The final DLC for Fallout 4 has released and in it you are tasked with journeying to the mysterious Nuka-Cola themed Nuka-World. Being the final piece of DLC for Fallout 4, this serves as the final chapter of the game and is the last chance we’ll get to explore this wonderfully crafted world. This isn’t the best note to end on, but I still had a lot of fun while exploring Nuka-World.
You begin the DLC in the typical fashion: You pick up a radio signal and you are tasked with listening in. Once you journey to the Nuka-World transportation center, you encounter a wounded man who convinces you to activate the monorail and hop aboard to save his family. You quickly are informed that it was a trap and you are then thrown into the ‘Gauntlet’, which is a messed up obstacle course with one purpose: To kill you. Events transpire that see you thrown to the top of the raider leadership ranks and you begin the task of cleaning up Nuka-World and taking over the various hubs for the three gangs that call the park home. The gangs call themselves the Disciples, the Pack, and the Operators (my personal favorite).
The process of cleaning up the park is actually pretty fun. Each hub serves as a small world with tons of secrets to discover. These hubs are extremely unique and have different music and enemies for each one. My favorite has to be Galactic Zone because it has such a fun and futuristic vibe to it. One of the attractions you are tasked with exploring is an exhibit created by Vault-Tec. Inside the attraction, you come across some rather interesting messages hidden within terminals that shed light on what was really happening at Nuka-World. Every area has some of these terminals and they provide some pretty interesting back stories to the rides and the Nuka-Cola corporation.
After taking back the park, you meet a character that’s sole purpose is to be a new Preston Garvey of sorts. Since you are the leader of the Nuka-World raiders, you are the man (or lady) in charge of expanding the operation to the peaceful Commonwealth. Similar to creating settlements for the Minutemen, you create outposts for your raiders to live in and to also harass the locals. I found this part of the DLC rather unnerving. You could either convince/pay people to leave their land, or you could kill them all in cold blood for their land. Either path leaves you in bad graces with Preston and you become a villain of the Commonwealth. I always play as the good guy in games and I find it hard to take the villainous route. I had ethical conflicts with some of the choices I made in the Far Harbor expansion as well, and I still felt guilty for murdering a settlement full of hard working farmers who had done me no wrong.
In regards to gameplay, it’s still the exact same game as Fallout 4. There are no major changes, and that is a good thing. I love the combat and gameplay in this game, so this is a great thing for fans of the series. While on the topic of gameplay, I experienced zero performance issues during my roughly ten hour playthrough, which made me extremely happy!
The weakest part of the DLC isn’t the gameplay, characters, or new area, but rather the story itself. It felt short and not as prominent as it was in Far Harbor. The conflict that presents itself in Nuka-World is done so to little fanfare and it feels rushed. I would have loved for a more mature and fleshed out story similar to the one presented in Far Harbor, but I still enjoyed what was in Nuka-World.
Summary
Nuka-World signals the end of Fallout 4 and the team at Bethesda should be proud of the game they’ve created. Nuka-World gives you several more hours in the wastelands of Fallout 4 and scratches the exploration itch one more time. So till next time my dear friend, remember one thing . . .
War. War never changes.
Jonathan was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 57 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @jtainsworth13.