Bethesda Responds to Fan Grumbling With a Heavy Dose of Violence
Come to Nuka-World and blow shit up!
As undeniably beloved as every Bethesda game is, the developer’s game add-ons have something of a rocky history. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion yielded horse armor, one of the most berated expansions in video game history. Dishonored divided players with its perspective-hopping DLC. And Fallout 4 has consistently garnered criticism for the its long run of add-ons. With Nuka-World, the final installment in Fallout 4’s list of DLC, Bethesda is sending players a very clear message.
We’ve heard your bitching, so here’s your bloodbath. Welcome to the Gauntlet.
A Hit-and-Miss Record
To date, we’ve seen five additions to the main game of Fallout 4, and they’ve been greeted with Bethesda’s usual mixture of polar opposite reactions. Where people loved the contemplative philosophy at the core of Far Harbor, the game’s building-focused DLC like Contraptions and Vault-Tec Workshop were granted less acclaim (and more than their fair share of derision).
To say that this run of DLC has been tough on Bethesda is an understatement. And, in fairness, those complaints have merit. What’s more, Bethesda seems to realize as much and they’ve geared their last DLC with player grumbles in mind.
Be the Raider
Since the release of Fallout 4, one of the biggest fan complaints has been the complete inability to play as a raider, one of the Commonwealth roving bands of murderers, thieves and cannibals. Of course, in the positivity-focused Fallout 4, that’s just not an option. At every turn, the player is forced to do the right thing no matter how much they’d love to just break shit and hurt people.
That restriction has been the source of constant fan-made threads, (like this one and this one) that bemoan the inability to be an evil scourge on the smoldering remains of Boston’s Commonwealth.
Those concerns are over.
Sweet, Bloody Conquest
With all that in mind, here’s Nuka-World, a 20-hour grind in which you subjugate a Raider gang, explore a ruined amusement park, and ultimately expand your reign of terror into the Commonwealth. It’s everything an evil prick could hope for.
Before you get to all that empire-building, though, you’ll have to get through the game’s toughest run of enemies and bosses, a four to six hour chore that will insure your gun barrel never has time to cool down. Everything from robots to ghouls to smaller versions of the Tremors worms is going to try and murder you. And, by and large, none of them are interested in sitting and talking too long before the violence begins.
You want a story? Go to Far Harbor. You want to put you killing prowess to the ultimate test? Nuka-World is a killer’s playground. And once you’ve slaked your bloodlust clearing out the park’s denizens, you can channel that social dysfunction into terrorizing the weaklings who live in the Commonwealth.
It’s the DLC Bethesda Thought We’d Want
When they gave us DLC that allowed us new options for building, we complained that there wasn’t enough story. When Bethesda released the story-driven Far Harbor, critics complained that it was boring. So, see Nuka-World as an answer to all of that.
Nuka-World is a story-light, action-heavy romp through densely packed zones designed to keep your trigger finger sore.
