C_nate
Rookie
This kinda goes on for a bit. TL;DR is: I loved the game, hated the story. Below is why.
ib4: omg its just a game, stop overthinking it so much
So obviously as the thread says I'm going to be going over some of the main plot points of the story that I had the most issues with. Feel free to add you own thoughts or criticisms or agreements or disagreements with my take on it.
I guess the best place to start is at the beginning of the game. You start off with your family when everything is still normal. Suddenly things are not so normal anymore and luckily you are on the list to get in the vault with your family, which you do just as the bombs begin to drop.
As we are all well aware, all the vaults were used to conduct different experiments on the people in them. In your particular vault it was to test cryogenic freezing of people which seemed to work out pretty well in this instance.
Two hundred years in the future you awaken to see a group of people open the pod your wife and son were frozen in. They grab your baby boy but not before killing your wife. Your pod opens right after they leave and you follow them out into the world and your adventure begins.
Now there are plenty of things I'm willing to forgive for the sake of gameplay. Because you see it in games everywhere. "I know the world is in danger right now, but I can take some time out of my busy schedule to do this irrelevant side thing for this irrelevant side person." You do that in this game by working for the different factions you meet during your search for your son.
Through the course of the game, you learn that there are 4 main factions. You have the Minutemen, the Railroad, the Brotherhood, and the Institute. And through the course of the game you learn that three of these factions are at odds with each other. So although you can advance through much of the game by playing a triple agent and actively helping your enemies against each other, You eventually come to a point where you have to pick one team to play for and screw over the other two even though they all implicitly trust you only moments after meeting you.
The main goal of the game early on is to find a way to infiltrate the mysterious Institute which is believed (correctly) to be behind the abduction of your son. After much trial and tribulation you finally gain access to the place and meet Father, who runs the joint.
The big plot twist of course is when it is revealed to you that Father is actually....Your Son!
Yes, it turns out that what really happened was after they nabbed your son, they put you back on ice for like the next 60 years just in case they needed you. Needed you for what? Well it turns out that the institute needed some non mutated or non irradiated DNA to make those near prefect copies of synth humans, the Gen 3's they call them that you've come across during the game.
In fact, the only reason you got out at all, is your son decided to set you free for...reasons.
It is around this time that the whole thing starts to come off the rails for me. It opens up a whole host of questions, of which only a couple are given any satisfactory answers.
At the top of my list: What was the point of a violent smash and grab operation? It didn't seem like they were in any kind of hurry. They could've easily lied to your wife and said they were doctors or something and they needed to check out the kid. Hell, they could've just took the mom and the baby both to the institute. No, instead you fire a gun a foot away from the head of the thing that is totally vital to your entire operation Oh, well Kellog is a crazy unpredictable guy you say. That's who you send on this super important mission?!? Oh, Kellog also basically has not aged in 60 years due to cybernetic implants, but this miracle of science is not used by one other single person in the entire Commonwealth because they needed something to trick you into thinking that you are not chasing your son 60 years later. I believe it's called a
Next, since your son was kidnapped as a baby, why does he have any knowledge of what happened at all? Don't you think it would have been more wise to just lie to him, give him to some parents and just tell him he was born and raised there?
Lets say, for the sake of argument that after he became director, he found all the records of his true history. So after finding out his father is alive after all these years, instead of dispatching some coursers to immediately bring you home to the Institute for a family reunion, he instead just sets you loose in the wasteland to just...see what would happen?! Really?
So your son grew up to be an asshole. Unfortunate, but not unique or unheard of. But what really sucks is that the dialogue never gives you a chance to grill him on any of the shit he's been doing.
"So son, what's up with all the abductions I've been hearing about?"
"So son, what's up with that secret FEV lab you've got in the back there with the supermutants?"
"So son, don't you find it at all ethically or morally wrong to create near perfect copies of humans, give them sentience and free will and basically make them slave labor?"
Nope, instead you get to working for the Institute right away. And even though you've been working with their enemies who are actively trying to destroy them (you can take your pick of the Minutemen, Railroad, or Brotherhood for this. That's how you get in there in the first place) and even though he just told you he set you loose in the wasteland to sink or swim (live or die) he still instantly trusts you enough to let you run around the entire place and do whatever you want.
Later, through the protests of nearly every other Important Person there who has devoted their entire lives to him, he actually names you as his successor to run the whole damn place after knowing you for all of a day. Unreal.
At the same time, you are putting together a secret robot rebellion to set all the synths free. (If you are taking the Railroad path) Just as I'm trying to guess how it is going to play out, the Institute tells me they need to get their nuclear reactor up and running. HOW CONVENIENT!
In a shock to absolutely no one, the nuclear reactor is used to destroy the Institute in an impressive fashion. Before I get too far ahead of myself, you also have to destroy the Brotherhood. Massive destruction and explosions for all. If you side with the Institute, you instead destroy the Railroad and the Brotherhood. If you side with the Brotherhood you destroy the Institute and Railroad. The Minutemen are spared destruction because you need them to play MineSims or SimCraft or whatever you want to call settlements.
Admittedly, the destruction of the Institute is impressive. They must've thought so too since it is used in THREE OF THE FOUR POSSIBLE ENDINGS. Same goes for the Hindenb...err, Prydwen which also meets a firery demise if you don't side with the Brotherhood.
At the end, after you have slaughtered nearly every living thing in the Institute and as you are getting ready to set off the reactor, you meet up with your son again, now sick and dying and they actually have the nerve to try to play up on the emotional aspect by having you suddenly speak tenderly. "You...You're sick?"
Fuck. You.
In fact, only one of the few enjoyable moments at the end is when you can actually tell him, "See you in Hell." Which I did, then promptly shot him in the face and took his fancy lab coat.
In one final twist, as you are getting the fuck out of there, you run into your robot son again, who the first time you met him (in a glass box no less) was shut down and mind wiped for malfunctioning cause it freaked out and yelled stranger danger when you tried to call it your son. Seems your real son had one last trick up his sleeve and programmed this robot kid to think you are its real father. And because I'm a sappy asshole, I took him with and spared him Nuclear Baptism.
One more bit of mindfuckery, if you talk to your robot son back at your settlement, he will ask you to pick him up various junk so he can make you things. Pretty gifted, that kid. That is, if he really is a kid at all...
See, if you picked up Nick the synth detective as a companion and learned about his backstory, you learn that Nick was an actual person before the great war and they saved and uploaded his "conscious" or whatever you want to call it into a synth.
So my conspiracy theory is that once your real son realized you were going through with the plan to blow up the Institute, He quickly transferred his mind into the synth boy and that sweet, innocent kid building you stuff is a cold, calculating, creepy old fucker biding his time for his revenge.
ib4: omg its just a game, stop overthinking it so much
So obviously as the thread says I'm going to be going over some of the main plot points of the story that I had the most issues with. Feel free to add you own thoughts or criticisms or agreements or disagreements with my take on it.
I guess the best place to start is at the beginning of the game. You start off with your family when everything is still normal. Suddenly things are not so normal anymore and luckily you are on the list to get in the vault with your family, which you do just as the bombs begin to drop.
As we are all well aware, all the vaults were used to conduct different experiments on the people in them. In your particular vault it was to test cryogenic freezing of people which seemed to work out pretty well in this instance.
Two hundred years in the future you awaken to see a group of people open the pod your wife and son were frozen in. They grab your baby boy but not before killing your wife. Your pod opens right after they leave and you follow them out into the world and your adventure begins.
Now there are plenty of things I'm willing to forgive for the sake of gameplay. Because you see it in games everywhere. "I know the world is in danger right now, but I can take some time out of my busy schedule to do this irrelevant side thing for this irrelevant side person." You do that in this game by working for the different factions you meet during your search for your son.
Through the course of the game, you learn that there are 4 main factions. You have the Minutemen, the Railroad, the Brotherhood, and the Institute. And through the course of the game you learn that three of these factions are at odds with each other. So although you can advance through much of the game by playing a triple agent and actively helping your enemies against each other, You eventually come to a point where you have to pick one team to play for and screw over the other two even though they all implicitly trust you only moments after meeting you.
The main goal of the game early on is to find a way to infiltrate the mysterious Institute which is believed (correctly) to be behind the abduction of your son. After much trial and tribulation you finally gain access to the place and meet Father, who runs the joint.
The big plot twist of course is when it is revealed to you that Father is actually....Your Son!
Yes, it turns out that what really happened was after they nabbed your son, they put you back on ice for like the next 60 years just in case they needed you. Needed you for what? Well it turns out that the institute needed some non mutated or non irradiated DNA to make those near prefect copies of synth humans, the Gen 3's they call them that you've come across during the game.
In fact, the only reason you got out at all, is your son decided to set you free for...reasons.
It is around this time that the whole thing starts to come off the rails for me. It opens up a whole host of questions, of which only a couple are given any satisfactory answers.
At the top of my list: What was the point of a violent smash and grab operation? It didn't seem like they were in any kind of hurry. They could've easily lied to your wife and said they were doctors or something and they needed to check out the kid. Hell, they could've just took the mom and the baby both to the institute. No, instead you fire a gun a foot away from the head of the thing that is totally vital to your entire operation Oh, well Kellog is a crazy unpredictable guy you say. That's who you send on this super important mission?!? Oh, Kellog also basically has not aged in 60 years due to cybernetic implants, but this miracle of science is not used by one other single person in the entire Commonwealth because they needed something to trick you into thinking that you are not chasing your son 60 years later. I believe it's called a
Next, since your son was kidnapped as a baby, why does he have any knowledge of what happened at all? Don't you think it would have been more wise to just lie to him, give him to some parents and just tell him he was born and raised there?
Lets say, for the sake of argument that after he became director, he found all the records of his true history. So after finding out his father is alive after all these years, instead of dispatching some coursers to immediately bring you home to the Institute for a family reunion, he instead just sets you loose in the wasteland to just...see what would happen?! Really?
So your son grew up to be an asshole. Unfortunate, but not unique or unheard of. But what really sucks is that the dialogue never gives you a chance to grill him on any of the shit he's been doing.
"So son, what's up with all the abductions I've been hearing about?"
"So son, what's up with that secret FEV lab you've got in the back there with the supermutants?"
"So son, don't you find it at all ethically or morally wrong to create near perfect copies of humans, give them sentience and free will and basically make them slave labor?"
Nope, instead you get to working for the Institute right away. And even though you've been working with their enemies who are actively trying to destroy them (you can take your pick of the Minutemen, Railroad, or Brotherhood for this. That's how you get in there in the first place) and even though he just told you he set you loose in the wasteland to sink or swim (live or die) he still instantly trusts you enough to let you run around the entire place and do whatever you want.
Later, through the protests of nearly every other Important Person there who has devoted their entire lives to him, he actually names you as his successor to run the whole damn place after knowing you for all of a day. Unreal.
At the same time, you are putting together a secret robot rebellion to set all the synths free. (If you are taking the Railroad path) Just as I'm trying to guess how it is going to play out, the Institute tells me they need to get their nuclear reactor up and running. HOW CONVENIENT!
In a shock to absolutely no one, the nuclear reactor is used to destroy the Institute in an impressive fashion. Before I get too far ahead of myself, you also have to destroy the Brotherhood. Massive destruction and explosions for all. If you side with the Institute, you instead destroy the Railroad and the Brotherhood. If you side with the Brotherhood you destroy the Institute and Railroad. The Minutemen are spared destruction because you need them to play MineSims or SimCraft or whatever you want to call settlements.
Admittedly, the destruction of the Institute is impressive. They must've thought so too since it is used in THREE OF THE FOUR POSSIBLE ENDINGS. Same goes for the Hindenb...err, Prydwen which also meets a firery demise if you don't side with the Brotherhood.
At the end, after you have slaughtered nearly every living thing in the Institute and as you are getting ready to set off the reactor, you meet up with your son again, now sick and dying and they actually have the nerve to try to play up on the emotional aspect by having you suddenly speak tenderly. "You...You're sick?"
Fuck. You.
In fact, only one of the few enjoyable moments at the end is when you can actually tell him, "See you in Hell." Which I did, then promptly shot him in the face and took his fancy lab coat.
In one final twist, as you are getting the fuck out of there, you run into your robot son again, who the first time you met him (in a glass box no less) was shut down and mind wiped for malfunctioning cause it freaked out and yelled stranger danger when you tried to call it your son. Seems your real son had one last trick up his sleeve and programmed this robot kid to think you are its real father. And because I'm a sappy asshole, I took him with and spared him Nuclear Baptism.
One more bit of mindfuckery, if you talk to your robot son back at your settlement, he will ask you to pick him up various junk so he can make you things. Pretty gifted, that kid. That is, if he really is a kid at all...
See, if you picked up Nick the synth detective as a companion and learned about his backstory, you learn that Nick was an actual person before the great war and they saved and uploaded his "conscious" or whatever you want to call it into a synth.
So my conspiracy theory is that once your real son realized you were going through with the plan to blow up the Institute, He quickly transferred his mind into the synth boy and that sweet, innocent kid building you stuff is a cold, calculating, creepy old fucker biding his time for his revenge.
