In the 100+ hours I’ve played Fallout 4, I’ve been a pretty heroic dude. Well…with one exception.
It’s funny: I used to play older Fallouts as a kleptomaniac, pretty much, but Fallout 4 is a rather generous game. I’ve never really hurt for caps, or weapons, which means that, for the most part, I haven’t really stolen much from other people.
Even when it would be absurdly easy, and the gains would be significant…
…I refrained. I mean, how could I steal from someone who says things like this?
I thought I could keep this “benevolence” going, and I did! For dozens of hours, I kept my sticky fingers to myself. And then I met the Brotherhood.
Oh, the Brotherhood. There’s no way around this: the Brotherhood are dicks. Enormous arseholes. The absolute worst. There is nobody I hate more in Fallout 4 than the Brotherhood. Can you blame me? The overzealous arseholes just stormed into the Commonwealth, acting like they own the place. They feel that they are entitled to every significant piece of technology out in the wasteland, and they’re not fond of sharing.
The Brotherhood’s ideology doesn’t even make any sense in Fallout 4. The Brotherhood of Steel is supposed to be about the preservation and protection of technology. Their leader, Elder Maxson, takes this to mean that the Brotherhood must destroy all synths. He views synths as a threat to humanity, and endeavours to wipe that threat out. Why not, I don’t know, preserve that technology like they’re supposed to and maybe use it for good? Why not learn from it, maybe? But no. You have to destroy the Institute if you side with the Brotherhood. Bleh.
Maybe I’m biased. My favourite companion is Nick Valentine, the synth you meet at Diamond City. And just look at how the Brotherhood of Steel treats him:
Oh hell naw.
Still, I kept my cool. I did some story missions for the Brotherhood, because I wanted to unlock their Vertiberd upgrade. It’s a pretty good perk — you can call a Vertiberd to your location, and it can take you anywhere you want, even if you’re overencumbered. The mini-gun onboard is neat, too.
While the Brotherhood has its perks, eventually their attitude just got to me. It’s just awful, especially when you consider some of the most distasteful things they have you do during their faction quests. Then they have the nerve to say stuff like this:
Mostly, though, I blame this guy.
This fucking guy, right here. Proctor Teagan. If you talk to him, he’ll send you on a revolting quest where you have to force farmers to give crops to the Brotherhood, regardless of whether or not they want to. And it’s strongly suggested by Teagan that you should use whatever means necessary to get farmers to comply.
While this is typical Brotherhood attitude — they have always been giant dicks, really — I also know that farmers in the Commonwealth have a pretty huge target on their back. I know how often farms get hit by raiders, how often they get killed for their precious resources. The only difference between a Raider and a Brotherhood soldier is that Raiders are at least honest about how bad they really are.
After speaking to Teagan, I something in his shop caught my eye.
That Power Armour helmet? It’s the X-01 Power Armour helmet. That’s the best armour in the game. And Teagan just had this helmet sitting right there, out in the open. I already owned one, but I couldn’t help thinking: what else might Teagan have hiding back there?
My old ways called back to me. I hatched a plan: I would break into the armory. Even if it meant breaking down a Master lock. Even if I had to do it in plain sight.
Once inside, I noticed this beauty:
The Gauss rifle. In the dozens of hours that I had sunk into Fallout 4, I had never come across this gun before — and I wanted it. I knew this one wasn’t mine, but listen: the Gauss rifle was my most anticipated weapon in Fallout 4. And there it was, for the taking! I couldn’t help myself. I nabbed the Gauss rifle, one of the Brotherhood’s rarest assets.
And that’s how I ended up with one of the best guns in the game.
I took everything else, too. I have no regrets. The Brotherhood deserved it. Besides, this is pretty mild in comparison to what I have in store for them down the line. Let’s just say I doubt the Prydwen will be in the air for much longer…
We all have moments like this in Fallout, I know. Back when we were doing a retrospective series on New Vegas, Kirk detailed his experience with The Silver Rush, that one place he just had to rob. So, I’m curious: what was a place you just had to steal from in Fallout 4, and why wasn’t it the Brotherhood of Steel?
Comments
46 responses to “Fallout 4’s Brotherhood Of Steel Are Giant Dicks”
I did one Proctor Teagan mission, and didn’t like it at all. Never again.
I have the same reaction to any of the stupid repeatable quests in this game, Teagan will tell you to go to Abernathy Farm and get crops then you take the quest back and he’s like “You did good there but there are still more farms I need you to hit up, go hit up Abernathy Farm then get back to me”
I cant wait for a mod that removes all these idiotic quests from the game so I know if what I am doing is progression or a waste of my time.
These quests are why Preston is by far the worst companion in the game.
It quickly becomes apparent which quests simply aren’t necessary, I just wish Preston wouldn’t give you any of the repeatable “kill ghouls, rinse, repeat” missions until AFTER all the settlements are unlocked. Sometimes I had to do 2-3 randomly generated quests before he’d tell me about a new settlement.
You don’t need a mod, just don’t do them. The only reason the ‘endless cycle’ quests are there is for grinding purposes really. Such as the ‘cleansing the commonwealth’ ones. They’ve got around two dozen locations each they cycle through continuously.
It was mostly about Preston, I wanted to use him as a companion but all the time he will just automatically start repeatable quests for me so my quest log always has 3 of these quests in them.
Yeah, the radiant questgivers are good for faction rep and grinding and not much else
Is that why they’re so popular with the ladies?
They didn’t bother me up until
they asked me to kill Danse. Pretty much the most loyal member of the Brotherhood. I let him live of course, and enjoyed watching the Prydwen crash and burn.Lol – why did i click “view spoiler”… lmao
11 hours in – not anywhere near this stuff yet so thought it wouldnt be anything im across lol
Theres another faction you can choose to join right?! I still havent spent much time in the Commonwealth!
There’s several factions you can join, so no worries about that. Good luck in the wasteland
I’m going to need it…
Last night picked it up without playing for a week or so thinking i would have no idea where i was – kids and shit – but i was pleasantly surprised that it was all pretty straightforward still – a long way to go im guessing that means!!!
There are 4 main factions in Fallout 4. You can technically join all of them, but suffice to say that kind of arrangement probably won’t last in the long term.
Yeah. I had enough charisma to stay and save him, but still made me what a moron maxon is.
They are pretend, so generally I put my actions into perspective with the overall themes and story and work out what my place in the narrative is rather than judging everything. It’s almost like people don’t understand conflict is necessary for growth and are more concerned with making the story in line with their politics than having to move through challenging scenarios.
So with that said, they intimidated me with their racist/synthist beliefs and I’ve steered clear of them like sneezy pollen. Wonder what happens if I just run away and never see them again…
i like that you cna destroy all their airships and patrols before heading there and they are oblivious. x]
and heres some cut contents thats end up on the offical forums spoiler board reguarding the current dickishness of the BoS
obviously dont click if you dont want spoilered cut content
http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1566632-cut-brotherhood-of-steel-alternate-endings/BoS are always elitist pricks. They’re interested in controlling tech and, if they’re not in charge, they serve their own interests until they see an opportunity to move in. Mad respect for all Elder Maxson achieved, but that doesn’t mean his interests are those of the Commonwealth.
I went Minutemen/Railroad all the way. I didn’t oppose the BoS, I just didn’t support them, either.
I’ve read some spoilers and have a feeling I’m going to have to go with the Institute. Cos feelings.
I was thinking that too, I was even willing to overlook a certain lab and it’s horrific experiments and I’d just treat the director like human garbage
Then I discovered they’d sanctioned the massacre of the settlement at University point purely because one of the settlers had stumbled accross incomplete energy research notes and they couldn’t find the complete set fast enough (2 days to find them in flooded ruins)
I killed every scientist in that facility
Stoked over finding a gauss rifle? Heh. You know, just inside a couple hours you can take back the Castle to unlock a vendor who will just SELL you a unique legendary one.
I just got given a gauss rifle from a railroad quest actually. But robbing those douchebags does sound very appealing…
I haven’t seen a unique one on any vendor so far, but there are gauss rifles in each Skylanes wreckage.
It’s a special vendor who opens up once you complete her questline in the Castle. (It’s a themed unique weapon.)
Everyone are dicks.
– Each faction stand on their own obnoxious moral high ground, and they’re an asshole to anyone who isn’t a resident of their group.
– Every faction doesn’t care who they hurt, as long as they forward their own agenda.
– The Institute kidnap and procure resources with trigger-happy terminators. They constantly say they’re saving the commonwealth but it’s clear they don’t care about its current inhabitants.
– The Brotherhood unlawfully confiscate technology and cause more collateral damage thanks to their constantly falling and exploding vertibirds. They also have a giant racist robot.
– The Railroad nonchalantly blow up facilities without evacuating human lives. But, god forbid, if there were a synth in there, they’ll sacrifice their agents to try and save the japanese sex robot.
– Minutemen. Bloody Minutement. Preston Garvey won’t stop sending me on boring/soul-crushing respawned missions. Kill this, save that, get this, do that. Also, once you join them, you can’t leave them! If only there was an option where one of the other factions could destroy their castle stronghold.
“Everyone are dicks.” Absolutely this.
It’s pretty much always been par for the course in Fallout games too, so why it surprises people is beyond me. I’ve done a bunch of the same quests on two different characters so far, choosing different options per character and in most cases both sides are being assholes in some way.
Even when you think you’re doing the right thing and helping someone less fortunate, it rarely turns out to be the case… Generally its more along the lines of you just helped some lying fucker screw over someone else.
There’s no law in the wasteland, friend, except for the law of power. The Brotherhood definitely wields a lot of that.
Would ‘unrightfully’ would be a better word? Unjust? Unfair?
They take stuff, like dicks, is what I’m trying to say =P
The beauty of a well-written character or group is that there’s no clear distinction between good and bad =) I think the Brotherhood fits that bill pretty nicely. Their mindset isn’t an unsympathetic one. The Brotherhood was founded because abuse of technology (pre-war), particularly the FEV virus, had reached ridiculously unethical levels. Look no further than VaultTec for a prime example of the depths of corruption that were par for the course. The war itself just reinforced that the tech developed by those that came before was dangerous, that humans are generally too reckless to wield it and that if it’s not controlled it will probably lead to another disaster, if not wipe humanity out altogether.
The racism side of things is sad, but there are pretty solid reasons behind why they’re so stringent about control of technology. If the supposedly trustworthy governments and corporations that created all the tech couldn’t be trusted not to abuse it, I definitely don’t want it in the hands of some jet fiend raider with schizophrenia and an axe to grind!
I actually quite liked that none of the factions are black and white good/evil.
The Brotherhood are one of the few factions able to offer some semblance of stability and safety – at the expense of civil liberties, racism, discrimination and concentrating all power in the hands of a fascist dictatorship.The Railroad have an admirable mission in the form of liberating synths from the Institute, but they have no long term goals or plans for actually rebuilding the Wasteland. You could also argue that liberating synths puts humans in danger, but I don’t agree with that notion. Look at Nick and the some of the Gen 3s you free. Plus, when you blow up the Institute, you’re removing the ability for them to ‘factory rest’ the Gen 3s.
The Institute are probably the most objectively “evil” faction, given they kidnap humans and replace them with synths. Plus they’re responsible for the Super Mutants in the Commonwealth. But even then, you could argue that they’re doing everything with the goal of rebuilding the Wasteland on a clean, “perfect” slate.
The Minutemen are probably the most pure “good” faction, but they exist largely as a backup to finish the story in case you piss off all the others. Even then, you could argue that while they’re “good” people, they don’t have a long term plan for actually improving anything. Their MO is basically “keep the people safe but business as usual”.
TL;DR no faction is pure bad or pure good, they all exist along a spectrum of greys. For what it’s worth, I sided with the Railroad.
Which do you think could do the most good? i would say the institute, provided you greatly change the way they handle synth fieldwork and bio-enhancement testing.The railroad would tie in second with brohood since they both have effective methods but limitations.
Brohood limitations would be in their personell being vastly inflexible and their associated groups being viciously self-righteous.
Railroad’s flaws in unreasonable shortsighted prioraties or lacking numbers…though they do have much more effective skills than the brotherhood and maybe even the institute provided what they can do in their lacking of resources.
That’s the thing (and what I like most about it) – “good” is entirely a matter of perspective, and who the audience is. Each faction is utterly convinced that their way is the “right” way.The Institute, for example, probably does have the greatest chance to rebuild the world. Except, their vision of the world is one where everyone has been replaced by Synths and all the humans are dead.
With the Brotherhood, so long as you’re a human, I’m sure life would be lovely and relatively safe, provided you don’t mind living in a dictatorship. But if you’re a sentient Ghoul or Super Mutant, tough shit. Ditto if you’re one of the good Synths like Nick or DOUBLE SPOILER Curie or Danse.
The Railroad probably have the least chance of doing good in terms of saving the Commonwealth, but that’s because that was never their goal. Their goal was only ever freedom for Synths, which in my opinion is second only to the Minutemen in terms of ‘righteousness’ and ‘justice’.
Speaking of the Minutemen, they’re never going to transform the Wasteland or rebuild the world like the Brotherhood or Institute could. The Wasteland under them will mostly continue to be the same, with all the danger that brings (though with an army of Minutemen to help protect people). However, the Wasteland under them will also be the most free and egalitarian.
It’s the same in New Vegas for example. The Legion are almost cackling James Bond villain evil, and you’re in for a shit time if you’re on their bad list, but there’s a lot of evidence in the game that at the very least for the people left under their control/protection, life was pretty safe and secure.
Compare that to the NCR, who can be corrupt, inefficient, not necessarily the best at protecting their people, but at least it’s a democracy.
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Wow, I didn’t expect that to turn into such a novel haha. I think it’s great that some of the factions/stories in the Fallout series can prompt such in depth discussion around their grey areas and differences of opinion.
The institue wanted to influence by replacing those in power from what i saw. What would be the point if you replace everyone with synthetics? Im sure their goals (Father’s goals) are in helping to guide and assure the future of humanity, not dominate it.
The first picture looks like he’s trying to do ‘the robot’. Funny really.
You’re all synth lovers.
BoS all the way, ad victoriam!
i didnt mind the hoarding technology aspect seeing as i horde weapons and armour and ammunition but the BoS never gave me any explanation of their reasoning that synths, or ghouls and super mutants should be destroyed.
none of the factions make me think yeah these are my people.
none of the factions have given me a reason to side with their ideologies.
i would wipe the commonwealth clean if one of them gave me a half decent reason.
BoS was the only ending i actually thought id never see so i checked the fallout wiki to see what the end game is with them.
Sythns, ghouls and super mutants are unnatrual and a threat to the human race.
ghouls and super mutants are a natural reaction to radiation, both ghouls and super mutants have the ability to interact with humans and remain peaceful, and you cant tell the difference between synths and humans, the stories you hear of synths are either they do human things like lead groups of raiders or they commit mass murder, or not want to be treated as slaves. humans flying is unnatural, yet the BoS use airships and vertibirds.
except flying isn’t a human mutation.
Super Mutants are not a natural reaction. They are abominations created by the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). The Brotherhood of Steel were founded because Roger Maxson discovered the scientists of the base he was protecting were using prisoners for experiments with the F.E.V. This was before the war. The war then hit, and the base he was in survived, but the F.E.V. had already leaked into the wasteland, creating most of the abominations in it, floaters, centaurs, deathclaws, Super Mutants and even some Ghouls, for example, Harold was created using the FEV. So the Brotherhood of Steel’s idea is simply to destroy the Abominations, for the safety of Humanity.
I ended up siding with the brotherhood. The railway appealed, but in the end giant robots win. I actually disliked the institute the most, they have a far larger superiority complex.
“We don’t want to interfere in the pointless details of your day to day lives” (or something like that.
At least the brotherhood blow up raiders, ghouls and super mutants.
As for why synths are a threat, maybe they watched a Terminator movie? The top generation synths have no issues killing people (well, any more than other people do), plus they are stronger and faster. Synths could easily take over the institute and replace all of humanity. They are science for sciences sake, rather than the betterment of humanity. Hell, they are treated as slaves.
Either way, it is just a game, and I agree that all factions have good and bad sides. None of them is ‘the good guy’.
For the stage of the game I’m at (a little past the progress in this article) the Brotherhood seem a bit heavy handed but I don’t know much about the institute yet. I’ve heard the rumours that they abduct people, I know they hired a merc that harmed my character personally and I know they have lethal robots out wandering around that attack me on sight.
What I don’t know are their reasons for doing these things. Sure they abduct people, but if its the life of one vs the life of a million type thing it goes into a bit more of a moral grey area. Same with the brotherhood, they want food to feed the troops, they somehow don’t seem to have the resources to buy it so they strong arm farmers into supplying them. They think they’re doing it for good reasons and that the farmers will eventually be better off.
So basically at the moment I’m reserving judgement until I see more.
I’m in the institute now…. and I spend 3 play though gunning down them all the reloading and trying to talk my way though.
Frankly the big reveal shocked me… shot him before he opened his mouth the first quick save.
Should have been a achievement for that I think.
for fucks sake.
stop spoiling shit.
Institute all the way. I like to sleep in clean sheets. 😀
They have always been assholes. When I met them the first time in 4 my reaction was: oh, these assholes again.
Haven’t done anything for them apart from helping them out in an initial meet and greet mission.
The brotherhood have been dicks in all fallout games but fallout 3.
The only reason to do anything with them in the past was power armor.
and the hope that you can convince them that sharing the technology is a better idea than just hording it underground like some kind of Enclave lite.
This whole article is suffers from the authors misconceptions of the Brotherhoods ideology. Their purpose is not the preservation and protection of technology, it is the preservation and protection of humanity FROM technology. Destroying the synths is perfectly in line with that ideology as they are an advanced AI that presents the threat of overrunning humanity.
You just went full retard. This is what you’re saying:
“The raiders who are merciless cold hearted murderers that torture people for fun are all right because they know they’re bad. While the Brotherhood of Steel who try to preserve humanity’s knowledge are giant dicks.”
ATTENTION GAMERS: If you like the Brotherhood, but don’t like how Elder Maxson runs things, then you have a chance to share your voice. As you may or may not know, fellow gamers named Todd Howard and Larry Goddard Jr has started a petition for Bethesda to finish and release the *cut Brotherhood ending in Fallout 4.* This is a hidden Brotherhood of Steel alternate cut ending based on uncovered audio files where after the exile, there is a conversation with Paladin Danse where you have the option to challenge Elder Maxson’s authority, TAKE HIM OUT and TAKEOVER as the new Elder and commander of the Brotherhood of Steel. Of course, Elder Maxson and his supporters are not gonna go down without a fight, but you have the opportunity to take his place and convince the Brotherhood of Steel to change their ways, revert back to being heroic knights in shining amour and accept Paladin Danse back into the fold, *and of course, get Maxson’s awesome battlecoat.* We know that Paladin Danse is one heck of a soldier, and he shows true heart and loyalty to the Brotherhood. In spite of the flaws, Paladin Danse deserves a chance, and the Brotherhood deserves a chance to redeem themselves. The Commonwealth deserves the chance to see the true side of the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood deserves better leadership. It’s one thing to have all this tech and firepower, but it’s another thing to have it all go to waste and earn a bad name and reputation because of who is leading and how they lead and use their power. If you want to see this happen, visit the link provided below and support the petition: https://www.change.org/p/todd-howard-bethesda-finish-and-release-the-cut-brotherhood-ending-in-fallout-4. For additional information and insight, visit these links here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la3XdD4zHUg, http://moviepilot.com/posts/3673518. The power is in the voice of the gamers, the choice is yours.