Fallout 4: Wasteland Workshop
Score: 60% Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Developer: Bethesda Softworks Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/RPG
Introduction: Fallout 4: Wasteland Workshop is filler, and nothing more. It's designed to cooperate with Automatron in order to keep our appetites whetted for the upcoming Far Harbor expansion, the true meat and potatoes of the Fallout 4 Season Pass. Think of this as Fallout 4's version of Skyrim's Hearthstone add-on. Don't get me wrong: every opportunity to flex the creative muscles is appreciated. I've sunk an unreasonable amount of time into experiences like these, and while the additions offered by Wasteland Workshop are welcome, they ultimately feel so much like a scant afterthought that it's unjustifiable as a standalone purchase, budget price be damned.
Doodads and Knickknacks: If you lost yourself in Fallout 4's metagame involving the construction and furnishing of settlements around the Commonwealth, Wasteland Workshop gives you more toys to play with. More importantly, these toys go further in allowing you to add a personal touch to your creations. With the addition of options such as letter kits, nixie tube lighting, and taxidermy, your towns can come closer in style (if not in scope) to the likes of Diamond City and Goodneighbor. It doesn't change the act of gathering resources and placing objects as you see fit, and some of the additions are, for lack of better words, completely batsh*t. But at the end of the day, it expands your horizons in terms of aesthetics. And that's a good thing.
Gotta Catch 'em All?: Ever stumbled into a Deathclaw lair and thought to yourself, "I want to make a new friend in here?" Ever looked a bloodthirsty highwayman in the eye and decided you wanted to keep him or her as a pet? Well, if so, you're in luck! The Wasteland Workshop add-on includes the ability to interact with the less friendly denizens of the Commonwealth in ways that don't involve decapitating, dismembering, or otherwise reducing them to ragged clumps of tissue and bone. Enhanced traps and the addition of custom cages land Wasteland Workshop into pure "WTF" territory and pave the way for some wild emergent (but potentially game-ruining) nonsense. You can capture creatures (and people, hooray!) and opt to make them yours or unleash your inner Roman emperor by pitting them against each other. It's absolutely ridiculous and funny as hell if you're in the right mindset. But again, it feels like filler.
Value: The jury's still out on the Season Pass for Fallout 4, but between Automatron and Wasteland Workshop, it's mostly forgettable. Again, Far Harbor is to be treated as the main event, but overall, this has been a remarkably different cycle than we're used to as far as this series goes. If you absolutely have to get everything related to Fallout 4, the Wasteland Workshop is only $4.99. If you want something more substantive, I'm afraid you'll have to keep waiting.
-FenixDown, GameVortex Communications AKA Jon Carlos
Related Links: Official Website of Fallout 4: Wasteland Workshop Game Vortex's Fallout Coverage
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