Fallout 4: Automatron Review

When Fallout 4 released in November last year, its season pass was available to purchase despite the contents still being unknown. Months later, Bethesda outlined the plans for three DLC packs and more content in the future. The additional content meant the price of the season pass would increase. Automatron is the first part of the season pass and can be purchased separately for $9.99. The Automatron DLC consists of a handful of quests that concern a new antagonist—The Mechanist—who commands an army of robots that are killing humans across the commonwealth. With a new robot workbench, players can make their own robotic allies, use them to destroy hostiles and confront the Mechanist. Although it sounds promising, Automatron is actually quite mediocre.

The fight for the Commonwealth continues against robots

There are only a few quests in the Automatron DLC and they are generally insipid and repetitive. An initial distress call will take players into battle against robots and, once they are disposed, meet with a friendly robot named Ada who will help you locate their origin. The first real mission involves travelling to existing locations and killing the new Robobrain enemies to help locate The Mechanist’s underground facility. Not all foes are robots. A Raider group called the Rust Devils don new robotic parts for armor, although they play an inconsequential role.

Two new interiors can be explored, but apart from some robot-themed decorations they are not distinctive. The Mechanist's underground facility is overly lengthy and requires a specially-equipped robot to unlock its many ridiculous layered-doors that take forever to open. Nearly the entire DLC consists of killing strange robots and looting their bodies for robot parts that you can wear or use for crafting. Although killing was a major component in Fallout 4, Automatron has a bland narrative, limited exploration and a quest chain that is long for no good reason.

Automatron allows players to create robotic companions at a new robot workbench that can be placed in any settlement. Each robot is built using various existing components. Mixing a Protectron torso with Sentry Bot limbs is viable, as is making an Assaultron hover with Mr Handy thrusters. There are many combinations and selected parts might alter health, movement speed and carrying capacity. Most interesting are their offensive arm components, which can be anything from vice grips to nail guns. You will need to create some robots to complete the main quest, but after building a few, the appeal fades. Building robots consumes a hefty amount of resources and the good upgrades will require a mixture of Science, Blacksmith and Armorer perks. Not that you will need more than a few robots. The new robots behave as settlers and are nearly as useless. They can be taken as companions but that is where their advantage ends. With a limit of one companion, robot armies cannot be utilized across the dangerous commonwealth. One expensive robot even vanished when exploring The Mechanist’s lair and this meant creating a new, weaker robot just to access the absurd layered doors. Robots are more of a resource-sink than anything of inherent value.

Robots are now part of the dysfunctional family

If you were hoping for entertaining or large-scale robot battles, prepare for disappointment. The Mechanist sent groups of three robots to attack my settlements twice, and not once was it at the two locations that had a small robot contingent. In fact, the killer robots assaulted the only empty settlement in the whole commonwealth. Fighting robots is not much fun anyway. Some of them go nuclear on death which is unbelievably annoying when you are trying to progress through interior spaces. Nearby robot carcasses fly every which way from the explosion and are sometimes impossible to find. One even got stuck under the ground. Even on death, several robots forgot that gravity existed and propelled themselves around the room like a bouncy ball. The enemy robots are an inconsistent threat too—Scrap bots fell after a few bullets and others resisted multiple clips while being able to kill with a few melee attacks. Automatron is not difficult, but the inconsistency and explosive robots do not make for an enjoyable action component.

There is not much positive to say about Automatron but at least there are a few new items included. Players can wear new robotic armor pieces, which might be viable depending on your setup. The Assaultron helmet actually closes during battle and opens for a conversation which is neat. If you prefer power armor, there are a few additional set pieces that increase damage dealt by energy weapons. New weapons are also available, including the manually-charged Assaultron head that shoots lasers and a Tesla rifle that struggled to kill an injured mole rat. These items might not replace your existing arsenal but are reasonably good for collectors.

The latest in robotic fashion. Try not to laugh

Automatron is not really worth the time it takes to complete—just two to three hours. It has poor, repetitive quests and the experience is bland overall. The quest line is longer than many Fallout 4 quests, but there is a lack of intrigue and lasting value. Fighting robots is rarely pleasant and the difficulty is erratic. The lack of exploration diminishes the Fallout experience and there is no clever narrative to obscure that loss. Creating new robotic abominations might be fun for a little while, but there is more value in building up another settlement with your hard earned resources. At least robot creations provide the appropriate resource-sink for players who put in serious hours. The entire DLC is forgettable and Automatron is not a good beginning for the Fallout 4 downloadable content.