So I’ve been playing Fallout 4 lately. I actually got it at launch in November, and I did play it for a while back then, but life happened and I didn’t continue until recently. Now I’ve finished the main quest and many of the side quests. A few spoilers ahead, probably.

I finished as Brotherhood of Steel, terminating the Institute and the Railroad. Would have preferred to save the Railroad but that’s not how the Brotherhood rolls, so what can you do (but I hear it’s possible to save both the Brotherhood and the Railroad if you side with the Minutemen and play your cards right.)

I wanted to like the Institute. There’s where my son is and it’s pro science and I do like the whole secretive illuminati vide, and they also did a good job of creating expectations starting long before actually entering the Institute, but unfortunately the game doesn’t really do a good job of describing what they’re about, explaining and justifying their actions, their ideology and strategy and plan for their own and everyone else’s future and so on. I had basic and obvious questions I couldn’t ask and objections I couldn’t make. What is it you stand for, again? There was a quest specifically to learn about them, except that you only really got to know a few details about their science projects, which is not what I had in mind. Compare this to New Vegas where each of the factions where explained and showed expertly, both abstractly and on a gut-level.

(As an aside, and perhaps a topic for another post, they also failed to make me really care for my adult son, there should have been a deeper connection of some sort (or maybe a noticeable and painful lack of connection– just something rather than business as usual) so when I at a seminal moment finally put an end to the Institute it wasn’t the heart-rending experience that it ought to have been.)

They made a big deal out of their synths but explanations were lacking in that department as well. One doctor were talking to a synth about its feelings, so they clearly recognize that they have sentience and feelings, so why aren’t they allowed the status of personhood? I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t; I’m saying the Institute should have addressed the question more. If the synths don’t have free will, why do they keep escaping, contrary to their programming? Perfect opportunity to infuse some philosophy of sentience, personhood and free will and so on into the game, a very relevant topic these days with AI on the rise, but no, they settled for surface-level assertions, if at all.

I just wanted to know more. To be fair I got a better feel for the other factions though, especially the Brotherhood, but still not at the level of New Vegas. Not sure if the Railroad should have been considered a major faction at all, it’s a minor group with a specific narrow goal, not a faction like the others. Heck, it’s basically smaller than several of the non-main factions in New Vegas, such as the Brotherhood or the Boomers. The player can view them as a minor faction in his own mind, but they’re clearly written into the story as a major faction, which if chosen precludes the others.

I feel the Brotherhood was the faction they )id the best (even making them somewhat more true to their roots than they did in Fallout 3) but I’m guessing that’s because they didn’t actually create that faction themselves, they inherited it and so they needn’t be concerned with creation, only portrayal and adjustment into current circumstances.

The choice for me was between the BoS and the Minutemen, glad neither had to be eliminated.

You wouldn’t guess it from this post, but it is in many ways still an enjoyable and even great game, but that’s another topic for another day.