The variety of areas that make Nuka World, as well as themed gear of each of them is probably the main attractive of this DLC. It keeps with what we saw in the main game when it comes to gameplay and mission mechanics, without many new things to talk about, but it will most likely be the perfect excuse that those who want to roam the Wasteland once again need.
Nuka-World has amused and frustrated us at the same time. The new setting is among the most memorable of the entire series. However being forced to be evil with no other alternatives is something that a RPG should never do.
As the final DLC, I thought I'd complete it before giving it a review, rather than just 10hrs into it as I did Far Harbour.
I struggle to understand what people expected from Bethesda for DLC on Fallout 4. Many people sharing negative feedback and general disappointment. I will state that I am somewhat of a fanboy of Fallout, I love the past few games and own every Fallout title there's been. In regards of Bethesda and their previous DLCs on older Fallouts, I think both Far Harbour and Nuka World far far surpass what Bethesda previously supplied!
Why:
Nuka World is situated North West of the Glowing Sea, a metro journey will take you directly to the new map. The map size is around the same size as Far Habour, probably about 1/4 of the size of the commonwealth. Unlike Far Harbour, which was one larger island with a few break away pieces, Nuka World is based in a valley. It was originally built as a theme-park before the bombs dropped, and the past 200+ years have left it out of power, full of ghouls and other new wildlife in the desert, but mainly full of Raiders.
It is the Raiders who are the heart of Nuka World. Split between three rival Raider gangs who have all taken refuge around the entrance part of the park (as the rest needs 'cleansing') you meet and greet after the initial Running-Man-like Gauntlet (play on Hard or Survival and this is EXTREMELY challenging!!). It's obvious from the off that all raiders are idiots and slightly annoying in personality. As Fallout characters go, they lack the depth which a few in Far Harbour have, but they're raiders, the equivalent of petty thieves and thugs in the real world, I dont think depth is important here. What is, is power and showing it. Script wise, the lone wanderer can call out lies, he can intimidate and outright put people in their places. Given my level 96 characters stats, he easily managed to intimidate any of them, but it did feel out of place with the fact I'd already completed the game as the Minuteman general. All of a sudden his squeaky clean act was replaced, but the voice acting felt a little out of place, short of being sarcastic, he often felt displaced as a Raider leader.
Overlook that though, get past it, Nuka World is about the Raiders, but its really about having a massive theme park to waste 50 more beautiful Fallout hours on.
The park has some awesome weapons, awesome armours (best looking Power armour in game, hands down!), a cocktail of new enemies, a few new robots, insects, the welcome return of Ants, and Tremor/Dune-like sand worms that bust out at your feet like molerats, often causing slight heart attacks. The new enemies are placed in certain areas of the park, each area obviously having its own theme. Upon unlocking the areas and handing them over to the radier fraction of your choice, the park is still somewhat dead. It takes a lot more than this to get the power up and running, but with this is one of the greatest bits of gameplay in Fallout4: Killing your Own Settlements.
It shouldnt be fun. Some Settlements I'd spent easily 30-40hrs designing in buildmode, huge defence buildings with sky-gardens to keep the settlers safe from attacks. On selecting (as part of the Nuka World main quest) the settlement I wanted to takeover by force, the quest giver looks up the list and then dares questions you by stating "er, boss, I've taken a look and this is one of your settlements, are you sure you want to hit it?" .. he then laughs and says that the minutemen will help defend settlements and they'll be shocked when they see their General amongst the raiders taken it down. I imagine if your settlements are lacking, if your population is like 2 or 3, if your defence sits around 20-50, then this whole process will be quick and probably dull. My settlements before starting Nuka World had a defence minimum of 200, they pretty much all have populations of 19, and some have 30+ settlers. This makes turning up with 2-3 raiders by your side to take down your own settlement, really hard, but really, REALLY fun!
Whilst the park itself has some great places within it, rides to use, fun-houses to have shoot ups in and lots of side-games to complete to 100% the DLC, as well as places outside the walls of the park, the desert as such which have swarms of insects and enemies to uncover in, the real beauty of Nuka World is re-taking the commonwealth for the Raiders. Since I'd completed the main quest, this has given a new lease of life to the settlements, and has been a really deep challenge. Again, I'm playing on the hardest setting with settlements rigged for defences and this has really turned my game upsidedown. Has a Bethesda DLC ever changed the context of the vanilla game as much as what this has? I very much doubt it. Of course, if this isn't for you then it's not for you.
Personally, I've loved Fallout4 and this was the cherry on top
It may not be the grand finale that fans of Fallout 4 have been waiting for, but Nuka World is an enjoyable slice of content all the same. With a focus on exploration, the real star of the show here is the theme park itself, which is dripping with detail and dark humour.
Automatron has a short-lived story that’s enjoyable without ever really kicking into gear, but luckily, the robot-building and other new additions to the Commonwealth save this first batch of Fallout 4 DLC from being a disappointment.
Nuka World is an enjoyable expansion with a lot of new content for Fallout 4 addicts. The Nuka Cola Theme Park is a fantastic location, which makes us regret that there a too many action-related quests and not enough roleplay and talking.
Nuka-World's fantastic new setting and cool new opportunities belies its overall lack of depth. There's a lot to do in this expansion, but not a lot of it is all that interesting. It could be worse, but it could also be a whole lot better.
I would rank this DLC right up there with Far Harbor. Although the Far Harbor story tied in with the main story I think Nuka-World was the most creative and fun DLC in the game but, it didn’t blow my socks off.
I didn't like this as much as I did Far Harbor, but it also wasn't that bad.
So, you're now able to be an "evil" character, with as much depth as you'd expect based on how Fallout 4 was. Is being a raider or helping raiders intrinsically evil? Aren't there different "degrees" of being a raider? I mean, do they all just go out and kill/pillage without question? It would've been nice if Bethesda had bothered to go into this stuff a little more, exploring the fine lines between good and evil. There's a lot of lost potential with the three raider groups in the game, as well as the structure of the main quests (basically clearing out "enemies" at various locations until the raiders are satisfied).
Kind of feel that a DLC should be better than a mod (not that the PS4 has mods yet...). Huge miss with the story. You are strongly encouraged into an rather bland evil direction. Would have been great to have seen an Yojimbo style good quest series and more involved evil quest series rather than what amounted an evil Minutemen. I really liked Far Harbor so had high hopes for this. Still I've spent money on worse things.
The game crashes a lot for me now and had some texture loading issues but I guess this will be patched out soon enough.
Well this is one way to address the complaint its impossible to be evil in the base game, make a totally incongruous DLC that doesn't have a good or middling option worth discussing and doesn't remotely mesh with the rest of the world. Mods have done a better job of allowing you to become a raider, the unique radio station for example is only available in Nuka-World as a stark representation of how far separated from the main game it actually is.
It starts off well enough, three raider factions at each others throats being held together badly by an overboss and tensions bubbling aplenty. I expected a dedicated faction system for each raider group, political and practical quests ie from handling negotiations and deciding who to support the most to out and out violence. I wanted to slowly get to know the groups as I earned their trust and they mine before the Act II drama kicked in. I had expected to be able to shape the park how I wanted it, to learn how to manipulate each raider faction by what it held dear (ie money, strength etc) and realise they too had been manipulating me in plot twists along the way. I wanted to be forced to choose, one faction would have to go once I was well established as the situation was too unstable ie rumours of a planned coup make their way up and a show of raider esque strength is required as I have no idea who was planning it I would have to pick a faction to make an example of however I so chose, force their submission by bringing the other two factions to their doorstep (making them permanently dislike me and lock off all but main quests), sneak in and kill their leader then either sneak out again and lean on whoever takes over or blast their leader out in the open as a show of strength and their faction disposition would define their reaction ie the Pack would accept me as 'alpha', I'd have to kill all the disciples due to their loyalty. I could even turn their area into a visual reminder, order the other two factions to crucify and otherwise grotesquely make examples of them - all in the day of a raider.
What I got was a ten minute introduction to the factions where they showed they had a single trait. They were literally parodies of good storytelling. "We like money" "We like strength" "We are slightly mad" (all things raiders obviously like because they are raiders) then the game demanded I plop down flags for factions I have no investment in. After quicksaving and taking the good option to deter my frustration (that option ****, it makes the DLC like twenty minutes long and you can't even control the rest of the park afterwards for no apparent reason) I set about thinking well search and clear isn't a bad start, I suppose I would need to show them I'm actually capable before getting involved in the politics or the higher end goals and controlling the park would be a good first step as a goodwill gesture. Once I'd done that the game replied "Thanks now piss off, go talk to somebody if you want to change the aesthetics of commonwealth settlements. Bye". I felt cheated. It was like seeing half an inaccessible map on the Pitt DLC, or the Legion lands in FNV that were inaccessible making them a rubbish choice (as nearly every trader was in a NCR controlled settlement) except there are no signs they rushed it, rather it seems phoned in.
Worst of all though it still didn't make you feel evil. Not only did it not match up to your actions in the commonwealth where the worst you can be is a slightly condescending jackass, there is nothing inherently evil about what you do. You rock up, clear a bunch of enemies and leave. Even establishing the settlements isn't that evil, shooting innocents is bad for sure but it's simply not raider levels of evil. Compare to say fallout 3 where within six hours I had blown up a town for money, joined a group of slavers and sold them a bunch of people including a child who had just lost their parents, killed and burned all the caravans and said the worst things imaginable to every person in existence including telling a town besieged by super mutants they were all going to die and I didn't remotely care because I could loot their corpses afterwards. I then cut out the middle man by killing them and taking all their stuff. Fifteen minutes in I murdered a random woman in a house because she had a lot of bottle caps on her. FNV was equally varied, I was a murderous great khan drug runner who signed up with the legion and murdered and maimed NCR, their people and their settlements and displaced/butchered tribes in honest hearts because I could. Good and evil comes from excellent world building, shades of grey and no predisposition to a certain solution. Fallout 4 completely lost this element, it fails to build a world and let you tell your story - rather it tries to tell a story it wants and pretend to let you choose which comes off incredibly shallow.
It gets its solitary points for awesome armor, weapons and enemy/environmental design.
SummaryTake a trip to Nuka-World, a vast amusement park now a lawless city of Raiders. Explore an all-new region with an open wasteland and park zones like Safari Adventure, Dry Rock Gulch, Kiddie Kingdom and the Galactic Zone. Nuka-World features new quests, Raiders, weapons, creatures and more. Enjoy the ride!