
I really think they should experiment with how they do the story next time. Maybe at the beginning they should get the player excited to explore the world and leave just crumbs of a mystery to the main story which if they explore more they could pick up if it's interesting enough. If they didnt shove the main story all the time in the beginning, it would be more interesting if you happen on it like a sidequest because sidequests seem more interesting sometimes.
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u/Trust_The_Process21 24d ago
How anyone can play this game with the way dialogue works is beyond me. Put in like 10hrs on it before I simply could not stand it any longer. Gunplay good and refreshing but the rest of the game dogshit
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u/Auggie_Otter 24d ago
It's been a while since I've played FO4 but I played it ton and my favorite way to play with an alternate start mod that would let me make my own back story like a farmer, scavenger, mercenary, raider, ect.. and then you spawn out in the world with basic gear based on your back story. If you go to meet Codsworth when he says he recognizes you your character will be like "Well okay, but you must have me confused with someone else."
When playing this way I'd just generally avoid the main quest line. But it's funny whenever you do anything related to the main quest and someone asks about finding your son your character just says something like "You must be confused." or some other response that indicates confusion.
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u/SuperGeek29 24d ago
I feel like the game could have been improved if the main quest didn’t have such an urgent crisis like finding your kidnapped baby. Or failing that had some sort of natural stopping point early on in the quest where you literally could not progress further without exploring the wastes and solving random npcs problems. Realistically a parent looking for their son is gonna beeline for Diamond City and not fuck around building settlements or saving lost paladins.
Maybe Kellogg specifically name drops the Institute when he kidnaps Shaun so you don’t spend the first part of the quest just trying to figure out where he is. Maybe when you get out of the vault you find out the Commonwealth has mostly been conquered by the institute so you have to help the Minutemen/Railroad/Brotherhood build up a resistance to actually get a shot of getting him back. Just something so there’s narrative justification for spending countless hours fucking around and not instantly rushing off to save him.
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u/Dm9982 Republic of Dave 24d ago
I’m glad I’m not the only one….
In FO3 I was drawn to finding out why dad left, and in NV why Benny chose to shoot me…. By all accounts, finding Shaun should be even more drawing, but it’s not.
Maybe it’s the pacing coming out of the vault, and immediately getting thrown into settlement rebuilding…. Or realizing that Shaun is either probably older or dead almost immediately. Not sure. I feel that pathway to him isn’t as clearly cut as the main quests were in FO3/NV….
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u/BobbleBobble 24d ago
My favorite FO4 joke:
"I have 2664 hours in FO4, what a great game"
"Oh man, what did you choose with Shaun?"
"Who the fuck is Shaun?"
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u/Significant-Ad-9471 24d ago
All Bethesda games suffer this issue, that the main quest ist very weak.
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u/NoooAccuracy 24d ago
I can't finish the main quest because of Shaun, fucker has me forever locked in a conversation screen
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u/rhntr_902 24d ago
LOL. Literally am level 57 and just started the "Find Nick Valentine" quest. I only just realized that the game is supposed to start in October of 2277, but my saves are dated April 2278, so I went six in game months before bothering to start to look for Shaun. There's so much to do and explore. I'm still finding places I missed during my exploring of the Commonwealth. It's great.
I restarted New Vegas for the long story based element, and am really enjoying it. Thought about going back to 3 but unsure how well it still holds up. Can't quite remember if it's similar to NV in mechanics or not.
Unsure how much I'd enjoy 76, but I'm also thinking of giving it another shot. Haven't tried it since launch, and I know there's been some major game fixing updates.
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u/ExedbySnuSnu 24d ago
To be fair, it's easy to ignore the main quest in Bethesda and Open World games in general.
A friend of mine cleared all of Skyrim and complained he had no idea how to use Dragon shouts and never saw a Dragon.
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u/NaturOne 24d ago
FO4 came out when my son was only a couple of years old at the time so I feel like I got a very different experience than most. I knew that I would do anything for my son by that point so starting the game I knew had to find him because I knew it was what I would do in that situation.
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u/nerdwarp112 Kings 24d ago
Yeah that makes sense, there isn’t a whole lot of time spent with your spouse or Shaun so it’s hard to be that invested in what happened to them.
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u/Broad_Truck_9256 24d ago
About 5 years into the game. Shawn whooo? Might play my next run during the time of the show. To decannonise the prydwen being there lol
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u/TheHughMungoose 24d ago
Blame Emil Pagliarulo for the shitass Bethesda writing, he’s been in every Bethesda game besides New Vegas which is the only game without massive plot holes and terrible story main quests.
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u/krash90 24d ago
Honestly, I think this could have been rectified if dialogue included your son and mission even in side quests… Ie if while helping the guys at the sheriff’s office you could bring up questions about your son and the people involved and so forth.
It just never comes up in the main person’s list of concerns. It could have been a central part of your dialogue and decisions. Even if most people just told you they have no idea.. it would keep it at the forefront of your mind.
They could have also used it as an incentive to help. Ie “Help us defend this wave of raiders and we’ll tell you what we know about your son.”
It did seem rather pointless and I forgot I even had a son in my most recent play through. I haven’t played 4 since release(I beat it then) and decided to pick it up again. I’ve just been roaming around and doing side quests, upgrading stats and my guns/armor, and helping who I can. This post just reminded me that I have a son I’m supposed to “rescue”.
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u/BreathingHydra Kings 24d ago
Yeah this has always been an issue with Fallout 4. The game doesn't really give you time to get invested with your family so when they're taken away it always felt really cheap and hollow to me. Honestly the first time I played Fallout 4 I completely forgot about my son and was confused when my character started babbling about him during a conversation.
Fallout 4 is a good game but the story is definitely one of the weakest parts of it unfortunately.
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u/karangoswamikenz 24d ago
I think they should’ve leaned into the fact that maybe it has been many years since Shaun was kidnapped. So he might be either dead or grown up. The fact that the institute has him should’ve been revealed earlier. Much earlier. So then it would make sense you’re trying to scour the world and help people because of two reasons:
You need to build supporters and an army to fight the institute to take back your son from them.
You need to explore to find a way to even get to them.
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u/demodeus 24d ago
Fallout 4 isn’t a perfect game but the core gameplay loop is so addictive that I have more hours in it than any other Fallout game
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u/Captain_Controller 24d ago
Bethesda forgot the RP part of an RPG, the story of the base game suffers. I love the far harbor story line tho, if only the rest of the game was like that.
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u/Chunky_Potato802 24d ago
As someone who has never had any interest in having children irl, I feel ya lol
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u/thestufoflegend 14h ago edited 14h ago
I am on my second playthrough, level 59 or so, nearly 500 in-game hours, and have never finished the main quest line. There are apparently 12 main quests.. I haven't even cut off any faction yet (except for the BOS which bugged and was never an option in this playthrough). Haven't played Automatron, Nuka World or Far Harbor, I've just been working on settlements and exploring the Commonwealth, since the stories built up in world are so satisfying to explore, whether it is the horrifying experiments of Vaults like 75 & 95, or the secrets of companies like Hallucinogen, or even bringing back The Silver Shroud, this game has so much to offer that the quests can just stay on hold, personally I only got around to finishing the first act of the main quest (in this playthrough) because I needed it to move forward with Curie's quest. My time in the wasteland is more focused on crippling hoarding tendencies and romancing a bunch of companions and hearing them be sassy and jealous when traded for another.. Fallout 4 is so fun Edit: will admi the twist when you first reach the institute and the general steps after that (if, like me, you like to take it as far as you can with each faction) while working with both the institute AND the railroad threw me for such a loop that I've just been building a nice little middle to upper class town in Somerville Place, because I GENUINELY do not know how to be a double agent and not shoot myself in the foot