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In case you didn't piece it together by now, this post contains information related to the story of Fallout 4. If you have not played or completed Fallout 4 yet, do not continue reading, or at the very least don't bitch about it if you choose to continue on anyways. You have been overwhelmingly warned.
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Fallout 4 continues on Bethesda's wonderful tradition of telling the best bits of story off camera; you'll be choked up more than you care to admit when you read some of the letters and messages left behind by those who died in a nuclear armageddon. As far as its direct storytelling goes, Fallout 4 manages to hit some interesting points while occasionally ignoring common sense and for whatever reason some fairly major things are left untouched.
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I first sided with the Brotherhood of Steel. What really ended up pissing me off about that run through was three specific things:
1) Having already sided with the Brotherhood, I refused to believe that "Father" was Shaun (wouldn't want to willingly go to war with my own son). I called Bullshit when I could in dialog options, and Father's response was simply, "Is it so hard to believe?" and then that was that. I no longer had the option to deny him. But I wanted to. I was prepared to assume that his followers at the Institute were told to go along with the story to mess with my mind; a clever way to manipulate me into joining their side. I wanted to act upon the belief that they were all lying to me. But in conversation, I was not allowed after that first, ineffective instant.
2) "Father" was nowhere to be found in my assault of The Institute. For this playthrough I did not do enough for the Institute to find out that Father was dying, and he was not in his odd little bed/coffin (seriously, what was up with that?). So by siding with the Brotherhood, there was no final confrontation with him. It does not get any more anti-climactic than that.
3) Synth Shaun. As we are about to leave, the Brotherhood of Steel tells me that the Synth version of Shaun wants to come with me, and he's carrying a holotape that explains that he's been reprogrammed to believe that I'm his father and he's a real boy. The Brotherhood has already forced me to murder Paladin Danse for the simple fact of being a Synth, yet the Brotherhood not only allows me to keep my mechanical son, but they allow me to leave him safely with them ON THE PRYDWYN while I'm out adventuring. What. The. Fuck. I can understand that they don't know he's a synth technically, but to never be suspicious? That's just absurd. And also a wasted potential of a heartbreaking moment. They could have made a scene where Maxson has a gun to his head and brotherhood members are outraged because it's a kid. They could have made me choose to kill the copy of my son myself or be marked a traitor right there. There are lots of profound things that could have happened in that scene, and to have the Brotherhood just accept that I'm keeping this Synth as my son is unacceptable.
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On the opposite side of things, I found the Railroad to have a much more profound impact in its ending sequence, even if it was basically the same. The reason being was my perception of the Railroad and the people in it. When you first join the Railroad, you do so because you are accepting the premise that Synths are legitimately people and deserve to be free. By that logic, your enemies in most Railroad missions are Synths which have chosen to be your enemy. They choose to attack you, and thus are not even remotely innocent to the situation. In attacking The Institute however, The Railroad creates a nuclear explosion which wipes out all those inside. Including the civilian scientists who create Synths and other experiments without the intention of harm or violence.
Suddenly, this organization which you have spent so much time endearing yourself to feels less noble. And then something that a scientist code named "Patriot" told you (before he committed suicide because of the Railroad's violent actions) begins to sink in: "The Railroad are known for being...extreme." Extreme enough to nuke an entire research facility filled with civilians all so at least 13 synths can live a free life on the surface, where they will be forced to live a lie pretending to be human so the actual human population won't act on its borderline genocidal hatred and fear of synths. Kind of makes you wonder exactly what you were accomplishing, and whether your means are justified by your ends. Again, this isn't what the game directly tells you; it's what you have to see for yourself.
When Desdemona asked me on the roof of Mass Fusion if I would continue to work with The Railroad, I first wanted to tell her to go fuck herself. But then it hit me: I massacred the Brotherhood of Steel. I annihilated The Institute, making me also directly responsible for murdering my own son. Maybe there was the Minutemen, but I abandoned them so long ago for The Railroad, would they even accept me as their leader anymore? It was too late for me; with all I had done, I belonged with The Railroad. My tainted soul spent the rest of its days with them, taking care of my new Synth son (which you have to assume would just eat at me every day to see Shaun's face knowing that I murdered the real Shaun) and waiting for the next atrocity I was to commit in the name of saving some Synths from the tedious life of being treated like machines.
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The Institute proved more pointless than anything, but I suspect that's because of when I assumed my saves. I had already teamed with The Railroad to eliminate the Brotherhood of Steel, and upon returning to railroad HQ to celebrate, I waited for them all to turn their backs and I murdered each and every member of The Railroad. Even PAM. Then I calmly collected any ammo they had left in their pockets, teleported back to The Institute and watched my son die of disease as an older man than I. In his final words he told me that my release from cryo sleep was an experiment of his, and that he was glad I had succeeded in finding him. It was a touching moment that actually served as the only time the Father-son connection between Father and me ever felt true. And with that, it was over. Shaun was dead, and I now controlled The Institute. The End.
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I don't believe that The Institute would have had a vastly different plan of attack for the Prydwyn, so I am assuming that I've seen everything except the Minutemen. The Minutemen were never really powerful enough to be a major player in my run, and they never had an expressed endgame. So I don't know yet how that would play out, and I plan on starting a whole new playthrough to see that sequence. Although the bar is relatively low for The Minutemen to impress me and have the best ending of all the options, I'm not expecting them to be much of anything.
What I have realized from all this is that the "ending" changes depending on the order you do certain missions. After doing all this I had that theory confirmed by a particular video about the "best" possible ending to get. If you do things in the proper order, you can make it so the Institute goes down and everybody else lives in peace. Which would be a vastly different experience from what I had, so it's interesting to see how personalized the ending can be, and therefore how personalized your character's story overall can be.
With all that said, right now I appreciate The Railroad's ending the most, but it still wasn't great as it was directly told. But that's always been the way with Fallout; to have its direct story underwhelm.
It's a story of war, and war never changes.
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What did you think of Fallout 4's endings? Sound off below.
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Quotes Of The Day
"...I was having fun, it's weird!"
-SeyiDAlegend
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Today In Music (December 10th)
A Day At The Races by Queen released on December 10th, 1976. Also released on this day:
- Balls To The Wall by Accept (1983)
- Surfing With The Alien by Joe Satriani (1987)