After starting my "evil" (or the worst degree of evil you can be in this game) Fallout 4 playthrough

[heroofheroin]

I'm definitely finding the game a bit better. Whereas my first playthrough I was leaning towards a 7 or ,7.5, now I'd bump it up a point.


It's a very good game,not great and not on the level of Bethesda's previous works, and very streamlined, but it's still a good time.


Also, for perspective, my goty was a tie between witcher 3 and phantom pain

 

[Bernzz]

I agree with you. While I had enough fun in my first playthrough, playing the kind of person I would actually be (free the synths, be nice to people, etc), when I did my second playthrough as an uncaring Brotherhood of Steel zealot who took no shit, I certainly had more fun with general interactions with NPCs.

 

[-Samurai-]

My first time around isn't even finished. I just don't care about these characters or their world enough to get involved.

I have since started a melee character that is simply surviving the wasteland. I threw out his vault history and family backstory. He's a scavenger that's trying to get by. He spends his days fortifying the Red Rocket garage, and his nights battling alcoholism and a chem addiction. I imagine it'll eventually boil down to hunting for chems and booze over salvage.

Much more enjoyable.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I tried to do an Evil playthrough, but then I realized this would cut me off from Preston Garvey's radiant quests -- which while boring and bland still gives you a hefty amount of EXP -- and that the game still forced me to care about my stupid son. I could be the most unhinged, cannibalistic asshole, and the game would still shove that dumb long lost son plot down my throat. 'No, you love him, don't you get it? You love him more than anything and you desperately want to find him.'

 

[-Samurai-]

I tried to do an Evil playthrough, but then I realized this would cut me off from Preston Garvey's radiant quests -- which while boring and bland still gives you a hefty amount of EXP -- and that the game still forced me to care about my stupid son. I could be the most unhinged, cannibalistic asshole, and the game would still shove that dumb long lost son plot down my throat. 'No, you love him, don't you get it? You love him more than anything and you desperately want to find him.'

That was an awful call for a main quest in a sandbox game.

Oh No! My son has been kidnapped! I gotta find him!....Right after I build 5 settlements and solve the problems of everyone I meet.

 

[happyninja42]

I haven't done an "evil" playthrough yet, but I do have plans on making a ghoul from lvl 1, and buying up most of the endurance related perks. Including the mod that boosts the frequency and severity of radstorms, and then having him go berserk whenever a storm is up. Basically the closest I can come to making a feral ghoul. xD

I suspect it will be an amusing playthrough. I just have to actually start playing FO 4 again. Been having more fun lately with other titles I got on steam sale.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I tried to do an Evil playthrough, but then I realized this would cut me off from Preston Garvey's radiant quests -- which while boring and bland still gives you a hefty amount of EXP -- and that the game still forced me to care about my stupid son. I could be the most unhinged, cannibalistic asshole, and the game would still shove that dumb long lost son plot down my throat. 'No, you love him, don't you get it? You love him more than anything and you desperately want to find him.'

That was an awful call for a main quest in a sandbox game.

Oh No! My son has been kidnapped! I gotta find him!....Right after I build 5 settlements and solve the problems of everyone I meet.

Yep.

It would've been fine had the game given you some dialoge options that amounted to 'I don't give a shit about my dead wife/husband or my lost son'. But then I guess you'd still have play through that stupid intro.

 

[HybridChangeling]

I can't wait until the mod where every audio file that asks about Shaun is replaced with "SHAUN!!".

Seriously, in the past we can ask anybody about our quest, but we also didn't have to bring it up in the main quest at least 5 times, or never be able to continue. Makes the protagonist such a one dimensional character.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Out of curiousity, how evil can you get (without giving away too much)? I just started my 1st game, and I was just messing around and decided to see if I could kill Preston Garvey and his band of merry adventurers. Nope, they are all invincible.

If I remember correctly, in Fallout: NV you could literally murder everyone (and then eat them!). Can you be Gary the Homicidal Maniac in FO4 if you want to, or does the game plot armor way too many of the NPCs?

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I tried to do an Evil playthrough, but then I realized this would cut me off from Preston Garvey's radiant quests -- which while boring and bland still gives you a hefty amount of EXP -- and that the game still forced me to care about my stupid son. I could be the most unhinged, cannibalistic asshole, and the game would still shove that dumb long lost son plot down my throat. 'No, you love him, don't you get it? You love him more than anything and you desperately want to find him.'

That's one of the things that killed my interest. Say what you like about the Courier's intro from New Vegas being stupid, at least it doesn't try to force you to give a shit about someone you don't care about.

Out of curiousity, how evil can you get (without giving away too much)? I just started my 1st game, and I was just messing around and decided to see if I could kill Preston Garvey and his band of merry adventurers. Nope, they are all invincible.

If I remember correctly, in Fallout: NV you could literally murder everyone (and then eat them!). Can you be Gary the Homicidal Maniac in FO4 if you want to, or does the game plot armor way too many of the NPCs?

I don't know how many NPCs are essential but if you're playing on PC there are always mods to change that. It will probably break certain quests though.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

You can kill everyone but the minutemen. You can go kill the railroad, institute and BOS. You just cant kill the minutemen because Bethesda wants a path to finish the game no matter what. (Screw that I say. Give us the old message about having broke the maun quest and needing to load a save or play on like Morrowind had)

 

[RedDeadFred]

See, I'm evil in my first playthrough so I'm particularly loving it. Being evil in Fallout games is always the most fun for me. I don't have to worry about companions judging me since I only use Dogmeat and in my mind I've

Spoiler: Late game stuff

played the caring father just long enough for my son to be out of the way. I now rule the waste land through science with the Institute, land ownership with the Minutement, and brute force with my double shot Gauss Rifle! Anybody who fucks with me has the might of the two most powerful factions and the meanest, most hopped up on psychojet, ************ in the wasteland thrown directly at them and all of their friends.

Yes. My character is a bit of a psychopath. I like to think of him as a Hannibal Lecter type. To most people, he's a caring and helpful individual, but underneath the facade, he's a deranged monster with a massive god complex.

 

[sXeth]

I tried to do an Evil playthrough, but then I realized this would cut me off from Preston Garvey's radiant quests -- which while boring and bland still gives you a hefty amount of EXP -- and that the game still forced me to care about my stupid son. I could be the most unhinged, cannibalistic asshole, and the game would still shove that dumb long lost son plot down my throat. 'No, you love him, don't you get it? You love him more than anything and you desperately want to find him.'

All four factions have Radiants if you can find one suited to you. I think Diamond City spawns posters on a board for them too, unless that was a one-off (ask the secretary, she'll send you to the first one).

You can usually just grab the quests at settlements too, even without being in the minutemen, talking to the settler will usually give you the initial ally quest, and sometimes a kidnapping or whatever after.

Back on the OP, I was quite surprised in my less-moral (not outright evil) playthrough, that I could just interrupt the shakedown when you went into Goodneighbour and blow the guys head off. Not only that, Hancock actually congratulates you for doing so.

 

[WolfThomas]

Out of curiousity, how evil can you get (without giving away too much)? I just started my 1st game, and I was just messing around and decided to see if I could kill Preston Garvey and his band of merry adventurers. Nope, they are all invincible.

You can visit a non-allied settlement, kill the adults and eat them, while their children flee. Then tell Preston they unfortunately died.

 

[IceForce]

As others have said, everyone is killable, barring Preston and the rest of his posse (Sturges, etc), and also barring children.
You don't have to do any settlement 'radiant' quests; you can simply kill the settlement NPCs which gives you automatic access to their workshop, afterwhich you can build a radio beacon to spawn more (loyal) settlers to replace the ones you killed.
Companions are all killable while NOT your companion (excluding Preston, obviously, and also excluding Dogmeat, strangely).
Any NPC that is required to analyze something (Kellogg's brain, Courser chip, etc) can be killed, upon which you will be directed to their terminal which will run the analysis for you.

Bethesda uses the 'essential' flag rather sparingly in this game (in contrast to games like Oblivion and Fallout 3, ... fuck you Scribe Rothchild), probably having learned a bit from New Vegas / Obsidian.
Bethesda *does* make a lot of use out of the 'protected' flag, however. Any NPC flagged as 'protected' is only killable by the player and no one else. (This is prevent any accidental deaths that aren't your fault.)