Perhaps the most surprising feature in Fallout 4 is its MineCraft-like crafting system which allows players to craft weapons, furniture and whole houses. Fortunately though, if urban landscaping is not your thing, you can enjoy the game start-to-finish without crafting a single item.
Fallout 4's crafting system is really complex and versatile. It allows the player to scavenge basic material from the items in his inventory. Using any workbench, the player can convert a bottle to glass which can used to construct a sniper rifle scope. Players also can build whole houses wall-by-wall and furniture them using the same system.
"It’s 'I want to put a wall here. I want a ceiling here. I want to hang a lightbulb here'. It’s not like prefabed houses, you are literally deciding exactly what pieces to put where," said Bethesda's Pete Hines. "You build the furniture that goes in the house. If you don’t have the materials you have to go find enough wood to make your chair."
But all of that can be skipped with no negative consequences.
"It’s a completely optional, freeform thing that you can do, if that’s what you want to do," explained Pete. "If you don’t care about that and you just want to play quests and play side quests, and finish the main quest and that sort of thing then you can just ignore all of this [crafting]. Or do as much or as little as you want."
Basically, the crafting system isn't needed to enjoy the game but it should be rewarding enough for you to want to use it. "You can [play Fallout 4] and never even notice that feature is there if you want to," promised Pete; "But once you figure it out, it’s like, ‘okay, this is pretty cool. Now I want to do more’."