Fallout Far Harbor: Malevolence in the Outdoors

Fallout 4 + DLC:

Fallout 4: The Fall and Rise of the Commonwealth

Fallout 4: Traveling the Wastes of Massachusetts and Bethesda

Fallout Far Harbor: Malevolence in the Outdoors

I can't remember if I bought the Far Harbor DLC when I bought Fallout 4, or purchased it on sale at a later date. I do know I had the DLC before I began playing Fallout 4. Even though I disliked Fallout 4, it wasn't so terrible as to be unplayable. In for a bottle cap, in for a nuka-cola.

Set on Mt. Desert Island, better known as Acadia National Park, the player arrives at modern day Bar Harbor in search of a runaway girl who believes she is a synth. From this landing point the player explores the island, encountering three factions. The remnants of civilization live in the harbor area, beset by The Fog, a radioactive remnant of the nuclear war. It ebbs and flows across the island, with dangerous monsters prowling in its depths. The people, seeking safety, they rarely venture outside their ramshackle walls.

Far Harbor is bound in alliance with the second faction; the Synths. They reside in an observatory perched on the peak Cadillac mountain. Though the mountain exists in reality, the observatory has no counterpart. The Synths calling themselves the Arcadians, live under the leadership of DiMA, a first generation synth. Long ago he escaped and made the observatory a haven for runaway synths. To aide the people of Far Harbor DiMA constructed mechanical condensers, which push back the fog. With these Far Harbor is still constricted, but within their walls they live without fear.

Though DiMA aided Far Harbor, his greater sympathy lies with the last faction, the Children of Atom. These cultists live in the an abandoned nuclear submarine facility deep in the woods. They worship the fog, radioactivity, and the death it brings to the unworthy. Their mission is to spread the fog across the island, driving out the people of Far Harbor.

The first impression is of an expansive wild area, though not as large as The Commonwealth. Far Harbor includes the entire Mt Desert Island. At first the locations seems eerie, with the fog passing across the landscape, the depth of the woods, and the constant clicking of the Power Armor's Geiger counter. The lighting of the sun, moon, and artificial lights, interacts with the fog for fantastic results. Far Harbor is atmospheric in a way that Boston never is.

Far Harbor also devotes more effort to the story. The area is small enough that the needs of Far Harbor is never forgotten, nor the conflicts between the three competing factions. While the Children of Atom seem like a threat, the player discovers that DiMA sits like a spider in a web of deceit, twitching the strings to manipulate the humans.

After meeting with all three groups the player is forced to choose to destroy one of them, or find a balance. But while they are in tension when the player arrives, they also seem already in balance. There is no immediate injustice, no urgent conflict, no threat of force which would force the player to act. The true injustice is, if the player is unwilling to murder someone, they can't resolve the cold war conflict.

The player can destroy any of the three factions and DiMA is determined to ensure it isn't his. He is the main character, the stage master, the man who has the protagonist's ear. He's a well meaning, skulking, deceitful, manipulative psychopath. When the player discovers DiMA's ignorance and his past atrocities, DiMA woefully berates himself, and then immediately recommends the player commit the same misdeeds. DiMA believes that everyone has the right to live, and will kill anyone to protect that right. He has hidden enough plots, secrets, and weapons around the island to ensure his will. He has his digits deep in both communities, preventing them from acting without his approval, though they don't know this. Most of the plans to end the game arise from DiMA. Though the player can reject DiMA and bring him to justice, he can't. DiMA is like Adrian Veidt of Watchman, he promises salvation for the region, but at the end of a hook laden with lies and death. I let him live, because I am a Dan Drielberg and not a Rorschach. DiMA is the only one that can ensure the survival of all three communities. Remove him and at least one of the communities is forfeit.

Far Harbor is improved by it's atmosphere and focus on story, but it still suffers from the many problems in Fallout 4. The game uses level scaling: the stronger the protagonist, the more powerful the enemies they encounter. There were bandits who could absorb five shots from my shotgun, my best weapon. My Power Armor made me effectively invincible, except against weapons, making battles into drawn out slogs. Other bothersome aspects include notifications for the many minutemen settlements under attack in The Commonwealth, and the invincible NPCs. The latter may be intended to protect the story-line, but it detracts from the freedom expected in an open world game.

The biggest error, like that of Boston, is the monotony of the locations. From the airplane, to the rock cliff resort, to the drive in movie theater, to the massive abandoned hotel. Every location holds the same contents. No one talks, the jokes are feeble, there are no interactions, and any puzzle is simple enough for a third grader. Far Harbor, like Boston, offers a shooting gallery of foes, and nothing else.

Far Harbor introduces its own failures as well. Since the mountainous area doesn't allow for settlements the designs felt compelled to introduce a building mini-game. They shouldn't have! To unlock DiMA's memories the player has to complete simple puzzles by building with three types of blocks. It's slow, it's tiresome, and it doesn't contribute to the experience. It's like a bad single player version of Khet, combined with an equally menial tower defense game.

In the end, the story isn't as satisfying as it could have been. The path through the choices is too rigid. Some choices prohibit other options, even though they don't seem related. It's impossible to recall a choice, even if player has only verbally committed to it.

The game never resolves the mystery of the Fog. Over time it transitions from terrifying to irrelevant, as the player realizes it doesn't inflict any punishment, aside from a small amount of radiation damage. The Fog isn't dynamic: it doesn't create dangerous events for the player to overcome. But are the Children of Atom increasing the spread of the Fog, as both they and the people of Far Harbor believe? Or does it ebb and flow naturally? Does Far Harbor, and Fallout 4, include magic (or at least a scientific ability so powerful it appears magical), or do they not? Because Far Harbor (and even a few events in Fallout 4) hint at the existence of mystical powers. Neither game offers a conclusive answer.

Even after the conclusion, the result is unclear. I uncovered DiMA's secrets, but concealed them from everyone. I exiled a leader of one community, and reduced the tension from DEFCON 4 to DEFCON 5. It felt unsatisfying, and then there's nothing more to do except board a ship and go back to the Commonwealth (which I didn't do. I turned off the game, and I am done).

In Conclusion,

Fallout 4 is a mess, a wasteland of ideas. The combat, the story, the weapons, the inventory, the characters, the armor, the lock-picking, the scavenging, the missions, and the settlements are barren. Only the settings are worthwhile, but they are wasted on an empty, repetitive game, where each location offers the same turgid combat as any other. Baring phenomenal reviews, I consider all future Fallout games as dead, the series a husk of its former self. Yet it's odd, but somehow the setting made Fallout 4 playable, just barely survivable. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone who doesn't already feel a connection to Boston (and Acadia), but I couldn't wholeheartedly recommend this bleak landscape to anyone.

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