I'm 9 hours in and completely disagree with this review. To me the "interesting" part is just exploring the VAST wasteland that Bethesda has given us. The gameplay is good enough that I don't need a constant mission reminder or story nugget to remain immersed.
For example, no spoilers here, but a bit about a gameplay stretch from yesterday. I see a deep patch of water and dive in. I am getting eaten up by radiation, but it's been so long since I've played Fallout, I completely forget how it works. The radiation I mean. I figure I can get out, take a few stimpacks, and be good to go. Of course, I was wrong.
I'm early in the game, so I find myself stuck at about 25% max health thanks to radiation. Ok I guess, no big deal. I start exploring en route to a raider camp I want to clear out. I come across a place, turns out it's infested with ghouls. Uh oh. Naturally, this is my first death in the game. I am trying for an all melee weapon play through, but I have to break this for this encounter. I simply do not have the health to go toe to toe with a pack of feral ghouls.
So when I respawn, I try using my pistol. Nope. They are too fast and I don't do enough damage. Attempt #3, I use a double barrel shotgun I found. Yeah baby! It puts them down in 1, sometimes 2 shots. And Dogmeat is great at pinning ghouls down. I clear them out, explore the building they were blocking, and move on.
Maybe 100 yards away I stumble across some more. I take them out, enter a small place, and a brahma bull or whatever they are called, is glitches and stuck inside. I know, a glitch in a Bethesda title. So I can't fully explore it. I leave and go up into the second floor of another place. Yes! Stimpacks. I need them. On the way down I hear breathing so heavy outside I literally think something is out there fucking Dogmeat. I run out just in time for the bull that was glitched to speed by me, running and struggling and panting as fast as it can go to get where it was going. Hilarious.
I walk some more and come across a building. Mine at the door but does little damage. I go inside, scavenge a bit. I go deeper inside... another mine. Not so lucky this time. My low health means my legs are blown off and I am dead. Fuck.
I had no saved, so I spawned back in front of the ghouls. I clear them out, check the small building again and this time no bull glitched inside. I am able to go all the way to the back and sweet baby Jesus it's a medical kit. I side I find glorious Radaway! I am now fully healed, feeling great. I go back inside that building and.... fucking die again by the mine. It's strong.
And I'm back by the ghouls. I immediately clear them and get the Radaway again. This time I take a slightly different path to the building and find some armor and a machete. And best yet, grenades. I lob one into the building and the mine doesn't kill me again. I continue on my journey.
Gameplay personally doesn't get more interesting than that to me. And it's like that a lot in the game. There are obviously stretches of land with little to nothing going on, but it's a wasteland. If there were thriving strongholds and castles everywhere it wouldn't be a wasteland.
There seems to be very little actual meat in that review.
