7. Actually Have A Compelling Plot
The success of the Fallout franchise is partly down to the fact that it has a unique and beautifully realised idea at its core. But whilst having this amazing world is one thing, it counts for nothing if you can't find an equally creative way to put, and keep, a player in it. The original Fallout placed you, trembling and scared, into a completely unexplored post-apocolypitc wasteland under the proviso that if you couldn't hack it out there then every single person in your vault was going die. Fallout 3 involved you setting off on a chase to find your father who, it just so happens, is out to save the world for you. Both took the greatest of great unknowns and combined them for a strong reason to face up to them. Fallout 3 involved the protagonist, a humble courier, surviving a gunshot to the head. Instead of counting his lucky chickens and staying as far from undesirable Vegas gangsters as possible, you're instead told to wander an impossibly dangerous world for no other reason than to find out who did it. It's a terrible concept for a cheap action novel you'd take on an even cheaper holiday, never mind a game you're expected to invest 100+ hours in. If Fallout 4 wants to grab its audience then the story is the first place to start.