As the final DLC, I thought I'd complete it before giving it a review, rather than just 10hrs into it as I did Far Harbour.
I struggle to understand what people expected from Bethesda for DLC on Fallout 4. Many people sharing negative feedback and general disappointment. I will state that I am somewhat of a fanboy of Fallout, I love the past few games and own every Fallout titleAs the final DLC, I thought I'd complete it before giving it a review, rather than just 10hrs into it as I did Far Harbour.
I struggle to understand what people expected from Bethesda for DLC on Fallout 4. Many people sharing negative feedback and general disappointment. I will state that I am somewhat of a fanboy of Fallout, I love the past few games and own every Fallout title there's been. In regards of Bethesda and their previous DLCs on older Fallouts, I think both Far Harbour and Nuka World far far surpass what Bethesda previously supplied!
Why:
Nuka World is situated North West of the Glowing Sea, a metro journey will take you directly to the new map. The map size is around the same size as Far Habour, probably about 1/4 of the size of the commonwealth. Unlike Far Harbour, which was one larger island with a few break away pieces, Nuka World is based in a valley. It was originally built as a theme-park before the bombs dropped, and the past 200+ years have left it out of power, full of ghouls and other new wildlife in the desert, but mainly full of Raiders.
It is the Raiders who are the heart of Nuka World. Split between three rival Raider gangs who have all taken refuge around the entrance part of the park (as the rest needs 'cleansing') you meet and greet after the initial Running-Man-like Gauntlet (play on Hard or Survival and this is EXTREMELY challenging!!). It's obvious from the off that all raiders are idiots and slightly annoying in personality. As Fallout characters go, they lack the depth which a few in Far Harbour have, but they're raiders, the equivalent of petty thieves and thugs in the real world, I dont think depth is important here. What is, is power and showing it. Script wise, the lone wanderer can call out lies, he can intimidate and outright put people in their places. Given my level 96 characters stats, he easily managed to intimidate any of them, but it did feel out of place with the fact I'd already completed the game as the Minuteman general. All of a sudden his squeaky clean act was replaced, but the voice acting felt a little out of place, short of being sarcastic, he often felt displaced as a Raider leader.
Overlook that though, get past it, Nuka World is about the Raiders, but its really about having a massive theme park to waste 50 more beautiful Fallout hours on.
The park has some awesome weapons, awesome armours (best looking Power armour in game, hands down!), a cocktail of new enemies, a few new robots, insects, the welcome return of Ants, and Tremor/Dune-like sand worms that bust out at your feet like molerats, often causing slight heart attacks. The new enemies are placed in certain areas of the park, each area obviously having its own theme. Upon unlocking the areas and handing them over to the radier fraction of your choice, the park is still somewhat dead. It takes a lot more than this to get the power up and running, but with this is one of the greatest bits of gameplay in Fallout4: Killing your Own Settlements.
It shouldnt be fun. Some Settlements I'd spent easily 30-40hrs designing in buildmode, huge defence buildings with sky-gardens to keep the settlers safe from attacks. On selecting (as part of the Nuka World main quest) the settlement I wanted to takeover by force, the quest giver looks up the list and then dares questions you by stating "er, boss, I've taken a look and this is one of your settlements, are you sure you want to hit it?" .. he then laughs and says that the minutemen will help defend settlements and they'll be shocked when they see their General amongst the raiders taken it down. I imagine if your settlements are lacking, if your population is like 2 or 3, if your defence sits around 20-50, then this whole process will be quick and probably dull. My settlements before starting Nuka World had a defence minimum of 200, they pretty much all have populations of 19, and some have 30+ settlers. This makes turning up with 2-3 raiders by your side to take down your own settlement, really hard, but really, REALLY fun!
Whilst the park itself has some great places within it, rides to use, fun-houses to have shoot ups in and lots of side-games to complete to 100% the DLC, as well as places outside the walls of the park, the desert as such which have swarms of insects and enemies to uncover in, the real beauty of Nuka World is re-taking the commonwealth for the Raiders. Since I'd completed the main quest, this has given a new lease of life to the settlements, and has been a really deep challenge. Again, I'm playing on the hardest setting with settlements rigged for defences and this has really turned my game upsidedown. Has a Bethesda DLC ever changed the context of the vanilla game as much as what this has? I very much doubt it. Of course, if this isn't for you then it's not for you.
Personally, I've loved Fallout4 and this was the cherry on top… Expand
Fallout 4: Nuka-WorldYour Score0 out of 10User Score
