So F4 retconned the only thing we knew about the Institute from F3 right?

[ComeOnAndSam]

Our only look into the Commonwealth or Institute was quest line in Fallout 3 about a synth who ran away and was living in Rivet City. He was being hunted by a finely dressed man from the Institute who hires you to find him. But in F4, we learn the institute never leaves their bunker for anything and if they have to, they're in a high tech biohazard suit to avoid contamination.

So they retconned that quest from F3?

[00_01_02_03_04_05_06_07_08_09_10]

Two possible reasons.
1. Coursers
or
2. Mercenaries

[ManDudely]

It wasn't retconned, it just doesn't make sense. The 'acting director' of the SRB explicitly states he's filling in for Dr Zimmer. What doesn't make sense is why they sent the head of the department to chase a synth across the country instead of a Courser.

[Slapstick]

Maybe they sent a synth?

[ManDudely]

They didn't. They really did sent the Director of the SRB. One of the terminals confirms that Zimmer is away on a 'classified' mission in the Capital Wasteland.

[Jirki88]

Maybe that synth was just that important.

[Shadow]

Well in Fallout 3 Zimmer is sent after what at least by the time Fallout 3 is happening, according to Zimmer himself, is their most advanced android.

[Gamefreak2350]

Based on his combat skills and what not I think it's safe to assume that A-321 was a Courser and that's why the sent the head of the SRB.

[ManDudely]

Well, Fallout 3 does take place ten years prior to Fallout 4, so it's feasible for Harkness to be one of the first gen3's. But then there's still the fact that the Head of the SRB is away on a ten year mission to find this one synth when the Institute is literally building these things on an assembly line now.

[Shadow]

Originally posted by K0NFL1QT:

Well, Fallout 3 does take place ten years prior to Fallout 4, so it's feasible for Harkness to be one of the first gen3's. But then there's still the fact that the Head of the SRB is away on a ten year mission to find this one synth when the Institute is literally building these things on an assembly line now.

Travelling unless you have faster transportation is done on foot and can take quite a while. Maybe Harkness were more advanced than even the 3rd gen synths. Could also be they simply for some reason have not updated his status.

[Noodlesocks]

I wouldn't say retconned, just inadequately explained. Could be any number of reasons why he was there, it just isn't explained. Anything else is just speculation.

[Foreman]

Dr Zimmer was a synth himself, if you kill him he has a synth component (called an android component in FO3)

[SLDFMechwarrior]

The whole game is one huge screwup. Bugthesda is hard at work destroying the franchise, don't expect it to get better, it's all downhill from here.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by Foreman:

Dr Zimmer was a synth himself, if you kill him he has a synth component (called an android component in FO3)

I'm about 99% positive that this is something he had in his inventory, not from his body. It would be extremely unlikely that the head of their department was also a synth.

Also, why? Why a necro?

[steventirey]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Also, why? Why a necro?

Especially a necro of a thead that died a week after the games launch.

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Originally posted by Foreman:

Dr Zimmer was a synth himself, if you kill him he has a synth component (called an android component in FO3)

I'm about 99% positive that this is something he had in his inventory, not from his body. It would be extremely unlikely that the head of their department was also a synth.

Also, why? Why a necro?

Zimmer could also have had cybernetics, since an implant that gives Wired Reflexes is the reward for helping him. With Fallout 3 being a decade earlier, there's a good chance that this was before Father shut down that line of research.