Fallout 4 is a great game...

... but it's weak on the RPG part. You know, playing as character who makes choices that affect the story other than follow the only road (looking at you Final Fantasy 13).

I played all the Fallout games to completion except I skipped the DLC for Fallout: New Vegas. And tried Fallout Shelter a bit. It wasted my time too much and wasn't much of a game with no story. Fallout by Black Isle Studios (published by Interplay Entertainment) had the karma system with a tactical turn-based combat which was okay but slow and clunky. Kinda fun with good stories and okay RPG stuff.. Fallout 2 was more of the same with a simple faction system. Both had the illusion of a big world but they both had limited scope compared to Fallout 3, New Vegas and Fallout 4. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel by Micro Forté is like the name on the tin. Best turn combat of them but very limited RPG stuff.

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel was top down real game. Interplay Entertainment were still the people behind minus Black Isle. Almost no RPG stuff and the game with story was meh. It didn't do too well in sales and the company was pretty much dead now because of this.

Fallout 3 comes along with a new company. These are the guys who made the Elder Scrolls. It has good stories, okay rpg stuff and combat is first person but weak. It does exploration very well with a huge world compared to the first two games. More to do. Fallout: New Vegas was made by Obsidian Entertainment, aka Black Isle version 2. It's a mash up of Fallout 1, 2 and 3. It was a hot buggy mess that I still think had the best RPG stuff.

Fallout 4 does everything better but the RPG and stories. Weak choices with average stories. Though I have to say the world building makes more sense than Fallout 3. It's voice acted, some good and bad stories, there is a core loop of excellent explore, good combat, OCD looting and build up your base - aka literal world building! You can skip the base building if you want but you miss 1/4th of the game there. The other 3/4ths still work well. This game is little like a 4X game (another can of worms) in that regard to the core loop: eXplore, eXterminate, eXploit and eXpand (4E doesn't have the same ring to it I guess).

I can understand now why the fans are disappointed. Fallout: New Vegas was the last RPG so far in the Fallout universe. Which is sad, but not really. Having played the game it's a great RPG with good stories. But it's still a Elder Scrolls with guns and the game play itself is not fun. Fallout 4 has fun game play. But it's the stories are average and all over the place. It's less of a post nuke war and more pulp comics thing. The RPG dialog while voiced (which is pretty good) is kinda of a shell or illusion of choice. It's either yes or no with mostly yes (I'm looking at you Dragon Quest but thou must). You compare this to the first two Fallout games it falls very short in the RPG department while doing everything else better.

To conclude my ramblings: I'm more than okay with this. The game is really fun and I enjoy playing it.