This is a woefully improper scene due to the old world being the Mr. Rogers to the new world's Mad Max. These people were meant to be depicted primarily through their unnaturally gleeful cultural artefacts – demystifying them undermines the entire premise. It should also be mentioned that the salesman is encountered again as an immortal ghoul that did not change his clothes or disposition in 200 years. The original Fallout games could be ironic, post-modern or just plain irreverent, but never outright stupid. Sadly, this salesman ghoul is indicative of the entire writing quality Fallout 4 displays.

These changes should come as no surprise, since the franchise's systemic identity is no more. The process Bethesda began in Fallout 3 was somewhat halted by Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas, but is now complete in Fallout 4. Character builds have been reduced from being representations of good and bad traits that affect the game world to a single character build that may deal more damage with some weapons than others. There are no skills such as “Repair”, “Scientist” or “Doctor” that get checked in conversation or during encounters anymore. Instead you have a system where one point per level is invested in perks which focus almost entirely on combat or loot, with a few scatter-shot nods to exploration.

Given the prestige of the developer, conversations are now a depressingly low-budget affair, where every player response must have four options since that is how many buttons there are on a controller. This results in yes/no answers being accompanied by absolute filler, usually marked "sarcastic", or the occasional charisma attribute check that might unlock new options but mostly gives a small experience boost. In short, Fallout this is not; and even more alarmingly, an RPG this is not.