Fallout 4: Far Harbor is an expansion pack for the 2015 video game Fallout 4, developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Far Harbor was released on May 19, 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One as downloadable content (DLC). The game is set in the year 2287, in the aftermath of a nuclear war that destroys most of the United States. In the expansion, the player character is recruited by a detective agency to investigate the disappearance of a young girl living in a remote area.
The game can be played in first-person or third-person perspective; in either case, the player controls the protagonist throughout their investigation on The Island, a landmass off the coast of Maine. Far Harbor's main gameplay consists of quests and puzzle sections. Upon completing the quests in the game, the player is rewarded with bottle caps from Nuka-Cola bottles (the franchise's main fictional currency), and experience points. The puzzles feature a variety of different game mechanics; some require the player to hit targets with lasers, and others allow building using blocks.
Far Harbor's announcement was made three months after the release of Fallout 4. The expansion was influenced by player feedback regarding the base game's dialogue system, which was not considered to be as successful as the other game mechanics. The development team also noticed the players' interest in releases that added large amounts of explorable territory. The price of Fallout 4's season pass was increased because of the expansion's size. The expansion received generally favorable reviews from critics. The addition of new quests was praised, but there were mixed opinions on the expansion's atmosphere and its use of fog. The main criticisms were directed at the puzzles, which reviewers thought were a waste of time, unnecessary, or overly frustrating. In July 2016, Guillaume Veer accused Bethesda of copying his Fallout: New Vegas mod, named Autumn Leaves, though Veer said that he was not upset even if Bethesda had deliberately incorporated material from Autumn Leaves in Far Harbor.
Gameplay
Fallout 4: Far Harbor is an expansion pack for the action role-playing game, Fallout 4, the fifth installment in the Fallout series. It is set 210 years after "The Great War", which resulted in nuclear devastation across the United States. The expansion is similar to the base game in that the player character (the "Sole Survivor") is tasked with investigating a character's disappearance. In the base game, the player is searching for their lost family, while in Far Harbor, the player is recruited by the Valentine Detective Agency to investigate the disappearance of a young girl named Kasumi. Both the base game and the expansion pack offer the ability to swap between first-person and third-person perspectives. The expansion is set on a radioactive, fog-smothered island, and is located in Fallout's version of Bar Harbor, a town in Hancock County, Maine. Far Harbor features three factions which include both violent and peaceful non-player characters.
The expansion contains quests and puzzles that the player must solve. There are different ways to complete quests, all with their own pitfalls. Peaceful resolutions can be made with characters and factions, though these can have ill effects, such as releasing secrets or worsening relations with other factions. Violent completion of quests may be faster, though they can result in the weakening of alliances between the player and the factions. In some of the puzzle sections, the player directs lasers to hit designated targets; others require the player to build with blocks, as in Minecraft. Puzzle sections were not featured in the base game. Upon completion of quests, the assisted factions reward the protagonist with Nuka-Cola bottle caps, one of the fictional currencies found throughout the Fallout series. The player character also gains experience points. Some of the quests include investigating minor mysteries, retrieving missing items, solving disagreements, and clearing out monster-infested areas.
One of the gameplay mechanics which carried over from the previous iterations is V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System). While using V.A.T.S., real-time combat is slowed, allowing the player to choose where to shoot the enemy: shooting enemies in the head will typically result in death while shooting their legs can slow them. Weapons can also be shot at to disarm the enemy. Using V.A.T.S. lowers the player's stamina (Action Points, or AP). Some actions are unavailable to the player if their stamina is insufficient, in which case the player has to wait for their AP to regenerate. The use of Power Armor in combat increases the rate at which the player's AP are used. The Pip-Boy, a small computer strapped to the character's wrist, also plays a role in both Fallout 4 and Far Harbor. It contains a menu which the player can access to view maps, statistics, data, and items, and when the player is able to visit Far Harbor, the Pip-boy will receive a signal from Valentine's Detective Agency.
