Working, Resting, And Playing In Three Fallout 4 DLC Packs

Fallout 4’s post-launch content has been somewhat hit or miss. With Sony recently being blamed for a lack of mod support on PS4, it seems that the Season Pass may be the only way to extend that version of the game, while Xbox One and PC owners can tinker to their hearts content. We’ve already had a gander at the first half of the Season Pass – The Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, and Far Harbor – but since then three more have been released to round off the season pass.

Needless to say that it’s probably a little on the late side to spend too long on each one, but in the spirit of doing something a little different, I have called upon the assistance of another Vault Dweller – my wife Charlie – to weigh in on a couple of the DLC packs. The character she used completed the main campaign, somewhere around the mid-thirties in terms of level, and has several companions at her disposal. Charlie also spent a lot more time doing the base building part of Fallout 4 than I had the patience for. So without further ado…

Contraptions Workshop

This was the DLC pack I didn’t want to touch on at all, mostly because it offered the player that’s more interested in quests absolutely nothing of note. Among the offerings seems to be the ability to create your own factories, tracks, and automated item generation; the sort of thing Minecraft mod packs have been creating for years. The similarities to those Minecraft mods is what instantly turned me off of it, but Charlie had a few hours to play around with the tools on offer.

“Contraptions Workshop doesn’t work well because of the limitations of base-building in Fallout 4, especially on console. I got the feeling that if I could just get the linking of objects right, I could make this awesome ball run, but as awesome as it would be, it wouldn’t be worth the time investment in getting it to work. Beyond the ball run, there’s not that much else there and I would have enjoyed making 50 Jangles the Moon Monkey in my factory a lot more if they actually sat up.”

Not exactly a glowing verdict there, but it should be noted that PC owners might have an easier time dealing with the fine control required to join the necessary parts together.

Vault-Tec Workshop

This one had promise in that creating your own Vault along with the experiments to force upon your residents. Sure, Fallout Shelter took the wind out of that sail way back last year, but there is a lot more to this DLC pack than the mobile title. Once you’ve completed the quest that introduces the Sole Survivor to Vault 88, along with the relevant tests, you’re free to do as you please. As Charlie was bitterly disappointed with Contraptions Workshop, she played this one too.

“Vault-Tec Workshop was much more fun, with a great quest that mixed exploration, caves full of scary baddies, and amusing dialogue. The only real limitation here is that, once again, the base building hinders it, with the repeated need to run back to the workshop trigger as dialogue would turn off the ability to quickly enable construction mode. I did enjoy the setting up the tests though!”

One major thing I did notice was that there was an issue with NPC path-finding and objects they need to interact with. If everything is in a confined space, then they have a very hard time getting to a place where they can use it. However, work around it and there’s some potential there at least.

Nuka World

As the second of the main story DLC, the region this time is a theme park with some serious Health and Safety issues. Based on the famous Nuka Cola brand, this theme park has four zones of chaos, where death can come in the form of a rabid ghoul or a robot gone berserk. You do of course have to go through a quest to get into the theme park, which has been taken over by raiders.

Once done, you’re free to explore the theme park and all of the thrills it contains. My time has mostly been spent in the Sci-Fi World and Nuka Town USA, but there’s another faction-based dispute that needs solving, tons of lore, and enemies that could easily annihilate under-prepared players. On top of that, there are a few more things to build as well, such as the ability to mix Nuka Cola together to create new bizarre cocktails.

In my eyes, it’s the lore of the park’s history that really shines here, but so far I’ve found a lot more to like here than I expected to be. It so far doesn’t have the annoyance of persistent radiation the previous DLC had, while at the same time showcasing a lot of variety in its settings. It certainly gets my thumbs up!

Now we have two questions. Is the Season Pass worth it, and is this enough for PS4 owners to get stuck into now we know that mods aren’t coming to that platform? It largely depends on how much you care about building things.

The Season Pass is £39.99 (or your regional equivalent). If you bundle all six DLC packs, that is a generous saving, but if you don’t care about building things, then Far Harbor (£19.99) and Nuka World (£14.99) are the two that seem essential for fans of the game. While Automatron (£7.99) did have a nice quest, it’s far too short to fully recommend unless you like robots. All the Workshop DLC (£3.99 each) have limited value to those who spend their time away from camps.

Of course, this is just mine and Charlie’s opinion. What do you think?