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Fallout 4: Nuka-World (PC) artwork

Fallout 4: Nuka-World (PC) review


"”Who’s on First Raid?” Starring the Three Stooge Factions"

Reactions run high and with varying opinions for the last expansion to Fallout 4. Not since Broken Steel made the epilogue playable for Fallout 3 has Bethesda received as many criticisms on their add-ons. Perhaps it is with a sense of irony that this expansion provides a greater consequence than anything in the base-game (or Far Harbor) of F4 if you play a moral character because it will trim off the small fat of storytelling the game offers to sate players’ desires to become a Raider. In many ways, this level of consequence is an expectation I have for Fallout—and I imagine many people would be more tolerable to the idea if the expansion didn’t feel like Bethesda coming out, yelling, “Here’s your damn degenerate faction! You want to be a F-in Raider so much? There! Kill everything!”

If FH was an attempt to muddy the waters and integrate the RPG mechanics for the goody-goody Sole Survivor, then Nuka World is a blatant appeal from F3 to provide moral opposition for the sake of cartoonishly evil outcomes. It’s really telling that the minds who came up with one of the most three-dimensional characters in Fallout, Kellogg, produced NW. What could have been an empathetic exploration into the perception of Raiders whom we slaughter by the hundreds is made into a Raider retreat-resort where you can either role with the façade or kill all the staff for justifiable reasons.

If Nuka World can be praised for anything, it is the most blatant display of Bethesda’s core design and values, especially Fallout 4. The shift in priorities from F3 to F4 (or Oblivion to Skyrim) can be adequately described in NW as a landmass with main attractions masqueraded as theme parks. Dungeons’ level design doesn't follow sensible architecture; instead, arenas loop around themselves like a theme-park ride with an exit. Plausibility of world-design is ignored in favor for the coolness factor of the moment. Areas, inside and out, show off many technical, visual and gameplay stimulating aspects over its simplicity that you cannot help but enjoy the ride. In short, the world of NW feels so unbelievable to experience—especially with the Raider gangs’ motivations—that you would be missing the purpose it’s meant to be junk food.

Fallout 4: Nuka-World (PC) image

This isn’t to say NW is a bad expansion nor is it worthless to players with moral sensibilities. It is perhaps the most honest display of Bethesda’s ego; the gameplay refinements, especially Fallout 4’s quest designs and arenas, goes to show how mechanically satisfying their games can be at their core. NW is the manifestation of Bethesda’s long-standing problem of iconography with its shining towers to shamelessly bask in its own glory. Without going into as much detail as I addressed this issue with Far Harbor, Bethesda has a problem with being unable to move on from its staple symbols and visual elements. (NW even borrows ideas from the past as the content feels like a blend of Dead Money for its intro, Old World Blues in terms of overall design, and the power struggle of New Vegas, but these are subtler inspirations.)

While the narrative itself may be lacking, the core loop of exploring, looting and fighting is superbly distilled that NW features some of the most rewarding side-quests in F4. Each side-quest from finding hidden Cappys to collecting Star Cores feels far richer than the core game whereas the main-questlines focus solely on providing incentives to go explore the whole map. Make no mistake; NW's quests are not the quality of New Vegas, but to Bethesda’s standards they are the most enriching if the raw gameplay appeals to you. Narrative elements and role-playing mechanics, in contrast to the progress made with FH, feel like afterthoughts lost due to Bethesda’s hubris.

Earlier I had described this expansion as a concoction of Dead Money, Old World Blues and New Vegas, but the actual experience reminds me of the Megaton quest from Fallout 3. This is largely because what Bethesda chose to focus on in Nuka World’s writing and the options they provide are two extremes of implausibility that they raise more questions than providing answers.

Fallout 4: Nuka-World (PC) image

On the surface, the plot that Bethesda wants to tell is a power-play storyline where the player comes into possession as the leader of three factions—another instance of Bethesda’s obsession with making players in command—on the verge of self-destruction. Now to Bethesda’s credit, the progression into the Overboss is a more believable transition than becoming the General of the Minutemen. The new Raider companion, Gage, rigs the fight for you with the former Overboss to seize his minions because he believes the old boss is useless, and he makes you the new Overboss because he prefers to be second-in-command. Even if you are moral character, you feel pressured into playing along with Gage because the other factions do not trust you and Gage is the only person who would come to your defense if one group questions your authority. Everything after that incredible set-up, however, begins to break the illusion whether you side with Raiders or with the traders of NW.

The problem with the narrative and main-quest designs is the same problem that plagues the Megaton adventure; you must ignore many obvious questions due to the rule of Cool, and the good and evil choices are absurd. At any point of the main-questline you can engage Open Season, which simply makes all Raiders hostile as you hunt down the three leaders and Gage, then you are told by a trader to turn on the rest of NW. (In my adventure, I chose to engage them after they suggested attacking the Commonwealth.) The alternative is to take back every attraction on your own without any raider gang support, planting flags to divide the lands between three Raider factions and then raiding settlements in the Commonwealth until one faction turns on you, thus giving you the incentive to turn on the power to NW. You may feel like a Raider but not a leader of Raiders.

Raiders enticing and tricking traders to steal their goods feels appropriate given their carefree attitude in life, and even the world of NW is so detailed it can be seen to be believed. However, the factions themselves are so one-dimensional they are nothing more than punching bags written with words to make you hate them. One faction, the most sensible, is motivated by profits from NW and the fortifications a theme park can provide, except that is where their complexity ends; another faction feels like a bad Anthrocon convention with Napoleon complexes to be the Alpha Male; and the third is so comically sadistic they decorate their walls with guts, gore and heads. Questions regarding each Raider’s motives beyond money, power or sadism are ignored, and the tangible consequences vanish outside its world.

Fallout 4: Nuka-World (PC) image

This lack of satisfaction also extends to the Commonwealth as the player can lose Preston and the Minutemen if they start raiding settlements, which you would think would lead to an added questline to fight off the Minutemen. Instead, the Minutemen only spite you—not even shooting you on sight as they should. It’s this lack of conviction to let the player leave NW with long-lasting consequences that ultimately breaks the façade of becoming a “pure-evil” faction—they also missed an opportunity to utilize the Gunners as an alternative “evil” faction as mercenaries for hire. (Strangely, there are Gunner outcasts included, but they don’t do anything for the story.)

After all these missed opportunities, you cannot truly enjoy becoming evil in Fallout 4 to reap the rewards and the consequences of that decision, yet you may enjoy destroying everything out of Catharism. Nuka World swings with enough oomph behind every chance to bat that it gets enough of a pass to walk to first base rather than striking out a home-run finale.



Brian's avatar
Community review by Brian (June 18, 2021)

Current interests: Strategy/Turn-Based Games, CRPGs, Immersive Sims, Survival Solo Games, etc.

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