Fallout 4: Far Harbor (Xbox One) Review

A job from Valentine's Detective Agency brings the Sole Survivor to Far Harbor, a remote island off the coast of the Commonwealth. It starts them right into some action, with him/her arriving to the assault of a small fishing village on the coast. They ask around the town, doing odd jobs for its inhabitants, and then someone offers to take them to a safe haven for Synths, Acadia.

The map in this DLC alone is one of the biggest Bethesda has ever put out, being about a fifth of the entire game's map size. There are plenty of locations to discover, including a luxury hotel with a vault hidden inside, a National Park, an observatory, and even a submarine base (where the Sole Survivor will meet some interesting folk). It's a nice change from walking around the Commonwealth and being used to the same old sights, and provides a great way to earn some easy caps.

The DLC's story changes whether you're allied with the Brotherhood of Steel, the Institute, the Railroad, or the Minutemen. There won't be any spoilers here, because the ways the endings differ is something best discovered personally. However, one thing to keep in mind is that, no matter who the player is allied with prior to starting the DLC, the same options will always be available and the story can be played through normally.

Far Harbor has many new enemies, including Trappers, Gulpers, Fog Ghouls, Wolves, and the dreaded Fog Crawler - a force to be reckoned with - and some of the same enemies from the basic game, like Super Mutants, ghouls, and rabid dogs. In addition to these horrible foes, the Sole Survivor will also come across friends that will help them along the way. These include Harbormen, Synths (it doesn't matter if you've sided with the Brotherhood; the Synths are friendly, either way), Children of Atom, and some rich robots.

As far as the technical aspects, such as sound, sights, and gameplay go, this DLC is one of the best in the Fallout series. It introduces an entirely new soundtrack to the game, which has a sort of mysterious tone with a sea shanty feel to it, meaning it uses instruments like the accordion to make it seem more like what could be heard at, well, a harbour. The visuals are beautiful, with a drastic new contrast in scenery from the base game. We go from a mostly industrial mainland to a new, nature-focused island with water on every side.

However, there are many places with insane amounts of radiation, including the submarine base mentioned earlier. These make for a very difficult experience without either a boatload of RadAway or the ability to fast travel back and forth to a settlement with a decontamination arch, and for that, the Wasteland Workshop DLC is needed. There are at least five large locations that can deal out upwards of 20 rads/second and at least twenty smaller ones. If the rad counter goes above five, be careful, because one of those may be nearby. A recommended perk to have before starting this DLC is Aquaboy/girl, as the player will be swimming for extended periods of time.

Once the main quest is finished, there is more to do with the Far Harbor DLC, but not much. Sure, a few side-quests are available, but after that, all that is left is walking around to discover locations. There are opportunities to discover and build new settlements for friends to stay at, and a few places where there are easy caps or supplies to be found, but after everything is located and settled, the DLC is just an extension to the map. It makes up for this, though, by adding random encounters along the way to make for a different experience each time.