#fallout quest

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The game will begin with your character being woken up from cyro sleep. Codsworth the Mr Handy robot is the one who welcomes into the world. Codsworth will belong to vault tech and is not yours like in the original. Codsworth will explain your player character seems to be suffering from a bit of amnesia from being frozen for so long. Codsworth will try to get you to remember who you are. This will lead into the customization screen and you’ll also choose your special stats. Afterwards Codsworth will explain he doesn’t know why everyone is dead. You can pass a speech check where he explains that someone activated him and told him to release you. He doesn’t know who or why. You can of course look around the vault and if you pay close attention you will notice one of the vault dwellers has a gun shot wound. If you search them you can find a wedding ring. After you finish exploring the vault you and Codsworth will leave the vault and head to Sanctuary Hill. 

I feel placing the opening sequence later in the story makes for an interesting mystery. Who are you? Who were those people with you in the vault with you and why are the all dead? Why did someone release you? This way you can get to know your character and decided who they are by the way you play. You did not need some holotape that over explains your backstory and will always be there no matter what. Did we need to know that Nate and Nora were a solider and lawyer? No. And I understand that some people don’t like Codsworth being a household Mr Handy because they were generally used in military bases or as guards. Making Codsworth a vault tech Mr. Handy that was activated by Shaun to wake up your character a bit more believable. I will expand on Codsworth in this new role in another post.

The game can pretty much proceed as normal as you meet the Synth Detective Nick Valentine and he takes you Dr. Amari in The Memory Den in Good Neighbor. Remember your character is suffering from slight amnesia and the pods in The Memory Den will help you unlock the mystery of what happened in the vault. When you are hooked up to the memory pod the original the opening sequence set during pre-war will play out. This is where you’re revealed to have a spouse and baby, then the bombs fell, you were rushed to the vault and frozen. So the random vault dweller with the gunshot wound whose ring you probably sold for caps was your spouse. But how did they die? The memory den will glitch. You’ll see a man in front of cryo pod and before you can get anymore answers the memory starts glitching and you are pulled from the memory. Dr. Amari will explain that your character seems to repressing the memory and there was a danger of hurting you if she tried to force you to remember. Nick will comment that he knows the man who is Kellogg and you will track him down like in the original story. When you retrieve the chip from Kellogg’s brain you watch from his perspective that he murdered your spouse all while you helpless banged against your cryo pod and took your baby to the Institute. The same Institute that your character has learned from the locals is a terror of the Common Wealth. There will be a memory where you can see old Shaun but the player doesn’t know that this is our son yet. It will be very obvious who those persons that gave your character extreme proportions. But for now you will only know this person as Kellogg's boss and the leader of the Institute. Shaun will tell Kellogg to track down and kill Virgil and Kellogg will state in the memory that Vigil is in the glowing sea so he couldn’t get to him. Your next objective is to find Vigil and find a way to save your son from the Institute.

Because I moved the orginal pre-war back story I didn’t want to show the killing of your spouse again from Kellogg’s perspective. It just keeps the pace flowing. In the orginal story showing your spouse’s death once was tragic. Showing it again from a different angle is just “Alright cool, I can see my character banging their hands against the glass.” As you tried to find Kellogg you should have learned with your interactions with the NPCs of the world you should be able to draw your conclusions of the Institute. How much of what people say is true? If they really are that bad what does that mean for your son? You now can put a face to who is in charge of all the abductions and fear mongering. When you find Virgil he can confirm all the horrible things the Institute has done but also the good as well. Vigil can put that doubt in your mind that maybe they aren’t all that bad. Any good or bad sad against the Institute the player will always have their leader’s face in their minds.

Honestly speaking the biggest failing in the main story of Fallout 4 story is that I do not care for Shaun and the Institute. They are a terrible faction because they are never given a good reason for anything they do. Which is a darn shame because they have a lot of plot threads that lead no where. Why did they kick ghouls out of Diamond City? Why are they making Synths and still turn around and treat them like slaves when they have robots? What is the point of replacing people when you are capable of just paying off the traders for information? They have a lot of protentional that could make a player ask a lot of moral questions but writing just drops the plot as quickly as it is picked up.

Like in my original re-write of the Fallout 4 main story your character would have amnesia. So you won’t know that Kellog killed your spouse and took your baby. You’ll only learn this later when using the Memory Den for the second time. So you’ll come across Kellog in Concord surrounded by dead raiders. When you enter the conversation with him he’ll subtly hint that he knows you. But he realizes you don’t recognize him. He’ll tell you about the raiders that locked themselves in the museum  in fear after they tried to kill him. The player will probably think nothing of it because their just raiders after all. But even this little interaction has consequences later in showing what kind of man Kellog is. Spoiler alert those seemly random raiders are members of the Rail Road. For now whatever you decide Kellog will then point you to Diamond City.

When you reach Diamond City it will play like normal. Piper and the Mayor will have their interaction. However the mayor will refuse to let you in. But then Kellog shows up and he’ll tell the mayor to let you and Piper in. The will Mayor happily agree without a second thought. It’s from this interaction you should get the feeling that Kellog’s word is law in Diamond City.  And Piper will also get suspicious and call Kellog out on this. But Kellog nonchalantly will dismiss Piper’s claims. He will then turn to the player and tell them to come talk to him if they want to get to know the city. Kellog will tell you that Diamond City is highly safe. Like a sheep pen with a pack of wolves hiding in it. Are you a mindless sheep? The player can admit that they don’t know who they are and Kellog will point you to Nick Valentine agency.

After freeing Nick and he will suggest using The Memory Den to help you remember. It is revealed that you lived in pre-war, had a spouse and baby. The memory den will glitch and you’ll see Kellog’s face as he was standing in front of your cryo pod. You won’t see him kill your spouse yet but that will be confirmed later when viewing his memories. Right now there should be this feeling of betrayal that the guy who has been so helpful to you had something to do with your dead spouse and missing baby. You need to find him and ask him what he had to do with the vault and your family. So you’ll got to Kellog’s house, break in but he’s not there. He left a message on a holotape telling you to not come find him. But you need answers so you’ll track him down anyway. And before you fight he’ll ask what you expect to find. Maybe the answers you’re searching for won’t have an out come you’ll like. Have you considered that you’re son will not want anything to do with you? Are you willing to continue this path? Of course you are. Shaun is your son and you want him back no matter what it takes. To this Kellog will chuckle and admit that he actually likes you. He will tell you that if you want answers then kill him and take the chip from his head.

Once you take the chip to The Memory Den you will see that Kellog had a family he wanted to protect but someone took them from him. He tracks down the people who wronged him. While on his path for revenge he became cruel. Nothing got in his way. But even after he got revenge he was empty. It’s then he’s approached by the Institute due to his reputation of getting things done no matter what. Kellog only takes the job because the pay is great.  We then see Kellog kill your spouse and take your baby. It was all just business to him. As he looks in your cryo pod he thinks that he should kill you. He knows what a monster a person can become when they have family ripped away. But he doesn’t kill you because he wouldn’t get paid. It’s just business after all. The turning point of memory is when you see a young Shaun. Kellog will say that he loves the boy like he was his own. It hurts to look at him knowing what he’s done. He thinks that one day he’ll tell the kid what he’s done. But for now whatever the kid wants he’ll do it. The final memory is Kellog talking to X6-88 who told Kellog that Father wants him to track down Virgil. Leaving Virgil alive will cause problems in the future because of what he knows. Now the player knows to go find Virgil to get to the Institute. You’ll find who ever this Father is and make them pay for what they did to your family.

When you do get to The Institute and talk with Shaun he’ll admit that he’s the leader and the one who he released you. Maybe because some part of him felt like he owed you because you are his parent. But he now regrets it because even after what Kellog did he didn’t think he deserved  to die. After all Kellog was like a father to him and did what he asked without question. But since you’re his real parent he will give you a chance to see what the Institute is all about.

As you go about the Institute you’ll get the vibe that Kellog was feared but respected. He was brutal in his methods but it made the goals of the Institute of  possible. He trained a lot of the coursers and it’s why they are so dangerous. X6-88 will admit that he hated you because you killed someone who he highly respected. As you earn Shaun’s trust by doing jobs for the Institute the people will come to fear and respect you like Kellog did. And in a way you’ll mirror Kellog’s journey. He had someone take his family away, went out for revenge and by the end did horrible things because he cared for Shaun like he was his own.