FO4 has such a sudden start when you think about it. The game starts and the bombs almost immediately start falling and your spouse dies and son taken within like the first 10 minutes of the game.

Would have been cool if you started in the war wearing power armor, then came home to your family after facing the horrors of war, made your face, adapt back to normal life and get to know family and neighbors over a couple of time skips, then the bombs happen in the middle of one of those events. Grow some attachment like FO3 did.

Yeah, I definitely agree with you there. I would go further and say that 3 did a better job with the overall story. 4's gameplay is what kept me playing but I found the whole story just lacking in any nuance. It was more bland than 3's even though it's basically a rehash of it. Once the wonders of exploration have settled, I just felt like there was no point in doing another playthrough since it all boiled down to picking from two real factions that lead to the same ending. They really stripped the role playing aspect from their supposed action RPG

There’s been a whole slew of games (old and new) pushing a child sidekick or helper character, like Yakuza 6, God of War, Last of Us etc. All well loved and successful games by any measure, but the whole “here’s this kid you have to care about” thing doesn’t work for me either.

This is why i never finished 4, the main chest ruined an otherwise very entertain-able way, i was about become a dad, am now. The player character made no sense to me and i felt like the game was forcing me trough the main quest line before i was supposed to do anything else.

To me Fallout 4 felt like an uncharted game. In that the set pieces where thought of first and then a story made to connect them.

That's because FO4 isn't made by Obsidian. I'm glad to hear the rumour that they might make Fallout New Vegas 2!