The time has come for Bethesda to begin rolling out the release of its planned DLC for Fallout 4. Playable from level 15, Automatron is the first such piece of DLC costing $15 and including around 2-4 hours of fresh content to complete. So is it worth the additional questline and the arguably best feature, robot building?
I’ll try not to spoil too much but nonetheless here’s your spoiler warning. The questline begins after you investigate a new distress signal picked up by your trusty PIPBOY. You will meet Ada your new robot companion who has become victim to the DLC’s main protagonist, The Mechanist. The Mechanist is a twisted and absurd character and if you take the time to discover the lore behind it all, you will discover a dark world where ethics and basic human rights are of no concern. This all fits very well with Fallout’s world of science and robots, be it a slightly psychotic and twisted one. Continuing on, it’s all pretty standard Bethesda fanfare from here. Kill a bunch of robots, discover then kill a bunch of new Raiders called the Rust Devils and did I mention kill some robots? Of course this all culminates in a fight with the now infamous Mechanist. I know it sounds pretty basic but I don’t want to ruin the fun and plot twists that come with experiencing this for yourself. Might I add though you will be collecting a huge amount of copper, wires, military chipboards, robot mods and some sweet armour. So prep those pockets, your settlements are about to become the next Silicon Valley.
Do You Even Robot Bro ?
The Mechanist is a twisted and absurd character and if you take the time to discover the lore behind it all, you will discover a dark world where ethics and basic human rights are of no concern
The biggest feature though of Automatron is the ability to build some kickass robots, which you can customise to your liking. Don’t want just a normal face for your robot? How about a face that shoots lasers ? Yeah you know where this is going. A warning though, if you are high level already, you’re going to want to have already invested a lot in the Crafting and Science perks, otherwise you will find the robot building to be very limited as all the cool stuff requires the Robotic and Gun Nut perks. For some, this will mean some serious grinding and that means more ghouls to go kill, if not heed this warning and invest now while it is still quite quick to level.
It is a shame that you only get to build your new robot companion pretty much at the tail end of the questline, because if you have finished the majority of the game there isn’t much left to go explore and plunder with your new steel sidekick, so I guess he will best be utilised in the next DLC planned for Fallout 4. What you do now though is up to you, for those invested in their settlements, Automatrons will bring some cool new additions to your population, as they make sweet defensive guards. You can programme them to search the Commonwealth for new loot as well and they will return sometime later with the location but it’s up to you to go get it.
Final Thoughts
So what to make of this all then. Well for $15AU you do get the exciting ability to craft your own psychotic robot friend, but this alone isn’t really enough to warrant such a price tag. The 2-4 hours of quests to complete would be a pretty good deal as a standalone game for that price, but this is Fallout 4 we’re talking about, and the new plotline isn’t quite as fleshed out as some of the questlines fans are used to. So is it worth a go then? I wouldn’t say no, just don’t expect this to be a huge addition. The next planned DLC is even cheaper so I think we will be waiting for the third DLC instalment of Far Harbour, before we actually see anything with huge substance.
Reviewed on PS4
- Bethesda
- Bethesda
- PS4 / Xbox One / PC
- March 22, 2016
