Yeah, not all of that is what I’d consider ‘correct’…
With Nuka World, you don’t have to get along with the raiders. In fact, there’s a quest to specifically, if you will, not get along with them. One of the women in the market area starts you on that path. Not saying it’s any easier, but at least it feels like it’s something you could do.
I think you are correct about having to take Ada along for the end of the Mechanist quest, as she opens some doors for you. No question, it’s kind of a pain.
Far Harbor - No, you don’t need to take anyone along for the most part. I think I had Nick (is he the old guy?) as a companion for one mission - that may be required - but once he went back to his island home, I solo’d the rest of the way.
Yeah, Nuka-World is done, and I did Open Season on those raiders, helping the traders out.
In Far Harbour, you’re thinking of Old Longfellow, the guy you meet there. Nick is the detective, of course, and apparently is important story-wise to the Synth contact you make while doing the DLC.
I would say no for both Nuka-World and Automatron, the two that I’ve finished. Far Harbour seems more story-based, but I haven’t done enough to say one way or the other, although reviews seem to suggest it’s worthwhile.
Nick Valentine adds some new dialogue choices and companion banter to Far Harbor. He and the main guy in Acadia have history, and the game does reflect that. But he’s not necessary to complete the DLC or influence the decisions you’ll need to make there. Same with Old Longfellow, although I believe he sides with Far Harbor in dialogues.
I spent 231 hours to finally put Fallout 4 to bed. There’s still more to do (will it ever end?) and more to explore, but I feel that’s more than my money’s worth. At level 71 with the main story completed I want to move on to playing something else for a change.
Like the ES games, I always go with a stealthy sniper in the Bethesda FOs. There’s something so satisfying with rarely having anything get close enough to notice you let alone hit you. But, having any companions at any time, whether forced for quests or not, is an absolute no. Frustration piled on top of annoyance if you try.
The DLC could easily be skipped and the game would still be huge. Honestly, while I liked the DLCs well enough, in both the major ones (Nuka-World and Far Harbour), I remember feeling I wanted to get back to the Commonwealth. And I really wish they’d put the Settlement attack stuff on hold while you’re off in those two DLCs; I gave up protecting the settlements because I couldn’t be bothered going back and forth.
In terms of the main story,
I felt that the ‘sole survivor’ would have responded with a bit more emotion to finding her son, wanting to know about his life, had a bit more difficulty in making the simple choices that were offered (I had sided with the Minutemen, destroyed the Institute), especially after how choked up she got other times when questioned about her search for Shaun. It all could have been so much better written but at least it got me to the end in a decidedly rapid fashion after I decided I wanted to move on.
So, not much to say, oddly. It was a looooong game, the longest single run-through of a game I’ve ever played (not counting GW2) and, even though I have more to do, I’m not sure I can handle going back into it with so many other games to play.
I agree. The story struck me as written by someone who doesn’t have kids. It wasn’t a motivation that fit in very well with an open world game. The motivation for those games should be exploring and not something wildly urgent like saving a child.
I found it extremely uncompelling as a motivation but not because it was too urgent. Rather, I felt it assumed parental instincts I personally don’t have, and due to the timeline it seemed pretty clear whatever was going to happen had already happened. It’s not “oh god person steals my child” -> “exit vault hunting for them”, it’s “oh god person steals my child” -> back to cryostasis -> years later “exit vault hunting for them”.
Yeah, I get the second cryostasis episode would make the player presume an indeterminate amount of time had passed, but as motivation for the character, the main story plays out like Sean is still young. A non-psychotic parent wouldn’t waste time meandering around the wasteland collecting junk and building robots.
I mean, I have a young son, but I felt no compulsion to follow that main story quest. I was frozen after the baby was taken, for all I know my son could have died of old age by the time I awoke. Plus, just thinking about it personally, I mean, my son will have made his decisions and survived in the intervening years, … or perhaps not. But even if only a few years have passed, it seems silly to think there’s some kind of urgency to this quest. Either he’s doing well or he’s not. Me showing up half-cocked in any kind of situation isn’t going to help, necessarily. Even if the baby is now a young boy who needs my help, he would probably be better helped if I got established in the local area with other locals and setup communities, and gathered allies. In other words, the kinds of things the game has me doing anyway.
You sound so much like me and many others here that I’ll say this, which I’m assuming you also know to be true.
YOU WILL BE BACK.
One of the mainstays of Bethesda, both FO and ES games, seems to be that lingering hook that just gets me. The mere mention of something like a missed easter egg, the common all-in-one mod lists, the link to a fantastic user made game mod, the challenge of playing in a certain way or style, all of these seem to trigger that hook to dig in just a bit deeper. How deep? I still have Skyrim and Fallout 4 loaded but haven’t played them in ages. And I’ll still play them again, when that hook wiggles a bit and I bite down harder and plunge in, again.
That in itself is the highest praise I could give for their games, FO4 included. I agree with you on your points also. Sadly it isn’t the game itself that causes me to put it to the side, it’s the lengthening backlog of other great games that I put off to continue to play these games.
The story of FO4 was pretty lackluster. I hope they come up with something that pulls me in more for the next Elder Scrolls game. But I’d certainly be just as happy if it were nothing more than the open-world emergent gameplay that these games bring in spades. Far Harbor was a fantastic DLC as far as Bethesda offerings go. It felt like a very polished piece of work, with a decent story and some great action. Nuka-World, not as much, it certainly had action, but maybe due to me getting to it last, it just drug on. And I wanted to just finish the damned thing.
Truly a mini-review of Fallout 4 would summarize as: Fantastic gameplay, I guess I should finish the story.
I don’t know. I attempted a second game of Skyrim but after 180+ hours for my first single game, and all sorts of other games to play even then, it didn’t take. The open world nature of these games are the single biggest detriment to replayability. I never replayed TW3, or DA:I either, to name a couple other recent ones, and I didn’t buy DLC for Skyrim, TW3, or DA:I; when I was done, I knew I was done, and I was satisfied with what I accomplished.
