Far Harbor - Thoughts

[Wunderbot]

I wasn't really looking forward to this DLC a whole lot, because it involved three factions that just felt really boring to me. Synths, again. Children of Atom that in the vanilla game do absolutely nothing but instantly try to kill you with the most annoying weapons in the game. And fishermen, oh joy. It really surprised me though. Several times I thought "Alright, I probably finished all quests now" only to get another tier of new quests. I actually still haven't completed them all, since I'm trying to find that cursed Shipbreaker. The story was also a lot more interesting than I imagined and there really was one big grey area when it comes to morality. I genuinely still don't know whether I did the right thing with the options I chose. I remember The Pitt for Fallout 3 advertising itself as the DLC to truly offer grey moral choices, but it was all still rather obvious who the good guys and bad guys were. Far Harbor deserves that honour far more.

 

Only thing that I don't care too much for is the new weapons, but that's just my personal taste, since I imagine plenty of people like the hooks and harpoons. The one thing that had me most excited was when Richter mentioned the Enclave. I'm quietly hoping to see them return in future DLC.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Wunderbot

[RaffTheSweetling]

I wasn't really looking forward to this DLC a whole lot, because it involved three factions that just felt really boring to me. Synths, again. Children of Atom that in the vanilla game do absolutely nothing but instantly try to kill you with the most annoying weapons in the game. And fishermen, oh joy. It really surprised me though. Several times I thought "Alright, I probably finished all quests now" only to get another tier of new quests. I actually still haven't completed them all, since I'm trying to find that cursed Shipbreaker. The story was also a lot more interesting than I imagined and there really was one big grey area when it comes to morality. I genuinely still don't know whether I did the right thing with the options I chose. I remember The Pitt for Fallout 3 advertising itself as the DLC to truly offer grey moral choices, but it was all still rather obvious who the good guys and bad guys were. Far Harbor deserves that honour far more.

 

Only thing that I don't care too much for is the new weapons, but that's just my personal taste, since I imagine plenty of people like the hooks and harpoons. The one thing that had me most excited was when Richter mentioned the Enclave. I'm quietly hoping to see them return in future DLC.

 

I've done barely any of the quests, but stumbled across the Shipbreaker quest kind of by accident and then found the beast several minutes later. It was actually a hard fight, mainly because a huge pack of glowing wolves showed up at the exact same time. :D

[jjb54]

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 w/the settlements. I still wished the settlements would NOT happen until you set up the Signal Tower. I was hoping to have a "base home", that I could call my own. In the Common Wealth, the Red Rocket just outside of Sanctuary is MY HOME. I invited only Cogsworth - Ada and Dogmeat to stay there. Everyone else, even my current followers will stay in Sanctuary. I have 1 house that is just for my followers.

 

I'm still not sure if I'm annoyed w/the settlement part of the game or find, I just don't give a care. I did set up Sanctuary for Mama Murphy and gang ... but I did not set the Signal Array up. When I find NPC looking for a home, I will send them to Sanctuary and get them set up w/a bed and chores to do.

 

The thing that DID annoy me in my first play through of FO-4 base game was the dang attacks on the Settlements and I would at first drop and run, annoying... Until I learned to uncheck it and when I was done with 'where I was' ... I would head on over to the Settlement that was under attack and re-activate and all was good.

 

 

 

I wished the Dalton Homestead could have just been MINE as I was lead to believe it was. But when I arrived there were two people there and I was annoyed. Stupid Squatters.

 

[jjb54]

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.

 

Yes! When I came across some of the monsters I was going, COOL! Well done! Plus they were an actual challenge to fight. Even Ada had no small fight on her hands with some of them. When Ada is having a tough go with the monster you know it's going to be a good fight. :smile:

 

And yes, the fog does indeed make it not so easy to just see and go. You actually at times have to go slowly and carefully.

[Thaneize]

I liked the approach of the story, some of the questions the story makes you ask about yourself (the character actually) were concerning me in the main games plot. The atmosphere is as thick as the fog but my PC doesn't like it^^. The rad away was no issue, since i played the whole thing in power armor. Without might have been a nightmare though (suvival mode).

[jjb54]

I liked the approach of the story, some of the questions the story makes you ask about yourself (the character actually) were concerning me in the main games plot. The atmosphere is as thick as the fog but my PC doesn't like it^^. The rad away was no issue, since i played the whole thing in power armor. Without might have been a nightmare though (suvival mode).

 

I like these questions being thrown out.

 

One thread I posted in 2012, on Skyrim was:

How many of us play the game based on our own very real and personal ethics? In other words, what would "you and I" really do if this was a very real situation with very real consequences?

[TheGadget1945]

 

I liked the approach of the story, some of the questions the story makes you ask about yourself (the character actually) were concerning me in the main games plot. The atmosphere is as thick as the fog but my PC doesn't like it^^. The rad away was no issue, since i played the whole thing in power armor. Without might have been a nightmare though (suvival mode).

 

I like these questions being thrown out.

 

One thread I posted in 2012, on Skyrim was:

How many of us play the game based on our own very real and personal ethics? In other words, what would "you and I" really do if this was a very real situation with very real consequences?

 

 

I play it pretty much as I would in "real life". For instance I was walking through Diamond City with human Curie and one of the guards sneered "Nice robot you have there, did you build it yourself ?". I toyed with the idea of killing him there and then but had to walk away from it with clenched teeth. I suppose I should have just quicksaved and killed him anyway.

In real life Knight Rhys would have had a bust lip nearly every time he spoke to me.

[jjb54]

 

 

I liked the approach of the story, some of the questions the story makes you ask about yourself (the character actually) were concerning me in the main games plot. The atmosphere is as thick as the fog but my PC doesn't like it^^. The rad away was no issue, since i played the whole thing in power armor. Without might have been a nightmare though (suvival mode).

 

I like these questions being thrown out.

 

One thread I posted in 2012, on Skyrim was:

How many of us play the game based on our own very real and personal ethics? In other words, what would "you and I" really do if this was a very real situation with very real consequences?

 

 

I play it pretty much as I would in "real life". For instance I was walking through Diamond City with human Curie and one of the guards sneered "Nice robot you have there, did you build it yourself ?". I toyed with the idea of killing him there and then but had to walk away from it with clenched teeth. I suppose I should have just quicksaved and killed him anyway.

In real life Knight Rhys would have had a bust lip nearly every time he spoke to me.

 

 

I share your pain, my friend ... I share you pain. As I too have had to walk away, dreaming of NUKING a few NPC's.

 

. o O (Yes, admittedly, I did save a game once or twice and nuked the whole lot of 'them' .....) Only to reload the game and just smile as I walked away.

[Moraelin]

In real life Knight Rhys would have had a bust lip nearly every time he spoke to me.

Hmm, well, actually as someone who's been in the army, I kinda have the opposite problem: for a professional army, the whole lot of the BOS sure come across as a bunch of wusses. I mean, Danse is my superior officer and he apologizes for once having given me an order. Heh. And Rhys, well, he's wounded and just lost his friends, and he's still nicer than our drill sargeant was on his nicest days.

 

Since I'm playing as someone with pre-war army experience, it makes me pretty confident that given, say, 10 years to drill the Minutemen into a proper army and build a proper economic base to support a proper army, and I could wipe the floor with the BOS.

 

But I digress.

 

Back to the topic, I guess what I was trying to say is that I was hoping for more of a best of best worlds kinda mix. I'm not opposed to it being more like Skyrim -- Talos knows I've played that to death -- but I would have liked more of the FO4 kinda details to explore too. But I guess you can't have EVERYTHING, and have it for 20 bucks.

[Moraelin]

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.

Use the power armour, brother. That's why our Lord and Master, Todd Howard, gave you one :tongue:

 

That or "Leaded" lining on the armour works pretty decently. It can add up to more than that perk gives you.