While Fallout 76 never quite lived up to expectations, Fallout 4 was a commercial and critical success. With many fans uninterested in Fallout 76 but wanting their fix of the post-apocalyptic, retro-futuristic world, Fallout 4 is arguably the best option with tons of content to explore. Even with the immense open-worlds in Fallout, avid players will eventually explore all the world offers; as such, DLC can be great for reinvigorating a game with new content. Fallout has a well-established track record of interesting DLCs, and the DLC for Fallout: New Vegas in particular is very memorable for most Fallout fans.
Fallout 4 has three story-based DLC expansions, three workshop add-ons, and one high-res texture pack. All have pros and cons, but some fans who are mostly driven by the story and less interested in the workshop mechanics will prefer the story DLC, and vice versa. The reception to the different DLCs was varied, and some have more content than others. There's a season pass to get access to all of this content for those interested, though it may be more advantageous to buy them separately depending on one's particular preferences.
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Automatron
The first Fallout 4 DLC released was Automatron, and as the name suggests, it was all about robots. Automatron sees the sole survivor investigating the mysterious Mechanist, with a variety of new supporting characters introduced. While this DLC is a little buggy, as Bethesda is notorious for, it does introduce an exciting mechanic that lets players modify their robot companions or build entirely new automatrons. The questline is combat-heavy, and on release this DLC received pretty mixed reviews. However, Automatron has plenty of fans, with many finding the questline to be rewarding and the new mechanics to be pretty fun.
Wasteland Workshop
The second DLC for Fallout 4 is an expansion of the workshop. Settlement building was a new mechanic introduced in Fallout 4, and some players quickly got creative with it. As such, additional items to craft were welcome additions; the Wasteland Workshop adds quite a few of these, including the ability to build cages to trap animals and enemies. Players can then build arenas and stage fights between their captured foes. On release, the response to Wasteland Workshop wasn't great, but this was largely based on expectations for more robust DLC. In retrospect, Wasteland Workshop adds a number of cool new decoration possibilities that are definitely best suited for those who enjoy settlement building.
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Far Harbor
Far Harbor is the most well-received Fallout 4 addition. This DLC introduces multiple factions and a host of new characters, including Fallout 4 favorite, Nick Valentine. What players love about Far Harbor is its complex narrative with multiple choices that feel closer to what fans love about the Fallout series overall. There is a huge amount of content to explore in Far Harbor, including an entire new island. The storyline is better experienced than explained, but for fans of Fallout, especially those who enjoy narratives, this DLC is worth checking out.
Contraptions Workshop
The Contraptions Workshop DLC adds even more buildable items for settlements, such as display racks for armor and weapons. Like the previous workshop expansion, this is best suited to players who enjoy settlement building, but generally this workshop expansion is seen as having more functional than decorative items, despite some nice additions for making a souped-up settlement such as elevators. This DLC also received mixed reviews, and was seen as a modest addition to Fallout 4. Therefore Contraptions Workshop should be a considered purchase based on how much a player would utilize its available items.
Vault-Tec Workshop
By far the most exciting feature in Fallout 4's fifth DLC, Vault-Tec Workshop, is that players can build their own vault. Since the vault shelters are iconic parts of the Fallout franchise, the gimmick of being able to build them was enough to sell many players on this DLC. Vault-Tec Workshop also includes a short storyline and some new achievements, but again should mostly appeal to fans of settlement building. Unlike the other workshop expansions, Vault-Tec could interest general players since building a vault is such an exciting possibility. Beyond vault building, this DLC doesn't offer a huge amount of additional content, and knowing that will help expectations going in.
Nuka-World
Fallout 4's final story addition, Nuka-World, didn't quite live up to previous story additions. Like Far Harbor, Nuka-World introduces new locations, characters, and factions, but many players feel that the storyline was like any other quest rather than Fallout 4's big conclusion. The locations players can explore in this DLC are impressive and vast, and it likely would have received better reviews based on gameplay if it wasn't the final story addition. A major element in Nuka-World is giving players the ability to live out their Raider dreams and play as an evil character. Players who like the sound of playing as a raider will probably enjoy this DLC, but players who don't may be disappointed by the DLCs offerings.
High-Resolution Texture Pack
The final DLC released for Fallout 4 is only available on PC and is simply a texture pack to make the game look better. Naturally, players will need a decent computer to run this, and at 58 GB it's a sizeable pack. Since this DLC is free, PC players with enough space who would like to see the game in a higher resolution can fire away. However, it's worth knowing ahead of time that many players reported not noticing much change in the resolution, especially for the storage taken up.
For any Fallout fans who miss playing the games while eagerly awaiting a new entry, Fallout 4 has a pretty diverse range of DLC to explore. Some definitely seem more worth it than others, but ultimately it depends on what players enjoyed most about the base game. Fallout 76 has also been continually updating its content and performance so it may be worth revisiting, especially since Fallout 5 looks a long way off.
Fallout 4 is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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