Playing on ps4. Have only made out of the vault. Initial impressions are I'm a little disappointed with the graphics, though I recently finished Witcher 3 and Last of us Remastered which are beautiful games. Realize that the Fallout series is more about the adventure/story/mechanics, but had hoped for little more graphics-wise.

I'm only about 18 hours in but been getting my ass kicked a bunch. One thing i haven't figured is how to level skills like lockpicking to open safes. Any figure it out?

They got rid of skills entirely for this game. Lockpicking is a perk now, under perception.

In your pip boy, once you level up, hold Y (or triangle on PS4) to access your perk tree. The more leveled up your SPECIAL attributes the further down the perk tree you can unlock.

You don't have to unlock the first perk to unlock the second level perk if you have enough stars in the SPECIAL attributes as well.

My residents are getting happier. I built two houses, two water pumps and now they have electricity.

I'm kinda stuck at the moment. I've completed a few missions but I need to rank up before i can progress further.

Reached level 15 last night. Things are mostly as expected with the game. Character graphics are clunky, but environment graphics are nice. They have some very serious flaws with the controls though. At least on PC. If you happen to use anything other than WSAD keys for movement, you have to deal with some major bullshit with key controls. I'm actually one of the few who uses EDSF keys for movement. When you set that, it completely ****s with controls in many other modes like settlement building. And you're constantly grabbing things and dragging them when you don't want to. Big facepalm by Bethesda there.

The guns are amazing. I geek out on the complex customizations quite a bit. Ammo is scarce and expensive though. So you end up using whatever gun you happen to have ammo for, as opposed to sticking with one awesome gun. And even then, I end up doing gun bash finishers as often as possible to save shells. I have a pimped out weapon of just about every caliber available.

The settlement building is fun. But I can't really see the point of it in the long run. I guess it gives you some free supplies.

Boss battles are tough. I defeated the Mirelurk Queen, and holy shit that took me forever.

Adhesive. JFC.... Don't you ever pass a roll of duct tape or Wonderglue and not pick that shit up, bro. Seriously.

Workbench... that confused the shit out of me for quite a while. Took me way too long to figure out how to transfer my junk materials to the workbench to use them for gun/ammo building.

Some of the Perks are frustrating. The good ones require you to be at specific player levels.

Hint: Get a bad ass legendary fusion rifle, and nice armor early on by completing the Brotherhood of Steel mission in Cambridge.

Save often........

Ahhh hadn't followed that tree far enough.

I hit level 7 last night with a similar impression as Fish. I haven't worried about key rebinds in years, though. A programable gaming keypad has paid for itself multiple times in avoided headaches in multiple games.

UI is tragically clunky.

The shooting combat is much better than previous games. Adhesive is definitely the choke point for upgrades. I wouldn't call the weapons I have amazing, but it's still early and they do the job. Ammo is a bit scarce and kinda expensive, but only I have 2 CHA and LUCK.

It's a little harder than previous games, but that was probably needed. It can be tough to spot who is shooting at you and from where at times, and once I heard a voice say something like "What's that?" followed by a rocket up my ass 3 seconds later from I have no idea where. Ghouls come sprinting at you like a batter hit by a pitch. Raiders shoot you from rooftops behind cover. I've only died twice though. It's good fun.

I have no idea how a dedicated melee guy could get through the game, at least early on.

The crafting is cool, but an inventory full of everything starts to wear thin.

Save often ........

Where did everyone start with the SPECIAL?

I hate that the ghouls are all over the place.

And has anyone figured out how to charge your power armor battery, or where to find a new one?

Str: 6
Per: 4
End: 4
Cha: 2
Int: 8
Agi: 2
Lk: 2

I thought the starting total was 21?

Also, I always load up on Luck. Luck affects everything, from what you find in crates to critical hits. I've found in previous plays through F:3 and F:NV it's worth it.

You get 21 points to spend, but each stat starts at 1, so 28 total.

Ah, good call.

I went high luck in Vegas, because crits, and gambling. The way crits work in this game, having to activate them manually on a cooldown, I didn't think it was worth it. I wanted perks in other trees.

Hard to say how much it effects what I find in crates. I may regret it being so low. I can always add more to luck as I go. I figured for first character I wanted to be able to carry a bunch of shit and get faster xp so I can add perks and even special points faster.