I’m playing through on Vanilla on PS4 and would like to relate an anecdote.
Spoilers up to finishing the Vault 81 plotline, the Old Ironsides plotline, the Kellogg plotline, and early on with the Brotherhood of Steel plotline, I guess. And after the you-know-what flies in.
I made it to level 40 and started giving serious thought as to what to do with the Brotherhood of Steel. I hadn’t done much with them after a much earlier quest with Paladin Danse. At that point, he was pushing me to join the BoS, but I wouldn’t have freedom, and they’d probably take over all those settlements I worked so hard to save and build back up. He was a low-level Amway dealer. But his offer was still cluttering up my quest log. Then, after killing Kellogg, their giant and awe-inspiring airship rumbled into the skies. The BoS vertibirds were everywhere. They weren’t attacking me yet, but they did take occasional potshots at my robot friends in the relocated USS Constitution, now lodged on top of a skyscraper. I thought I should learn whether they’d be friends or foes.
I go back to Danse, who says he can sign me up as a knight. Does that mean I get power armor? No, those are only for paladins. Never mind that I’m already wearing a really kick-ass power armor suit. I have to follow orders if I join them. That sounds like I have to stop being the benefactress of all my villages I built up from scraps. His club is interested in old technology, but he doesn’t say a single word about my floating robot doctor friend, C.U.R.I.E. You’d think he’d be interested in that relic of a bygone age, stuffed with information about contagion and technology. He says I need to visit the airship, and at some point when he and Curie and I are flying there, I learn that the blimp is called the Prydwen. Apparently the BoS has flown over from Wales. It is nice to be in a vertibird. All my other traveling since before the bombs dropped has been trudging along the ground one step at a time, or fast travel, which is sleepwalking one step at a time. We swoop around the Prydwen with the loving approach that they gave the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
We land on the airship. I hear many things about their king, Maxson, who is not only kind and clever and handsome, but he’s on the ship. And I must meet him as soon as I talk with some other drill sergeant guy. The drill sergeant tells me I get to start at the bottom of their club.
What about being a knight like Paladin Danse said I could be? I’m level 40! Why am I way at the bottom? No answer.
What about new power armor? Like Danse, he said only paladins get to wear those, and I’m not a paladin. He also refrained from mentioning the badass armor I was currently wearing. Like Danse, he also neglected to mention my floating infirmière-cherie. He wasn’t making me feel very welcome.
The drill instructor guy gave me orders. I had to go see Golden Boy Maxson give a speech, and then, I hear, he had questions for me. Maybe Maxson will let me know if my companions will also be sworn into the Brotherhood, and whether they’ll be taking over all of my settlements as BoS Bases.
I go to the speech. There’s Maxson (the name sounds like an adult film star’s pseudonym, I think) yelling at his group of high-ranking officials. What he’s saying doesn’t sound friendly. He’s talking about taking down the Institute, which is a laudable goal. But he doesn’t seem very flexible with other Bostonian factions. He sounds like a demagogue. His underlings are treating him like a god.
I remember a This American Life clip someone shared on this board recently, when a guy, David Hill, brought a honest-to-gosh diplomat to a Diplomacy tournament for advice. Germany was offering Russia a short-term deal.
David Hill I was still so nervous, I kept out of the fighting for as long as I could. I watched Germany and England turn on France and eliminate him from the game. I couldn’t stall forever. I knew that eventually I’d have to go to war. I just didn’t know who I should fight. But Dennis [the diplomat] watched me talking to Germany, who bears a more than passing resemblance to Jason Statham. I was so anxious, you could hear me tapping my lapel mic with a pen.
Germany All right. I promise you I’m won’t go after any of those four regions.
David Hill This turn.
Germany Absolutely. I can’t promise what’s going to happen in two or three turns’ time, at this time.
David Hill I understand that.
Germany But it’s at least a promise of a commitment that I can make, this turn.
David Hill OK.
Germany I can’t say further than that.
David Hill OK,
Dennis’ [the diplomat’s] evaluation?
Dennis Ross Look, what he told you is he’s not doing anything this time. But what he also told you, basically–
David Hill He didn’t know what he could do later.
Dennis Ross Well, what he is telling you is he is going to do it later. That’s what that meant.
David Hill Yeah.
Now, as Elder Maxson is rallying the troops and the brass, I consider my position. I have before me, in a tight cluster, the very senior leadership of the Brotherhood of Steel. It sounds like they aren’t going to leave. It sounds like they aren’t very welcoming of other power structures. They might help with getting rid of the body-snatching Institute, but at what cost? On the other hand, here I am. Not only am I wearing the power armor they forgot to mention, but I am also bristling with weaponry. Shouldn’t they have checked me for that? As far as they know, I helped a few of their guys and mumbled that I wanted to join them. That’s all the precautions they took, in a city filled with replicants and dangerous wanderers.
I threw the first grenade at Maxson. No one really noticed — what kind of chickenshit outfit is this? — so I took that as an invitation to throw a second one. Then came the explosions.
The fighting was vicious. Curie wasn’t much help. I slaughtered everyone onboard the airship. Well, the game wouldn’t let me harm the squires for some reason. Maybe they can fly the Prydwen home; the game certainly won’t let me take control of the ship. (I remembered how disappointed I was when I easily killed everyone on the Leviathan in Knights of the Old Republic but couldn’t actually fly it anywhere.) Oh, and another shocker: when I looted Danse’s body, I learned he was a synth. Nice quality control, guys! How were you supposed to beat the Institute when you didn’t even know that your ground team was compromised?
Falling back to the ground was easy in power armor, though the toughest part of the whole affair was taking care of all the guys on the ground with their Gatling lasers and spread out positions.
I’m looking forward to the vertibird overflights disappearing and the Diamond City Radio DJ telling the Commonwealth how I made a totally rad preemptive strike against the BoS, but I’m also suspecting that the game will still generate random BoS encounters. And that they won’t like me anymore.
Anyone else take on the Brotherhood of Steel?