The Institute is the best ending by far

[ateaseyo]

So I haven't personally taken the Minutemen route, because of all the research I've done it talks about this route, but I have taken every other route. Here's my take...

Brotherhood route: represents fear, they are the safest route, they are the strongest force, they will continue to make a presence in fallout games and these other factions will not, ultimately you use the reactor as a weapon, killing everyone, and destroying everything, then Dr. Li makes you feel terrible after you went through the effort of recruiting her for nostalgic purposes. Absolutely horrible ending. First attempt.

Railroad route: represents empathy, they want to free slaves, they do not discriminate against any form of life, these are like the tree hugging liberals who preach selflessness but then collect welfare and food stamps. I took this route the second time because they are the opposite route of the brotherhood. both fear and empathy are instinctual, and require no forethought. Ultimately you use the reactor as a weapon once again, which is ridiculous, raging liberals would not blow up a science facility, but okay whatever. Then z1-14 who helps you free the slaves kills himself and berates you in a suicide letter, as he should, because the fact that the railroad decides to resort to fear is broken and makes no sense. this is the worst ending.

Minutemen route: from what research I've done, I can see the minutemen pretend to be natural, just wanting security for the people (humans specifically) of the commonwealth, because they're weak. then once they get enough power, they take the route of fear like everyone else, using the reactor as a weapon, and destroying everything. Once again their position is fake and the end result is broken. This group probably is supposed to represent the independents who don't really care about politics ,they just want to live their lives ignorant of politics until they become powerful and realize everything is political and decide to take the route of fear, imitating the brotherhood, but in more of a narcissistic fashion because you think you can do better instead of siding with them to begin with when all you are is a pussy getting ready to blow up the reactor just like them.

 

The only ending that almost makes sense so far is the brotherhood of steel ending. It is not surprising they resorted to violence, but it is stupid they destroy the most advanced technology when apparently that's what they're about, or so says travis miles, over, and over, and over.

Institute route: represents hope. empathy and fear are subconscious, and require no forethought. hope and doubt are conscious, and require both forethought and hindsight. the institute is not evil, it is no ones intention in the institute to enslave life, they are creating life, they fact that the situation becomes complicated after humans discover how to create a new form of life is not surprising, but no one in the institute is trying to be evil. this is the only route where you don't kill your family, where you don't kill everyone's family, and where you don't use the nuclear reactor to destroy the most advanced technology available. The scientist you recruit, from the quest Pinned, his name is Wallace, is basically the Dr. Li or Z1-14 of the institute storyline; it is the character you can recruit, who is supposed to play a vital role in the main storyline, who you don't actually have any interaction with beyond the main storyline. Wallace does not berate you after the game is finished; he thanks you for bringing him, and says that the institute is amazing. The only downside to the institute is that they become reclusive, but they are the best hope for healthy humans, and the only route that doesn't resort to fear and doubt. Travis even says it in the broadcast, all we have to do is hope they don't interfere with our lives. That's all anyone ever had to do to begin with, and the institute wouldn't have destroyed them all. All of the claims against the institute are wrong, if you do the miniquests in diamond city you find the missing person was not taken by the institute, he was murdered by the facial reconstruction Dr after he lost his mind and cut his head off. It really is a bummer they decide to stay reclusive but the institute is the only hopeful outcome, the only one where you don't destroy everything, and they only one where you don't get berated by the character you recruit after the storyline is finished.

[HeyYou]

Institute represents hope? Hope for what? They have a really dim view of the surface dwellers, have absolutely no qualms about killing them, and replacing them with synths, came into the vault, killed your wife, stole your child.... and you think they AREN'T Evil??????

[Deleted54170User]

And don't forget Virgil in Fallout 4.

 

He's is the proof that the Institute continued to create Super-Mutants with the FEV program. It was likely why they continued to kidnap surface dwellers.

 

They preferred not to use their own to experiment on and alter their own, in the Institute, physically. Virgil was working on a formula we got for him. It is his formula that can change super-mutants back to their original forms.

[TheSpaceShuttleChallenger]

Sounds to me like somebody's wearing the partisan blindfold. I'm sorry dude, but what "welfare and food stamps" does the Railroad get? You can make the argument that synths are toasters and the Railroad is delusional for thinking otherwise, and you can make the argument that the Railroad's commitment to synth lives over human lives makes them every bit as unethical as their competition... but they actively avoid getting help from strangers, and they are paying for their ambition with their lives, so where on earth do you get the idea that the Railroad is welfare queens? Blowing up the Institute has nothing to do with them being (allegedly) "raging liberals" and everything to do with the fact that their goal is to put a stop to the abuses perpetrated by the Institute, at any cost and using the only means available to them, because, to them, stopping the Institute is far more important than being able to clone gorillas.

The brotherhood is, by the time of Fallout 4, devolved into a cult. They have a very thin mantra about protecting mankind but everything they do is geared towards power, domination, and control. They hoard technology that could be used for the greater good. They "protect" local settlements by extorting them. Anyone who doesn't conform to their ideology becomes an enemy, even when the new 'enemy' is a loyal member of their own ranks (Danse, Cutler) and even in situations where an alliance (the Railroad) would be of strategic value. I assume that they fully destroyed the Institute because they destroy anything they see as a threat, and they see just about everything as a threat, because that's how cults operate.

The Institute's entire schtick is cowering underground for hundreds of years while they await the eventual extinction of surface dwellers, whilst treating their fellow humans as test subjects for their grotesque science experiments on the explicitly stated grounds that "they were doomed anyway." So if by "representing hope" you mean "they have a collective god complex and are only out for themselves" then sure.
And, please, you want to tell me that the poor widdle Institute was just defending themselves? The Institute only has enemies because they murder and kidnap innocent people and torture them to death via brutal science experiments, because they spy on people, because they infiltrate and manipulate communities, because they have hostile synths roaming the commonwealth, because they wiped out entire settlements (see: University Point) just for being in the way, and because they made a point of manufacturing a slave race. If they had behaved themselves, then the Minutemen would never have bothered to fight them, and the Railroad wouldn't even exist.

The Minutemen are the goody two shoes of the story line, but with the obvious caveat that they are perhaps too idealistic to do what needs to be done. Deciding to blow up the Institute is the turning point in the Minutemens' growth narrative, where they stop being boy scouts and start being soldiers. I'm sure they'd have loved if everyone got to live and benefit from the technology of the Institute, but blowing up the reactor was realistically the only way they were going to win that fight.

[monesq]

The institute represents hope for mankind, but they are not the only ones that will ensure that mankind progresses. All the factions need to stay alive.

 

The Institutes leadership over the years has convinced the scientists under their thumbs that man is doomed and basically in their way. That mindset has eliminated any real research that may benefit surface dwellers. The ultimate goal of the Institute is to wipe out all the people above ground to ensure their safety, and, eventually populating the world themselves. This is why they created Super mutants and why they infiltrate settlements, replace humans, and nix any sort of coalition of settlements that wish to form some sort of government. It is such a narrow viewpoint.

 

Unfortunately, the Institute's long term plan would not be feasible. The Institute gene pool is very shallow. There are not enough of them to be able to repopulate. Ironically, the Gen 3s may survive long after the humans at the Institute. Had their leadership not been based on fear, and they actually concentrated on cures for the radiation and eventually eliminating radiation and education of the public at large. 1

 

Bethesda really never gave us any decent choices for an end game. Unless you avoid certain quests, or use mods, you basically cause the elimination of two factions. Realistically, all four factions are needed for the future prosperity of the Commonwealth. A strong military is needed to defend the Commonwealth from outside forces as well as all the creatures in the Commonwealth, the Minutemen to help the spreading settlement system and ensure local safety, the Railroad to provide a level of empathy and morality, especially given the fact that there are so many Gen 3s, and finally the Institute is needed in advancing mankind with their technology and spreading that knowledge, thus providing a future for improvement. Eliminating these factions ensures that there will not be much of a future for mankind, at least not in the Commonwealth.

 

Of course, if Bethesda had allowed an option for all of the factions to survive, we would have been robbed of some very nice battles, not to mention the nuclear blast. Thank goodness for all the free mods that people have shared with this community to make the game more palatable. In fact, there is a new mod out there were the protaganist becomes the Director and actually has power, though the game does present a lot of limitations, it is somewhat of a solution in that there is a way to save all of the factions.

 

My 2 cents worth.

 

1. Radiation levels over 200 years after the explosion should be relatively low, as would be the effects on the surviving humans. 200 years after the war things should have started to normalize. The real issue however is water. Even if the surface is radiation free, all the radioactive matter would have dispersed into aquifers and that damage could take more than two hundred years of recovery - maybe thousands of years. This is what the Institute should have concentrated on, not creating new life forms.

[HeyYou]

The institute represents hope for the institute. They don't care about anyone else but themselves.

[monesq]

The institute represents hope for the institute. They don't care about anyone else but themselves.

Yes, they are selfish, which is why the player needs to get rid of the leadership after "Father" dies. Not all the scientists believe that humanity is lost. They need guidance and a strong hand (and perhaps a bullet in the head of some of the department chairs). Still, their knowledge and tech are needed. There is a mod that came out recently (have not started it yet) where you can actually control the Institute after Father dies. I do not know everything that it can do, but I am looking forward to play it. It's called Subversion https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/50975

[HeyYou]

 

The institute represents hope for the institute. They don't care about anyone else but themselves.

Yes, they are selfish, which is why the player needs to get rid of the leadership after "Father" dies. Not all the scientists believe that humanity is lost. They need guidance and a strong hand (and perhaps a bullet in the head of some of the department chairs). Still, their knowledge and tech are needed. There is a mod that came out recently (have not started it yet) where you can actually control the Institute after Father dies. I do not know everything that it can do, but I am looking forward to play it. It's called Subversion https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/50975

 

I'd go along with that. :D

 

There is project Valkyrie as well.

[monesq]

 

The institute represents hope for the institute. They don't care about anyone else but themselves.

Yes, they are selfish, which is why the player needs to get rid of the leadership after "Father" dies. Not all the scientists believe that humanity is lost. They need guidance and a strong hand (and perhaps a bullet in the head of some of the department chairs). Still, their knowledge and tech are needed. There is a mod that came out recently (have not started it yet) where you can actually control the Institute after Father dies. I do not know everything that it can do, but I am looking forward to play it. It's called Subversion https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/50975

 

Yeah, I love Thuggy's stuff, but I was not as impressed with the ending as I had hoped because I really still have no say so as to what happens with the Institute. I just role-play that since I'm the boss, I can use Institute tech in all my settlements and upgrade already existing ones with that tech. I would love to get rid of the head of SRB and maybe a couple more and still run the Institute. I believe that Subversion lets you do that. I'm beta testing a quest mod so I had to put my current game on hold so I will have to wait to see what happens with Subversion.

[nexbil01]

the legion ending is the best ending for fallout 4