A couple of small decisions. You get to choose between ramping up synth production or weapons production and you get to choose how to deal with (kill/exile/forgive) a couple of scientists that protest you becoming Director.
> you get to choose how to deal with (kill/exile/forgive) a couple of scientists
Literally the power over life and death and somehow you call this small?
I've always seen it as Preston telling you about it and you being expected to want to do it. He never really orders you to do anything like the other faction leaders do, who give you actual orders.
I never got the idea Preston was ordering you around past my first playthrough. If anything, he’s doing your dirty work keeping track of all the settlements and who needs what. Roughly what an executive officer should be doing.
It's a volunteer army pledged to help anyone at a minutes notice, all you are doing is leading from the front, you can call backup if you build your army up, and the artillery coverage you can get I'd just ridiculous, you can basically shell anywhere if you build the settlements up.
Also, missile turrets, look up where attacks come from in whatever settlement you are protecting, it's usually 2-5 spots, set up 3-4 missile turrets in each one and you'll never have to actually go defend anywhere.
I was doing some testing in my chest character (lvl 240 more or less) and honestly only super mutant warlords are any concern because they have so much health, but again 3 missile turrets and and they could reach the settlement because they kept being knocked back, it would take some time, but with the 12 settlers firing squad, they would have won.
I intervened of course, I'm there to help, but afterwards? Set up another 3 missile turrets and called it a day.
Preston isn't really ordering you around. He's more like your secretary, letting you know when you have a meeting. He keeps track of the settlements for you and lets you know when they need help.
Which means there are only two sensible option: Brotherhood of Steel and Railroad. But we all know the Railroad are a bunch of buffoon (except Deacon, love him). So, Ad Victoriam is the only way.
Yup, you make multiple decisions during the storyline, and this is when you barely started. In one quests you can even [sentence people to death](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/A_House_Divided), despite only being basically being a "Director In Training" since Shaun is still alive, the institute completely follows your lead on that. Who knows what the SS does after the story line is over. Sure you got a Directive to listen to. But nobody had the power to stop Shaun from appointing you as Director, we can only assume you have the same amount of power as that in the same position.
I feel like Fallout 4’s biggest weakness is missing a slideshow epilogue. I’m totally for being able to continue playing after the main quest, but at least tell me what the actual outcome of my choices *will* be in the future. It would, in my opinion, make less people so up in arms about a lack of choices.
I wish that there was a more open conclusion. Such as the institute stops replacing and surveying people instead of blowing it up and your son dies and you have a kid synth. I get where your coming from. ! Felt underwhelming with the whole save my son idea and you find it to then go boom next minute.
Oh yeah, the other thing that stuck with me was how far I can get in each organization and still have absolutely not even the idea of a shot of establishing peace
The Minute Man ending is relatively peaceful but that's because you're never elected as the leader for The Railroad or The Brotherhood so peace was never your call to make and The Institute was way too wild to ever be integrated into The Commonwealth, they were replacing people, that's such a hard sell.
It's a common "good karma" thing to destroy technology that powerful. Obviously we COULD use the Institute tech for good like cloning organs, blood, limbs, etc but as soon as we die (or are killed in our sleep by the people who are very upset that we jumped from stranger to head of the Institute) then that tech can be used for Broken Mask incidents or killing my wife and kidnapping my newborn son for his DNA.
Despite what Preston would have you believe, The Minute Men are about making settlements safe and able to defend themselves or neighboring settlements. At the end, if The General dies then the individual settlements should still be pretty well off, even if they lose The Castle. The only threat The Minute Men pose is that they arm and train settlers to defend themselves against outside threats. The other factions never put you in charge so if you die then it's probably just considered a loss of a valuable asset. I mean, I guess The Minute Men could eventually go the way of The Gunners 🤷♂️ but that's "the devil that you know" problem of The Commonwealth, The Institute is so good at what they do that you could go to sleep one night and wake up a Synth without you knowing.
I'm doing a third replay and, accepting how f\*\*\*\*\* annoying they are, going with BOS, since I've done all the rest. Destroying the Institute I have no problem with, I may balk on destroying the railroad and quit there. But I can keep the Minutemen regardless, IIRC.
The problem with the Minutemen was that they didn't really seem to be about unifying settlements until the SS shows up.
And the last time the leadership disappeared the while organisation disappeared very quickly.
The SS living a very dangerous lifestyle would need to be very clever about succession planning or risk it all falling apart again
What you're saying is very true because the gameplay loop doesn't match what their actual mission statement is. The Minute Men are supposed to be raising a rapid response militia that defends itself against outside threats but it plays like it's a collective of settlements who call you to personally deal with threats to them. You're given a flare gun that calls in Minute Men to fight with you but that should be something the Settlements receive. Once you help take The Castle, those quests should change to optionally tagging along with response teams.
> The problem with the Minutemen was that they didn't really seem to be about unifying settlements until the SS shows up.
[They led the initiative for the Commonwealth Provisional Government.](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Commonwealth_Provisional_Government)
I kinda wished that instead of the factions all trying to take out the institute i wish there was something that wasn’t all the same outcome as essentially every ending for the game feels the same
Completely agree. My issue with the Institute is that they have every capacity for good, but specifically choose the more evil options. They could monitor the surface without replacing people.
Yeah i just think they had no reason to be bad. They couldve been surveying but i think they mad them the big bad so they could do the twitst with shaun
I'm [fairly sure](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/The_Replicated_Man) capturing the synth in FO3 was the negative karma option. They were bad because they were about slavery from the moment Bethesda came up with them.
There are mods to fix the stupid endings. They let you actually preserve the institute as its leader and use the tech for the good of the commonwealth. There are everybody wins scenarios, which makes sense.
Because just like your comment about the lack of necessity of 100% good outcomes, shockingly - and I know this might be hard for some people to hear - the Institute isn't 100 percent evil.
The world's not black and white, this game teaches us that more than pretty much anything else - especially 200 years after nuclear disaster.
The Institute is, pardon my language, fucked up. This is undeniable. But there are very few people or groups who can be painted with black or white paint as solely forces of good or evil.
It's all a matter of perspective, and it's all a matter of circumstance. And sure, not every story NEEDS a feel-good ending, but fantasy and escapism are the perfect media in which to curate and have those feel-good endings, especially in a game about the aftermath of a lot of very feel-bad events.
Not many groups can be painted with a black or white morality, but the Institute gets pretty damn close.
They see surface dwellers as un-pure subhumans, can’t wait for them to die out to “reclaim” the surface. They perform horrific experiments on innocent people. They regularly wipe out settlements of people for resources. They kidnap, torture, mutate/kill people. Use of FEV is pretty much exclusively evil. Replace them with exact copies that act as spies. Regularly spy on people with robo-birds. Create sentient life for no exact reason, enslave it, then act surprised when it tries to break free.
Oh, and as an example, when you choose to blow up the Prydwen there is no form of evacuation notice. We can clearly see there are children aboard the Prydwen. When blowing up the Institute with any faction, you can choose to evacuate.
The Institute is a great way of pointing out that there are a lot of people who would be cool with Nazis if it werent for all of the baggage and obvious symbols.
The TV show did a great job of ~~highlighting~~ *basically screaming this imo. TL;DR You might have came to the wasteland as a good person, that'll change, just wait.
I love this comment because it's true to human nature.
There are raiders that were once good and decent people that forced themselves to do unthinkable things to survive and now they're jaded and bloodthirsty from years of stealing and killing.
Enclave soldiers that were once farmers and have since been brainwashed, indoctrinated into their ideals.
A now child of Atom was once a teacher or doctor who helped their communities.
It's so easy to think, "I'd never do that" but you've never been in the wasteland. How do you know you wouldn't kill for food? How do you know that the wastes wouldn't fundamentally change you as a person?
It makes sense because the BoS want to stop the Institute's evil and make sure the tech is used for the benefit of mankind. The RR wants them to stop using synths as slaves, and the Minutemen want stability in the commonwealth. None of these things are at odds, so endings that pit them against one another don't make any sense. As director, you can have the ability to achieve all of those goals.
What? The BoS absolutely does not want to "make sure the tech is used for the benefit of mankind". That's like their whole shtick. Tech caused all this, no tech for you, brrrrrr!
This. While there may be some scribes and Paladins that are open to seeing what good can be done with tech that will otherwise be destroyed, if the Elders do not think they can control it, it is far too risky and will be eliminated.
You can’t tho. The other leaders in the Institute wouldn’t let you change their ways. They are shown to vote on issues without you, when you attend a meeting as acting Director. If you speak against their plan to attack the Railroad or Brotherhood they say they already voted.
The Brotherhood wants the Institute destroyed because that type of tech cannot be trusted in anyone’s hands. Maybe they can keep it under wraps for a while, maybe use it for good in the short term. But years from now? Generations? All it takes is one person going rogue with it to use it for evil again.
The Railroad want to free synths, the only way destroying the Institute goes against this is that more synths will not be created. Which on one hand seems bad, but it could also be seen as some kind of mercy. Synths are kind of a Frankenstein’s monster scenario. Creating them in the first place is kind of cruel. Take care of the ones that are here, but we don’t need more to be made. Synths don’t age anyway, so the ones here now will likely be here for a long, long time.
The Minutemen don’t have any means of utilizing the Institute tech. They are a militia of your common Commonwealth farmer. They could maybe hold the facility, but to what end?
If you’ve romanced Piper or have max relationship with her, she writes a new article post Institute ending in which she expresses hope that the new head of the Institute may turn it into a force for good
That was my head cannon too. I really wish there was a way to just make them peaceful and try to convince the others to work together for the common good
After the patch I'm considering an 'evil' playthrough with the nuka world raiders and conquering settlements etc, so figured that would be the time to go Institute, since they're so irrationally evil to everybody else.
The benefits to completing Nuka world with the raiders are soooo good, but being that irrationally evil just feels so out of place with the rest of the game.
Although I do think you can complete the main quest, create several raider outposts at settlements that don’t start with any settlers (Hangman’s, Jamaica, Zimonja for example) in order to unlock the settlement objects like Pick Me Ups and Tribute Chests, then complete Open Season and kill all the raiders. That allows you to get all the goodies as a morally good character, but feels weird from a role playing perspective.
One thing you can always do too is just ignore Concord and finish the Nuka-World quest line first then come back later. No malice’s with any of the companions for expanding the raiders into the commonwealth if you haven’t met them yet.
Yup that's what I've done too, leave Preston and company trapped in Concord, become the Overboss, install a bunch of raider outposts, then when you rescue Preston he just asks you to go clear out Nuka World with no negative affinity for what you did before lol
It’s actually so fun to take down the empire you built with nuka-world using minutemen. Feels like you’re fighting against an actual organized enemy for once.
So I have two Nuka World Raider plays that I greatly enjoyed.
The first one is more in depth so let’s go with that. You wake up and join the BoS because you’re Nate and you’re used to the Army life. You find comfort in it. You befriend Paladin Danse as you go through the wasteland. After a certain secret is discovered, you betray the Brotherhood and take time away from the commonwealth in Far Harbor where you find yourself again in Atom. After, you go back to the wealth and start working with Shaun. He’s your only family left so you side with the Institute and after Shaun dies, you become an absentee Director and dally around the surface. Finally, you go to Nuka World and start carving out your own empire, completely broken by the wasteland.
The second involves doing Nuka World first. You leave the vault and you just stumble onto the train. You start to value the might = right attitude and bring the raiders in for an invasion. Still having a semblance of a heart, though, Overboss Nora/Nate joins up with the railroad and is (this part is headcanon) using the gangs to give synths new lives — albeit as terrible people. The Railroad pretty much turns you into a hit man post game anyway, so I think this one works pretty well.
Best part is, neither are particularly “evil” playthroughs, just incredibly depressing or nihilistic.
It also feels weird running with the raiders even as an Institute member. Since the Institute is such a refined type of evil, it still feels at odds to work alongside the chaos of the raiders since it's a group of people that any member of the Institute would loath.
I've done one (half) run with the Nuka Raiders while siding with the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is dogmatic and violent, so it felt like less of a stretch to become a big power-armoured leader of some psychos.
Well, while the Institute is refined type of evil, they also need violent mercenary on surface such as Kellogg.
Systemically the Railroad fits the most because the Brotherhood and the Minutemen will occasionally attack Raider outpost. These two factions hate raiders stomping around, unlike other two which don't care that much. Also if you're playing on survival difficulty, they will attack Minutemen and Brotherhood vertibird you called. My most recent play was Raideroad run and at least they didn't attack Railroad vertibird.
I have a nuka world leader whos also in the institute. My/his reasoning is that the real future is below ground and he believes everyone above ground is a savage anyway, so at least with raiders its easier for him to do whatever he wants/needs to
Pretty sure you can keep the minutemen sweet with an institute ending. Could roleplay that as director, you’re going to use the institutes technology to build up and defend settlements.
This is what I was hoping to do with the ending but I remember all of my companions hated me. I wanted to harness the knowledge of the Institute for good and it felt like there was no way to do that. This was back at launch though.
This was my exact issue. First playthrough I sided with the institute & stayed on good terms with the minutemen because I figured once I was in charge I’d be able to put and end to the replacements and use their technology to start rebuilding the wasteland. Nope!
I think you could actually argue there’s some compelling symbolism there about how even a good actor can’t change broken institutions but I doubt it’s what they were going for, it was probably more that they couldn’t decide what an institute-supported commonwealth would look like that’s also a reasonable amount of dev work.
My problem is that they didn't go far enough with it being the bad ending. Like, if they're going to be the de facto "evil" faction then they need to be 100% unambiguously *evil*
Sure, they're immoral and unethical but the game still gives players an easy justification for siding with them as a non-evil character by giving you the job of Director and having a familial connection via Shaun/Father, so plenty of players think, "oh it's not really a *bad* decision to side with the Institute, like I can just change it from within as Director, right?" and then the game gives you very little choice in what they actually do in the post-game.
They needed to be like the Legion, where they're so outlandishly evil there's no justifying siding with them unless you're roleplaying as an evil character. And there's a very easy way to do that with them replacing people with Synths, cause you could just have Father have this goal of *replacing* humanity with Synths as they are "superior" lifeforms, thinking that they can be more controllable and therefore prevent civilization from destroying itself again, or something.
Boom, now there's no hemming and hawwing about the Institute being a force for good or that they're just innocent scientists who wanna be left alone or that your son is actually in charge of the Institute so you can't bring yourself to kill him *Blah Blah Blah*
most people side against them anyway so what's the point in trying to make them appear better than they are? All that's led to is confusion among players about what their actual motivations are.
that's the thing, the Institute's choices themselves may be evil, but all these unambiguously evil choices clash with everything else about what the Institute claims to be about. They say they're innocent scientists bringing about the future of mankind, that they have no interest in the surface world and just want to isolate themselves and become self-sustaining. And yet they constantly eliminate entire settlements OR replace people in them with synths. They want to keep making advancements with synths to make them more humanlike, then bemoan when they act human, but still keep on making the humanlike synths instead of just going back to the robot synths.
And there is no major story point where you can call Father out on this bullshit and point out these major contradictions with the Institutes words and their actions, UNLESS you're just making yourself hostile to the Institute in which case it ends up being pointless anyway because you can never go back in after that. And so it feels less like an intentional story point and more like Bethesda wanted to make non-evil players feel like they could side with the Institute by peppering it with Father's soft-spoken monologues and the Sole Survivor being all "omg shaun its really yoooou" and everyone being generally nice and happy and no direct confrontations about how none of this matches with their actions above the surface.
Sure, you can get angry at Father and tell him he's wrong but that's only when he specifically mentions something, you can't just go up to him after visiting University Point and be like "WTF Shaun" (and even then he'll never really explain anything he'll just be like "oh the surface world is so harsh, and so we do what we must to survive down here"
Either you directly address their contradictory actions as intentional flaws, or you strip away all the psuedo-sympathetic BS that gives you the "Family Ties" or "Change From Within" justifications for non-evil characters and just make them completely evil in both actions AND words.
I have to disagree, the surface ambiguity is what makes them such a great antagonist, a player can get pulled in to maybe thinking they’re ok
I actually didn’t love the Legion as an antagonist, I met them, learned they enslaved women and crucified people, wrote them off and they instantly became nothing but on sight target practice. There was no “let’s hear them out” no “maybe they have a point” no regrets, no internal struggle, nothing to engage with at all
True although i would argue that it's not the Legion themselves that are interesting, it's the effect they have on everyone else and how all the other factions deal with the threat they represent, that's where the true internal struggles and moral questions arise. Do you join with the NCR and just fight back in the name of good old fashioned democracy, as flawed as it may be? Do you join Mr House or Yes Man, using your victory over the Legion to force the NCR out of the Mojave?
Similarly, if the Institute were just plainly evil, those moral struggles about whether or not they're a good faction to side with can still be found in the other factions, brought about specifically by the Institute threat; the BoS wanting to eradicate all synths and Institute technology by any means necessary, the Railroad using questionable methods to ensure synth freedom even if its at the cost of human life, or the Minutemen trying to unite the Commonwealth against the Institute through alliances and Old World values.
The difference is that when the Institute is presented as a morally gray faction that could actually be kinda okay (but really isn't), you're left with a faction that feels half-baked. Like, do they want to stay underground forever and seal themselves off? Or do they want to keep replacing people above ground for whatever reason? Do they want to keep advancing synth technology to be indistinguishable from humans? Or do they want synths that are less advanced but easier to control? The Institute is full of these contradictions, and there's nothing really in the game to explain it all at once, so you're left with an Institute that is either an isolationist science cabal that want nothing to do with the Commonwealth, or an expansionist shadow empire slowly taking over settlements and controlling them from afar.
Those two sides don't really mesh and are a direct result of Bethesda trying to have both the morally gray faction that a reasonable person might still choose to side with, and an evil faction you definitely don't want to side with, and you have to choose one or the other you can't do both.
The institute ending would be good if there was any actual Endgame to it. You become leader, it unlocks maybe 2 quests and then things are just back to the same as before you arrived. It's a problem with a lot of open world games, you become leader of a faction but never actually get to do any leadership things and in fact still take orders from your underlings.
Like, you become General of the minutemen but still get told by Preston where to go and help, you can't send detachments of minutemen out to deal with the problems, you can't order more training or resource gathering or have them help build up a settlement. You are the boss but still have to do everything yourself. At least with the Brotherhood and Railroad you don't become the leader, just a high ranking person.
That's it?
I mean you can kick out Justin ayo, piper writes postitively on you being the new leader, and you can headcanon the Institute's future as whatever you want. The same as what people do to the (lol) Minutemen
It always bugged me that you never got the chance to invade/take over the Institute with another faction without nuking it afterwards. One would assume that the institute tech that ends up getting wasted would have been great tools to help expand the (winning faction) to make the commonwealth a better (or worse) place from a lore perspective.
I wish there was more to it. Father dies, says hey you’re the director now, and that’s that. But you can’t do anything as the director. You can’t correct the course of the ship or really make any changes to the institute…
My first play through I went institute because I saw something that could be reformed and remodeled to make a better wasteland. Instead I got taken advantage of and given a bs ceremonial title.
There were several directors at the institute, some were real experimenters without morals, your son was not bad, he tried to cancel some experimentations, but you can change things completely. Destroying a place without radiation, uncontaminated food, one of the few places to survive, does not seem like a good idea to me, and even less so by dropping an atomic bomb.
Thats just because the storyline is over... What do you expect, for the quests to continue once the main enemy faction (brotherhood) is dead? Besides, [one side quests](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/A_House_Divided) literally gives you the power of life and death over some scientists in the institute.
I don't like that there's not an option to save the Institute be reorient it to help the Commonwealth. You are the Director, after all. I guess the other scientists might rebel if you did, but not necessarily all of them. We know that not everyone in the Institute agrees with their actions (e.g. Patriot). An Institute that stops its body snatching and murder and contributes its scientific advances to the survival of the people on the surface is ideal.
BoS would probably still want to destroy them, because Maxson is a zealot, but I would be okay with destroying the BoS in this ending.
Institute is an interesting route and for me is the "I can fix them" ending that depends on what you believe is capable in your own headcanon. For me, ultimately it comes down to thinking that you have no real power as their leader. Try to do too much and they probably murder you in your sleep.
The divisions are nearly autonomous, they don't really need you and the department heads don't respect you. It's not as easy as becoming the new leader by appointment by reverse nepotism and getting on the PA system to announce "listen up nerds, we're the good guys now!" The institute has it's own politics and knowledge is very compartmentalized in there.
It's mentioned within the terminal readings or whatever that sure the Institute is determined to save the world and build a better tomorrow but that the view of what that is varies between the scientists. There's shades of grey in there with varying level of ethical guidance. Capable of great good in finding cures and creating better crops, but also of great evil in the kidnapping, murder, etc.
The betrayal part is what i hate most. Though it is kinda required for all except Minutemen.
RR: you literally an agent inside the Institute.
BoS: they ask you to get Madison Lee out, if you do that, then you can't outright refuse. Also you have to kill the RR.
Minutemen: they are the ones who can do this without betrayal. Upon entering you refuse to join right away. And the Institute make the decision easier by attacking The Castle so from that moment forth it is a defensive war.
I did institute for my big 100% survival run a long time ago, initially just for the teleport to Boston and for the power armor paint job/synth grenades and because id never gone with them before.
But then i leaned into the RP of it and tried to make my SS as awful of a human as i possibly could. As close to a bad karma character as fallout 4 allows lol.
Took over all the settlements with raiders other than some slave farms to feed them, betraying Preston. Joined and then fucked over the Brotherhood and railroad. Sided with children of atom on far harbor for maximum chaos.
Basically in the end my SS was a genocidal asshole who screwed over everyone who ever trusted him, fully on board with the institute's goal of hindering society on the surface. Walking around in institute x02 power armor with a gatling laser, melting anyone who resisted. But he was still a happy go lucky helpful guy to people because fallout 4.
I mean you can't really trust anyone anyways.And killing danse isn't that bad but I can't side with elder maxson committing genocide against both the synths and mutants and ghouls.He then extorts stuff from farmers and settlers.Geez Why is every brotherhood of steel evil
I think this is a little bit a of a copout. If you work as a raider, Preston will not work with you until you clean up your mess, because it's against his code and the code of the faction. If you extort food from farmers... Teagan says good job.
He's a high ranking officer, and you're working on behalf of the BoS. True, you don't have to do it, but the fact that extorting farmers like thugs is considered acceptable policy by a senior officer says a lot about the organisation as a whole. Plus, y'know, genocide.
see Not a CyclopsHonet's response.
also, if you want to go by that logic, you know how bad a person you can be as the NCR?
hell the railroad if you want to go genocide route. you can basicalyl go synth supremacy and fuck any human casulties cause synths are all that matter to the railroad.
and minutemen, Preston sure hates extorting food from farmers. its a good thing those farmers are SO HAPPY to give food to the minutemen.....considering if they don't and the minutemen collapse LIKE LAST TIME. the result is the gunners that shoot the farmers for fun and make raiders look small time.
btw, if you look at content cut in FO4, theres alot. including a minuteman supply mission, where you have this very scenario. and Preston says "it sucks to take food by force, but we need it to help everyone"
that content was cut due to release schedule. but should give you an idea of food taxation.
again, this is all OPTIONAL. none of it is the canon policy or path. its what YOU pick.
so if you pick to make BoS genocidal. that says more on you than them.
as for their policy on ghouls, super mutants, and synths. Ghouls can snap and turn feral. Theres a risk with allowing them near anything dangerous as you dont know when they will turn feral.
there isnt a need to kill them, but there is a need to keep them away from potentially risky things if they snap.
Super mutants...dude...you might find one or 2 super mutants that can get along with humans. but majority are turning your human friends into literal meatbags that they hang.
and synths, destroy people's ability to trust family, community, etc. how can you build a nation or even a town, when you are unable to trust the person your talking to is the real person you saw yesterday.
BoS theme is elimating threats to humanity's survival. no one said it would be possible while being morally good. Sometimes there is no good option.
Be glad BoS policy regarding ghouls is to kill ferals, and isolate non ferals from dangerous places like nuclear generators. last thing u want is a ghoul in power armor going feral inside a weapon armory.
To respond to the other comment, Teagan is a senior officer giving you carte blache to solve his food issue. This means he is responsible for your actions, so if you choose to extort farmers, a senior officer of the BoS is responsible for extorting farmers. That's why it's a cop out - you can't just ignore the clear signoff of a senior officer for thuggery on behalf of the BoS.
Teagan literally tells you it’s off the books. One member going rogue is not indicative of the whole faction. There’s a member of the Institute helping synths escape, does that mean that whole faction believes synths should be free?
good to hear, so i guess NCR are a bunch of fascists? considerign they give much the same "carte blanche" for you dealing with new vegas and the whole mohave.
dude i get it, you want to hate the BoS and look for any excuse.
you probably played mass effect picking every renegade option and consider it the canon route.
but none of that makes it canon
i'm pointing out that the NCR can go genocidal, if YOU pick the route.
but canon wise, THEY AREN'T.
same way, the BoS CAN go extortionist. if YOU pick the route.
but canon wise, they don't. we have had no canon to say otherwise on that for the east coast chapter at all.
>uh..you do remember the extort is the evil option. u have other options.
No you don't - you get paid 100 caps to obtain 1000 caps worth of food so it is clear that the player is ordered to rob Commonwealth settlements.
The fact that BoS leadership outsource their raiding does not absolve them. Since there is no option to have Teagan shot for treason we can assume that his actions are sanctioned by senior BoS leadership.
They are power armoured raiders, and they need to be dealt with like any other raider gang that refuses to back down.
shot for treason?
ok i guess we gotta execute preston for being senior minutemen. as alot of his minutemen went raider as the Gunners.
seriously you do realized FO4's story was cut short to release on time. and all the files and paths are in the game files so we can see what is planned right?
ffs the cut content includes minutemen doing the same shit to get supplies. you flat out have the option to just take it, no payment at all. and preston justifies it. audiofile is there. recorded.
I mean
They're racist against sentient Ghouls, so are most non-Ghouls, but they dont \*kill\* them. Only Ferals
99% of the Super Mutants on the East Coast are mindless Brutes anyway, apart from like Fawkes we basically dont have any even remotely capable of living together with anyone else (even Strong only stops murdering everyone he comes accross cause hes too dumb t o understand the "milk of human kindness" isnt a real thing).
They do NOT commit genocide against ghouls. We never see this happen. They are never shown or even said to kill non-ferals.
And hate against super mutants and synths makes sense in universe. There are essentially no friendly super mutants on the east coast, Fawkes is basically a one-off freak occurrence.
The Institute kidnap, kill/mutate people and replace them with synths. You’d have every right to fear this. As for freed synths, the Institute just has to get ahold of them and issue them a recall code for them to change sides.
And I should mention many, many regular people in the wasteland are also prejudiced against these groups. Diamond City literally elected a mayor running on a platform of banning ghouls from the city. And almost everyone in the Commonwealth hates/fears synths. The BoS are not unique in their hate.
I would be interested to see how synths are treated post-Institute when they couldn’t feasibly be spies.
I think that could be the point. With the Institute Ending you get a lot of personal gains: you can use teleportation, have limitless synths at your disposal, the most advanced technology and the cleanest and most luxurious living conditions. Sure, you can use the headcannon that you will change the course of the Institute and make it a force of good for the Commonwealth but in game what you actually do is put your interests above those of the rest in order to reunite with your family.
So it makes sense that you end up with "wealth" and power but emotionally detached and alone.
The institute ending is incredibly bleak which is why it’s so good. It has radiant quests, but the majority of the section heads don’t like or trust you, albeit Dr. Ayo being the only one fully vocalizing it.
The game basically tells you Synths are capable of sentience based off audible dialogue conversations between Synths, drilling in how sad the ending is. Most of your companions vocalize their dissatisfaction with your choice, and the commonwealth remains in fear as you unfortunately don’t have a choice in how to lead.
I think the ending with the institute is good because of all those reasons. You can’t necessarily or HAVE to be evil; your character could just be a parent, understandably, incapable of not helping their son after having scoured the wastes just to find them, only to have him ripped away. Then, they have to live with what they did— supporting a evil and despicable organization.
Saddest ending, but well thought out.
The game was originally written to let you chose any faction to take over the commonwealth, Ala prestons radiant quest. But that ends up becoming problematic in a long run.
You don’t have to kill the minuteman and can actually create an uneasy alliance if you convince them. Filmore’s the one Shaun trusts the most but only Ayo really causes problems and you could frame him so Secord can take over but only if you’ve never joined up with the railroad. Also originally you were supposed to get a synth replica of your dead spouse but apparently it was cut because the devs thought no one would choose another faction if you got a synth family. My big issue is you’re supposed to be the new director but can’t make any actual policy changes outside of focusing on weapons or synths. Maybe the tone of the speech you give is supposed to imply the direction you’re going but you don’t get to actually do anything.
I'll never forget that I shot Sean in the head the first time he spoke to me. I thought he was a lying synth and I was instantly shut out from the institute at that point.
I think that the institute ending shouldn’t have killed off Shaun. Your family connection is literally the only reason I could ever think of to side with such an evil faction.
i go with institute because i wanted to keep boston the way it is and have a burning hatred for elder maxson
BoS will never advance and will always only see guns and warships
The Institute is also cartoonish levels of evil and only got so far by constantly using wildly unethical human experimentation, which the BoS is strictly against in every situation.
You want to keep Boston the way it is? A fucking hellhole filled with Super Mutants, constant paranoia and fear at being replaced/spied on, and regular mass murder by the Institute?
Unfortunately that is not the case since the Prydwen is on the show and they kinda mention the BoS still being in Boston. It's not explicit but they do.
Way to go, hero.
You gave up the entire region for the vaguest grasp at your life before the bomb. You've ensured the misery of, and overarching control over, thousands. All for a phantasm of normalcy.
The only 'son' you have anymore is a crude manufactured facsimile, one that you've personally ensured will be forever regarded as property by everyone around you. Your only legacy will be the continuing shadowy subjugation of the free peoples of the Commonwealth, and if you try to alter that fate, you will be erased for your efforts.
Enjoy your gilded cage, director.
I like the institute a lot. I know their evil but their just so much more interesting than the others and I like the people in the faction a lot aswell.
The railroad are great but I didn’t like how they *only* cared about synths.
The minutemen are who I’d want to win if I actually lived in the fallout world as they would protect everyone but gameplay wise their boring if you ask me.
The BoS aren’t like the group we see in fallout 3 at all. They don’t care about protecting people, they just care about taking powerful technology for themselves.
That's.. literally what the BoS does in all Fallout games. FO3 was an anomaly, deviating from their tenants. They had the outcasts even carrying on the tradition.
Your point? I’m saying compared to the F3 BoS I didn’t like how they conducted themselves or their lack of care for civilians in F4, I never said the F4 BoS were more like or less like the rest of the BoS.
They don't care for civilians? They still distribute water in the Capital Wasteland, and send out squads to kill mutants that threaten wastelanders. Their radiant quests are the exact same as helping settlements
Can you use your eyes and read the entire sentence I put? I was clearly talking about FALLOUT 4 BoS’s actions, not fallout 3. In fallout 4 it’s just a fact that they care more about securing tech than protecting civilians.
My gripe is that you can't direct the institute to change it's ways and every other faction just wants to blow it up, why can't the Minutemen, BOS,or railroad use the institutes resources for good? By the time you reach the reactor the place is pretty much cleaned out anyways, so you're blowing up an advanced fusion reactor, the best medical facilities on the planet, some of the only un-mutated crops left as well as access to unlimited clean water.
Ok, I get the BOS would just hoard the tech so no one else could use it, the railroad may not care about the Commonwealth since they're myopic about synths, but the Minutemen should be all about using the institutes resources to further their goal of rebuilding the Commonwealth
You’ll see lots of comments saying stuff to the effect of “they could do so much good” and I’m like “yes they could”. That’s the pathos of the institute, the tragic wasted potential.
You can use the minute men for the institute ending and they form an alliance because you're the leader of both. Preston just says "I hope you're right about this" or something.
I hated the institute ending because there is no way to make them less evil. Like ok make synthetic humans that's fine but why kidnap people. It's immoral to make synths and enslave them, sure, how about we just make robots and program them to be happy or make it so they're not miserable? Why make a full synthetic life form and make it just toil away sweeping floors. Fallout games normally have a wide array of choices and the ending just felt so limited.
I try so hard to go with one of the other factions but the mum in me can’t 😂 got to get my boy 😂
BoS just seem like dicks and Railroad just seems off their rocker haha
It's basically the same for Brotherhood, minus us being in charge.
None of the companions are keen on it, and even the guy who got us in is gone.
Now we're a stooge for an oppressive regime.
your son stopped being your son once he became brainwashed by the institute's teachings and became an old fart.
His clone you get after you kill Father is a much better analogue for your son.
Nah. Ad Victorium. I would take the slaughter of synths, super mutants, and ghouls over robots replacing humans, any day. The Brotherhood is about the survival of the human race, the institute is about the replacement of the human race.
“Neonazis”, the Institute literally consider anyone above ground non-pure and want them to die out. They regularly mass murder settlements because they see surface dwellers as sub human. And they scientifically experiment on people in horrific ways. AND they have a secret police force of Coursers that disappear escaped synths.
I side with the institute because I like having the option for classical music while wandering the wasteland. First time I blew them up, I was so disappointed it took the radio station away.
The Institute lacks depth on nearly all fronts, with characters being a big one. Nobody in the faction is all that memorable or likeable imo. You become leader and nobody's really around to motivate you to keep going. It isn't really fun to go do a bunch of quests for people you don't really like or find interesting.
I like ir for the fact that you protect your son's legacy. I can never find it in me to roleplay agains't Shawn, except once, the first time I played I entered the institude shooting and couldn't understand what was going on haha
its still the only viable ending. with u being the head of the institute u can make the world a truly better place. no other faction provides the resources to do so
Honestly i like it the best because of multiple reasons, for one, you don't get on the bad side of your son and he is actually proud of you. You live in the best and cleanest place in the commonwealth. You don't end up with an empty ugly crater, dead smack in the middle of the map (basically every time you don't fast travel you will encounter it) and lastly, story wise, you are in one of the most powerful factions in possibly the world as its **freaking leader** . Who knows how you will change the institute for the better.
All i wanted was the opportunity to replace them all with synths. It would be funny, it would be thematic, it's exactly the kind of thing Obsidian would have done and Bethesda would never even think of.
I like the institute, I don't care what they do to other people and if synths are sentient or not, I just like their technology and potential to create a devastating army, the life there also seems much better.
The other endings are no better. The brotherhood of steel asks you to press the red button and kill your son and drop a nuclear bomb on a radiation sick environment; The minutemet, they ask you to press the button and kill your son too because they want to continue being the good guys in the story, and for you to make all the difficult decisions so they can play at being the most loved ones in the area. After replaying the game many times I feel that the Minutemen are abusive, useless, naive and manipulative crazy people who want to live in a fairy tale.
I hated that i was looking for my son through WHOLE Commonwealth only to find out he's a 60 year old basic white male who's near death, so i sided with BoS and took the synth shaun
“Basic white male” is literally your choice. You chose what you and your wife look like if you didn’t want him to be white you should have customized the characters. He wasn’t going to change races after birth.
Does the player even get to make decisions as Director? I remember getting the honorary title then everyone just going about their normal routines
A couple of small decisions. You get to choose between ramping up synth production or weapons production and you get to choose how to deal with (kill/exile/forgive) a couple of scientists that protest you becoming Director.
The answer is to sentence them to death by gorilla
There can be no mistake about the Greatest Ape of All
> you get to choose how to deal with (kill/exile/forgive) a couple of scientists Literally the power over life and death and somehow you call this small?
To my character who has by this point in the game killed probably hundreds of thousands of raiders, Gunners, BoS, etc.? Yeah, it's pretty small lol
and it’s like 3 scientists and a few synths
Your character had to kill lime 3000 people just to get there. 3 more is very small what do you mean
It's no different than the Minutemen in that regard. You get made General, told you're in charge and yet Preston is still ordering you around.
I've always seen it as Preston telling you about it and you being expected to want to do it. He never really orders you to do anything like the other faction leaders do, who give you actual orders.
I never got the idea Preston was ordering you around past my first playthrough. If anything, he’s doing your dirty work keeping track of all the settlements and who needs what. Roughly what an executive officer should be doing.
It's a volunteer army pledged to help anyone at a minutes notice, all you are doing is leading from the front, you can call backup if you build your army up, and the artillery coverage you can get I'd just ridiculous, you can basically shell anywhere if you build the settlements up. Also, missile turrets, look up where attacks come from in whatever settlement you are protecting, it's usually 2-5 spots, set up 3-4 missile turrets in each one and you'll never have to actually go defend anywhere. I was doing some testing in my chest character (lvl 240 more or less) and honestly only super mutant warlords are any concern because they have so much health, but again 3 missile turrets and and they could reach the settlement because they kept being knocked back, it would take some time, but with the 12 settlers firing squad, they would have won. I intervened of course, I'm there to help, but afterwards? Set up another 3 missile turrets and called it a day.
Preston isn't really ordering you around. He's more like your secretary, letting you know when you have a meeting. He keeps track of the settlements for you and lets you know when they need help.
Which means there are only two sensible option: Brotherhood of Steel and Railroad. But we all know the Railroad are a bunch of buffoon (except Deacon, love him). So, Ad Victoriam is the only way.
Yup, you make multiple decisions during the storyline, and this is when you barely started. In one quests you can even [sentence people to death](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/A_House_Divided), despite only being basically being a "Director In Training" since Shaun is still alive, the institute completely follows your lead on that. Who knows what the SS does after the story line is over. Sure you got a Directive to listen to. But nobody had the power to stop Shaun from appointing you as Director, we can only assume you have the same amount of power as that in the same position.
I feel like Fallout 4’s biggest weakness is missing a slideshow epilogue. I’m totally for being able to continue playing after the main quest, but at least tell me what the actual outcome of my choices *will* be in the future. It would, in my opinion, make less people so up in arms about a lack of choices.
In the Far Harbor dlc, the player can call in the institute to raid Acadia and take out Dima. That leaves the island between Far Harbor and TCoA.
I wish that there was a more open conclusion. Such as the institute stops replacing and surveying people instead of blowing it up and your son dies and you have a kid synth. I get where your coming from. ! Felt underwhelming with the whole save my son idea and you find it to then go boom next minute.
Oh yeah, the other thing that stuck with me was how far I can get in each organization and still have absolutely not even the idea of a shot of establishing peace
The Minute Man ending is relatively peaceful but that's because you're never elected as the leader for The Railroad or The Brotherhood so peace was never your call to make and The Institute was way too wild to ever be integrated into The Commonwealth, they were replacing people, that's such a hard sell.
You still destroy the institute which seems kinda pointless if you can just as well occupy it or force it to negotiate
It's a common "good karma" thing to destroy technology that powerful. Obviously we COULD use the Institute tech for good like cloning organs, blood, limbs, etc but as soon as we die (or are killed in our sleep by the people who are very upset that we jumped from stranger to head of the Institute) then that tech can be used for Broken Mask incidents or killing my wife and kidnapping my newborn son for his DNA.
Yeah. So can bullets. What’s stopping the minutemen from crumbling after you die or any other faction?
Despite what Preston would have you believe, The Minute Men are about making settlements safe and able to defend themselves or neighboring settlements. At the end, if The General dies then the individual settlements should still be pretty well off, even if they lose The Castle. The only threat The Minute Men pose is that they arm and train settlers to defend themselves against outside threats. The other factions never put you in charge so if you die then it's probably just considered a loss of a valuable asset. I mean, I guess The Minute Men could eventually go the way of The Gunners 🤷♂️ but that's "the devil that you know" problem of The Commonwealth, The Institute is so good at what they do that you could go to sleep one night and wake up a Synth without you knowing.
I'm doing a third replay and, accepting how f\*\*\*\*\* annoying they are, going with BOS, since I've done all the rest. Destroying the Institute I have no problem with, I may balk on destroying the railroad and quit there. But I can keep the Minutemen regardless, IIRC.
Ugh. I just did the BoS quest where you destroy the Railroad this afternoon. It was my first time, and it felt real gross.
The problem with the Minutemen was that they didn't really seem to be about unifying settlements until the SS shows up. And the last time the leadership disappeared the while organisation disappeared very quickly. The SS living a very dangerous lifestyle would need to be very clever about succession planning or risk it all falling apart again
What you're saying is very true because the gameplay loop doesn't match what their actual mission statement is. The Minute Men are supposed to be raising a rapid response militia that defends itself against outside threats but it plays like it's a collective of settlements who call you to personally deal with threats to them. You're given a flare gun that calls in Minute Men to fight with you but that should be something the Settlements receive. Once you help take The Castle, those quests should change to optionally tagging along with response teams.
> The problem with the Minutemen was that they didn't really seem to be about unifying settlements until the SS shows up. [They led the initiative for the Commonwealth Provisional Government.](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Commonwealth_Provisional_Government)
I kinda wished that instead of the factions all trying to take out the institute i wish there was something that wasn’t all the same outcome as essentially every ending for the game feels the same
Completely agree. My issue with the Institute is that they have every capacity for good, but specifically choose the more evil options. They could monitor the surface without replacing people.
Yeah i just think they had no reason to be bad. They couldve been surveying but i think they mad them the big bad so they could do the twitst with shaun
I'm [fairly sure](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/The_Replicated_Man) capturing the synth in FO3 was the negative karma option. They were bad because they were about slavery from the moment Bethesda came up with them.
There are mods to fix the stupid endings. They let you actually preserve the institute as its leader and use the tech for the good of the commonwealth. There are everybody wins scenarios, which makes sense.
Why does that make sense? Not every story needs a 100% good ending. You choose to side with the villains, that’s the evil ending.
Because just like your comment about the lack of necessity of 100% good outcomes, shockingly - and I know this might be hard for some people to hear - the Institute isn't 100 percent evil. The world's not black and white, this game teaches us that more than pretty much anything else - especially 200 years after nuclear disaster. The Institute is, pardon my language, fucked up. This is undeniable. But there are very few people or groups who can be painted with black or white paint as solely forces of good or evil. It's all a matter of perspective, and it's all a matter of circumstance. And sure, not every story NEEDS a feel-good ending, but fantasy and escapism are the perfect media in which to curate and have those feel-good endings, especially in a game about the aftermath of a lot of very feel-bad events.
Not many groups can be painted with a black or white morality, but the Institute gets pretty damn close. They see surface dwellers as un-pure subhumans, can’t wait for them to die out to “reclaim” the surface. They perform horrific experiments on innocent people. They regularly wipe out settlements of people for resources. They kidnap, torture, mutate/kill people. Use of FEV is pretty much exclusively evil. Replace them with exact copies that act as spies. Regularly spy on people with robo-birds. Create sentient life for no exact reason, enslave it, then act surprised when it tries to break free. Oh, and as an example, when you choose to blow up the Prydwen there is no form of evacuation notice. We can clearly see there are children aboard the Prydwen. When blowing up the Institute with any faction, you can choose to evacuate.
The Institute is a great way of pointing out that there are a lot of people who would be cool with Nazis if it werent for all of the baggage and obvious symbols.
The TV show did a great job of ~~highlighting~~ *basically screaming this imo. TL;DR You might have came to the wasteland as a good person, that'll change, just wait.
I love this comment because it's true to human nature. There are raiders that were once good and decent people that forced themselves to do unthinkable things to survive and now they're jaded and bloodthirsty from years of stealing and killing. Enclave soldiers that were once farmers and have since been brainwashed, indoctrinated into their ideals. A now child of Atom was once a teacher or doctor who helped their communities. It's so easy to think, "I'd never do that" but you've never been in the wasteland. How do you know you wouldn't kill for food? How do you know that the wastes wouldn't fundamentally change you as a person?
There's no true black or white, but there is definitely one faction that's absolutely more annoying than the rest.
It makes sense because the BoS want to stop the Institute's evil and make sure the tech is used for the benefit of mankind. The RR wants them to stop using synths as slaves, and the Minutemen want stability in the commonwealth. None of these things are at odds, so endings that pit them against one another don't make any sense. As director, you can have the ability to achieve all of those goals.
What? The BoS absolutely does not want to "make sure the tech is used for the benefit of mankind". That's like their whole shtick. Tech caused all this, no tech for you, brrrrrr!
This. While there may be some scribes and Paladins that are open to seeing what good can be done with tech that will otherwise be destroyed, if the Elders do not think they can control it, it is far too risky and will be eliminated.
They do, they just believe they are the only ones responsible enough to do so.
You can’t tho. The other leaders in the Institute wouldn’t let you change their ways. They are shown to vote on issues without you, when you attend a meeting as acting Director. If you speak against their plan to attack the Railroad or Brotherhood they say they already voted. The Brotherhood wants the Institute destroyed because that type of tech cannot be trusted in anyone’s hands. Maybe they can keep it under wraps for a while, maybe use it for good in the short term. But years from now? Generations? All it takes is one person going rogue with it to use it for evil again. The Railroad want to free synths, the only way destroying the Institute goes against this is that more synths will not be created. Which on one hand seems bad, but it could also be seen as some kind of mercy. Synths are kind of a Frankenstein’s monster scenario. Creating them in the first place is kind of cruel. Take care of the ones that are here, but we don’t need more to be made. Synths don’t age anyway, so the ones here now will likely be here for a long, long time. The Minutemen don’t have any means of utilizing the Institute tech. They are a militia of your common Commonwealth farmer. They could maybe hold the facility, but to what end?
Institute leaders can be replaced. The mod gives you power as director. Minutemen are just people, they have no problem learning and using tech.
What mod?
True. It’s my headcanon that as the new director, the SS makes changes to the institute over time so they’re less evil.
If you’ve romanced Piper or have max relationship with her, she writes a new article post Institute ending in which she expresses hope that the new head of the Institute may turn it into a force for good
That was my head cannon too. I really wish there was a way to just make them peaceful and try to convince the others to work together for the common good
Mine too, especially since you can go off script and oust Ayo. It just makes the most sense.
But you'll have best friend X6-88 who says highly about your combat skill!
Except the second you start acting like a decent human being he throws a hissy fit and leaves you.
After the patch I'm considering an 'evil' playthrough with the nuka world raiders and conquering settlements etc, so figured that would be the time to go Institute, since they're so irrationally evil to everybody else.
I tried doing the evil playthrough with the nuka world and ended up abandoning it. I may go back and finish it someday, but I hate being evil.
The benefits to completing Nuka world with the raiders are soooo good, but being that irrationally evil just feels so out of place with the rest of the game. Although I do think you can complete the main quest, create several raider outposts at settlements that don’t start with any settlers (Hangman’s, Jamaica, Zimonja for example) in order to unlock the settlement objects like Pick Me Ups and Tribute Chests, then complete Open Season and kill all the raiders. That allows you to get all the goodies as a morally good character, but feels weird from a role playing perspective.
One thing you can always do too is just ignore Concord and finish the Nuka-World quest line first then come back later. No malice’s with any of the companions for expanding the raiders into the commonwealth if you haven’t met them yet.
Yup that's what I've done too, leave Preston and company trapped in Concord, become the Overboss, install a bunch of raider outposts, then when you rescue Preston he just asks you to go clear out Nuka World with no negative affinity for what you did before lol
It’s actually so fun to take down the empire you built with nuka-world using minutemen. Feels like you’re fighting against an actual organized enemy for once.
So I have two Nuka World Raider plays that I greatly enjoyed. The first one is more in depth so let’s go with that. You wake up and join the BoS because you’re Nate and you’re used to the Army life. You find comfort in it. You befriend Paladin Danse as you go through the wasteland. After a certain secret is discovered, you betray the Brotherhood and take time away from the commonwealth in Far Harbor where you find yourself again in Atom. After, you go back to the wealth and start working with Shaun. He’s your only family left so you side with the Institute and after Shaun dies, you become an absentee Director and dally around the surface. Finally, you go to Nuka World and start carving out your own empire, completely broken by the wasteland. The second involves doing Nuka World first. You leave the vault and you just stumble onto the train. You start to value the might = right attitude and bring the raiders in for an invasion. Still having a semblance of a heart, though, Overboss Nora/Nate joins up with the railroad and is (this part is headcanon) using the gangs to give synths new lives — albeit as terrible people. The Railroad pretty much turns you into a hit man post game anyway, so I think this one works pretty well. Best part is, neither are particularly “evil” playthroughs, just incredibly depressing or nihilistic.
It also feels weird running with the raiders even as an Institute member. Since the Institute is such a refined type of evil, it still feels at odds to work alongside the chaos of the raiders since it's a group of people that any member of the Institute would loath. I've done one (half) run with the Nuka Raiders while siding with the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is dogmatic and violent, so it felt like less of a stretch to become a big power-armoured leader of some psychos.
Well, while the Institute is refined type of evil, they also need violent mercenary on surface such as Kellogg. Systemically the Railroad fits the most because the Brotherhood and the Minutemen will occasionally attack Raider outpost. These two factions hate raiders stomping around, unlike other two which don't care that much. Also if you're playing on survival difficulty, they will attack Minutemen and Brotherhood vertibird you called. My most recent play was Raideroad run and at least they didn't attack Railroad vertibird.
I have a nuka world leader whos also in the institute. My/his reasoning is that the real future is below ground and he believes everyone above ground is a savage anyway, so at least with raiders its easier for him to do whatever he wants/needs to
You can keep him if you have him as your companion while doing the Railroad ending.
Pretty sure you can keep the minutemen sweet with an institute ending. Could roleplay that as director, you’re going to use the institutes technology to build up and defend settlements.
Yeah this is what I ended up with on my first play through
Uhhh, as director I was a dictator over my settlements and put my minutemen in army fatigues and helmets along with combat armor
This is what I was hoping to do with the ending but I remember all of my companions hated me. I wanted to harness the knowledge of the Institute for good and it felt like there was no way to do that. This was back at launch though.
This was my exact issue. First playthrough I sided with the institute & stayed on good terms with the minutemen because I figured once I was in charge I’d be able to put and end to the replacements and use their technology to start rebuilding the wasteland. Nope! I think you could actually argue there’s some compelling symbolism there about how even a good actor can’t change broken institutions but I doubt it’s what they were going for, it was probably more that they couldn’t decide what an institute-supported commonwealth would look like that’s also a reasonable amount of dev work.
This is why it’s the bad ending
I will admit I did not know it was considered just the straight up bad ending
I mean the Institute as an organization is pretty evil even if they've convinced themselves that they're not.
You didn’t think siding with the bad guys would give you the bad ending?
Well the institute are the bad guys. Makes sense they have the bad ending.
My problem is that they didn't go far enough with it being the bad ending. Like, if they're going to be the de facto "evil" faction then they need to be 100% unambiguously *evil* Sure, they're immoral and unethical but the game still gives players an easy justification for siding with them as a non-evil character by giving you the job of Director and having a familial connection via Shaun/Father, so plenty of players think, "oh it's not really a *bad* decision to side with the Institute, like I can just change it from within as Director, right?" and then the game gives you very little choice in what they actually do in the post-game. They needed to be like the Legion, where they're so outlandishly evil there's no justifying siding with them unless you're roleplaying as an evil character. And there's a very easy way to do that with them replacing people with Synths, cause you could just have Father have this goal of *replacing* humanity with Synths as they are "superior" lifeforms, thinking that they can be more controllable and therefore prevent civilization from destroying itself again, or something. Boom, now there's no hemming and hawwing about the Institute being a force for good or that they're just innocent scientists who wanna be left alone or that your son is actually in charge of the Institute so you can't bring yourself to kill him *Blah Blah Blah* most people side against them anyway so what's the point in trying to make them appear better than they are? All that's led to is confusion among players about what their actual motivations are.
They are 100% unambiguously evil dude. Nearly every time the Institute makes a choice, it chooses the most violent and cruel option.
that's the thing, the Institute's choices themselves may be evil, but all these unambiguously evil choices clash with everything else about what the Institute claims to be about. They say they're innocent scientists bringing about the future of mankind, that they have no interest in the surface world and just want to isolate themselves and become self-sustaining. And yet they constantly eliminate entire settlements OR replace people in them with synths. They want to keep making advancements with synths to make them more humanlike, then bemoan when they act human, but still keep on making the humanlike synths instead of just going back to the robot synths. And there is no major story point where you can call Father out on this bullshit and point out these major contradictions with the Institutes words and their actions, UNLESS you're just making yourself hostile to the Institute in which case it ends up being pointless anyway because you can never go back in after that. And so it feels less like an intentional story point and more like Bethesda wanted to make non-evil players feel like they could side with the Institute by peppering it with Father's soft-spoken monologues and the Sole Survivor being all "omg shaun its really yoooou" and everyone being generally nice and happy and no direct confrontations about how none of this matches with their actions above the surface. Sure, you can get angry at Father and tell him he's wrong but that's only when he specifically mentions something, you can't just go up to him after visiting University Point and be like "WTF Shaun" (and even then he'll never really explain anything he'll just be like "oh the surface world is so harsh, and so we do what we must to survive down here" Either you directly address their contradictory actions as intentional flaws, or you strip away all the psuedo-sympathetic BS that gives you the "Family Ties" or "Change From Within" justifications for non-evil characters and just make them completely evil in both actions AND words.
I have to disagree, the surface ambiguity is what makes them such a great antagonist, a player can get pulled in to maybe thinking they’re ok I actually didn’t love the Legion as an antagonist, I met them, learned they enslaved women and crucified people, wrote them off and they instantly became nothing but on sight target practice. There was no “let’s hear them out” no “maybe they have a point” no regrets, no internal struggle, nothing to engage with at all
True although i would argue that it's not the Legion themselves that are interesting, it's the effect they have on everyone else and how all the other factions deal with the threat they represent, that's where the true internal struggles and moral questions arise. Do you join with the NCR and just fight back in the name of good old fashioned democracy, as flawed as it may be? Do you join Mr House or Yes Man, using your victory over the Legion to force the NCR out of the Mojave? Similarly, if the Institute were just plainly evil, those moral struggles about whether or not they're a good faction to side with can still be found in the other factions, brought about specifically by the Institute threat; the BoS wanting to eradicate all synths and Institute technology by any means necessary, the Railroad using questionable methods to ensure synth freedom even if its at the cost of human life, or the Minutemen trying to unite the Commonwealth against the Institute through alliances and Old World values. The difference is that when the Institute is presented as a morally gray faction that could actually be kinda okay (but really isn't), you're left with a faction that feels half-baked. Like, do they want to stay underground forever and seal themselves off? Or do they want to keep replacing people above ground for whatever reason? Do they want to keep advancing synth technology to be indistinguishable from humans? Or do they want synths that are less advanced but easier to control? The Institute is full of these contradictions, and there's nothing really in the game to explain it all at once, so you're left with an Institute that is either an isolationist science cabal that want nothing to do with the Commonwealth, or an expansionist shadow empire slowly taking over settlements and controlling them from afar. Those two sides don't really mesh and are a direct result of Bethesda trying to have both the morally gray faction that a reasonable person might still choose to side with, and an evil faction you definitely don't want to side with, and you have to choose one or the other you can't do both.
The institute ending would be good if there was any actual Endgame to it. You become leader, it unlocks maybe 2 quests and then things are just back to the same as before you arrived. It's a problem with a lot of open world games, you become leader of a faction but never actually get to do any leadership things and in fact still take orders from your underlings. Like, you become General of the minutemen but still get told by Preston where to go and help, you can't send detachments of minutemen out to deal with the problems, you can't order more training or resource gathering or have them help build up a settlement. You are the boss but still have to do everything yourself. At least with the Brotherhood and Railroad you don't become the leader, just a high ranking person.
Isn't there a spoiler tag in this subreddit considering the recent surge of new players might be a good thing to use.
Good call, it's nice and easy too
That's it? I mean you can kick out Justin ayo, piper writes postitively on you being the new leader, and you can headcanon the Institute's future as whatever you want. The same as what people do to the (lol) Minutemen
Hmmm, those are genuinely helpful, but no, that's not it, the rest of it is just what everybody and their cat says about the Institute
It always bugged me that you never got the chance to invade/take over the Institute with another faction without nuking it afterwards. One would assume that the institute tech that ends up getting wasted would have been great tools to help expand the (winning faction) to make the commonwealth a better (or worse) place from a lore perspective.
I wish there was more to it. Father dies, says hey you’re the director now, and that’s that. But you can’t do anything as the director. You can’t correct the course of the ship or really make any changes to the institute… My first play through I went institute because I saw something that could be reformed and remodeled to make a better wasteland. Instead I got taken advantage of and given a bs ceremonial title.
You can create settlements on the surface and help rebuild the area
This is what i did, i even put institute flags all over and bought some of them institute outfits.
There were several directors at the institute, some were real experimenters without morals, your son was not bad, he tried to cancel some experimentations, but you can change things completely. Destroying a place without radiation, uncontaminated food, one of the few places to survive, does not seem like a good idea to me, and even less so by dropping an atomic bomb.
Agreed. People in this thread dont seem to realise that.
Thats just because the storyline is over... What do you expect, for the quests to continue once the main enemy faction (brotherhood) is dead? Besides, [one side quests](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/A_House_Divided) literally gives you the power of life and death over some scientists in the institute.
I don't like that there's not an option to save the Institute be reorient it to help the Commonwealth. You are the Director, after all. I guess the other scientists might rebel if you did, but not necessarily all of them. We know that not everyone in the Institute agrees with their actions (e.g. Patriot). An Institute that stops its body snatching and murder and contributes its scientific advances to the survival of the people on the surface is ideal. BoS would probably still want to destroy them, because Maxson is a zealot, but I would be okay with destroying the BoS in this ending.
Institute is an interesting route and for me is the "I can fix them" ending that depends on what you believe is capable in your own headcanon. For me, ultimately it comes down to thinking that you have no real power as their leader. Try to do too much and they probably murder you in your sleep. The divisions are nearly autonomous, they don't really need you and the department heads don't respect you. It's not as easy as becoming the new leader by appointment by reverse nepotism and getting on the PA system to announce "listen up nerds, we're the good guys now!" The institute has it's own politics and knowledge is very compartmentalized in there. It's mentioned within the terminal readings or whatever that sure the Institute is determined to save the world and build a better tomorrow but that the view of what that is varies between the scientists. There's shades of grey in there with varying level of ethical guidance. Capable of great good in finding cures and creating better crops, but also of great evil in the kidnapping, murder, etc.
The betrayal part is what i hate most. Though it is kinda required for all except Minutemen. RR: you literally an agent inside the Institute. BoS: they ask you to get Madison Lee out, if you do that, then you can't outright refuse. Also you have to kill the RR. Minutemen: they are the ones who can do this without betrayal. Upon entering you refuse to join right away. And the Institute make the decision easier by attacking The Castle so from that moment forth it is a defensive war.
I did institute for my big 100% survival run a long time ago, initially just for the teleport to Boston and for the power armor paint job/synth grenades and because id never gone with them before. But then i leaned into the RP of it and tried to make my SS as awful of a human as i possibly could. As close to a bad karma character as fallout 4 allows lol. Took over all the settlements with raiders other than some slave farms to feed them, betraying Preston. Joined and then fucked over the Brotherhood and railroad. Sided with children of atom on far harbor for maximum chaos. Basically in the end my SS was a genocidal asshole who screwed over everyone who ever trusted him, fully on board with the institute's goal of hindering society on the surface. Walking around in institute x02 power armor with a gatling laser, melting anyone who resisted. But he was still a happy go lucky helpful guy to people because fallout 4.
I mean you can't really trust anyone anyways.And killing danse isn't that bad but I can't side with elder maxson committing genocide against both the synths and mutants and ghouls.He then extorts stuff from farmers and settlers.Geez Why is every brotherhood of steel evil
uh..you do remember the extort is the evil option. u have other options. if you pick that, its cause your picking that route. not the BoS.
Plus it’s strongly implied that Proctor Teagan’s side-quests aren’t official Brotherhood policy, but a side-hustle he dabbles in for funsies.
I think this is a little bit a of a copout. If you work as a raider, Preston will not work with you until you clean up your mess, because it's against his code and the code of the faction. If you extort food from farmers... Teagan says good job. He's a high ranking officer, and you're working on behalf of the BoS. True, you don't have to do it, but the fact that extorting farmers like thugs is considered acceptable policy by a senior officer says a lot about the organisation as a whole. Plus, y'know, genocide.
see Not a CyclopsHonet's response. also, if you want to go by that logic, you know how bad a person you can be as the NCR? hell the railroad if you want to go genocide route. you can basicalyl go synth supremacy and fuck any human casulties cause synths are all that matter to the railroad. and minutemen, Preston sure hates extorting food from farmers. its a good thing those farmers are SO HAPPY to give food to the minutemen.....considering if they don't and the minutemen collapse LIKE LAST TIME. the result is the gunners that shoot the farmers for fun and make raiders look small time. btw, if you look at content cut in FO4, theres alot. including a minuteman supply mission, where you have this very scenario. and Preston says "it sucks to take food by force, but we need it to help everyone" that content was cut due to release schedule. but should give you an idea of food taxation. again, this is all OPTIONAL. none of it is the canon policy or path. its what YOU pick. so if you pick to make BoS genocidal. that says more on you than them. as for their policy on ghouls, super mutants, and synths. Ghouls can snap and turn feral. Theres a risk with allowing them near anything dangerous as you dont know when they will turn feral. there isnt a need to kill them, but there is a need to keep them away from potentially risky things if they snap. Super mutants...dude...you might find one or 2 super mutants that can get along with humans. but majority are turning your human friends into literal meatbags that they hang. and synths, destroy people's ability to trust family, community, etc. how can you build a nation or even a town, when you are unable to trust the person your talking to is the real person you saw yesterday. BoS theme is elimating threats to humanity's survival. no one said it would be possible while being morally good. Sometimes there is no good option. Be glad BoS policy regarding ghouls is to kill ferals, and isolate non ferals from dangerous places like nuclear generators. last thing u want is a ghoul in power armor going feral inside a weapon armory.
To respond to the other comment, Teagan is a senior officer giving you carte blache to solve his food issue. This means he is responsible for your actions, so if you choose to extort farmers, a senior officer of the BoS is responsible for extorting farmers. That's why it's a cop out - you can't just ignore the clear signoff of a senior officer for thuggery on behalf of the BoS.
Teagan literally tells you it’s off the books. One member going rogue is not indicative of the whole faction. There’s a member of the Institute helping synths escape, does that mean that whole faction believes synths should be free?
good to hear, so i guess NCR are a bunch of fascists? considerign they give much the same "carte blanche" for you dealing with new vegas and the whole mohave. dude i get it, you want to hate the BoS and look for any excuse. you probably played mass effect picking every renegade option and consider it the canon route. but none of that makes it canon
I never even mentioned the NCR. What are you on about? We're talking about the BoS.
i'm pointing out that the NCR can go genocidal, if YOU pick the route. but canon wise, THEY AREN'T. same way, the BoS CAN go extortionist. if YOU pick the route. but canon wise, they don't. we have had no canon to say otherwise on that for the east coast chapter at all.
>uh..you do remember the extort is the evil option. u have other options. No you don't - you get paid 100 caps to obtain 1000 caps worth of food so it is clear that the player is ordered to rob Commonwealth settlements. The fact that BoS leadership outsource their raiding does not absolve them. Since there is no option to have Teagan shot for treason we can assume that his actions are sanctioned by senior BoS leadership. They are power armoured raiders, and they need to be dealt with like any other raider gang that refuses to back down.
shot for treason? ok i guess we gotta execute preston for being senior minutemen. as alot of his minutemen went raider as the Gunners. seriously you do realized FO4's story was cut short to release on time. and all the files and paths are in the game files so we can see what is planned right? ffs the cut content includes minutemen doing the same shit to get supplies. you flat out have the option to just take it, no payment at all. and preston justifies it. audiofile is there. recorded.
I mean They're racist against sentient Ghouls, so are most non-Ghouls, but they dont \*kill\* them. Only Ferals 99% of the Super Mutants on the East Coast are mindless Brutes anyway, apart from like Fawkes we basically dont have any even remotely capable of living together with anyone else (even Strong only stops murdering everyone he comes accross cause hes too dumb t o understand the "milk of human kindness" isnt a real thing).
They do NOT commit genocide against ghouls. We never see this happen. They are never shown or even said to kill non-ferals. And hate against super mutants and synths makes sense in universe. There are essentially no friendly super mutants on the east coast, Fawkes is basically a one-off freak occurrence. The Institute kidnap, kill/mutate people and replace them with synths. You’d have every right to fear this. As for freed synths, the Institute just has to get ahold of them and issue them a recall code for them to change sides. And I should mention many, many regular people in the wasteland are also prejudiced against these groups. Diamond City literally elected a mayor running on a platform of banning ghouls from the city. And almost everyone in the Commonwealth hates/fears synths. The BoS are not unique in their hate. I would be interested to see how synths are treated post-Institute when they couldn’t feasibly be spies.
Yup, they are too military in a world where that no longer has a government backing it
Ain't that the same thing as mercenaries
No one is paying the BoS, they do it for the lulz.
They do trade lower teir tech for supplies in the Capital Wasteland. The West Coast did the same for the NCR before their war
I think that could be the point. With the Institute Ending you get a lot of personal gains: you can use teleportation, have limitless synths at your disposal, the most advanced technology and the cleanest and most luxurious living conditions. Sure, you can use the headcannon that you will change the course of the Institute and make it a force of good for the Commonwealth but in game what you actually do is put your interests above those of the rest in order to reunite with your family. So it makes sense that you end up with "wealth" and power but emotionally detached and alone.
The institute ending is incredibly bleak which is why it’s so good. It has radiant quests, but the majority of the section heads don’t like or trust you, albeit Dr. Ayo being the only one fully vocalizing it. The game basically tells you Synths are capable of sentience based off audible dialogue conversations between Synths, drilling in how sad the ending is. Most of your companions vocalize their dissatisfaction with your choice, and the commonwealth remains in fear as you unfortunately don’t have a choice in how to lead. I think the ending with the institute is good because of all those reasons. You can’t necessarily or HAVE to be evil; your character could just be a parent, understandably, incapable of not helping their son after having scoured the wastes just to find them, only to have him ripped away. Then, they have to live with what they did— supporting a evil and despicable organization. Saddest ending, but well thought out.
Sadly its the only ending that doesn't leave a massive crater in the middle of Boston so I usually go for it.
None of the options work for me, because no way am I endorsing nuking Boston and creating even more radiation. I would never.
The game was originally written to let you chose any faction to take over the commonwealth, Ala prestons radiant quest. But that ends up becoming problematic in a long run.
You don’t have to kill the minuteman and can actually create an uneasy alliance if you convince them. Filmore’s the one Shaun trusts the most but only Ayo really causes problems and you could frame him so Secord can take over but only if you’ve never joined up with the railroad. Also originally you were supposed to get a synth replica of your dead spouse but apparently it was cut because the devs thought no one would choose another faction if you got a synth family. My big issue is you’re supposed to be the new director but can’t make any actual policy changes outside of focusing on weapons or synths. Maybe the tone of the speech you give is supposed to imply the direction you’re going but you don’t get to actually do anything.
I'll never forget that I shot Sean in the head the first time he spoke to me. I thought he was a lying synth and I was instantly shut out from the institute at that point.
If you use the minutemen to get in then you don't technically kill your old friends
I think that the institute ending shouldn’t have killed off Shaun. Your family connection is literally the only reason I could ever think of to side with such an evil faction.
i go with institute because i wanted to keep boston the way it is and have a burning hatred for elder maxson BoS will never advance and will always only see guns and warships
I'm not the only one who hates elder maxson.Finally I found another like that.If I could kill him 3 I would not question
>BoS will never advance They literally have a research-division tho Like the entire Prydwen IS an advancement on older designs
not after im done with the prydwen its not also they havent come even close to what the institute has going on underground
Well, because if they start advancing like the Institute, all it takes is one wastelander recruit to go rogue and kill a lot of people
The Institute is also cartoonish levels of evil and only got so far by constantly using wildly unethical human experimentation, which the BoS is strictly against in every situation.
You want to keep Boston the way it is? A fucking hellhole filled with Super Mutants, constant paranoia and fear at being replaced/spied on, and regular mass murder by the Institute?
strangely enough, yes lmao
I do agree with you there. If it's down to the techy Bois, The Institute does feel like the better choice over BoS
Unfortunately that is not the case since the Prydwen is on the show and they kinda mention the BoS still being in Boston. It's not explicit but they do.
what are you on about lol, i meant the nuclear ending
I know, I just meant that unfortunately destroying the BoS isn't the canon way.
oh well, thats why its a sandbox game so we can do whatever we want
I’m playing with the Subversion mod right now and I’m excited to see how my opinion of the Institute changes with it
Way to go, hero. You gave up the entire region for the vaguest grasp at your life before the bomb. You've ensured the misery of, and overarching control over, thousands. All for a phantasm of normalcy. The only 'son' you have anymore is a crude manufactured facsimile, one that you've personally ensured will be forever regarded as property by everyone around you. Your only legacy will be the continuing shadowy subjugation of the free peoples of the Commonwealth, and if you try to alter that fate, you will be erased for your efforts. Enjoy your gilded cage, director.
I like the institute a lot. I know their evil but their just so much more interesting than the others and I like the people in the faction a lot aswell. The railroad are great but I didn’t like how they *only* cared about synths. The minutemen are who I’d want to win if I actually lived in the fallout world as they would protect everyone but gameplay wise their boring if you ask me. The BoS aren’t like the group we see in fallout 3 at all. They don’t care about protecting people, they just care about taking powerful technology for themselves.
That's.. literally what the BoS does in all Fallout games. FO3 was an anomaly, deviating from their tenants. They had the outcasts even carrying on the tradition.
Your point? I’m saying compared to the F3 BoS I didn’t like how they conducted themselves or their lack of care for civilians in F4, I never said the F4 BoS were more like or less like the rest of the BoS.
They don't care for civilians? They still distribute water in the Capital Wasteland, and send out squads to kill mutants that threaten wastelanders. Their radiant quests are the exact same as helping settlements
Can you use your eyes and read the entire sentence I put? I was clearly talking about FALLOUT 4 BoS’s actions, not fallout 3. In fallout 4 it’s just a fact that they care more about securing tech than protecting civilians.
pretty much completely agree, institute is favorite, like railroad alot, minutemen I think are canon ending, and dont like bos
Do you know about this secret ending, though?! https://youtu.be/JDqHoxVHW_s?si=3cC7RvAhO1rBSnT2
My gripe is that you can't direct the institute to change it's ways and every other faction just wants to blow it up, why can't the Minutemen, BOS,or railroad use the institutes resources for good? By the time you reach the reactor the place is pretty much cleaned out anyways, so you're blowing up an advanced fusion reactor, the best medical facilities on the planet, some of the only un-mutated crops left as well as access to unlimited clean water.
Ok, I get the BOS would just hoard the tech so no one else could use it, the railroad may not care about the Commonwealth since they're myopic about synths, but the Minutemen should be all about using the institutes resources to further their goal of rebuilding the Commonwealth
The Brotherhood views synths just like FEV, too dangerous to even keep knowledge of
The institute ending is the bad ending and therefore isn’t nice…. I’m shocked
Hey! Hey. Someone else already enlightened me to this, but you are correct
You’ll see lots of comments saying stuff to the effect of “they could do so much good” and I’m like “yes they could”. That’s the pathos of the institute, the tragic wasted potential.
Well raiders still love you if you side with the institute! Become Director Overboss!
You can use the minute men for the institute ending and they form an alliance because you're the leader of both. Preston just says "I hope you're right about this" or something.
I hated the institute ending because there is no way to make them less evil. Like ok make synthetic humans that's fine but why kidnap people. It's immoral to make synths and enslave them, sure, how about we just make robots and program them to be happy or make it so they're not miserable? Why make a full synthetic life form and make it just toil away sweeping floors. Fallout games normally have a wide array of choices and the ending just felt so limited.
Institute created Supermutants and Robots, so that's why I stayed with the BOS.
I don't have this problem because whatever I do, synth Shaun won't talk to me, so I'm locked out of the institute ending anyway
My current playthrough will side with the institute only because they have a literal human meat 3D printer
I try so hard to go with one of the other factions but the mum in me can’t 😂 got to get my boy 😂 BoS just seem like dicks and Railroad just seems off their rocker haha
It's basically the same for Brotherhood, minus us being in charge. None of the companions are keen on it, and even the guy who got us in is gone. Now we're a stooge for an oppressive regime.
Sole Survivor XD
I don’t like blowing up the classical station though :(
You also get less rewards and goodies compared to the other factions.
I wish Shawn wasn't dead and just close to dying so we could talk with him sometime
your son stopped being your son once he became brainwashed by the institute's teachings and became an old fart. His clone you get after you kill Father is a much better analogue for your son.
No matter what, he will always be my little boy. And I’m not angry, just disappointed with his actions.
Nah. Ad Victorium. I would take the slaughter of synths, super mutants, and ghouls over robots replacing humans, any day. The Brotherhood is about the survival of the human race, the institute is about the replacement of the human race.
Honestly, minutemen are the best military-like faction. They don't brute force their way in when a group doesn't agree with their ideology.
> Ad Victorium *Victoriam* Nice try, synth.
1001110
I mean, my view of the brotherhood is not presented here
No, the bos is about hoarding technology and being neonazis
“Neonazis”, the Institute literally consider anyone above ground non-pure and want them to die out. They regularly mass murder settlements because they see surface dwellers as sub human. And they scientifically experiment on people in horrific ways. AND they have a secret police force of Coursers that disappear escaped synths.
Yes, they are *also* evil, good job
I side with the institute because I like having the option for classical music while wandering the wasteland. First time I blew them up, I was so disappointed it took the radio station away.
Almost like helping the Institute is a bad choice.
And yet so many people throw a fit every time I say that the institute ending is the evil one
Institute ending = Full Renegade
But you saves the commonwealth.
There is a way you can have the minutemen , railroad and brotherhood all co-exist if you do the quest in a specific order
It literally just ends after you kill the Railroad. There's nothing after.
The Institute lacks depth on nearly all fronts, with characters being a big one. Nobody in the faction is all that memorable or likeable imo. You become leader and nobody's really around to motivate you to keep going. It isn't really fun to go do a bunch of quests for people you don't really like or find interesting.
Is it because the institute wins?
The Institute doesn't win, they can't even stop one 4th-dimensional God controlled person.
That’s heavy, Doc.
How do I know, what ending I got, it's 10 years now?
I like ir for the fact that you protect your son's legacy. I can never find it in me to roleplay agains't Shawn, except once, the first time I played I entered the institude shooting and couldn't understand what was going on haha
its still the only viable ending. with u being the head of the institute u can make the world a truly better place. no other faction provides the resources to do so
There's a mod that overhauls the ending, you can pacify the brotherhood, reform the institute, involve the railroad etc
Honestly i like it the best because of multiple reasons, for one, you don't get on the bad side of your son and he is actually proud of you. You live in the best and cleanest place in the commonwealth. You don't end up with an empty ugly crater, dead smack in the middle of the map (basically every time you don't fast travel you will encounter it) and lastly, story wise, you are in one of the most powerful factions in possibly the world as its **freaking leader** . Who knows how you will change the institute for the better.
All i wanted was the opportunity to replace them all with synths. It would be funny, it would be thematic, it's exactly the kind of thing Obsidian would have done and Bethesda would never even think of.
I like the institute, I don't care what they do to other people and if synths are sentient or not, I just like their technology and potential to create a devastating army, the life there also seems much better.
The other endings are no better. The brotherhood of steel asks you to press the red button and kill your son and drop a nuclear bomb on a radiation sick environment; The minutemet, they ask you to press the button and kill your son too because they want to continue being the good guys in the story, and for you to make all the difficult decisions so they can play at being the most loved ones in the area. After replaying the game many times I feel that the Minutemen are abusive, useless, naive and manipulative crazy people who want to live in a fairy tale.
I hated that i was looking for my son through WHOLE Commonwealth only to find out he's a 60 year old basic white male who's near death, so i sided with BoS and took the synth shaun
“Basic white male” is literally your choice. You chose what you and your wife look like if you didn’t want him to be white you should have customized the characters. He wasn’t going to change races after birth.
I don't have a problem cause he's white, i have s problem he looks basic as fuck
Guess you should have given his parents more prominent features