DLC I Beat: Automatron

Fallout 4: Automatron
Open World Shooty "RPG"
1 Player
 System: Playstation 4
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: March 22nd, 2016

Where has the time gone? I sincerely apologize for my lack of attention to this blog, but life has gotten the better of me. Rather than lament that, let's just move ever forward shall we? Fallout 4 is a weird game for me, I remember it fondly and had quite a bit of fun with the plethora of hours I dumped into it, but it felt lacking to me overall. This feeling manages to persist in this first bit of DLC, though it honestly surprised me quite a bit.

I really need to address some scumbag practices over at Bethesda though. They released a season pass alongside Fallout 4, promising some content. They didn't say what kind, or how much, just that content would come to those who bought the pass. When they finally announced the first three (of what sounds like more to come) pieces of season pass content they also announced that come March the price would increase twenty dollars. At least they gave a bit of a grace period for people to scramble to save those twenty dollars, but it just goes to show how poorly thought out and even more poorly executed DLC, and, moreso, season passes really are. It's a damn shame too. We still aren't totally sure what all we have purchased with these season passes, it's frustrating.

Automatron is, I suppose, a medium sized bit of DLC. It comes with a few quests, one of which is actually quite a bit longer than most quests in Fallout 4, as well as the ability to create and modify your own robots, which is the main draw really. The quests center around a new player who has emerged in the Commonwealth, The Mechanist, a character familiar to those who have played Fallout 3. Unleashing hordes of mish-mashed robots into the wild, you stumble upon the whole mess by rescuing the new companion Ada. Upon saving her from some killer robots you start down a path that leads to making new robots, a new faction of raiders, robobrains with a bit of personality, some more background information on how some of the robots were made with that typical Fallout morbidity and eventually down into the lair of the Mechanist himself.

The quests are pretty good. Two of the dungeons are quite lengthy, but this doesn't necessarily work in their favor. The first is where these new robot-focused raiders hang out, it's a fairly standard Fallout 4 area, meaning it's quite linear. At least there is plenty of helpful robo-centric parts laying about. The last dungeon is overly long. I continuously found myself asking "is this the end?" Not a good sign. It has a few interesting design choices, but ultimately is yet another long hallway with a few breaks for combat. The fight with The Mechanist, and ensuing plot, is alright nothing too unexpected though. A really lengthy multi-wave robo-battle is the climax which, again, felt a little more like "is it over?" as opposed to any kind of epic conclusion. Oh, if you wear the Silver Shroud get up it alters the final encounter's dialogue. I got through most of it, but my game managed to save in a crashing state, so I wasn't able to play all the way through. Needless to say, the bit I did experience was worth the trouble of re-loading with the outfit on.

The highlight though, designing your own robots. I really like that you can essentially create any number of companions in any combination of robot. It was a lot of fun just messing around making all kinds of metal death. Hovering gatling gun wielding robots, tank treaded melee warrior robots, robots designed to carrying all your precious loot, there is a satisfying amount of customization. While this is in no way necessary, it's a great addition, maybe if I hadn't burnt out so hard on the game and done basically everything there is to do I could have squeezed more hours out of it. As it is, one of these robots will be joining me when Far Harbor finally drops.

Overall I think this is a pretty good bit of DLC. Nothing that demands your attention, but if it sounds interesting to you it's probably worth it. Hopefully you managed to pick up the season pass prior to the price hike, or you can find it on sale though. Fifty dollars for a season pass is BEYOND ridiculous and should not be the acceptable norm, especially when for so long the content was a complete mystery (and it seems like there's even more to be announced later). But the content itself is valid and fun.