Why Does it Work?

I've been re-playing Fallout 4 and trying to puzzle out my weird relationship with the big dog Bethesda games.  To be totally honest, I'm old enough that I played the Fallout series back in its golden oldie days as an isometric RPG--but I digress....I'm currently many, many hours into my current playthrough.  In the past, I've felt a bit ambivalent about the beloved Skyrim or the Fallout games.  The stories in the games aren't anything fabulous, the characters are forgettable (and sometimes annoying--Preston Garvey *cough*), but for some weird reason, they're enjoyable.  Why is that?

My favorite thing about Fallout 4 (and, in general, the Skyrim/Fallout style games) is the ability to just wander.  There's no pressing need to stick to any main storylines (or really any for that matter--other than needing to occasionally defend a settlement) or any urgency--you're just free to explore a giant map filled with so many intriguing locations.  Even though I've never found the main storyline writing to be anything special, it's fun to explore locations and learn about their past and current stories.

One of my ugly structures--a masterpiece of architecture.

Although I wish it was somewhat deeper, I weirdly enjoy the settlement system in Fallout 4.  Watching settlements grow from a few settlers into a thriving, bustling mini-town gives me an odd sense of satisfaction.  I always lie to myself about making my settlements anything more than just your basic, functioning settlement--I envy those people who have the patience and/or ability to engineer beautiful, functional settlements.

The ability to loot basically everything is also something that provides a strange sense of satisfaction.  Since I'm obsessed with maintaining a thriving network of very ugly settlements, I have a tendency to keep my eyes peeled for the most useless junk (that happens to have plenty of useful parts for building settlement items).  My poor companions usually wind up hauling around bags of cement, typewriters, desk fans, telephones, and piles of other junky items.

I guess I never realized how many actual companions were available throughout the game--even after multiple playthroughs I managed to get an achievement for recruiting five separate companions.  I'm currently rolling with Curie, a robot scientist who was trapped in Vault 81 as part of an insidious experiment to use infectious molerats to spread disease among the residents and then use them as guinea pigs to breed humans with increasingly greater degrees of disease resistance.  My favorite companion is definitely Dogmeat--sure, he's a dog, so you don't get any dialogue, but there's something comforting about having him there by your side.

Would the Fallout series be better if it had better writing or a more engaging main storyline?  Maybe, but I just don't think it would be Fallout.  I gave Fallout 76 a whirl and spent many happy hours wandering and exploring, but it's just not the same (I still am confused about what they were thinking when they decided to make a multiplayer Fallout game--and there's been some very negative press around the botched release and crunch prior to the release of 76).  I don't know what the future holds for the Fallout series, but I hope they stick to the roots.