Fallout 4 Automatron - Review

It has been quite a number of months since the Commonwealth called to players, but with an evil rising, it is time to return. Automatron is the first in the planned content releases for Fallout 4, but is it off to a good start?

While exploring the Commonwealth you will get notified of a new broadcast, upon listening to it, you will get a new quest, heading to the location provided and taking out the enemies attacking the caravan will start the much larger quest. It is here you will meet Ada, a robot companion of the caravan and the last surviving member, she will provide you with information on what they were doing and why the robots attacked and if you allow it, she will join you on the hunt for the source of the robots, to ensure that others don’t meet the same fate as her friends, but first she needs an upgrade.

You will have to locate a Robobrain, somewhere in the Commonwealth, which will give you a piece of tech needed to attempt to locate the mastermind behind it all, the Mechanist. Once you have the piece, you will then need to install it and this requires some tinkering and to do that, you need a new work station. The work station takes up a fair amount of room, so you need to ensure you have space in your settlement to build it, but once you do, there are countless options available to you, but first, you must install the new component into Ada, which will then direct you to a new threat within the Commonwealth, Rust Devils, a group of raiders that target robots, specifically to take their armour to make their own.

From here, things will kick into high gear, the robots pose a significant threat to you and once you locate the base of the Mechanist, things will become so much harder. But you have an ace in the hole, as it were, with Ada or any other robot that you decide you want to build, which is really important to explore, as you can choose the stats for your build, which means that if you build one and then it fails you, that is your fault. You can choose each part of the robot build, from the head to arms and legs, even the type of each part and the armour that is equipped. There are combinations that can grant boosts to damage, or speed and it also works in the reverse, some combinations will lower the capacity of the robots carrying ability. In my making, I came up with quite a number of options, one was a flame red robot with the legs of a Mr. Handy, but the main body of a Protectron, which is an odd combination, but with the Robobrain head, it really looked odd as it floated around sanctuary hills.

Of course, you can make even the more insane combinations if you desire, another one of my creations was almost covered in spikes, had the evillest looking face that you can equip and the legs of a sentry bot, but when it came to armour for the legs, I gave it as much storage as I could, so while it was nothing buy spikes and death glares above the waste, it was a pack mule on the legs, oh and it was bright pink. The combinations are completely up to you, the catch, you must find the pieces in the world first, which then unlocks the option to build it within the crafting station, so don’t think you are going to be able to create everything from the start. Of course, as with crafting everything else in the game, you will also need to have the right skills to build more advanced pieces, Science, Robotics and Blacksmithing all play a part, so if you want to become a robot master, you will need to ensure you have them.

What really helps Automatron is that nothing feels disconnected from the world, all the pieces fit in, like it was always there. The addition characters you meet, locations you can explore and supplies you can scavenge all feel like they have always been there, just waiting for you to discover them. The length of the main mission will depend on your level and gear you bring with you, but there is a lot of value to be found here, even if you ignore the Mechanist and just want to build robots, you will find things to do.

Thanks to Bethesda for supplying the add-on for review