Lost in the fog

Fallout 4's Far Harbor expansion has some lofty ambitions, but poor execution ultimately reduces this DLC to "more of the same." And considering the base game has plenty of same-ness already, that's not much of a sales pitch.

It starts off strong, with the town of Far Harbor itself making a moody and atmospheric debut. The run-down harbor-town look and the eerie soundtrack make a strong first impression, promising an intriguing mystery with a unique, foggy aesthetic.

But that facade doesn't last long. The harbor folks' sidequests feel like they're copied from the same fill-in-the-blanks templates as the main game; so do the sidequests from the synth safehouse at Acadia. And while the Children of Atom have their own wildly-unique home base, and a fantastical introduction - Visions in the Fog is definitely one of the game's coolest scripted sequences - most of their quests fit squarely within the mold of what we've seen before.

Meanwhile, the main story quests pivot around a 3D computer hacking minigame (well, more like "reverse tower defense") that ventures well outside of Fallout 4's comfort zone. It's a really thrilling idea, and the fact that someone was able to implement this in-game is pretty damned impressive. But ... well, it uses the workshop construction interface, which was already clunky enough -- and the constraints put onto it for this "hacking" game just exacerbate that clunkiness. Between the painful UI, and pathfinding that leaves "indexer" probes stuck in the (flat!) terrain, this minigame comes distinctly across as a prototype.

There is some juicy backstory in these main quests, once you've solved those hacking puzzles and DiMA's history is revealed. But those story beats barely have time to land before the campaign devolves into... there are three factions, pick one and kill the others. Really, Bethesda? After the main game pretended that "everyone hates each other" was a high form of moral ambiguity, you're going to make me drink from the same well again?

(At least there's an option to let everyone live this time, but the dialog choices to get there aren't super-intuitive. If I'd followed my instincts, I'm pretty sure Acadia would've been wiped out, including the character I'd been sent to rescue in the first place.)

There are some other sidequests on the island of Far Harbor, but the only one I really remember was a robot-murder-mystery (!) at the Cliff's Edge Hotel. And I remember it because, as captivating as its setup was, the quest itself was disappointingly forced and abrupt. Again, an ambitious idea that just wasn't given the detail-work it needed to flourish.

Far Harbor presents some fascinating new ideas, but doesn't adequately deliver on any of them; at its best, it re-treads the same ground as the main game. Sure, there are a few interesting areas to explore and intriguing ambient stories to uncover (like the low-key background of Cranberry Island) -- but I already got my fill of that from the Commonwealth.

Better than: Fallout 4: Vault-Tec Workshop
Not as good as: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard
And considering I sided with the Railroad to save synths: Acadia, a synth refuge, was fairly underwhelming.