Fallout 4: Automatron & Wasteland Workshop (XOne) - Review
by Brandon J. Wysocki , posted on 22 April 2016 / 5,768 Views
Fallout 4’s first two add-ons, Automatron and Wasteland Workshop, which released on March 22nd and April 12th, respectively, are both interesting but relatively small add-ons for post-apocalyptic Boston.
With 3-5 hours of story content, Automatron offers the most substance upfront. The basic plot is that evil robots have been unleashed by a person known as the Mechanist. It plays out in a series of quests that are satisfying but not particularly unique. Still, they at least feel natural and consistent with the rest of the game’s quests, and provide a pleasant albeit brief addition to the game.
It may have been due in part to the time I spent away from the game, but the robot enemies felt more difficult than I recalled many of the enemies from the main game being. Even as I continued on, they seemed to provide a tougher challenge than most other, non-robot encounters. As noticeable as this was, it never felt insurmountable or unbalanced.
The storyline itself is short but Automatron includes another key addition - the ability to craft and extensively customize robot companions. In fact the customization options are so extensive as to almost be overwhelming, but despite the sheer amount of options available they're not all that compelling. I found myself fairly quickly content with my creation and only occasionally went back to tinker with it, but it is to this feature's credit that I did and will continue to do so.
Wasteland Workshop seemingly forgoes any additional story content and simply adds a multitude of new options for building and customizing settlements. Among the additions is the decontamination arch (it’s buried under the miscellaneous power section of the settlement workshop menu), concrete structures, neon letters, taxidermy mounts, cages, and arenas.
There’s plenty to mess around with and further customize your settlements. If you’ve enjoyed doing so thus far, you’ll likely enjoy this DLC's offerings as well. My thoughts on such things remain largely the same from my past coverage of the game. Really, with more to build and make use of, settlement building is even more cumbersome. It’s not that I don’t utilize it or enjoy it, at least in principle, but I can’t help but feel that now would have been a good time to consider revamping the interface and improving its functionality (or am I alone on that?). Instead of refining the system, Bethesda just crammed more onto the already shaky set-up.
The most unique addition from the Wasteland Workshop DLC is the ability to trap nearly every creature in the wasteland (including raiders). From there, there are a few options (depending on what you’ve captured), most notably taming them or pitting them against one another in fights; the latter of which didn't do much for me. The taming, which is done by building a new device called the Beta Wave Emitter, was more interesting to me, as you can use captured creatures to help defend settlements.
It’s fun, but only in short bursts, although short bursts are almost all that are possible anyway. A lot of the new features take up a fair amount of resources and mean time spent away from your settlement, which may be the biggest issue of all for this content. The new additions, particularly those from the Wasteland Workshop, add welcome options, but at a bad time. Unless you’re new to the game (which you should totally play if you haven’t already) or you are in the midst of another playthrough, the new additions don’t really give you much of a reason to return or grind through the wasteland in order to utilize them.
Despite their relatively small sizes and bad timing, both Automatron and Wasteland Workshop add new possibilities with which to immerse yourself in and interact with the game, which is one of the most enjoyable aspects of Fallout. The story content of Automatron plainly adds a few hours to your time in the Commonwealth; however, your mileage from the new workshop options, both with robots and settlements from the add-ons, will vary based on how much you like the unique customization options both provide. Incorporated from the start of the game, these are enjoyable additions that expand and add options to an already great game, but as end-game content, which is the role they'll play for a great many players, it feels at least a little wanting.
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Brandon J. Wysocki is a writer for VGChartz... (SHAMESLESS SELF PROMOTION! - Check out some of my sci-fi story here and here! It's free, and I'd love some feedback. We now return you to my regular little blurb) ...You're invited to contact Brandon (username SpaceLegends) in the comments below or through private messages on VGChartz, or even at his barely ever used and effectively dormant Twitter account @BrandonJWysocki.
This review is based on a copy of Fallout 4 Season Pass for the XOne, provided by the publisher.
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The DLC is cool so far but settlement building remains tedious
I completely agree. I sort of responded to your comment below, but yeah.
I wouldn't say bad timing. Ultra Survival will release soon, which means no fast travel and greater lethality. Taming Deathclaws or building custom Sentry bots to guard your settlements seems awfully attractive. I don't have the right perks to recruit monster guardians but I have built Sentry bots and they're basically moving death factories. At high levels, against Supermutant Warlords with mini-guns, I'll take all the help I can get.
Personally, I do enjoy building up settlements and the big star of the Wasteland Workshop, as far as I'm concerned, is the new Fusion generator, which supplies 100 units of power. That means laser turrets and rocket launcher turrets as far as the eye can see.
In my opinion, if you're near the end of the game, the practical application of some of things becomes shaky because of the need to acquire resources and spend time away from your settlements in order to make use of a lot of these things. If you still have quests to go on and exploring to do, that's not a problem, but if you've already done most of that, your opons are limited and you may be forced to wander and grind to try to make use of these new additions (including leveling up in order to add perks that help you utilize this content).
Yeah, i agree with the sign in the OP. I still can't care less about settlement building.
As I was making that sign, I was reminded of just how tedious that aspect can be. To top it off, I got a warning around the same time that one of my settlements was so bad that I might lose control of it. I really don't want to be forced to go spend time working on it (which is why it's in its current condition) but I'm not sure what all of the consequences will be if I don't.
