I have mostly stayed away from this thread to not fill it with my negativity but I feel like I might be playing the game wrong so please bear with me on this. I want to enjoy this game because of the stunning visuals and good gunplay, but the game just goes out of its way to funnel me into dialogue scenes and boring fetch quests filled with constant loading screens.
I have been doing faction quests so far. For the story, i stopped after the villain attacked the lodge and the eye. Should I continue the story before finishing up the faction quests? the vanguard quest was ok, nothing special. decent. but the crimson fleet quest which is supposedly the best questline in the game feels completely void of any action. i thought being a space pirate would be cool but 90% of the missions are talking or stealing stuff as if this is the thieves guild questline from skyrim. its so fucking boring.
I have barely done anything with ship building, outpost building, and weapon building. im nearly 40 hours in. By this point in Fallout 4, i had all faction quests done, my sanctuary had all kinds of awesome systems built, my weapon customizations were off the charts. here i feel like i am playing a dialogue simulator with a few shootouts here and there. All the cool shit is hidden behind skills which are hard to earn because the game is so stingy with its XP. Doing side missions is just boring and repetitive since they keep repeating two bases over and over again.
I guess I can do loyalty quests and see where they take me but i HATE talking to people. Its constant and its not fun to play as a jackass because you dont get to see your character say those lines and be a dick.
Please tell me im playing the game the wrong and let me know if there is an optimal way to play the game. I loved building the sanctuary in fallout 4, but havent even bothered to build outposts because there is just no point and i never have the materials.
This will be a long post, read the first paragraph below and then decide if it’s worth going further.
Don’t force yourself to play a game you’re not enjoying. Can’t say you’re doing much wrong tbh, maybe just not try to do it all at once. But if you don’t like it much it’s understandable to go through the things people talk about before dropping it. I’d say it’s a waste of time if you’re not hooked in 40 hours. I went through my first playthrough in 81 hours, thought the first 2-5 hours were so-so, then I started liking it and eventually it was a 9/10. Finished it and instantly started over and is 50+ hours into the next one with only the absolute first main mission finished, like I haven’t even had a Constellation member on my ship, enjoying it as much or even more now.
That said, you’re still super early in the main quest, if you feel like it you could do a couple more of those missions to see if you like where things are going there. But the game loop don’t change much besides a (spoiler)
Skyrim-shout and Returnal like progression you’ve probably heard about unless you’ve stayed off the internet.
I can tell you how I play though. I roleplay, always pretend to be a character and try to imagine what such a character would do, limited gameplay-related roleplaying or not this is what I do. I only did one faction (Crimson) in my first playthrough as a pirate. I’m doing my second faction (Freestar) in my second and current playthrough as a Freestar settler. Haven’t tried anything else, might try UC eventually if it fits a character. No rush.
But I like the game loop. A ton. Makes staying in the universe and do escapism enjoyable.
Regarding outpost building, it’s like a game within the game. Don’t bother if you don’t like No Man’s Sky, not having resources and exploring to find resources is what it’s about, if you don’t like that then it’s an extreme time sinker. Resource management and fetch questing combined with exploration, to find stuff, it’s what it’s. I didn’t touch this in my 1st playthrough. Focusing on it now in my 2nd. I mark the stuff I need for research and go out to find it, then build some and mark the things I want and go find that, etc. It’s oddly entertaining and addictive, imo.
Spaceship building is another time sinker, but more about creativity than resource management. You need money though. I spent a couple hours yesterday building a new one, eventually had no money left so had to pause it and will add the final stuff after getting more money.
As for the talks, if I don’t think people say anything interesting I just skip through it. I read books when I want to read so not really in it to read much here tbh, it’s a rare thing for me to enjoy story-focused games so I’m more into game systems. I like some stories told here though and some environmental story-telling.
I do enjoy the combat a lot and very much enjoy going to a planet and stumbling onto bases or raiding a spaceship that landed. Trying to mix up my combat and try different weapons and strategies. Tried a melee and sniper focus on my first playthrough, going for extreme range and extreme close-up. It was fun. On this playthrough I’m going with movement combined with blasting a shotgun. Tons of fun.
Haven’t done any weapon modification yet, might try that in another playthrough. Seems interesting.
Long post, sorry, don’t know what more to say. In short don’t force yourself to playing a game you’re not enjoying. Personally I love so much about it that I could see myself playing this for a long long time, the plan right now is to just pause to go through Spider-Man 2 and whatever else that comes along and then go back again. For me it’s the Elden Ring effect again, it’s taking over, it’s my new main course, everything else just became side dishes. But I’ve seen others drop it before even reaching the Lodge. So, don’t overthink it. In general I think the hobby is focusing too much on finding games that are somehow great for everyone and personally I don’t think they exist.