As I was picking my way through an abandoned brewery somewhere in the wastelands about 10 hours into the game, I blurted out, "When is something interesting supposed to happen?" I was bored, even after running through a few of the main story quests. "This is the hill I'm going to die on," I thought then. "Fallout 4" has very dedicated fans, and I imagine the reaction to these statements won't be particularly positive.
To be fair,
I praised the sheer number of activities and quests available in "Dragon Age: Inquisition," a game similar to "Fallout 4." However, "Dragon Age" had a decently captivating plot and, more important, charismatic characters to invest you in their world, make you laugh and pull the story along. "Fallout 4" doesn't have either of those things. It's not that the game doesn't give you things to do -- it gives you far more than anybody could reasonably expect -- it's that it doesn't really supply a consistent set of reasons to want to do those things.
The story itself isn't the problem: It's the pacing. "Fallout 4" is a very, very slow game. And I'm not exaggerating this point for effect: The first five to 10 hours after you leave Vault 111 is mostly spent trying not to die at the hands of a random mole rat and on farming side quests to gain enough strength to push through main ones. But the side quests often involving boring nonplayable characters (NPCs) you’ll never interact with after the quest is done. There's never really a reason to care about what's going on, even as some quests have you defending struggling settlements.
The main characters don't really help matters, either. Some of your companions are mildly interesting, but for the most part there's not much to talk about. Conversations are usually bland and boring, aside from the sarcastic lines your character can spit out assuming you're so inclined. Nobody grabbed my attention right away, and nobody will stick in my memory (with the possible exception of Codsworth the robot). After 20 or so hours, when you've got a nice set of perks and a decent arsenal to complete some of the bigger quests with, the story does get a bit more interesting, but I'm not confident saying that the payoff is worth the investment.
