Fallout 4 is, at best, a really fun ride, and, at worst, a controversial shoot-and-loot game. Many old Fallout fans were unimpressed by the voiced protagonists, the few conversation options, the simplistic kill-🀅and-loot quests, and lots of other things. Other players enjoye🎀d the beautifully developed world, the excellent gunplay, and building crazy complex settlements to store their power armor.
But one thing that everyone can agree on is that the plot…doesn’t always make sense. And we’re talking about thꦍe main storyline here, not just the side missions. There are stolen kids who don’t need to be stolen, robot detectives who are defective and then aren’t again, magic newspapers that should have changed the world, and secret technology that the plot totally ignores. It’s sort of a mess, is what we’re saying.
Look, Fallout 4 is supposed to be about a broken, nonsensical, mocking world. That’s sort of the point of Fallout games. But the story still needs to thread a plot that carefully makes sense at a glance. And it would be nice if the DLC did the same thing. Here are the points where Fallout 4 that clash with the story, upend important deta꧟ils, or reinvent the Commonwealth until most quests aren’t even necessary.
It’s okay if you love Fallout. We do too and it doesn’t always have to make sense. But here are the parts that really don’t make sense…and why maybe they could be better (even if they are also awesome). Because we Fallout players deserve the best radiation-filleܫd, crazy world that we can ge♎t!
25 😼 Far Harbor Is Awesome: But They Never Explained This One Thing
Far Harbor was just the DLC shot in the arm that Fallout 4 needed. It fixed a ton of the problems that people had with the vanilla game, including making things creepier, giving you quest options based on your skill levels, cranking out a lot of new weapons, and allow🌠ing you to interact in complex ways between multiple new guilds to decide who controls the mysterious island. But the key feature of Far Harbor is the fog, which poisons you with radiation, creates Lovecraftian ꦏmonsters from the sea, and is generally terrible.
It’s been there for at least 70 years
Most of the story is devoted to fighting it or encouraging𒈔 it…and no one ever tells you what it is. All you find out is that it’s been there for at least 70 years and that it's really bad. For a DLC with so much detail, why is the most important detail never explained?
24 𝔍 Kellogg Is Trapped Inside Nick Valentine's Head And Everyone Forgets😼
Early on in the main story of F4, you end up diving into the cybernetic memories of a mercenary called Kellogg. Long story short, you work with a synth detective that everyone loves, called Nick Valentine, and experience Kellogg’s memories from being a boy to growing up and joining the institute. It’s a fun little section of traveling through someone else’s mind, but Valentine had 𒁏to be your conduit: When you are done, you can talk to Nick Valentine again and he will mutter in Kellogg’s voice about how he should have ended you. This is huge. Nick is one of the most trusted people in the game, and he’s been infected with the guy who eliminated your family? Maybe that warrants a footnote, right? But immediately after, everyone forgets it and Nick goes on being the cantankerous nice guy. Or so we assume…
23 The Ghoul Boy In A Refriger🃏ator Is Fun And Impossible
One random quest in Fallout 4 has gotten more hate than most, and we can’t really blame the befuddling players. : You come across a random refrigerator, and there’s a ghoul (zombie via radiation) boy inside who says he hid inside 🤪when the bombs fell. That was about 200 years ago, which ruins the entire story. Because ghouls꧅ aren’t totally immortal. Their brains slowly rot, they have to eat, they appear to need at least some air and water, bullets can harm them, etc.
This whole quest is just ridiculous
Bu🐽t here you have to escort a totally normal 200-year-old ghoul boy who is totally normal for a flayed monstrosity. It violates a ton of ghoul rules, and nobody even seems to care. Even his ghoul parents aren’t surprised, and…you know what, this whole quest is just ridiculous.
22 Can We Talk About Literally Every Building In ꦍThe Game?
Okay, we just mentioned how those good ole Fallout bombs dropped around 200 years ago according to long-established Fallout lore. Which is exactly why Fallout 4 doesn’t make any sense at all. Think about the first things you discover in the game as you explore the new world: Buildings with rugs, lamps, and carpet still intact. Cars still r🐽u🐷sting in driveways. Food still stored in refrigerators. Labs still functional. Literally every building in the game is this way, including skyscrapers that should have collapsed with age. None of this stuff should still exist after 200 years, but here it is, free from time and scavengers. Sure, you could say everyone used magic nuclear paint and metal, and robots took care of things, but at least half the stuff in the game still shouldn’t exist!
21 BOS Acts Nothing Like T🥀he Past BOS ﷺ
If you really want to get a long-term Fallout fan going, start talking about the Brotherhood of Steel. It’s an interesting organization spanning many games, focused on reclaiming old technology and providing a bulwark against…well, anything they don’t like. What they don’t like tends to vary, but especially in Fallout 4. The Brotherhood can be huge jerks, but in lo, e they are generally reasonable and o𓆉ften a force for stability.
Their oath is to salvage valuable technology
In 4, however, they are so bad it doesn’t even make sense. They want to destroy synths, when their oath is to salvage valuable technology. They want to destroy the Railroad, because, uh. well, they have to for the story to work. In the process, everything that makes the BOS what it is gets thrown along the radioactive wayside, and no one even complains, because sweet power armor.
20 🔥 What Could The Institute Want, Anyway?
We’re getting even more spoilery here (oh, just wait), but you can find out a bit about the Institute’s long-term goals in the game. Those white-coated scientists want to….uhh….well they sure do….it’s all about….you know what, we don’t really have a clue what the Institute wants. They claim they wish to bring stability and whatnot to the ou꧋tside world, but none of their projects help do that. They build synths, which are basically a slave race, they create super mutants for no reason at all, they develop killer robots because it’s cool and, well, that’s about it. There are no long-term goals, no big mission statement of “do this,” they just exist and go aro🥂und being vaguely evil. And let’s face it, if the Institute really did want to help the Commonwealth, they could have cured most of its problems a generation ago!
19 Evil Lovecraft Magic Is Just Totally Commonplace Someh🎉ow
Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 are a bit in love with H.P. Lovecraft, New England writer and creator of Cthulhu, plus many other eldritch horrors that have made their way into video games. Fallout 4, with its secret families and Far Harbor sea monsters (and hidden cults), is more obsessed with Lovecraft than most, which kinda breaks the story. Take , for example, it’s the most direct reference to Lovecraft in the game, a creepy mine you can delve deeper and deeper down into, uncovering a scary tale of a very occult group that was worshiping something at the bottom of the mine. You are haunted by visions as you explore downward, until you discover the worship site and, if you are thorough, the hidden, giant god-sculpture under water (with one of the most powerful weapons in the game). It’s clear this really exists, which means evil magic exists in Fallout, and no one ever realizes this.
18 🌳 The Magical Serum That Could Save♛ The World
While we are one the subject of weird stuff, let’s talk about the Cabot family. It’s your typical ageless New England dynasty with a secret father who’s possessed by ancient aliens. The father’s blood is a magical serum that stops aging and any kind of illness: Just go with it. If you choose the right ending, you get access to this blood, and find out that it makes you entirely immune to radiation for like, a really long time. And you keep getting more of it…which raises the question, why isn’t this the key to Commonwealth salvation? A small amount of it c🔯ould make everyone immune to radiation. It coul𓂃d save the entire world if you just give a vial to literally anyone in charge of anything, but you never do. World-saving secrets? Not today, Fallout citizens.
17 Spo📖ilers: Father Perishes Of...Totally ♚Curable Cancer?
Toward the end of the Fallout 4 story, you discover that your son, called Father (we know), is afflicted with cancer. Bummer. You can even get a whole passing scene with him, and if you join the Institute, you basically inherit his pos🌃ition (which also makes no sense, but we’re on a strict itinerary here).
He could take some of that sweet serum
Except, uhh, there are about a dozen ways where Father doesn’t have to perish. He could be uploaded into a synth, technology that has been around for decades. He could take some of that sweet serum we literally just mentioned, and be cured. He ﷽could use the super mutant virus to survive, just like the Institute experiments wanted. This may be one of the most nonsensical things in a game that doesn’t really pride itself on sense.
16 Synths Are An Evil Plot That Goeℱs Nowhere
Ahhh, back to the Instiꦐtute. From the outside, the synths are an evil robotic force that can take the place of literally anyone you know, and no one would even know the difference before it would be too late…you aren’t even sure if you’re a synth or not (probably not, though). But from the inside, the synth are a huge plot hole. What are they ultimately doing? Why are they taking the places of random people? How are they supposed to be recalled? How does this help gain the trust of the Commonwealth? The Institute’s answer is, “Mumble mumble, look at our pretty science.” The synths don’t have a goal. It’s probably the most advanced technology on the planet, and the Institute’s plan is to terrorize people and replace semi-important people with synths so that it looks cool when you write it all down.