Raiders of the Lost Park | Fallout 4: Nuka-World Review

As I walked through Nuka World, the new DLC and area in Fallout 4’s season pass, I couldn’t help but feel that the theme park was a personification of the DLC, itself. Loud, bombastic and seemingly filled with endless fun, Nuka World is instead one hollow firefight after another without offering too many memorable quests or characters.

Welcome to Nuka-World.

Nuka World starts when you get a quest to check out the titular theme park. Once you arrive, you’re immediately thrown into a trap set up by the raiders that inhabit Nuka World. Their leader, known as Colter (or his title Overboss), challenges you to a fight that is in his favor, because his power armor is electrically charged and deflects most projectiles. Luckily, the overboss’ second in command, a man named Gage, wants to see his boss go down. Gage plants a weapon for you that takes away his shield and evens the odds. After you defeat the overboss, Gage then states that you’re the new Overboss of all three gangs that inhabit Nuka World.

The three gangs you’ll be in charge of are called The Pack, The Disciples, and The Operators. You can accept quests from the gangs in order to take over sections throughout the park, with the ultimate goal leading toward taking over parts of the commonwealth. If that seems, well, “evil,” we’ll come back to that later. The three gangs all operate from different motivations. Violence, money and loyalty to the pack are the focus of The Disciples, The Operators, and The Pack, respectively. In order to impress each gang, you’ll have to act to their interests to gain favor in their company.

If you were a “good” player as opposed to an “evil” player in the previous content of Fallout 4, Nuka World may prove to be a problematic set up. While Fallout 4 doesn’t have a karma system, per se, Nuka World gives you a difficult decision of either joining up and leading the raiders with all of their less-than-honorable motivations or choosing to not follow them and kill them all, effectively cutting out almost all that the worthwhile content the DLC has to offer. It’s disappointing to see a character I built as upstanding and noble be forced into an antagonistic role in order to enjoy what Nuka World has to offer. Simply put: you either break bad or not play the best parts of the DLC.

Like a mindless raider, Nuka World is all about fighting and, well, not much else. Fallout 4 is the most action-oriented Fallout already, but, in Nuka World, that’s cranked up to 11. Thoughtful quests are few and far between, because most missions are a shoot first, ask questions later affair which leaves little wiggle room for characters or plot to blossom and impress. Shooting is arguably the weakest part of Fallout 4, and to focus on that in this DLC is a mistake that

There’s a good amount of content here to digest. There’s a new companion, the aforementioned Gage, lots of new weapons, increasingly more difficult dungeons and much more. Though the focus on action is a disappointment, there are some memorable firefights that make the constant battling a little more bearable.

You’ll be in charge of three different gangs who – shockingly – don’t like each other.

There is good news: Nuka World is an awesome setting for the DLC. Seeing the once friendly theme park where families once vacationed turned into a disgusting breeding ground for bloodthirsty raiders is on par with some of the best settings Bethesda has offered in their Fallout games. The dark contrast between the assorted carnival games and the aftermath of a raider takeover channels the classic Fallout eeriness that teeters between chaos and beauty in a post-civilization world. When I stopped to actually look around Nuka World, thenightmarish Disneyland that it is haunted me in the best way possible.

If more Fallout 4 is what you want, then this is certainly that. Those looking to continue blowing away enemies will undoubtedly still find the meaty content enjoyable, but for those looking for an in-depth role playing experience will be left disappointed. Cool ideas are littered throughout Nuka World, but  there’s also a lot of untapped potential that makes this DLC a weak – and unfortunate- final sendoff. It’s still Fallout 4, and that’s a saving grace, but cutting out memorable lore and handcuffing morality choices eliminates the roleplaying aspect and leaves just a fairly bland shooter behind.

This review is based on a review copy of the PlayStation 4 version of the Fallout 4 seasons pass content Nuka World by Bethesda Game Studios. Review copy of the season pass, including Nuka World, provided by Bethesda Softworks.