Fallout 4 (Part 2)

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Nuka-World

Nuka-World's initial price of $20 is set between Automatron $15 and Far Harbor's $25. It is also double what the other games DLC were priced at (like Fallout 3: Anchorage or Point Lookout). This is why although being the last add-on to be released I chose now to try it out. Was it worth the price tag? I think so. Not only do you get 3 new factions but also at least five separate amusement parks to explore. Although you can hear the Nuka-Cola Family radio upon installing the add-on, the game recommends a player to be level 30 before visiting. This is because of the extensive testing of your mettle within the first few hours as they lay down every single kind of obstacle in their Gauntlet. Once that is handled, you become the overboss and visit the three raider factions. Then you have the option of visiting all of what the amusement park has to offer. Defeating Nuka-branded robots will allow you to collect and build new robot parts for your Automatron Robot Workbench. Just don't kill N.I.R.A. until you at least finish her quests first. She is one of many who offer you various treasure hunting quests. You receive a new companion and can potentially gain maximum affinity with him just exploring 4 of the parks. Kiddie Kingdom and Galactic Zone are both rather brutal when it comes to difficulty. This is why I decided on bringing a dual-wielding gatling laser gun robot from Automatron. My only regret is painting him red. He looked so much like the Nuka-World robots trying to kill me. I made sure to bring Dumbo with me too - my quad barrel missile launcher with the legendary perk of Wounding equipped with a targeting computer and 100 missiles from the Commonwealth. I must have spent a good 30 hours. I managed to hit level 60 by the end of it. Let me list out what else happened to me in this DLC.

  1. Grandchester Mystery Mansion is one of the attractions outside the central park. The entire experience is most likely based on the Winchester Mystery House. The idea was that the place was haunted by a little girl that shows up in several locations as you explore the mansion (Check out the exploration here). Amusingly, I never saw her as I went through the house. I need to stop looking for traps and scrap on occasion.
  2. Your new companion Porter Gage has a rather unique ability to buy and sell items while you are in Nuka-Town. The problem? Bethesda replaced his ability to talk in exchange for this new feature. So whatever you do, listen to him when he wants to talk or you might have not hear what he has to say. I missed an opportunity once but was able to hear it when he made his final statement to me. If you know for sure you have reached maximum affinity without getting his companion perk, your best bet is to do something he doesn't like (drinking alcohol every 2 hours does the trick) until the prompt appears.
  3. Nuka-World doesn't exactly give you any sort of player housing. It makes things awkward when you are told that Fizztop Grille will now be your home but it does not have a workshop. It wasn't until watching this video that the idea of Fizztop Grille should be like Home Plate in Diamond City, as in the case of this mod. It wasn't too much of an issue for me since you can fast travel between Nuka-World and The Commonwealth with the click of a button. Not nearly as difficult as dismissing your companion and using a weapon like in Fallout: New Vegas Old World Blues DLC.
  4. The Nuka-World map can be pretty hard to traverse. I remembered trying to walk across some sort of dam in the northeast when I was physically pushed off the side by an invisible barrier near the south side. I regret not being able to find the truth about what happened to Rachel in Bradberton before talking with Oswald in Kiddie Kingdom. I don't think I ever found the Wison's Shovel Museum to the east. I had to physically look up the location on where to turn in my tickets. It is the only way in obtaining the DLC's Acid Soaker and Paddle ball - both of which I have yet to try out in battle.
  5. The Hubologists have made their grand return from Fallout 2. As much as I enjoyed the inclusion of these guys in Nuka-World, the quest chain is just riddled with problems. Just look at the bug list! Obtaining the power distributor before obtaining the space suits breaks the chain. You can physically add fusion cores to the UFO before knowing what it does. This essentially ruins the chain and gives you the bad ending since there isn't an option to remove one. Trying to become aligned in the zeta chair right before making the trip to the Scrapyard breaks the chain. Ironically, clicking on Phil and typing the command kill will fix the issue. The Hubologists can easily die on the way over to the new site from legendary creatures, exploding cars, or lollygagging through the radiation pit. Hacking a robot can prevent the quest chain from completing. I know all of this because I've experienced it all. Seems like I wasn't the only one. If you go along with the scam alignment process, the only benefit is to hear a little more of their true intentions and a temporary Intelligence boost. At least the Port-A-Diner in the warehouse is fixed. It was the only time I managed to get a Perfectly Preserved Pie out of one of those machines.
  6. The number of items added in the Nuka-World add-on is insane. They include: Acid Soaker & Paddle Ball from the prize terminal, Souvenir merchandise and magnets, space suit costume, Cappy glasses (which are required to see the codes in the park), variations of Nuka-Cola to drink, Nuka-Girl rocketsuit, a Nuka-Cola Power Armor (located in the Bottling Plant), Nuka-World Settlement Objects, Nuka-World Jumpsuit and/or Nuka-Nuke Launcher (depending on quest choice), and a whole slew of outfits.
  7. I love the story of the park especially in Dry Rock Gulch. I'm not going to talk about the holotapes/terminals or even those creatures who pale in comparison to the ones in Tremors. No, I'm talking about the robots! You can talk to the robots like a normal person and make inquiries about the quest chain. Or you can skip the steps entirely by hacking into their programming for the quick rundown of the quest using the perk: Robotics Expert. Or you can talk to them in an old Wild West accent (highly recommended). Or you can talk to them like the Silver Shroud while wearing the special costume. I also can't stop laughing over how the protectrons express certain phrases like "Nuka-Cola!" and "Mad Mulligan's Mine!"
  8. The one major drawback of Nuka-World is the inevitable point in the main quest-line where you must make a choice with devastating consequences. This "point of no return" comes after clearing all five areas in the park in the quest The Grand Tour but before starting Home Sweet Home. If you decide to continue helping the leaders of Nuka-World, then you are given access to settlement grenades (Predator, Persuasion, Fury), exclusive Settlement Items (not as exciting as you think), Preston will no longer be a companion, and you gain one or two faction perks. If you decide to rebel against the leaders of Nuka-World by causing harm to any one of them, all members (even Porter Gage) will become hostile. I have decided against making a definite choice until a later date. Unfortunately this means I am currently missing out on restoring power to the amusement park, gaining access to the Nuka-World Red Rocket Workshop, and obtaining that Nuka-Cola Quantum Power Armor. It isn't like I'm able to clean up the park or anything either way. Oh well.

Glowing Sea

There was a rumor that spread around the camps of a place to the southwest called The Glowing Sea. People kept telling me to watch out for all the dangerous radiation. I spruced up my X-01 Power Armor with Radiation Protection and headed out. If Bethesda intentionally stretched the area beyond the border of the Pip-Boy map to stimulate exhaustion and fatigue, it was working. For some reason the creatures here were much harder than I anticipated. I helped Cait with her personal problem in Vault 95 and visited a rebel scientist turned super mutant by the name of Virgil. Honestly, the radiation was barely a factor. There was hardly anything interesting of all out there. The only problem I ran into was finding that stupid Skylanes Flight 1665 Distress Call. l I think I only spent like 5 hours roaming that wasteland before returning to the Commonwealth.

Radiant Quests

7 days Countin' (160 hours) and here I am running around doing the same boring quests. Everytime you assist one settlement with a problem, another one cries for help. No wonder people hate Preston Garvey so much. You can't get anything done while doing never-ending quests for 37 settlements for the The Minutemen. Losing electricity for a brief time seemed to be the only negative consequence I experienced from failing to defend a settlement in time. If you are persistent with The Railroad, you can eventually finish all 11 Weathervane Quests and 6 Randolph Safehouse Quests. Talking with The Brotherhood of Steel allows you to start gathering "Technical Documents" for 25 caps each and "Viable Blood Samples" 50 caps each (6 X-111 compounds every 20 samples). I get frustrated just looking at all the quests, not counting the little things like handing over tools to Vault 81 for 15 caps each or checking both bounty boards in Diamond City. There is some speculation that some radiant quests - like The Brotherhood of Steel's Cleansing the Commonwealth and Quartermastery - target unexplored areas first, non-cleared areas second, and cleared areas last. However, it wasn't long until I received quests sending me to Far Harbor. That quickly killed any motivation I had in completing them. I guess they had to extend those 60 quests somehow when matching them to the 300 quests in Skyrim.

Quest Hunt

Although I didn't have a reason in doing any more radiant quests, I still wanted to stay friendly with all the factions. There was still plenty of things to do as long as I didn't do any main quests totally annihilating other factions. There were plenty of quests I missed near the beginning of the game too. Fun Fact: Did you know that it is possible for Codsworth to actually state your name. You can hear some here (includes names having strong language).

  1. Doing the Automatron DLC interrupted my progress at General Atomics Factory. I had to toy around the Quality Assurance questline to get it working again.
  2. Grabbing the General Atomics ID Card at the factory allowed me to finally complete the Grand Re-Opening at the Galleria.
  3. On the far east side of the map rests an island that is so large that I concluded there must be something over there to find even if there wasn't a quest leading me there. Sure enough, I found an interesting story revolving an abandoned settlement and some mirelurks. Once I cleared the area, the entire island became a settlement. I didn't even know where to begin so I went online to see what other people built on the island. It wasn't until I watched Oxhorn's other video that the place was called Spectacle Island and is based on real-life events. It wasn't until I did some further research that I realized I completely bypassed the Luck Bobblehead in the upper section of the steamboat. But instead of even trying to build another base there I headed back to Mechanist Lair and began upgrading another Power Suit, this time with a jetpack and live sensor.
  4. One major quest I am glad I did not spoil myself from was the USS Constitution. This quest was phenomenal from start to finish. Based on the real museum ship, Captain Ironsides (nickname of the ship in real life) recruits you in assisting repairs to the old vessel. Meanwhile, scavengers continue to fight for the goods on the boat. This is the perfect time to use up all those stored mines in your locker. At first I was going to complain about running through the ship multiple times until I realized I completely missed one of the robots pointing out the dinghy elevator. I blame the quest system pointing to the hatches and not the rising platform (common issue). If one person reaches the ship, the quest fails. This makes it extremely important to stop all the scavengers since they charge in, ignoring all gunfire. It is possible to ride the ship once it launches (like in Treasure Planet) but you will instantly die upon impact. Your companions will also retort on The Last Flight of the U.S.S. Constitution. Surprisingly, this was the only time I had to use "removemusic MUSzCombat" to stop the combat music from continuously playing.
  5. So many people had this overwhelmingly powerful image of what made up the Institute that I actually began believing some of it. Nick Valentine and the synths from the Railroad talk about their original designations. The Brotherhood said that they searched everywhere and never found it. I thought facing them was going to be the grand finale. I was wrong. Not only was I warmly welcomed, they offered me a tour of the facility. There is a part of me that understands why the scientists treat the synths as "their property". They are machines designed and built to perform duties. But I would be more apt to show them my respect if, as a scientist, they would have rejoiced over the incredible marvel of the "cognitive development" of their synths. Instead, they treat this more of an error than a miracle. I can't even begin to follow their logic. Having that meeting on top of the C.I.T. Ruins really compounds their sense of... madness as he states "there is no future here" and he was "spared a life in this wasteland." I've gone around building up one settlement to the next with the assistance of the Minuteman and he feels his underground bunker is somehow better? I'm getting flashbacks from the ending in Blast from the Past. As a side note, why would they ever want to build a new synth every 5 minutes anyways? What was wrong with their previous iterations? So many questions left unanswered.
  6. But as I stood there on the roof, all The Institute wanted me to do was chase down some lost synths at Bunker Hill. Seriously? Forget that. I made sure I told both The Railroad and The Brotherhood of Steel what was going down. Then I meandered through the area as the three factions shot at each other. The whole thing was rather silly if you ask me.
  7. I played catch-up with The Brotherhood of Steel. It felt like I was going backwards. Bethesda sort of designed their quests on the basis of finding The Institute earlier in the game. Then you grab a scientist, build a robot, go into the Glowing Sea, and assist Paladin Danse. It is pretty neat that Tim Russ, known as Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager, voices Lancer Captain Kells. I just wish I could have done the quests in conjunction of my first time through those areas.
  8. I visited the Covenant and discovered their little secret. As much as I enjoy finding alternative solutions to a puzzle, I fail to see the reasoning behind the severely limited resolutions to your actions which can leave you questioning your moral implications - support all or kill all. If you must know of my choice, I simply could not let "the people" continue with their actions especially after my time at the Institute.

Statistics

Before I focused my attention at the Far Harbor DLC I wanted to take a peek at my records. Underneath the Data menu resides a laundry list of statistics. So I went back and gathered my info from the other games and did a little bit of comparing. For the sake of this list they will be listed as - Fallout: 3/Fallout: New Vegas/Fallout: 4.

  • Quests: 50/105/117; Locations: 196 (out of 221)/263 (out of 315)/265 (out of 325 excluding DLC)
  • People Killed: 637/266/1106; Creatures Killed: 1560/1046/1910
  • Locks Picked: 256/179/574; Computers Hacked: 120/56/174
  • Stimpack: 608 (before self-rule)/56/121; Speech: 53/218/108

There is also a couple of additional things I'd like to include. The number of locations "cleared" is roughly 1 in 4 (25% rate). I managed to obtain 95 magazines out of the possible 121 (excluding 5 from Far Harbor). For roughly a 75% rate that isn't that bad.

Far Harbor

Farbear Far Harbor is the other DLC with quests, settlements, and three factions to toy around with. It is technically the third DLC added to the game. The area is very similar to Fallout: 3 Point Overlook Lookout in which you take a short trip to an unknown region in search for adventure. In real-life, Bar Harbor (You can see where the sign is marked out in the game) is just a few hours northeast of Boston in the far edge of Maine. You could tell they made vast improvements to standardize the quests compared to the main game. Each quest hub gives you a list of people to talk to that remains static in your log until completion. Quests can range to monster hunting, escort, scouting, retrieval, and investigation. The quests are very open to dialogue choice. They detect whether you already reached a location, found a key, or talked with someone specific. Though there are still only 4 dialogue options at a time, the number of things you can say stack on top of each other depending on your previous actions. Think of it like the original Fallout where you can repeat your statements if you wanted to.

It might have been my level but your new companion, Old Longfellow, is pretty much worthless when it comes to about everything (except for his idle banter). It is much better to have Nick Valentine with you for... quite a lot of reasons as you venture the island. The weapons and armor, as cool as they were cosmetically, barely held their ground in battle. I found it much more feasible to carry around heavy weapons like the rocket launcher or Gatling laser to combat the enormous creatures that hide in the fog. I was highly disappointed that my previous unique weapons, the Alien Blaster Pistol and Cryolator were vastly underpowered. The Lorenzo Artifact Gun proved to be immensely overpowered for all the applied reasons in the link (but mostly because the weapon utilizes my currently maxed-out Demolition Expert perk). In fact, I had to start putting points into base-damage perks just to stand a chance with my more standard weapons. And no, The Captain's Hat doesn't make everyone start calling you captain. I checked.

I'm actually surprised at also how open-ended the Far Harbor DLC is. You can destroy the Harbormen by disabling their power. You can have Acadia destroyed by the Brotherhood of Steel or The Institute. You can have Dima give up to the Harbormen and be destroyed or replace the leader of the Children of Atom with a synth. You can ironically give the Children of Atom exactly what they want by blowing up the submarine or amusingly make them hate you for initiating the nuke without their consent. Though I wouldn't do anything permanent until you do all the basic quests first. Otherwise you would ruin the whole chain of quests like that in Nuka-World.

But honestly, I was highly disappointed in the story. I liked the little things: all the mysterious gnomes, the hostile takeover of the Vim Factory, the mystery of Vault 118, and the history of synths (though I think Nick Valentine should have changed over time). I just thought there should have been more to this encroaching fog... like Fallout New Vegas Dead Money DLC or even LOST for that matter. Instead, they tease you with elements that don't really amalgamate. Let me spin you the story I was hoping for (spoilers):

  • A missing girl. A deadly fog. People who leave the protection of the fog condensers start disappearing. As a team starts expanding the boundary up the road, they are attacked by large creatures. It is only upon investigation by the Sole Survivor and his companion that you discover the creatures are members of the island who have mutated beyond recognition. The town panics. Only by your aid will the town trust you and give you protection - mobile fog collector, a diver's suit, mariner's adaptive armor, anti-mutagen medication. You follow the road where broken fog condensers litter the ground until you stumble across a place safe from the fog.
  • A refuge of synths. A place resting above the fog. Why would they need protection? Why not shelter the poor souls down below? Only by gaining their trust do you learn that DiMA once knew much about the island. His memories are intact and stored elsewhere. The others tell of missing power equipment and unknown terminal logs. DiMA befriended Confessor Martin to try and help investigate the matter and obtain peace on the island until he was killed.
  • A place for people who are immune to the fog. They do not mutate but are still susceptible to the side-effects. They hallucinate, see visions, and therefore worship the fog like some form of deity. You learn of the occasional member who isn't exactly immune to the radiation but have taken certain precautions like yourself to bear it. You converse with their new leader and learn where DiMA's memory is stored. Dead bodies lay waste to the entrance. The security is triggered. You recognize one of them as Machete Mike, the one who tried to sway you out of some power tools. On his body rests a holotape containing a discussion from a group of mercenaries wanting to raid the island. Their plan for all three factions to destroy each other by killing Confessor Martin wasn't working fast enough and they wanted to try more extreme measures (from DiMA's memories). You later find out High Confessor Tecktus, Allen Lee, and Naveen are all part of a conspiracy to create chaos within the factions.

See how much more interesting the story could have been? I think the whole DLC took me around 30 hours to finish. The only technical issue I encountered was a large drop in fps wherever the fog was present. Disabling god rays helped with the stuttering but made the fog less menacing. Oh well. It was all still pretty neat.

Summary

Fallout 4 has better graphics, more areas to explore, and a much better crafting system than the previous renditions. As much as the game benefits from these changes, it also suffers just as much in other aspects. Being able to craft settlements is enjoyable at first but lacks any sort of substantial interactions (especially when there are over 30 of them). Seeing what objects contain by a mere glance is one step forward while not separating items by specific types in your inventory is one step back. The number of real dynamic quests is severely lacking when the game completely drowns you with monotonous radiant quests. The companion system reached near perfection but your dialogue choices are unimaginable. Things like the Creation Club and Season Pass were only good ideas to Bethesda's wallet and ultimately hurt what people expected to see in Fallout: 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Considering the reduced price of the Game of the Year edition with all DLC, patches, and mod support... the game was actually really fun. I would totally recommend it.