"remember that time you went to that building and shot everyone inside, and then looted the whole joint, and then left?"
that's an experience you're sure to have while playing through any Fallout game, but in Fallout 4, that's how the vast majority of quests and locales function. There's quite a bit less breadth to Fallout 4's roleplaying potential when most situations are designed explicitly for you to shoot your way out of, and conversations end up being little more than set dressing. That's not true to the same degree with Fallout 3 or New Vegas, which is largely why Fallout 4 left such a bad taste in my mouth when I played it through for the first time a decade ago (and it doesn't help that, mechanically speaking, Fallout 4's character builds are generally less distinct from one another than what F3 and NV's stat & perk systems allowed for).
like, I get where y'all coming from and you've still got a point in that you weave your own narrative as you go with these games, but I do think that Fallout 3 and New Vegas do a better job at enabling that sort of adventure roleplaying than Fallout 4 does, specifically because of the ways Fallout 4 streamlines Fallout into a somewhat more straightforward looter-shooter, both mechanically and in terms of its quest design and writing overall. in Fallout 3, I can imagine a lot of character archetypes to occupy, and roleplay accordingly. in FNV, I can be just about anyone. In Fallout 4, it's Nate and Nora's story, and you're kinda just along for the ride. You get to choose the order in which they dive dumpsters, and how much of America they rebuild, and how sarcastic they are as they do it. It just doesn't hit the same for me, lol.