The factions themselves are notably better but they are also utterly shoehorned to favor a goody-goody character. This shallow implementation of skills also extends to the new factions, which showcases many familiar problems with Bethesda. In contrast, New Vegas utilized all skills in dialogue for greater variety of achieving an outcome. There are only half-a-dozen skill checks outside of Hacking and Lockpicking with one reliant on medicine, one reliant on repair, and the rest are persuasion checks. The Fog itself, a great mechanic and theme, is ruined by mashing VATS that shows every enemy waiting for you. While there is a lot more depth added to the role-playing mechanics, the simplicity comes back to undermine the journey.

Unfortunately, and as much praise as Bethesda does deserve from this expansion, the mechanics of F4 come back to reel itself from its shining glory. In the 15 вЂ“ 25 hours it will take to complete FH, there is a far richer adventure than the base game, and itвЂ™s easily the highest point of the game. These are all included along with the base game appeal of an interesting environment to explore for loot and for lore in an immersive world, and these well-designed quests and characters further add to the experience.

The intro sequence at KasumiвЂ™s residence involves detective skills and exploration (as well as the Vault Murder Mystery) skill checks briefly appear when repairing circuits on the island and a medical check the entire plot and main-questline of FH is an open-ended adventure where you can side between none, to all three factions choices do lead to consequences, and if you do not load a previous save, they are permanent and there is some semblance of вЂњrole-playingвЂќ in its narrative from a question asked to the player. These memories feel like the basis of Far Harbor because they are all included, in small doses, into one package. Compared to the rest of the quests, it is easy to see how much more involved F4 could have been with its RPG elements. Even the Silver Shroud questline, which was mainly built to be a gag, involves so many branching paths to either вЂњrole-playвЂќ as the Shroud or to shape its adventure more to the player. Constitution and the Relay transponder featured skill-checks to repair and/or optional objectives to accomplish them Vault 81 and Curie had long-lasting consequences on the game-world the faction system itself allowed some leeway to either side with one faction or make a truce between the three and the Covenant and Valentine Cases utilized exploration and skill-checks in freeform quests. In the midst of many simple loot-and-fetch adventures and radiant objectives, the base game had brief encounters with actual quest design featuring multiple solutions and the means to accomplish them. One thing often overlooked about Fallout 4 is that there are moments of genuine RPG quest design. ItвЂ™s one of the many Bethesda design anchors set in FH that you wish they would leave behind to chart new waters and to reap new rewards in its future. ItвЂ™s a damned shame underneath all the faction and voice-acting polish, the multiple routes for quests, and the added choices Far Harbor is still burdened under the limitations of F4. Even including Morrowind, Far Harbor is closer to real role-playing that doesnвЂ™t boil down to choosing a different direction/beginning with linear questlines plaguing all of TES and Fallout 3/4. In the wake of Fallout 4, there is an outdated gag best summarized as вЂњI used to be an RPG like you (New Vegas) until Bethesda took the RP out of my G,вЂќ and Far Harbor is the closest Bethesda has ever attempted to truly create a role-playing experience. 'An RPG Without a Role-Model Has No Foundation'

Fallout 4 far harbor