Fallout 4: Automatron (PlayStation 4) Review

The survivor of the caravan attack is a robot called Ada. After watching her friends and creator mercilessly cut down by some of the Mechanist's minions, Ada begins a quest to get revenge and to stop the Mechanist from bringing the lands to their knees. This quest enlists the Sole Survivor in a trek across the wasteland trying to track down the Mechanist by taking apart some of its creations and reverse engineering them to find where their commands are originating. These creations aren't just the usual robotic enemies that plague the Commonwealth, as there are also new threats to face, including huge "Robobrains" - tin cans that are powered by the brains of human victims.

It's not just the Mechanist that's playing around modding robots, though, since the Sole Survivor can also do so, too! One of the major aspects of Fallout 4 is customising and modification, whether it be modifying weapons and armour, or even making a mark upon the Commonwealth itself by being able to build entire encampments. Well, now Automatron gives a brand new option for customisation. With Ada's guidance, the Sole Survivor can create a robot workbench that can be used in the creation and modification of new robot companions. This begins with actually modifying Ada herself but can be expanded onto good old Cogsworth, along with creating some new robots from scratch. Every robotic enemy that has been seen in the Commonwealth can be crafted, customising the chests, heads, arms and legs.

There is a mammoth amount of robot parts to hunt down and play with, allowing for some fun and original companions. Who wouldn't want a custom Mr. Handy with lightning chain guns covering their back? Each aspect of the companions can be modified, from the paint job to their weapons, to the means of traversal - legs or tank tracks or even jets to hover around. Each of these body modifications can be unlocked by finding them in the wasteland, by hunting down other robots, and salvaging parts from their remains. The real pain of robot building, though, would be the materials required: ceramic… Anyone who's spent considerable time in Fallout 4 knows the pain of tracking down this stuff and it's a shame the developer couldn't have put in a material that is less used. There is a new feature to help track down some ceramic. One of the most useful benefits of the new content is the ability to create "Eyebot Pods" at encampments. These can send out Eyebots to track down specific items, which are then periodically updated and marked on the map for collection later.

The real shame of Automatron is how very short the whole experience is. Playing through the story aspects of the game takes easily under three hours. There's more than just the story, though - there's what the DLC leaves behind to enhance the rest of the game. There's the robot workbench, new weapons and gear, new things to build and more repeatable missions. These missions are given in the post story to hunt down "rogue robots" and are a great way to track down all of the different parts for the robot workbench. However, they suffer from a common problem with all repeatable missions in the base game: repetition. It is fun at first, taking on some of the robot hunting but, like all the other repeatable quests, it quickly feels tedious.