The first batch of Bethesda’s open-world post-apocalyptic garbage collection simulator otherwise known as Fallout 4 is finally out. Automatron is all about robots and a bad buy known as the Mechanist who is terrorizing the Commonwealth more than the Vault Dweller you’re playing. There’s a lot of nifty little morsels of content to chew on, and seeing as this is just the first, supposedly small’ish, piece of DLC for Fallout 4, I’m hopeful the rest of the upcoming content will be just as fun and expanding as Automatron!
You don’t have to have finished the main storyline of Fallout 4 to enjoy the Automatron DLC. I still haven’t finished the story, so don’t worry if you feel guilty for putting down your adventures in the ruins of Boston! There’s reason to come back! You’ll receive a notification of a new radio beacon asking for help, and upon arriving at the location you’ll find a crew of robots doing battle. Shut them down and you’ll be introduced to Ada, a robot who is tracking down the Mechanist. Intrigued by her plight, you decide to join her in her quest to put down this dastardly do-no-gooder. Aside from running into “new” enemies called Rust Devils (essentially their Raiders but affiliated with robots more than usual) and a lot more robot baddies, Automatron adds one new key feature: a robot building component.
Scattered throughout the Commonwealth but primarily on the destroyed robot enemies you defeat are robot parts like Protectron heads, security bot treads, and Mr. Handy buzz saws. By scavenging these and taking them to a new Robot Workbench you can build in a settlement, you can piece together your own robot companion. Easily the single biggest piece of content Automatron’s DLC has to offer, the robot creating mechanic is actually pretty cool. Any robot you’ve seen in the game before you can build and modify as you see fit. You can deck out Curie or Codsworth with much more lethal appendages, or build your very own robot from scratch! As with other modifications in Fallout 4, a lot of the cooler upgrades a locked behind perks you need to unlock via leveling up, but assuming you’ve done some playing already, you’ll be able to make a lot of cool robots right off the bat! If not, just save up your parts for later!
Though it’s not a huge change to gameplay, the Robot Workbench is still a cool feature that expands on the base game. I felt like this DLC actually updated the core mechanics of the game and gave me something fresh to play around with. Unfortunately if you didn’t like the modification aspects of Fallout 4, then you won’t like this first DLC (and you likely don’t like Fallout 4 in general). That being said, I thought it was a neat feature that I’m still having fun playing around with!
The main questline Automatron has to offer is kind of challenging if you’re unprepared. But if you go in with the right set of armor and weapons you can do just fine. Better yet is the actual story: it involves collecting Robo-brains, dealing with sassy and witty robots, and the delusional and oftentimes funny Mechanist. I won’t spoil anything for you, but it’s a very entertaining questline that fits in with some of the zanier Fallout quests from years and games past.
In terms of sheer content outside of the couple of quests and the Robot Workbench in Automatron, there’s also the new companion Ada who can aid you in your journey, as well as new sets of armor (robot armor) and robot-inspired weapons. My personal favorite so far has been the salvaged assaultron head, which is just like it sounds: a disembodied assaultron robot head that fires charged up laser blasts. I also really liked the Mr. Handy’s Buzz Blade weapon, which is a melee version of the Mr. Handy robot’s buzz saw arm, but it doesn’t do near enough damage for me to be usable. Points though for creativity: if I were to imagine a civilization actually caught up in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 4, I can totally see someone scrapping the head of a robot and using it as a weapon. All things considered it’s not a huge amount of extra content, but it was enough to keep me entertained for a handful of hours with a game I was otherwise done with.
So where does this leave me with Fallout 4? Personally I’m still playing, and not just the Automatron DLC. The game has hooked me again, and I’m already getting back into the storyline and trying to explore more of the Commonwealth. The writing and character of Ada in the DLC was very well done, and it encouraged me to just keep going even after the Mechanist was brought to justice.
What about you guys? Have you played the new DLC? What have you liked or disliked so far? I’m hoping the next batch of DLC, titled Wasteland Workshop, will be just as good, if not better, than this first set. And honestly I wasn’t too impressed by what Automatron was offering, but when I played it I was more impressed than I thought. If Wasteland Workshop can go in that same direction, then Fallout 4 fans will have plenty to look forward too as Bethesda consistently leaks out more content!
Laters,
Jsick
