Far Harbor - Thoughts

[jjb54]

My personal thoughts - what are yours?

 

 

Okay, FAR HARBOR, it caught my attention as FO-4 base game was losing me. It was just not interesting at all.

 

The scenery in FO-4 base game, is boring, the plots were just not 'catching me' and do NOT get me started on Strong. Let's just say I wanted to nuke him more than a few times and did, to no avail.

 

But - Far Harbor:

 

I will not do any spoilers, for one reason, I'm not that far into the DLC yet to really post any spoilers.

 

But, Far Harbor caught my attention. The characters actually have DEPTH! They have a lot more personal story and personality behind them.

 

Then the Island, it too is not FLAT and boring. Far Harbor Island has a lot of things that make you want to explore and re-explore.

 

Now admittedly, again, I'm not that far into the FAR HARBOR DLC, but what I noticed right away is the storyline and characters and environment caught me. I found for the first time since I started FO-4, that I was actually enjoying the game!

 

The only negative is the constant fog. I get it, they played off the movie: THE FOG. I get it, but I think they should have allowed a few more days of Sunshine and blue skies, during the week. But I use the fw 2b52a when I need a little sunshine. :smile:

 

So what are your thoughts?

[yzerman19]

The fog is always causing me to run out of rad x and radaway. But I am looking forward to my next level-up, when I can get the perk that gives me increased radiation protection.

[jjb54]

The fog is always causing me to run out of rad x and radaway. But I am looking forward to my next level-up, when I can get the perk that gives me increased radiation protection.

 

IF you are at the level to create: REFRESHING BEVERAGE, do it. Two birds w/one stone and you do not have to take as much rad-x.

[RaffTheSweetling]

My thoughts mirror yours almost completely.

 

The landscape is varied, unpredictable, and utterly stunning.

 

The characters are interesting, have depth like you mentioned, and there's a feeling of "I actually want to help these people/I definitely do not want to help this scumbag" involved in the quests - which finally have multiple routes (sort of, sometimes).

 

The new additions are really cool, and while there aren't many new weapons, there are many other new things which are totally unexpected.

 

The fog envelopes everything, which means you could walk right past something and not notice it, which adds so much to the replay value. This is so completely in opposition to the formulaic Commonwealth where everything is neatly laid out, easy to find, impossible to miss, and utterly non-rewarding-of-exploration. I also like when the clouds clear, the sun comes out, and the fog disperses slightly to allow a better view - these moments really make the island feel real for me.

 

The monsters are truly awesome also. And I won't spoil any of them, because some of them are right up there in the "coolest monster I ever fought in a video-game" ranking.

[Moraelin]

I'm getting a kinda Skyrim-ish / Falskaar-ish feeling about it. Things are concentrated in the couple of "towns", and there's not much else than scenery and places to shoot monsters everywhere else.

 

I mean, I like it, but it's not as concentrated as the basegame. In the basegame you could have like 2-3 buildings to explore within spitting distance of each other, plus all the little details like the arranged skeletons and teddybears and whatnot to discover, and all the terminals with pieces of story, and all the conversations between raiders, and whatnot. It felt like I had a reason to pay attention all the time. In Far Harbor, well, I guess you can enjoy the scenery, but the whole thing still feels a little... sparse. I mean, it does have nicely scripted quests and sequences and all, and I'm not complaining, but... it feels like what I'm doing most of the time is just walking around a mountain. Kinda like in Skyrim. So I guess it's not necessarily a bad thing, just... different.

 

Edit: it probably also didn't help it for me that I was already sick and tired of building up two dozen settlements. So when a certain NPC not just gave me a farm, but sent two settlers there -- who promptly got unhappy for not even having a bed or a water source -- I was less thankful and more like, well, picture me doing an Anakin-like, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" :tongue:

[TheGadget1945]

I'm getting a kinda Skyrim-ish / Falskaar-ish feeling about it. Things are concentrated in the couple of "towns", and there's not much else than scenery and places to shoot monsters everywhere else.

 

I mean, I like it, but it's not as concentrated as the basegame. In the basegame you could have like 2-3 buildings to explore within spitting distance of each other, plus all the little details like the arranged skeletons and teddybears and whatnot to discover, and all the terminals with pieces of story, and all the conversations between raiders, and whatnot. It felt like I had a reason to pay attention all the time. In Far Harbor, well, I guess you can enjoy the scenery, but the whole thing still feels a little... sparse. I mean, it does have nicely scripted quests and sequences and all, and I'm not complaining, but... it feels like what I'm doing most of the time is just walking around a mountain. Kinda like in Skyrim. So I guess it's not necessarily a bad thing, just... different.

 

Edit: it probably also didn't help it for me that I was already sick and tired of building up two dozen settlements. So when a certain NPC not just gave me a farm, but sent two settlers there -- who promptly got unhappy for not even having a bed or a water source -- I was less thankful and more like, well, picture me doing an Anakin-like, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" :tongue:

 

I agree with the OP and I love this part of FO4 but I think the fog is just about right. On the subject of the settlers it really bugged me that I had 2 of them even if I didn't want them plus they were ugly and had an - one of them said to me "What are you looking at ?" The thing I do like about the settlers is that they actually offer to accompany you on missions, the first time I rejected the offer because I thought it would mess the mission up but the second time I gave her a decent gun and it worked out fine.

[jcdenton2012]

I wish that this had been its own separate game. Like, this could have been Iceland or something. I say this because... honestly... I would have much rather played an entire game of this rather than an entire game of Fallout Boston/Commonwealth. Bethesda really brought their A-Game with how they designed this landmass and it is very impressive.

[yzerman19]

The fog is always causing me to run out of rad x and radaway. But I am looking forward to my next level-up, when I can get the perk that gives me increased radiation protection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF you are at the level to create: REFRESHING BEVERAGE, do it. Two birds w/one stone and you do not have to take as much rad-x.

 

Thanks for the info!

Edited May 24, 2016 by yzerman19

[RaffTheSweetling]

I usually soak up enough rads per day (around 1/5 of my meter) to warrant a trip to the local GP at the end of the day before I hit the sack. Only costs me 40caps for the rad-removal, and 15 caps for the health-boost, which isn't even necessary because sleeping gives that back anyway. :thumbsup:

[Raycheetah]

I find it somewhat ironic that mobile MacGuffin Kasumi's back-story is more detailed and interesting than the original Sole Survivor's.

You get to know more about her family than you ever do about your own, as well as her motivations and questions about herself.

Yeah, I know Bethesda wanted to leave at least a little flexibility in the main character's background, but really, if it was gonna be that shallow anyway, especially contrasted with an NPC's, might as well have left MORE to the imagination. ='[.]'=