I find that the main quests for Fallout 3 and New Vegas are both lacking something. Fallout 3 starts you out as a baby in Vault 101, where you soon grow up and find that your father is missing. Without skipping a beat, your best friend, Amata, decides its a good idea to get you out of the Vault to find your father. After escaping the Vault, you make your way to Megaton and meet up with Moriarty. He tells you that to find your father, you need to speak with someone else. He gives you directions to Three-Dog. Blah, blah, blah. After several quests, you FINALLY manage to find out where your father is. You help him get out of the vault he was trapped in, and he immediately gets back to work, purifying the water in the Capital Wasteland. Soon after, your father kills himself.
Yep. Your father kills himself. This was the single most upsetting part in the Main Quest. By the time I made it to this point in the game, I was level 16 and was packing enough weapons to single handedly kill every Enclave member in the building. Why not give me a chance to save my father? Maybe break down the door and slaughter every enclave member in the room?
Anyways, that aside, you then meet up with the Brotherhood of Steel, who help you destroy the Enclave. The end of the game comes soon after when you are able to corrupt your fathers work, or purify the Capital Wasteland. Overall, I give Fallout 3s Main Questline a 5/10. Obviously, its not the biggest part of the game, but it was very lacking to me. Overall, with all my other praises and gripes on Fallout 3, I give it a 7.5/10.
Fallout: New Vegas' Main quest was a lot more... Confusing for me to grasp at first. Basically, you are a courier, delivering a Chip that can completely change the New Vegas area. But, sadly, you were intercepted whilst delivering the chip and were shot in the head. You somehow manage to stay alive, and begin to head after the person who killed you.
This was one of the... More confusing parts of the questline. Why would you follow the person who killed you? I wouldnt.
Anyways. After going through a few hours of back-and-forth questing, you finally can make yourself to New Vegas where you can find Benny and steal the chip. You now have four choices; Help the NCR, Help the Legion, Help Mr. House, or help yourself. No matter what you choose, you end up doing the same things, and soon afterwords, Vegas can be transformed into whatever you choose. Overall I give New Vegas' main questline a 6/10, and after everything else, I give the game an 8/10.
I think that if Bethesda were to focus more on the story in the next Fallout game, I would enjoy it more.