10 Painfully Slow Openings That Nearly Ruined Great Video Games

Bethesda's Fallout 4 rubbed a few people the wrong way. For better or worse, it was the first inclusion of a voiced protagonist, and had a larger focus on settlement building. Those aspects aside, the game is a solid entry, with the familiar strong gameplay (and bugs) expected from a Bethesda title. Yet with a voiced and predetermined protagonist, the player is put on a focused mission of finding their son, Shaun, in the wasteland.

With that in mind, wandering about in radioactive Boston, exploring and whatnot (which is a staple of the series) feels far more pointless than in any title before it; despite being a game built upon exploration, anything that isn't to do with finding Shaun is inconsequential to the protagonist. The Sole Survivor just won't shut up about Shaun, and any random non player character the player comes across will be besieged with questions about where their son is. As such, the game only gets going once you've found Nick Valentine, the Synth detective, who is able to help you with the case.

The story of finding your son takes front and centre stage, rendering all else irrelevant. Everything before gaining Nick as a companion feels like a waste of time, ambling from point A to point B, begging to happen across someone who knows about Shaun, so that you can actually progress with the story that was promised to you.