Okay, so I know I'm gonna get plenty of hate for this. But it must be said. And as absolutely asinine and juvenile the question is, there is plenty wrong with Fallout 4. I'll try answering it.

Clearly you are part of the generation that grew up on Fallout 3 and "beautifully crafted open world" and "cinematic experience" games instead of deep dark black humour, bleak political and social commentary, and fleshed out well thought out NPCs and storylines and complex gameplay mechanics that was the original Fallout 1 and 2, and to a great great extent, Fallout New Vegas.

Everything is wrong with this Fallout. This is a great game. But this is NOT a Fallout game. This might as well be "Generic shoot-'em-up Post Apocalyptic Linear Simulator on Rails with Dialogue-based choice for accepting missions".

Bad controls (let's label this problem 0 and throw it out of the way already) aside, the very first problems start from the very beginning: 90% pre-defined character. There is absolutely no concept for roleplaying in this game. You can only be the caring father trying to find his son and avenge his wife, or caring mother triying to find her son and avenge her husband. You cannot go on a genocidal spree through the wasteland and see what happens. You cannot kill 90% of the named people you meet. Everything about your story has already been thought out for you. In the end there is no player agency to write his or her own story.

The second problem begins with dialogue choices. Original Fallouts were text-based for the most part. Thus extremely heavy on dialogue and lore. Each named NPC had his or her own personality, evidenced by their actions and dialogue style. New Vegas was the most beautiful combination of voiced dialogue with wide and deep lore and conversations and personality. Dean Domino, Rose of Sharon Cassidy, Boone, ED-E, Dog, Mr. House, Caesar, Elder McNamara, so many people and yet all so individually defined and created they're still as memorable to me as the first time I started playing NV. In Fallout 4, your only choices are being to press Up for Ignorant, Down for yes, Right for no, and Left for asshole. No branching dialogue trees, no deep dialogue, no asking for things and having them explained in every increasing greater detail and depth if you want, no skill-checked or SPECIAL-checked or perk-checked dialogue. Nothing. Green for win, Yellow for maybe, and Red for difficult.

The third problem. SPECIAL and the removal of Skills. In past Fallout games, Skills were actually what the biggest part of your character was. They helped shape and define your character. Your specials governed basic stats such as HP, AP, how much skill points you gain per level, how much you initially start off with, your carryweight and so on. Now they DEFINE you. You are basically static. You cannot grow and overcome your initial perk taking limits. Skills controlled your efficiency or ability with things. Now they've been removed and reduced to "Yes you can do this" and "No you can't do this" instead of a much more complex "Try, and try hard and maybe you might." Completely destroyed the gameplay complexity.

Fourth. The lore itself. I'm not even going to begin on this one because I'll have filled out a 5000 word essay before I'm half finished. Suffice it to say, 200 years AFTER the Great War, when in previous Fallout games thriving communities and societies had already been re-established after a mere 10 YEARS. 204 years and the New California Republic was already a vast multi-state force to be reckoned with, along with the Caesar legion. In 2164 when the Vault Dweller emerged from the first Vault 84 years after the Great War, he found big tribal communities and quasi-urban societies. 200 years after the Great War, this guy emerges and finds a wasteland with just a handful of stragglers and random folks? What, was everyone else frozen in time too for the 200 years this guy was asleep?

Fifth. Factions, reputation, karma. No factions? No reputation? What??? I'm just another nobody the entire game now? Leader of commonwealth or something and Brotherhood of Steal or whatever greet me just the same? I kill every other settler I meet and no body thinks any the worse of me for it? I save a town and nobody spreads the news of the heroic saviour of a small bunch of settlers around?

?????? What is even going on people? Where is the Fallout 1 and 2 lore history gone? Where are the mechanics gone? Where are the dialogue choices gone? Where is the narrative? Where are my semi-interesting companions and half-hearted attempt at decent dialogue writing?

The game is an utter bastardization of everything Fallout stands for. Bethesda have taken this game and utterly utterly ruined it to the point its greatest strength now is its shooting and combat. The sheer irony of that should not be lost on anyone here. Brian Fargo and Tim Cain and the old Black Isle team must be weeping tears of blood right now, seeing what their greatest legacy and gift to gaming has been brought down to. A dumb post-apocalyptic shooter that runs you on a straight set path with enough distractions for four hundred hours but ultimately leads you to just 4-6 predetermined end world states.

This is a great game. Like Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain is. It's just not a Fallout game. Just like Phantom Pain isn't a Metal Gear Solid game.

What a waste.