Fallout 4: Far Harbor

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Fallout 4: Far Harbor
Platform(s)

Fallout 4: Far Harbor is the third release of downloadable content for the 2015 video game Fallout 4 developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Announced in February 2016 on the Bethesda Game Studios' blog, it was released on May 19, 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The PlayStation 4 version was re-released on 2 June 2016 in order to fix performance issues.

In the expansion, the Valentine's Detective Agency receives a call for help from a family living in a remote area of the Commonwealth. Their daughter Kasumi has vanished and the player is told to investigate the disappearance.

Fallout 4: Far Harbor , similar to the base game Fallout 4, can be played in both first-person and third-person. The player is in control of the video game's protagonist throughout their investigation on the island of Far Harbor. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and V.A.T.S. systems are also included in the expansion pack. Far Harbor's main gameplay consists of both quest and puzzle sections. Upon completion of the side quests, the player is rewarded with bottle caps, one of the game's fictional currencies. In the puzzle sections, the player must direct lasers to hit the designated targets.

The game received generally favorable reviews from critics according to the review aggregator site Metacritic. The main criticism was the puzzle sections, which reviewers thought was either a waste of time or overly frustrating. The addition of new quests was highly acclaimed by critics. Reviewers had different opinions on the atmosphere and the island's fog.

Gameplay

Main article: Fallout 4 § Gameplay

Far Harbor is an expansion pack of the main game, Fallout 4. It builds on the base game, which is an action role-playing, single-player video game in which the player searches for a missing child.[1] Similar to the main game, in Far Harbor the player is enlisted to investigate the disappearance of a young girl named Kasumi.[2] Since the player is in contact with the Valentine Detective Agency, the player must have met detective Nick Valentine.[3] Both the base game and the expansion include the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system and the ability to swap between first-person and third-person perspectives.[4] S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is an acronym for the character attributes which the player can distribute through the means of acquired stat points. The available character attributes consist of: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. At the start of the game, players start with 28 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points, which can be assigned to each stat with the minimum being 1, and the maximum being 10 points.[5] When the player levels up, they have the option to upgrade or unlock perks. Each of the attributes have 10 different perks that can be unlocked, resulting in a total of 70 possible upgrades.[4]

Screenshot of the gameplay in Far Harbor. Note the HUD, which is a result of the player using the Power Armor.

The Pip-Boy, which is a device strapped to the character's wrist, also plays a role in both Fallout 4 and Far Harbor. It contains a menu which the player can access to view the maps, statistics, data, and items. Game cartridges can be found in the game, allowing the player to play old arcade games.[6] V.A.T.S (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), a feature first introduced in Fallout 3, is included in Fallout 4 and while using it, the real-time combat is slowed, allowing the player to choose where to shoot the enemy. This can be used strategically. Shooting in the head will typically result in killing an enemy, while shooting the legs can slow them down. Weapons can also be shot at, disarming them. Using V.A.T.S lowers the stamina (Action Points, or AP) of the player. To use more stamina-hungry actions, the player must let it regenerate. The use of Power Armor will result in the player's Action Points being diminished faster if used in combat.[7]

The expansion is set on a radioactive, smog-smothered island named Far Harbor, located in Maine.[2][3] Unlike the previous games, there are three factions which consist of both violent, non-player characters and peaceful ones.[8] Throughout the expansion there are quests and puzzle sections. The way the player completes the quests depends on how much investigation they do. A quick completion by killing the other characters is not always the best and easiest option. By completing more side-quests, the player will find options to resolve things more peacefully. Doing things peacefully can have its downfalls, including making compromises and keeping secrets.[9] In the puzzle rooms, the player directs lasers to hit the designated targets.[3][10] On completion of side quests, the factions the player helped reward them with bottle caps, one of the fictional currencies found throughout the Fallout series. Some of the quests incude: retrieving missing items, investigating minor mysteries, solving disagreements, and clearing out monster-infested areas.[11]

Plot

Valentine's Detective Agency receives a request for help from Kenji and Rei Nakano, members of a family living in a remote corner of the Commonwealth. Their daughter Kasumi has vanished without aan trace or explanation, and the Sole Survivor is enlisted to investigate. They discover that Kasumi had been in contact with Acadia, a colony of escaped synths living on an island in Maine.

Arriving in the town of Far Harbor, the Sole Survivor finds the island locked in a tense stalemate between the local residents and the Children of Atom, a cult that worships radiation. The island has been blanketed by radioactive fog for two centuries. The residents blame the Children for its increased presence, while the Children believe that the residents are an affront to Atom.

With the aid of a local trapper named Old Longfellow, the Sole Survivor finds Sadako living in Acadia. Kasumi has come to believe that she is a synth, and has sought refuge in Acadia; however, she has come to doubt the intentions of DiMA, Acadia's leader. At Kasumi's behest, the Sole Survivor switches focus to investigating DiMA, and gradually learns that he has consciously chosen to store some of his memories outside his body. He has hidden them inside a computer simulation in a nuclear submarine base occupied by the Children of Atom as a sign of good faith. But he has grown increasingly concerned that if the Children access the memories, they will have the means to destroy Far Harbor.

The Sole Survivor approaches the Children of Atom to recover DiMA's memories and learns that he put in place a series of fail safes to protect Acadia, and to preserve the balance of power between Far Harbor and the Children of Atom. These are the access codes to a nuclear warhead, stored within the base, and the means to sabotage the Fog Condensers, a series of constructs that filter the radioactive fog, protecting Far Harbor. The Sole Survivor also discovers that DiMA murdered Captain Avery, the leader of Far Harbor, and replaced her with a synth to maintain peace between Far Harbor and Acadia.

At this point, the Sole Survivor is faced with a choice: to destroy Far Harbor, to destroy the Children of Atom, or to inform the people of Far Harbor of DiMA's crime and start a war with Acadia. Alternatively, the Sole Survivor may establish a more permanent peace between all parties by assassinating, or chasing away, High Confessor Tektus, leader of the Children of Atom, and allow DiMA to replace him with a synth who will adopt a more moderate stance towards Far Harbor.

In the aftermath, the Sole Survivor returns to Kasumi and may convince her to return home or stay in Acadia.

Release

Todd Howard, one of the developers for both Fallout 4 and Far Harbor, along with other Fallout games

"Then we have an opportunity with something like Far Harbor," Howard continues, talking about learning from feedback. "Like: okay, how many different ways can it end—let's give them some more choice. So it's not just a one-off, meaning Fallout 4 comes out and then we forget about it—it's an ongoing thing. The feedback we get is really, really helpful."

Todd Howard, Bethesda director[11]

Three months after the official release of Fallout 4, Far Harbor was announced, along with Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, and teases of other upcoming expansions in a post on the Bethesda Game Studios blog on February 16, 2016.[12] The expansion was released on May 19, 2016,[13] and supposedly added the largest landmass, hence the higher price compared to other DLC releases. It also added new dungeons, quests, creatures, and other miscellaneous features.[14][15] The expansion was included in the Fallout 4 season pass but because of the large size of the additional content, the price for the season pass rose from US$30 to $50.[16]

The expansion was influenced by feedback on the dialogue system in Fallout 4; in an article on the blog VG247, Bethesda's Todd Howard said they designed the dialogue features in Far Harbor so the player had more options surrounding the ending.[17]

Two weeks after its release, on June 2, 2016, the PlayStation 4 version was re-released to fix performance issues.[18] In a performance test by Eurogamer, it was discovered that while the player was in outside areas and foggy biomes, the frame rate could go as low as 15 FPS. In the same test, the Xbox version was found to run at 20–30 FPS but had different issues, such as stuttering and software lock-ups.[19]

Reception

Fallout 4: Far Harbor was released to "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[28][29][30] Reviewers highly praised the addition of new quests.[2][3] but many disliked the newly introduced puzzle sections[27][31][32] and the block related parts were compared to Minecraft.[9][10][32] In particular, Dan Stapleton (IGN) expressed admiration of the new quests but said that the puzzle rooms were so hard to fail that: "I’m not sure why Bethesda bothered with it".[3]

Jack de Quidt of the blog (Rock, Paper, Shotgun) abhorred the puzzles because, even though it was "a small part of the release", he regarded it as "very frustrating". He continued saying that the engine insufficient for the intricate puzzle sequences.[31] Website Game Revolution also expressed distaste for the puzzles, saying that they tested the limits of the control scheme, but in the wrong way.[21] Metro liked the DLC and how it added "dozens of hours" through the means of side-quests and other activities but, similar to other reviews, disliked the puzzle sections.[27]

Reviewers had different opinions on the atmosphere and the fog, with Matt Wittaker (Hardcore Gamer) saying the fog is not much of a nuisance if the player's character was built to mitigate radiation;[33] Dan Stapleton commended the majority of the content except the fog, which "got annoying".[3] Christopher Livingston (PC Gamer) said that "you can literally taste it [the atmosphere]".[20] David Ambrosini (IGN) liked the atmosphere but disliked the repetitiveness of some of the quests.[25] Reviewers were also divided over the storyline. Peter Brown (GameSpot) criticized it finding it uninteresting.[23] Game Revolution admired the storyline and new characters.[21]

Some reviewers had problems with the repetitiveness of the additions, and Nic Rowen (Destructoid) was disappointed with the lack of uniqueness in the release.[2] Chad Sapieha writing for the National Post said that he was growing weary of the repetitive small tasks like managing loot, and traveling between settlements just to dispose of it. He added that he was done with Fallout 4 and it's DLC and was ready to move onto the 5th installment.[32]

Denny Connolly writing for website Game Rant said there was 15 hours of gameplay added, but not all of it good. noting that the puzzle sections may scare away the "purists".[26] David Soriano (IGN) commended the extensive size of the map but was disappointed that it was somewhat wasted.[24] Alice Bell in her review on (VideoGamer.com) said that Far Harbor was the best for getting "the most bang for your buck", even taking into account the design flaws.[22] Metro also commended the value for money.[27]

References

  1. ^ Carter, Chris (November 9, 2015). "Review: Fallout 4". Destructoid. Archived from the original on June 23, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e Rowen, Nic (May 24, 2016). "Review: Fallout 4: Far Harbor". Destructoid. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Stapleton, Dan (May 20, 2016). "Fallout 4: Far Harbor DLC Review". IGN. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  4. ^ a b McElroy, Griffin (July 24, 2015). "How Fallout 4 handles romance, character progression and more". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
  5. ^ "Fallout 4: How SPECIAL attributes and Perks work". VG247. October 6, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  6. ^ Ingenito, Vince (June 14, 2015). "E3 2015: Fallout 4's First Gameplay Details". IGN. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  7. ^ Bell, Larryn (November 18, 2015). "Fallout 4: How to Use V.A.T.S". USgamer. Archived from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Geradi, Matt (May 31, 2016). "Fallout 4 gets personal in Far Harbor". The A.V. Club. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  9. ^ a b Battersby, Charles (May 25, 2016). "Far Harbor is what Fallout 4 should've been all along". Geek. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  10. ^ a b Cowen, Trace (May 25, 2016). "Everything You Need to Know About the 'Fallout 4' Expansion 'Far Harbor' Before Copping". Complex. Complex Media Inc. Archived from the original on June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b Sykes, Tom (June 16, 2016). "Fallout 4 lead Todd Howard: dialogue system "didn't work as well"". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  12. ^ "Fallout 4 Add-Ons – Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, Far Harbor and More". Bethesda Game Studios. February 16, 2016. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  13. ^ Makuch, Eddie (May 18, 2016). "Here's Exactly When Fallout 4 Far Harbor Expansion Launches". GameSpot. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  14. ^ Painter, Lewis (June 15, 2016). "Fallout 4 VR UK release date rumours, DLC pricing, features, gameplay and screenshots: Bethesda announces Fallout 4 VR for HTC Vive at E3 2016, coming in 2017". PC Advisor. IDG. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  15. ^ Perez, Daniel (February 16, 2016). "Fallout 4 DLC starts rolling out in March 2016". Shacknews. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  16. ^ Makuch, Eddie (February 18, 2016). "Fallout 4 Expansions Detailed, Season Pass Price Increasing to $50". GameSpot. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  17. ^ Arif, Shabana (June 16, 2016). "Fallout 4 dialogue system "didn't work as well" as other features, says Todd Howard". VG24/7. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  18. ^ Sarkar, Samit (June 3, 2016). "Fallout 4: Far Harbor re-released on PS4 to fix performance issues". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  19. ^ Morgan, Thomas (May 29, 2016). "Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC performs poorly on PS4". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  20. ^ a b Livingston, Christopher (May 21, 2016). "Fallout 4: Far Harbor review". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  21. ^ a b c "Fallout 4: Far Harbor Review". Game Revolution. May 26, 2016. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  22. ^ a b Bell, Alice (May 24, 2016). "Fallout 4 Far Harbor Review". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  23. ^ a b Brown, Peter (May 24, 2016). "20,000 Rads Over the Sea". GameSpot. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  24. ^ a b Soriano, David (May 23, 2016). "Fallout 4 – Far Harbor Análisis" (in Spanish). IGN. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  25. ^ a b Ambrosini, David (May 22, 2016). "Fallout 4: Far Harbor Recensione" (in Italian). IGN. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  26. ^ a b Connolly, Denny (May 23, 2016). "Fallout 4 Far Harbor DLC Review". Game Rant. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  27. ^ a b c d "Fallout 4: Far Harbor review – crippling fog". GameCentral. DMG Media. May 23, 2016. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  28. ^ a b "Fallout 4: Far Harbor for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 4, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  29. ^ a b "Fallout 4: Far Harbor for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 4, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  30. ^ a b "Fallout 4: Far Harbor for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on August 25, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
  31. ^ a b de Quidt, Jack (May 27, 2016). "Wot I Think: Fallout 4: Far Harbor". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  32. ^ a b c Sapieha, Chad (May 27, 2016). "Fallout 4 Far Harbor review: More of everything you love (and don't love) about Bethesda's nuclear apocalypse". National Post. Postmedia Network. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  33. ^ Whittaker, Matt (May 22, 2016). "Review: Fallout 4: Far Harbor". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved June 18, 2016.

External links

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