Of course putting DLC content in the title means having to start winnowing out the real DLCs from those that are just workshop add-ons that feel like they should have been in the base game. Still, if one is looking at a package deal on Fallout 4, then those pieces become useful depending on play style. I'll put the workshop DLC (Wasteland Workshop, Contraptions, Vault Tec) together as asset style DLCs: only Vault-Tec has a story to go with it, and it is nominal though humorous as it gives a look into the company's way of viewing individuals as lab rats.
In the way of assets Contraptions Workshop is the one that puts actual production line equipment into place and is one of the few structural pieces that seems to draw upon the prewar knowledge available in the red workbench to construct useful equipment for material purposes. Being able to make weapons, armor and food supplies on a production line basis moves FO4 from post-apocalypse to post-post-apocalypse. With resource gathering and utilization to finished goods, the supply of newly made stuff essential for survival and more is in place. If you want an idea of where Bethesda is going with the franchise, then Contraptions Workshop is it. The Vault-Tec Workshop then adds in the critical pieces of large scale infrastructure in the way of water purification and power supplies, plus the actual ability to build Vault structural pieces to make safer internal housing. Taken as a whole these minor DLCs hold keys to the future of the franchise if Bethesda ever wishes to use them.
What this does call into question, lore-wise and even just as an in-game mechanic, is who created those delightful red workbenches and the extended system in the Vault-Tec Workshop. At this point it has post-war, crappy things to build, mechanical construction devices that are obviously uses pre-war technology (as seen in many of the non-functioning production facilities in FO4), and things that can only be described as adapted technology that is late post-war as seen in the Wastelands Workshop, particularly the traps utilized to catch various wasteland denizens, including humans. That is a very versatile piece of equipment, and yet we never once see anyone programming the thing to adapt it to more uses. Given that the Vault-Tec materials feature well fitted, protective pieces that put power, water and waste treatment through the joined sections, and the question of just why the other stuff is still so crappy is a question that is begging to be asked. When all the pieces are in-place the idea of just making an awful looking post-war settlement goes out the window as the Vault Tec pieces can be used above ground. That is the point where rebuilding isn't the question: you are now building something new and different.
The three remaining DLCs are Automotron, Far Harbor and Nuka World, and each deserves their place in the sun. As a whole they are some of the best story driven DLCs that Bethesda has put out, although that will vary based on each individual's viewpoint of what the prior games held and how they fit into the overall story being told.
Automotron
Automotron is, perhaps, the closest to being light-hearted fun as it brings back a comic book figure from that timeline's past and gives it a second wasteland incarnation. The first time we saw The Mechanist was in Fallout 3 and that was a, more or less, super hero who had started life off as a repairman and fan of robots and transformed himself into a comic book figure known as The Mechanist. He isn't the same Mechanist in FO4, but he did inspire the new Mechanist who sends robots into the wasteland purportedly to help people, but ends up just trying to kill everyone. In FO4 the lore of The Mechanist has been developed through the stories told on Silver Shroud Radio in and around Goodneighbor, and part of that can be captured by the player just by listening to the broadcasts. In fact the player can actually become The Silver Shroud, submachinegun toting hero dealing out rough justice to evil doers, and there is a particular play through of Automotron using the costume once in the The Mechanist's Lair.
Automotron adds in a key piece of workshop equipment which is the Robotics Workbench, that allows for the creation and modification of stock robots typically seen in the Fallout franchise: Protectrons, Mr. Handy, Sentry bots. Eyebots were excluded, though there is a mod that puts them into the mix. Armed with that and a trusty, though somewhat dialog limited robotic companion, the PC can then track down what is going on, confront the new bandit gang, The Rust Devils, acquire a unique suit of T-60 power armor and the means to finally confront The Mechanist. Once taken down the subterranean Lair becomes available as a settlement site, though it is most likely to be used as a provisioner point to send robot provisioners to bring settlements together in a unified supply situation.
Thematically the DLC is spot-on, well acted, and provides the ability for higher level characters to do it as The Silver Shroud and find the secret way in to confront The Mechanist instead of doing a brute force approach of surviving wave upon wave of robots until the facility finally runs out of power. Determining which is more satisfying is left up to the player. It is, thematically, one of the best role playing elements in the DLC and something that Bethesda would continue in the last DLC.
By using an existing place and turning it into the site for The Mechanist's Lair, this DLC does a good job for integration on that front. What it doesn't do is gradually introduce Automotron enemies in a slow, build-up fashion. To do this would mean that relatively under-powered groups of robots would show up early in the game as The Mechanist is getting established the rogue robots are not fighting just Rust Devils, but also going after just about anything that moves. To a degree it is appropriate that the Rust Devils don't show up for awhile as their armor is better than standard Metal Armor which makes them a bit more on the resistant side to weapons fire. Their robots at the low end, however, would be good for searching or scavenging and having a couple of the lowest level types of those or The Mechanist robot types would be very appropriate for introducing this 'threat to the Commonwealth'. These robots wouldn't drop mods, just normal scrap until the proper story kicks off. In addition Easy City Downs' robots are referred to as having mods, but they do not and it would have been interesting to see just what sort of home-brewed mods were in them as they would be thematically oriented to better speed for the bot types in question. Nor do specialized robots from the pre-war drop appropriate modifications, like the Protectron firefighter or medical robots. While the mods given in Automotron do replicate these, actually having to go out and find them so they would then become available would have been a nice touch to the DLC.
Automotron, by giving the ability to create robots and assign them to
tasks, then starts to automate food production as robots can tend to
plants (albeit they don't actually do anything more than just sit there
and do nothing, but the crops still produce food) and free up the human
workforce to do other things. At the finish of Automotron robots can be
used for Provisioning, tending crops, defense of settlements and custom
created or adapted for Companion status. As the lowest priced of the
themed non-workshop DLCs, it offers a large number of options if you are
into robots and finding a way to streamline settlements.
Far Harbor
Moving on to Far Harbor, the Island that is reached via a quest line started at Nick Valentine's office, the player is given a setting that is foggy, lightly radioactive throughout with some hard pockets of fallout, a three-way set of groups that are antagonistic towards each other to a certain extent and new enemies in the way of deranged humans and brand new and quite hardy wildlife themed for the near shore and wetlands environment. It is an interesting DLC as it offers a number of solutions to the problems facing the three groups and some actual choices that the player will have to consider because it puts a form of commentary on the main game that does require some reflection on it. It is a type of DLC that has some elements of Point Lookout and Lonely Hearts from prior instances in the Bethesda era of Fallout.
The main quest is a young woman (she is an adult and no longer a child) Kasumi Nakano who got fascinated by a group on Far Harbor and traveled there to be with them, or at least meet them. Going there to find her means meeting up with the locals on the docks who have been driven there by the Fog, the slightly radioactive fog that covers the island and can cause madness to those living in it. They keep the Fog at bay with Condensers provided to them by the Synth refuge at the old Acadia National Park. That is where the young woman went to and the journey then proceeds to there, and in so doing, encountering one of the Children of Atom on the Island. They see the Island as part of Atom's domain, went to it, and were settled into an old Submarine Base by the Synth leading the refuge. DiMA. After chatting with the slightly mentally askew Child of Atom the play then proceeds up to Acadia, itself and doing a meet and greet, plus finally finding the young woman who is alive and well.
DiMA, as the head of the refuge, is an early prototype synth between Generation 2 and Generation 3, and was made just before Nick Valentine. DiMA was given a blank slate to build a mental structure while Nick was given the memories and mental structure of the pre-war police detective Nick Valentine. Nick suffered damage and doesn't remember much of the Institute, only flashes of light, and nothing of DiMA. DiMA considers Nick to be a 'brother' and uses that concept to try and convince Nick of his genuine affection and caring for Nick. DiMA then turns and asks if the PC is a synth or not, and when you are given the opportunity to recall pre-war memories...well...the game designers decided that you shouldn't be allowed to do that.
Why?
Reasons!
Asinine reasons, at that. Any decent play through to that point in which the Institute is still around and the PC has been to Graygarden and the Brotherhood of Steel, means that opportunity to find and express pre-war memories have been available. At Graygarden the memories of Professor Gray can be recalled, and those go back months before the war. On the airship of the BoS and getting a physical, a sarcastic response can yield memories of a pre-war intimate session surrounded by far too much booze. And if the player has done the Silver Shroud quest, then at the beginning they can recall sitting around with their family as a child listening to The Silver Shroud radio show. Also at Goodneighbor the PC can recall their pre-war life with Daisy, the general goods vendor who is a ghoul. Plus you can also find the Vault Tec Rep from the start of the game at the Hotel Rexford and talk with him about that last day. Having done each of those and then NOT being allowed to bring them up with DiMA is a critical failure in game design and a slap in the face to anyone who has tried to use the role playing elements available to try and make a decent run of the game. It is a singular failure in a game that has emphasized the pre-war nature of the PC, made it a vital and compelling part of the plot (one that is hard to miss and often thrust in your face).
This is yet another instance of Bethesda removing player choice and narrowing down input to get a desired result: it has nothing to do with actual role-playing and more to do with introducing the question into the minds of the players. There are far better ways to do this, like pointing out that some of the synths that have gotten new memories get deep memories, going back some years. Still the premise of the question would also call into question of why The Institute would ever put you into Vault 111 and would treat you as anything other than property. This is especially grating if the player has done the basic reclamation quest on Gabriel for The Institute and drives home the point that all synths are seen as property even the 'Personal Synth' Eve in The Institute. If the PC were a synth, then The Institute would have, long ago, sent out a team to bring you in as you are causing far too much damage and bringing attention to yourself. This is a major flaw in this otherwise fine DLC, and will begin to point out that no matter what DiMA is trying to accomplish that the PC is just a piece on the chessboard to him: a person to manipulate. There are better ways to do that and the quest to find Kasumi and then after you talk to her will reveal that upon any short amount of introspection by the player.
In the playthrough the PC will get to interact with the Far Harbor natives, who are restricted to their port town by the radioactive Fog which permeates the atmosphere and warps the minds of those stuck in it too long. That is, unfortunately, not a game play mechanic but just stated as something that happens. If you decide to hop and skip around in lead-lined and ballistic weave based armor, the radiation isn't much of a problem and you will never get mind altering effects from the Fog. Upon first arrival the PC has to join in a fight against the local mutated wildlife that has decided that moment to try and get past the Fog Condensers that protect the town, so that this faction is actually the first you run across and the synth colony the second. From the townspeople you learn of the animosity they hold towards synths and towards the Children of Atom who came to settle on The Island as they see it as part of Atom's holy land. There are plenty of quests to do with the islanders, and some of them are very moving while others let you know that even when they are taking you in, if you make good then you will get rewarded.
The Children of Atom are a faction you will also get to join and learn about, and they came to The Island under the guidance of Confessor Martin, who ultimately died (or was murdered depending on your take of things) and that left Grand Zealot Tektus in charge, and he has little love for the synths which welcomed Martin and The Children to The Island nor The Islanders who he sees as intruders on Atom's holy land and standing against Atom's will. It is up to the player to decide how to handle the situation and which faction (if any) is to survive their arrival. This is a situation that can end with all factions surviving (though it is a metastable ending) to everyone dead: the outcome is left up to the player.
What the PC will uncover (doing most of the quests and getting through the mandatory 3D puzzle game to get DiMA's memories which has no damned place in the game) is that DiMA has been the manipulator of all of the factions and kept on orchestrating events and then finding that his work was turning out worse and worse at every turn. To help calm down The Islanders he found one of their members that had been off of The Island for a decade and had her murdered and replaced by a synth. He also hid the detonator to the nuclear weapons in the submarine bay that the Children of Atom are using as their temple, so that it can go boom. Plus he has the kill switch code for the wind turbines that allow Far Harbor to exist and keep things running. The Islanders are suspicious of the replacement, the Children of Atom don't trust his machinations and while the synths look up to him, a few express misgivings about what is going on (and the PC can learn that a few of them have been manipulated when things didn't go exactly as planned). Giving land to the Children of Atom didn't create peace, and even Confessor Martin expressed that Division is Atom's greatest gift and if he got his hands on the key to blow up the nucleus in holy atomic fire, he would do so. Fog Condensers that the technicians at Acadia made for The Islanders didn't win long-term trust but suspicion of ulterior motives.
While the theoretical 'good ending' is to do yet another synth replacement on Tektus, that brings into question just how the player views The Institute as that is EXACTLY what The Instituted DOES. Yes, DiMA is rationalizing it just as Father and the others in The Institute do, as well. When I call this ending 'metastable' it means that it is only stable for a short-term: suspicions will continue to fest both amongst The Islanders and the sudden turnabout by Tektus will raise suspicion of him amongst the Children. Every time a problem crops up, DiMA will be forced to do something and when people can't be quelled and their suspicions remain, just what will happen? Plus helping DiMA is giving tacit acceptance to these methods, which means that one of the major reasons to oppose The Institute is taken off the board. Given the status of Paladin Danse, that can be a hard pill to swallow if you got that far in the play through. If it is perfectly fine to replace individuals with compliant synths in Far Harbor, then why not elsewhere? And the worst thing is that even given some of the attributes of Confessor Martin, there is no way to remove the primary message of Atom for Division. If the replacement is truly devout, then DiMA is still left with someone who is faithful to that doctrine, and while ameliorated due to initial circumstances, must face up to the fact that Division is a Blessing unto Atom's Children and to be embraced. This is no fix at all, merely delaying the inevitable.
Of course the player can just choose a single winner or no winner at all, which leads to multiple types of bad endings. Yet an analysis of beliefs and rationale points out where the actual problems are in Far Harbor and their solution.
Who is it that welcomed the Children of Atom? DiMA.
Who is it that murdered and replaced an Islander to manipulate The Islanders? DiMA.
Who is it that ordered an unsuccessful mind-wipe of a damaged synth and left it in mental misery? DiMA.
Who is it that developed the Kill Code and hid The Detonator Key so that they could be held over the other factions? DiMA.
Basically who caused all of these problems? DiMA.
The 'good' ending lets DiMA off pretty lightly and confirms him in the manipulator role, one that he hasn't done well at in the past and will continue to fail at in the future as he has already set the basis for it in place. Hope you felt good about that, doing his dirty work for him!
Now if you aren't the sort that likes being manipulated is there a solution this problem? Why yes, yes there is and it is damned simple. Confront DiMA after giving him his memories back and hold him to the very code he says he will abide by. If humanity is to be trusted for justice, then go to The Islanders and tell them that he has murdered one of their own and put a synth in but that synth is innocent of wrong doing. Yes this will get DiMA killed in short order, but also give the sacrificial lamb necessary to finally shut up the hot heads in Far Harbor.
That leaves the Children of Atom. What is the greatest, most sought after blessing that they embrace? Division. And who can hand it to them? Why the PC! To our eyes, here in the comfy main timeline without the problems of the Fallout universe, this is a form of mass suicide, like Jonestown. Yet in the crazy alt-post-apocalypse where the teachings of Atom are embraced by his Children, who are you to say that they are WRONG? When you reveal that you have the Detonator Key, the immediate response is for Tektus to call the Children together while you put the key in and turn it...giving you a very, very short time to get out of the submarine, get to the main floor and book out of the Nucleus as everyone from the outside is scrambling to get IN. You have a sense of self-preservation, but these people fervently, wholeheartedly believe that Atom is about to bestow the greatest of all blessings directly upon them and other Children will mourn that they weren't there to take part in that holy communion of Division.
Is it evil to do this? By our standards, you're damned right it is. Yet this ending also avoids years of future bloodshed, constant fighting and such between The Islanders and the Children of Atom. If you are going to get your hands dirty, then are you going to do it under the orders of another or do it yourself? Or will you just walk away and wash your hands of future bloodshed...and if you have helped The Islanders at all, that means coming back to defend the settlements there that you helped to take under your wing. You are going to get your hands dirty one way or another, unless you are willing to just let the whole thing sit as a lost cause, and persuade Kasumi to just get the hell out of Dodge as she will once you reveal what DiMA has done. It is barely possible to just leave this mess unresolved and close the case, with DiMA dead to top it off. Justice served and all that...just remember you have the means to forestall constant bloodshed in your hands, and that means your hands are still dirty with those deaths linked to your inaction. Do or do not, your hands get dirty.
Nuka World
If the player waits to do Nuka World before resolving the main story of Fallout 4, then there is something that will start to give voice to some of the larger problems of the game as a whole. In Fallout: New Vegas there were hints and lead-ins to the DLC content that one could find throughout the game. Sierra Madre posters, a few bits of dialogue about that 'other courier', encountering cazadores and nightstalkers and wondering just where the hell they had come from, and some of the wishes expressed at Crimson Caravans to expand caravan routes north. Paying attention in the base game meant you had context for the DLCs. Not so in FO4, where the DLC content is just plunked down with no prior lead-in. There is one story you might overhear about a ghoul whale, but that isn't something found in Far Harbor just 'out at sea', and the other DLCs didn't get so much as a hint anywhere about them. No posters from Nuka World or stories of rampaging robots...nothing. And yet all the DLCs had been planned long before the base game was released. In Nuka World the player and PC must deal with surviving the Gauntlet of death traps, active foes, mines, etc. to just meet the Overboss who wants to kill you for the glory and entertainment of the other Raider gangs. This is a Raider DLC and you are put in the heart of being able to overturn much of your hard work in the Commonwealth...if you want to.
Yet, for all of that, no one else in the Commonwealth gives a good hot damn about Nuka World.
The Minutemen do care, to an extent, but are still willing to follow you as their General. Preston Garvey doesn't want to work with you if you take it too far, but if you get to that point and then decide on the Minuteman ending, well, yeah you're still the General to HIM, too. Big deal, huh?
The Railroad says not a peep if you become an Overboss there...and they do not like Raider gangs very much because of the way that synths are treated if they are discovered to be synths. They are fine with you being Overboss and even setting up Raider settlements inside the Commonwealth. And yet the gangs you lead are no better and some actually worse, than the ones the RR despises.
The Brotherhood should be damned interested in having a region large enough to land the Pydwyn, and that has lots of suits of advanced power armor and weapons available, as well as other, quite dangerous technology. They don't give a rats ass about it.
The Institute should be interested in some of the technology in Nuka World, especially the concept of being able to weaponize soft drinks. There is a host of pre-war genetic information on animals and people in Nuka World that they should want with a great wantingness, and actually think about wanting to do a major campaign there to get it all. Nope, no dice. All about that undergroound facility with all of its problems and nothing about an outside solution...the myopia continues.
Nuka World is unconnected to the base game...and yet there are a few points you can roleplay as The Silver Shroud and actually get unique dialogue. Plus you can get mods off the robots in Nuka World, so you can make even fancier robots with some unique weapons based off of Nuka Cola's line-up. So Bethesda Game Studios could have offered a far deeper integration of this DLC...actually ALL of the DLCs, than what was finally delivered. And it seemed that for all the criticism of not being able to be truly evil in the base game, the developers finally said 'well now you can!' But only if you are willing to scrap what you've already invested in a play through to do so. Isn't that special?
The premise of this DLC is that you are given the title of Overboss (yet another meaningless title in the long list of meaningless titles in Bethesda games) which means that, yes, you will do work to clear out Nuka World for the three gangs there! Yet more ungrateful wretches to do quests for! Yay! Then, when you have 3 gangs and 5 park areas to hand out, the one with the short end of the stick will turn on you once you start setting up shop in the Commonwealth. That's just so special, isn't it? Not like you didn't get a clear signal of that from the start with the whole unequal distribution deal. Still if you go through all of that, get the nominally wonderful perks that could have been useful at much lower levels (assuming you aren't doing a real challenge like going to Nuka World at Level 1), the question of what the real purpose of helping the gangs of Nuka World actually serves comes to mind.
As the companion available in Nuka World will point out, both the Brotherhood and Institute act like Raider gangs, just with lots of high tech and good sounding verbiage behind them. That is, actually, a correct view of the situation as neither group holds themselves accountable to anyone but themselves and take what they want through threat of force or just killing to get what they want. The RR is also unaccountable, but it is not, by and large, looking to take goods and land from people: they have a mission, are dedicated to it and don't get into that whole thefting to support yourself business. And The Minutemen, in theory, are a citizen based militia of volunteers and mutual support, but without a government over it the problems of accountability also show up. In theory The Minutemen might be the basis for bringing together enough settlements to then allow such a government to form.
And the Raider gangs? They are in it to rob, steal and kill their way to survival and dominance, which is a pretty simple viewpoint but at least one that can be understood as a base desire. Raiders don't create anything, save chaos, and are self-absorbed as individuals, which is reflected by the gangs. Why si the wasteland still a wasteland? Look no further than the base instincts of humanity given leeway to express itself and aspire to nothing above fulfilling those base needs. Genghis Khan brought a form of government and tolerance to those places that willingly submitted, and didn't fiddle much with them save to appoint an official at the top and skim off the top from that government. He understood that there is a purpose to governance at a local level, and while establishing no lasting system the idea was not to force submission in totality but only in part. Raider gangs feel no need to defend those settlements they get tribute from, and thus don't measure up to even Khan based standards. These tribal concerns that exclude caring about where their daily sustenance comes from puts Raiders in a tough position when something else from the wasteland decides to get rid of their food source. Raiders will farm, but don't like it as it is beneath them. As Mr. Abernathy points out 'if you don't work, you don't eat' means that stealing or extracting food from others is short-sighted as it puts at peril the very thing that the thieves desire in the long term: survival. If you are not thinking about survival in the wasteland (or in real life) then you are putting your life at risk which is a basic lesson that Raiders feel free to ignore.
Being Overboss of the Raider gangs has no end-game to it, and they don't even get a chance to figure out how to bring down the high tech gangs they see in the Commonwealth: the Brotherhood and Institute. Both of these organizations could put an end to Raider problems, and the Brotherhood, by supporting Operation Purity in the Capitol Wastelands, have actually done this before. The Institute can use high tech means, teleportation and lots of expendable Gen 1 and 2 synths to erode Raiders if they ever were seen as a threat, which is doubtful but history has many people like the Overboss that then figure out how to unify the forces beneath them. Caesar's Legion from Fallout: New Vegas is just such an example, and that sort of organization will brook no contenders to being top dog and actually see anyone who contests their supremacy as a threat to be eliminated. And The Minuteman ending shows that the Institute is vulnerable to the surface world. A unified gang structure under a powerful leader would emerge if the Nuka World Raiders rise to being a power across the entire Commonwealth and they will seek to wipe out every other faction. We aren't given that as an ending to Nuka World, but it would fit, thematically, with history and the Fallout universe.
Nuka World has much to offer in the way of interesting places, some more than interesting backstory, and fun weapons, armor and technology. It is not well integrated into FO4 and for all the well made landscape and people have to offer, it is that lack of integration and expanded game play that leaves it feeling a bit hollow. Going through all the rigmarole and the result is left unsatisfying. That does not detract from the game play, which is one of the best in all of Fallout's DLCs, even with all the lack of role playing flaws that come with FO4. Having outside interest from the Brotherhood, Institute, and perhaps a Minuteman initiative to drive out the Raiders would have made for a far more interesting DLC. Offering an end-game to the Raiders would also have done that and allowed for a complete cycle of hopeless wasteland to hopeless wasteland. Thus game play comes at the expense of putting a final twist to FO4 that would end in a truly 'bad' ending without hope and endless warfare.
Because war...war never changes...
