As someone who deeply loves the Fallout franchise but is also highly critical of it, I am nodding with Deep Sighs over your assessment. I love just exploring the environment and have gotten emotionally attached to various characters, but fully admit that some of it is in spite of rather than because of how they're written. The fact that they're so sparingly written is sometimes *why* I want to speculate more about them, but it's also frustrating when the game itself does so little to foster meaningful connections.

On the plus side, purely as a point'n shooty, I do love the environments and how well-constructed the set pieces can be.