10 Major Fallout 4 Problems The Fans Won’t Admit
7. The Story Isn't Compelling Enough
You'd think that the story of a desperate parent searching a devastated and unfamiliar land for their kidnapped infant would be a pretty engrossing one, wouldn't you? Of course you would, and of course it absolutely should be.
Well, this is the crux of the narrative in Fallout 4, but it never really captures the imagination in the way Bethesda probably hoped it would. Once the early preamble is out of the way and players take hold of their sandbox freedom, there isn't much motivation to forgo exploration in favour of pursuing a main quest that makes use of so little of the map.
This is a problem faced by many other large RPG experiences, where players seek freedom and love to explore the wonderful lands that the developers work so hard to create. This doesn't make it impossible to create a story that matters, however.
Last year, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt presented players with a similar story that saw Geralt traversing the land in search of his ward Ciri. By making use of more of the map and adding variety and urgency to the quests, Geralt's adventure became much more compelling than that of Fallout 4.