Just hit level 15.
When this game was announced, I was severely disappointed as a huge Fallout fan.
After reading some beta impressions, some aspects sounded decent... mainly an emphasis on exploration and survival. I loved the survival mode in New Vegas and FO4, so I decided to give it a shot.
I ended up absolutely loving the game. It takes every aspect that I loved about the Bethesda fallouts and refined them very well.
Exploration is so rewarding in this game. This is by far the densest and most hand crafted world Bethesda has made to date. Every location tells a story on it's own, just by the care put into layout. Even between locations in the wilderness you find interesting little flourishes, like abandoned camp sites and creepy shrines.
The best part is the fleshing out if survival. Everything you find in the world has a use, and every time you loot and area or a group of enemies there is something you need. The loot loop is tight and rewarding.
Level scaling is also gone. You can run into some totally brutal and scary enemies as you are trudging around. On the other hand, you can go back to earlier areas and absolutely stomp on enemies if you need to stock up on loot.
As for there being no NPCs, instead there is an absolutely massive amount of writing and lore to set the mood and world build. It's all very well written as well. Surprisingly, I'm actually finding the exposition presented this way even more immersive and compelling than previous installments. I'm finding that I prefer to read some well written letters, computer entries and books than having a badly animated NPC talk at me like in the previous iterations.
The main negative is the combat. It's pretty much the same old Fallout combat as before, with little improvement. It is functional, and it can be fun at times, but I really wish Bethesda would have really shook it up and tried something new.
As for the online aspect, I'm playing solo. It is kind of interesting to have another player happen to be around and help me, or having the tension of whether or not they are friendly. It adds a bit to the experience, but honestly I wouldn't care if it was there or not.
I'm starting to think this may be my favorite Bethesda era Fallout game yet. I can't stop playing.
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