Automatron DLC Review (storyline spoilers! You have been warned!)

[bigbishounen]

Despite my misgivings about the "Season Pass" concept, I took a chance and I picked up the Season Pass back when it was still under a discount (and thus more sanely priced). I knew we would get at least two DLC out of it and I figured at that price it would be worth it. True to their word, Bethseda has released the first of the DLC slated for 2016: Automatron, which includes the story of "The Mechanist".

Wanting to ensure I had a tactical advantage, I pulled up my "end game" save from my first playthrough, where I completed the game with the "Minuteman" ending. I knew that this way I would have artillery support should I need it. Note that this character is very close to the level cap (91 when I started the DLC) so is pretty close to maxed out.

Spoilers after this point, I will wrap in spoiler tags to stick with the board rules:

The story begins almost immediately after you log into the game, with a suddenly detected radio signal. Interestingly, the radio signal isn't like most of the other radio signals in the game in that it doesn't seem to be range limited in the way the other signals are. I was in my Sanctuary base and got the "radio signal detected" popup notification. Upon tuning to it you discover that is is a distress signal coming from some travelers under robot attack near Watts Electronics.

Upon traveling to the site I observed what appeared to be a massive robot battle going in in the intersection just to the east of Watts. I jumped in and stomped some very strange looking robots. Upon victory, I was greeted by another strange looking robot named Ada, who appeared to be half Assaultron and half Protectron plus some other random robot parts. Ada thanked me for assisting, but expressed sadness that she was unable to protect her owners. True enough, there were two corpses nearby at a campsite, which included the HAM radio that had been used to send the distress call. (Notably, this location was WELL out of radio range of Sanctuary, which is out of range of every other signal other than the Minuteman radio station, Diamond City radio and the Classical radio station. Not sure if this is a bug or a mistake, but it was immersion breaking.)

Ada then relates her story to you; She was part of a family caravan group that has been dogged by robots sent out by someone called "The Mechanist" ever since they entered the Commonwealth area. This "Mechanist" claims to be wanting to help people, but his or her robots just attack and kill everyone they see. Ada requests your assistance in hunting down The Mechanist and bringing them to justice.

Upon accepting Ada's request, Ada becomes your Companion, replacing any current Companion, and you are launched into a series of missions that take you both around the commonwealth searching out The Mechanist. During these missions you fight off robot attack squads and some new human enemies, the Rust Devils.

The Rust Devils are a raider group that is obsessed with robots and technology. They have a design aesthetic that is a cross between Super Mutant and regular raider, but with the gore bags and corpse totems swapped out for robot parts bags and robot body totems. They also wear unique "robot" armor, which seems to be scavenged robot body armor modified to be worn by humans. (essentially upgraded metal armor that also has some energy weapon resistance) They also are equipped with multiple robotic guards and assistants who fight with them, so they are no pushovers.

At one point you enter the Rust Devils main hideout, which is under the completely redone Fort Hagan Satellite Array, now renamed to be the Fort Hagan Hangar. (Although why one would put a Hangar under a bunch of giant satellite dishes with no obvious place for planes to exit from is anyone's guess. Another immersion breaker.) After fighting through the Hangar and beating the power armor equipped human boss (new unique weapon loot!) you meet Jezebel, a Robobrain attached to a computer console. "She" strikes a deal with you to take her with you and build her an actual body, in exchange for helping find The Mechanist, who Jezebel had previously assisted. Once you remove Jezebel you then must fight off Atlas, a robot boss with a Deathclaw skull head. Also, the path in is locked down, so you must then fight your way out via an alternate route.

Once out you return to any settlement of your choice, build Jezebel her body and then talk with her. Depending on your dialog choices she will reveal that The Mechanist asked her to help the people of the Commonwealth, and she complied by assisting in developing the robot programming. Unfortunately, she took the logic of "help" too far to the point where she reasoned that normal assistance would only result in a 35% success ratio, so she decided that the best way to "help" was to "eliminate the suffering of the people" by simply killing them, resulting in a 100% "success" ratio. Thus the reason why all the robots are killing everyone they see, despite broadcasting messages of friendship and assistance the whole while.

Continued in next post...

[bigbishounen]

Continued from previous post...

You are then tasked with adding a special device to a robot that will allow you to gain access to The Mechanist's stronghold. At this point I simply tacked the device onto Ada. I DID try my hand at building a new robot, and it was very fun. Interestingly, the robot had the option of becoming a Companion. Further, and I didn't test this yet, you MAY be able to have the robot companion AND a standard Companion at the same time. This is implied by a dialog that Ada gave me right after I declined to have the new robot I built be my companion, where she said that she "would continue to accompany me". I'm not sure if this is just her response when you decide to keep her OR if this is a hint that you might be able to have two robots with you. It might just be for the final mission, as you can tack the special device onto any other robot, meaning that possibly for this mission and this mission only you can have two companions. I don't honestly know.

NOTE: No matter where you attach the device, I HIGHLY recommend upgrading Ada at this point if you haven't done so already. With full "pack" upgrades Ada can carry a RIDICULOUS amount of loot (something close to 1000lbs) and you will need it in the final mission.

You then head off to the Mechanists' lair, the location of which is in the old Robco regional headquarters building, which is located in YET ANOTHER Immersion breaking location: Right next door to the Airport, where the BOS are located.

Ok, I have to take an aside here; This was one of the worst immersion breaking aspects of the DLC. HOW IN THE WORLD does The Mechanist escape the notice of the Brotherhood of Steel while having a base right under their noses? I mean, COME ON. The Robco HQ is going to be one of the very first places that the BOS scavenged for Technology! There is NO WAY they would miss this place! They would have discovered the secret base and either pillaged or destroyed it (most likely destroyed it, based on the production of RoboBrains in this location) LONG before the DLC could ever take place!

Putting the Mechanist base right at the airport was a HUGE mistake on Bethseda's part. They would have been much better served to plunk it down south of the Atomatoys factory on the edge of the Glowing Sea, where the BOS was less likely to have already hit and would have gone unnoticed. Especially if it was actually IN the Glowing Sea. But no, Bethseda plunked it down smack under the least likely place in the entire game for a robot factory to be hidden, under the nose of the Brotherhood of Steel. That's just... Embarrassing.

At any rate, you make your way to the old Robco location, which looks like just another ruin. From a handful of still functional Terminals you discover that there is something going on in the basement, as the regular Employees are warned not to dare try to go down there and access "the facility" below. (which is why the BOS would NOT have missed it! But I digress.) You make your way to the basement, and find a large door with a strange device attached to it. Ada (or the other robot you mounted the special device to) unlocks the door, which is so ridiculously secure it makes a Vault door look like a joke, and you enter. You pass through an old security checkpoint and then make your way further into the base, opposed by The Mechanist's robots the entire time. The base is broken up into sections, each with another ridiculous door separating it. You have to fight off the robots in one section before you can progress to the next. No real Stealth is possible here, this is a Full Frontal Assault on a very well defended fortress. Stealth CAN help get the drop on some of the robots, and a cautious approach is wise as there are multiple traps and ambushes. Thankfully there are Armor, Weapon, Power Armor and Robot modification stations all the way down, and the loot is plentiful.

Since I have multiple mods installed, including armor mods, I went in with a Ballistic Weave Mk.V enhanced Minuteman General outfit layered with Heavy Legendary Polymer Combat Armor. Essentially T60 Power armor without being in Power armor. If playing Vanilla I HIGHLY recommend the best Power Armor you have, with an Anti-energy weapon coating. The lasers.. Oh so many lasers.. Let's just say that even with my mods I wished I had power armor on at a few points. Lots of hiding around corners and lobbing grenades.

After fighting your way all the way down you finally reach the lair of the Mechanist, denoted by the large "M" painted onto the floor. You face The Mechanist, complete a final battle against swarms of robots and win when The Mechanist manages to deplete the power reserves of the base in their effort to kill you. You then have a final conversation with The Mechanist, and depending on your Charisma level can "talk them down" and get them to stand down, or you can just straight up fight and kill them. If you choose to talk them down (I did) The Mechanist reveals herself to be a young woman who discovered the old Robco location by accident. Being an Introvert who loved technology she hid out down here and eventually was inspired by a poster and drawing she found to become The Mechanist to try to help the people of the Commonwealth. She had no idea that the Robobrains would take her instructions too far, but you are able to convince her of the truth of what has happened. She is distraught, and shuts down all robot production, as well as giving you her Mechanist's armor. Her lair then becomes a location for a new Settlement, locking out the rest of the sprawling base complex other than the main lair room (very large) and the "back" entrance, a service elevator that leads up and out of another nondescript building nearby. After a final conversation with Ada, the story ends.

Final Impressions:

While the ability to build robots is well done, and the various mods you gain through the missions allow you to create almost all of them by the time the DLC story is over, the story line itself is weak. It has a very "tacked on" feel to it, which admittedly is almost impossible to avoid with a DLC of this nature. That said, it had several glaring weaknesses that should never have made it past the storyboard stage.

The biggest weakness is the one I mentioned above, the location of The Mechanists' lair. It is just not believable to have it where it is. It breaks immersion in so many ways it is almost laughable. If I had been playing through this from the beginning I would be scratching my head at it in puzzlement.

Additionally, the introduction to the story via the radio signal is immersion breaking due to the ridiculous range on the signal. Again, if starting a new character, it would be very easy to begin not with the stock first missions, but with the Automatron DLC missions, and you will be in no way prepared for them when just starting out. Not to mention they take you WAY off the main storyline and do not tie back in with the storyline in ANY functional way. This just ads to the "tacked on" feel since none of the other NPCs will be talking about The Mechanist and his/her crazy robots as you progress through the main storyline, despite the fact that having hordes of homicidal robots suddenly roaming around the Commonwealth would easily be the most common topic of the day. Beyond this the changes the DLC makes to some of the stock locations removes or alters parts of the main game side stories. While they make sense for the DLC, it is as though no attention was paid to how they would impact the main game. All of these above issues require repair and Bethseda should get on them right away.

Note that I did play the DLC with a nearly maxed character that had already completed every single other storyline mission in the entire game already. I was literally down to just running side missions for loot, scavenging and building settlements. Everything else was done. It is possible that the Automatron content doesn't even show up until later in the game, even if the DLC is loaded. I don't know as I haven't tried. But if it is available to a low level character I would say that is a HUGE mistake on Bethseda's part. Hopefully it doesn't activate until the main story line is complete.

Niceties of the DLC include a new power armor type, new regular armor type and a new weapon. These are all more suited to early or mid-game than late game. By late game, even in Vanilla, you have fully upgraded Combat armor and the X01 power armor, both of which are better than the new armor types. The new weapon is electrical in nature and is not as good as a Gauss Rifle, but is still good. It also has a "chain" effect where it can damage multiple enemies at once. Very useful for dealing with massed enemies, but very slow firing.

I did encounter some bugs with the game. Most notable are that the DLC seems to have broken the Settler AI in some way. I am finding Settlers just standing around in the center of the settlement not doing anything, but the food, water and defense ratings of settlements don't change, despite the settlers not appearing to be doing any work. Settlers also seem to lose their assignments, as settlers I had assigned to work stores are not anymore and the stores go empty. Scavenging stations also become unassigned, and settlers aren't using beds. This is very serious as it could completely break settlements that players have spent HOURS setting up and needs to be addressed immediately.

Note that I have NO settler AI mods of any kind installed.

Also, when you build a robot with flying capability (such as one with a Mr. Handy thruster instead of legs) they are not able to "float" over water like the Mr. Handys are. They just sink under the water. I'm not sure if the Mr. Handys are also broken, but I should note that in my game I have unlocked Spectacle Island, and was using a Mr. Handy from Greygarden as the provisioner for the Island. Upon completing the DLC story I noticed that the island was suddenly cut off and it's supply line was gone. Possible Mr. Handy drowning? I don't know.

What I do know is that I built my own robot with a Mr. Handy thruster at the Warwick Homestead, set it to be the new provisioner for Spectacle Island, watched it float over to the water, and then down INTO the water and disappear, rather than float across the water. So something is broken here because I have personally seen Codsworth make the trip to Spectacle by floating over the water. I know it is possible, which is why I was using a Mr. Handy in the first place. Another bug to squash.

I also noticed a few other minor bugs as well. In the Rust Devil hideout there is a spot where you can see outside the map (between two large metal crates you can see a bright white spot, and closer inspection reveals it is a crack in the map) and I nearly got knocked outside the map by a melee hit from a robot in a battle. I was backed up against a wall and it charged and hit me, and for a moment all I could see was white as my "eyes" exited the map border.

All that said, I still think that the DLC was worth it, if only for the ability to build your own custom robots without having to add a mod. (Note that there was already a mod to add robots as "defense" items) And if Ada is anything to go by, the robots make excellent Companions as they have HUGE carry capacity, and like Dogmeat don't really give a rat's rear end if you are a druggie or a drunk or, like me, a compulsive scavenger. While you can't get any perks, you can't piss them off either, just like Dogmeat. So in many ways, they are the perfect Companions. And that alone is a great reason to have the DLC; Somebody to hang with who won't dislike it if you decide to have a beer once in awhile.

Cheers!
~ Bigby

[Nobody]

tldr
sorry but that's how it is

[bigbishounen]

Originally posted by The Man Who Sold The World:

tldr
sorry but that's how it is

It's a full review. Sorry but that's how they work. Get "reading comprehension" and "attention span" mods installed, and come back.