Btw, is there a lore reason why before the Great War, civilization seemed locked into a 1950's culture and technological design for 120 years (1950s to 2070s)?
I know ultimately it was a design choice, but was there any loose and hand waiving reasoning for this?
Technology is a retrofuturist adaptation of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi. Culturally, it's a satire of the american culture in the 50s, basically.
Even though the other games had elements from other periods such as early 60s, FO4 is the first to distance itself from that in more significant ways, with heavily cyberpunk themes and elements, for example.
The idea that internal consistency is out the window as soon as a story has fantastical or sci-fi elements is pants-on-head stupid. It shows a total lack of critical thought or care about your world. If the people who made it so evidently don't give enough of a shit to even pretend to care about the fiction of their world, why should I? This thread is full of people pointing out flaws in the story big and small. It all adds up. It's a fun videogame, I actually loved it, but as a narrative work, let's face it, Fallout 4 is total shit.
After becoming enemies with the Brotherhood, I landed on the Prydwen for Red Glare ready for war -- and instead found myself unexpectedly incognito since my unique chest piece still had a Brotherhood insignia on it. As long as you don't get close to anyone you can just stroll in, place the bombs, and walk the fuck out. Though I couldn't resist hijacking the full suit of Paladin armor in there and sprinting for the exit.
I joined the BoS before betraying them for the Railroad, so you can imagine my surprise that I could apparently convince people I had met and talked to before that I was someone completely different.
Believe it or not, the Institute Ending has the least amount of collateral damage and death and, in theory if your character isn't a complete D-Bag, you end up in a position that could possibly change the politics and practices of the Institute. I mean you are going to betray a ton of people that helped you on your way there but... hey eggs, omelettes, and the possibility of a better tomorrow. (like freeing the synths and working with the settlements as the director in your own person headcanon)
Railroad Ending involves a nuke, a fuckton of deaths, and more or less the status quo without the BoS and the Institute and with a newly liberated synth population (well the survivors). Bear in mind, this doesn't mean all freed synths will be for law and order (see Gabriel the Synth). But yeah, business as usual in the Commonwealth after that with atleast a strong Minutemen presence.
BoS Ending involves a nuke, a fuckton of deaths, and more or less the status quo without the Railroad and the Institute and a hunting down anything that isn't human. But... it'll be safer in future with their presence and might get clean water soonish.
Personally, I think the only bad ending is BoS. The Institute Ending will reflect your character's will to create change and personal ethics.
I wish I had! Just finished the game with The Institute, that ending was pathetic. Seems Fallout has moved far away from the touchstones that made me a fan almost two decades ago. That said I had a ton of fun with my almost 70 hours, but they may as well slap the Walking Dead or Hunger Games license on this and it would play just as well.
Edit: Also I saw an early spoiler saying the MC was a synth, pleasantly surprised that didn't happen.
Btw, is there a lore reason why before the Great War, civilization seemed locked into a 1950's culture and technological design for 120 years (1950s to 2070s)?
I know ultimately it was a design choice, but was there any loose and hand waiving reasoning for this?
So a bunch of crazy super eggheads happened to find a vault of preserved, pure, untainted pre-war vault dwellers, something many would consider more valuable and priceless than any geck or water chip, and were all "let's just take this baby, murder one backup parent and leave the other on ice, and fuck the rest"? Nothing about this makes the slightest bit of sense which, to be fair, I was wholly expecting
So a bunch of crazy super eggheads happened to find a vault of preserved, pure, untainted pre-war vault dwellers, something many would consider more valuable and priceless than any geck or water chip, and were all "let's just take this baby, murder one backup parent and leave the other on ice, and fuck the rest"? Nothing about this makes the slightest bit of sense which, to be fair, I was wholly expecting
I think Strong has to be the most bipolar companion. "Accept quest from Chem vender" Strong disliked that. "Give Sheyford a nuka cola" Strong liked that. Why though?
That does not sound like a symptom of bipolar disorder.
OT, just finished with Railroad ending.... what the hell was the Institute really about? I strung them along, did a lot of quests for them. Did I miss the part where they explained what they were about? The kidnappings? They were humanity's hope for.... hiding in a massive, sunless bunker and occasionally terrorizing people? What did Shaun's uncorrupted DNA buy them, exactly?
Why couldn't all these motherfuckers have just left each-other alone? Maxon left a big power vacuum in DC so that the Brotherhood could.... take the Institute's technology? & they thought they would wipe out the Railroad just for... funsies?
The big "faction" decision didn't seem to be based on any sort of compelling philosophy.... it just dictated which mass murders you would commit. Or am I missing something? Shaun (son and director of the institute) wants you to treat synth boy Shaun like a real child. Which my character is fine doing, but hasn't that been the issue with the institute all along? That they don't consider synths human?
Just kind of feeling weird about all of it and wondering if I missed some important reading someplace.
EDIT: & I don't just bash Beth for the fuck of it, I enjoyed Fallout 3 despite its flaws & probably will do another playthrough at some point. But what the fuck man, there should have been some sort of NV-style "yes man" ending. What if I don't want to murder hundreds of people when there is no compelling reason to do so? None of those people (factions) respected me. I was like Santa Claus to them, just gimme gimme gimme and the first time you say no they are ready to kill you & all of your friends
I ended up with the minute men ending.
I really enjoyed the game overall and will still battle away for the other achievements because I want to.
The story was shit. The world was great especially the glowing sea but the main story and all the twists and turns were crap.
It is one of my favourite games so far this gen but I am glad I never played it for the story. Bethesda should do more when it comes to writing the stories.
I look forward to the DLC hopefully we get a point lookout style dlc
So does it feel to anybody else like the inclusion of the Minutemen was a last minute (sorry) thing? Because they seem extraordinarily thinly written even for a Bethesda game.
What I mean by thinly written is that there's really nothing to them as a faction and Garvey is barely a character. The Institute, Brotherhood and Railroad all sort of have some flavour and some internal tension to them (Brotherhood and Institute are varying degrees of cruel to be kind; Railroad can be portrayed as idealistic but naive), but the Minutemen are just sort of...there?
So does it feel to anybody else like the inclusion of the Minutemen was a last minute (sorry) thing? Because they seem extraordinarily thinly written even for a Bethesda game.
I feel like they were put into the game just to drive the empire building mechanic. That's why they don't care about your faction choices--so you can keep assigning settlers postgame
Nothing about that quest made you think about how wrong everyone involved acted?
There is nothing human about any of their actions and reactions in that quest (unless the parents were secretly sociopaths and were acting for your benefit)
What happens if you just kill Father the second you meet him? Does the game just become much shorter with you merely dealing with the remaining above ground factions? Or does the Institute reveal itself to the world?
I could not even tell you what the story in NV was. And I platinumed that game.
They overall NV story was nothing to write home about but it had its moments. The casino area is super jancky and ugly but some interesting side quests went on there.
I could not even tell you what the story in NV was. And I platinumed that game.
They overall NV story was nothing to write home about but it had its moments. The casino area is super jancky and ugly but some interesting side quests went on there.
NV story sucked in comparison but it was a more open rpg.
All I remember from the main questline was that I was a Courier. And there were some guy that thought he was in Ancient Rome.
I really enjoyed the Shaun twist as I had previously read something about him being a kid by the time you get out, so I had inadvertantly set my expectations to be broken. That and exploring the institute for the first time was simply great. It's such a shame it went down hill so fast immediately after that first great conversation with Shaun.
The biggest disappointment by far however has to be the Vaults. They didnt have any emotional impact and the environmental storytelling was weak. They all felt like they were missing another holotape or meaningful terminal. Instead, I felt almost every terminal was too damn short. That and maybe they were poorly written.
114 was wasted on a story mission with a 2 funny terminals/holotapes. Fine, I can deal.
95 was bland and 75 was so close to being cool with the premise. Again, it was victim of one shot character terminals and aside from one cool training area, there was no story to tell from the design.
I was initially shocked at the state of 81, and was excited to delve deeper. Sadly, it was a bit tame. However, the final doctors terminal saved it for me. He was given several journal entries describing how he delved head first into Curie programming to stave off the boredom and gloom of being trapped, and by the final entry really expressed how much he came to love her and wished only that she could grow outside the vault. Its the only moment in all the vaults that got a real reaction out of me.
The highs of the music/rage note and voting vaults in NV really spoiled me.
The actual Shawn twist acutually suprised me. And getting to the institue totally blew me away.
Maybe they showed institute parts in trailers? I would not know because I was in total media black out.
It the game's true ending was just reaching the instutue I would have been satisfied.
The other thing I was thinking about was that Bethesda probably has data that shows MOST people who play thier games never make it to the ending. Maybe that is why they didnot put that much effort into the ending.
According to ps4 trophy list only 7.8% have completed it so far.
It had an utterly illogical story full of contradictions, coincidences and implausible human behaviour, it had one of the blandest, most boring moralistic choices in the game, it had no interesting thematic or narrative hooks, it wasn't particularly funny or well written, it didn't have an interesting quest design...
The actual Shawn twist acutually suprised me. And getting to the institue totally blew me away.
Maybe they showed institute parts in trailers? I would not know because I was in total media black out.
It the game's true ending was just reaching the instutue I would have been satisfied.
The other thing I was thinking about was that Bethesda probably has data that shows MOST people who play thier games never make it to the ending. Maybe that is why they didnot put that much effort into the ending.
According to ps4 trophy list only 7.8% have completed it so far.
Yeah, the Shaun twist surprised me as well. I'd read something about having to potentially kill him in the ending, so when everything started clicking together it really wow'ed me. Sure, it's not the best twist ever, but I enjoyed the way it was presented. Even if Shaun turned out to be an asshole with tunnel vision.
"Synths don't have free will, it's just really, really, really, really close. Really."
"The people of the Commonwealth can't understand we're their best hope! Now, who haven't we replaced with potentially lethal synths yet?"
Like, really, the Institute is a horrible organization, with horrible methods and even worse justification. They're like the Caesar's Legion of Fallout 4.
Only thing I regret is not sounding the alarm so people could escape, as I was blowing up the base. No idea that was an option.
Also, to reply to a post in the OT that was bordering on spoiler material:
Declaring war on the BoS is really really not a good idea in the long run unless you're going to turn your organisation into an army and are prepared to engage in a long term war with zealots. The BoS pretty much specialises in armed conflict. It's their way of life. The Railroad messing with that shit is laughable.
Pretty much this. I don't really get the BoS = Nazi's remark, at all, but I will admit that they come off as a bit too extreme. It really should've been possible to convince Maxson to call off his destruction of already existing synths and just focus on destroying the source. That really seems like a fair compromise, especially after the Danse reveal.
I'm just going through the Railroad endgame now, and it really doesn't make any sense. Desdemona just going "That flying ship of death carrying hundreds of trained soldiers in top-of-the-line power armor? Let's not talk to them, let's just declare war on them right away. The twenty of us can surely beat them all."
Shit, and then there's the way the Minutemen were just completely a non-factor in the ending. Sure, you can finish the game with them, but even that culminates in blowing the Prydwen out of the sky. In New Vegas, you could make friends with several factions and scare off the Legion and the NCR if you went with the Yes Man ending. In Fallout 4, you only get the choice of who you think needs to get blown up the most.
I just reached that BUNKER HILL point where i have to notify all the factions.
Is there any way where I can go with the Railroad for this one without pissing of BoS?
And does not choosing BoS here mean that I'll end up destroying their ship?
I'm bummed I never get to see the Danse quest now (caught that via Twitch) for myself as talking to Major Supreme of BoS will only lead to main quest talk.
Killing all of the BoS AND the Institue seems silly if thats the only way to save synths.
EDIT:
Most of this has been cleared up by reading the last pages, sorry for the text wall
Got the railroad ending, but watched the other endings on youtube.
Institute seemed like the best ending. Shaun dies a natural death (can you prolong his life with the Re-animator Syrum?), a misguided soul, but hopeful for the future in your hands. You change things from the inside (or don't). One scientist already wants to quit with the synths and focus on different ways to help society. Who really knows what the synths are for? Monitoring? Control? A way to help without compromising cover (when able)? I understood that kidnapping was primarily for attaining scientific resources, but I was probably wrong. Synths killing towns seemed like a self-defense method, albeit cruel and over the top, hinting towards the cold, dismissive attitude that the institute has concerning most surface life.
Killing Des seemed wholly unnecessary.
The only death I felt plausible is BoS, but even then it's way too over the top for either Des or the Institute.
Nuking the institute seemed like the stupidest waste of resources and had an inexcusable casualty rate.
There should have been more choices flat out, but at least Bethesda is getting better. I hope they hire a better lead writer soon. Definitely hoping for an Obsidian spin-off.
Finally finished the game last night and went with the institute. I enjoyed my time with it but I'm getting tired of games that have urgent main quests but also expect you to do a lot of side missions. So I didn't touch any of the factions until I found Shaun...even after that it didn't make sense to go work for any other factions after that.
Got the railroad ending, but watched the other endings on youtube.
Institute seemed like the best ending. Shaun dies a natural death (can you prolong his life with the Re-animator Syrum?), a misguided soul, but hopeful for the future in your hands. You change things from the inside (or don't). One scientist already wants to quit with the synths and focus on different ways to help society. Who really knows what the synths are for? Monitoring? Control? A way to help without compromising cover (when able)? I understood that kidnapping was primarily for attaining scientific resources, but I was probably wrong. Synths killing towns seemed like a self-defense method, albeit cruel and over the top, hinting towards the cold, dismissive attitude that the institute has concerning most surface life.
Killing Des seemed wholly unnecessary.
The only death I felt plausible is BoS, but even then it's way too over the top for either Des or the Institute.
Nuking the institute seemed like the stupidest waste of resources and had an inexcusable casualty rate.
There should have been more choices flat out, but at least Bethesda is getting better. I hope they hire a better lead writer soon. Definitely hoping for an Obsidian spin-off.
I agree with all of this. Some points of conflict presented by the factions towards the end were just unnecessarily violent. Furthermore, considering what a high charisma score can give you in other situations, the fact your character has no chance to diffuse the situation is just wonky.
Personally, I would have done the Institute ending that involved letting the Railroad know that I was next in line for the director role. Tell them my plans on changing it from within while developing a plan to make it appear I destroyed them all. The truth is, they went into hiding. I become director and begin to release synths through strong leadership or foster the escapes in secret until the culture changes. (either way, I'd gut the synth retention department) All the while, I am pushing for the Institute to work with the surface dwellers to improve the entire Commonwealth.
With the BoS, I actually would just want to acquire Liberty Prime to remove it as a threat and then keep it for research. If the threat of more BoS returning is real, then... capture as many of them alive as possible and replace them with Synths. Also allows me to infiltrate the larger organization. The "survivors" including a synth Maxson would tell the DC branch how the Institute came out of nowhere to disable Liberty Prime and destroyed the Prydwen. (same goal as their actual plan except now I have informants in the BoS ) Oh, and we are going to research and develop the hell out of Power armor based on what we take away from that battle.
I kinda lost the plot after reaching the Institute. Going through and talking to everyone, I found myself even more confused about what their actual agenda is. All this talk about how they don't want to mix biology and technology (like in Kellogg), and how they're preserving humanity. So... why the synths in the first place? Why are they developing synthetic gorillas and other animals? Strictly tools to avoid using humans on the surface?
I agree with all of this. Some points of conflict presented by the factions towards the end were just unnecessarily violent. Furthermore, considering what a high charisma score can give you in other situations, the fact your character has no chance to diffuse the situation is just wonky.
Personally, I would have done the Institute ending that involved letting the Railroad know that I was next in line for the director role. Tell them my plans on changing it from within while developing a plan to make it appear I destroyed them all. The truth is, they went into hiding. I become director and begin to release synths through strong leadership or foster the escapes in secret until the culture changes. (either way, I'd gut the synth retention department) All the while, I am pushing for the Institute to work with the surface dwellers to improve the entire Commonwealth.
With the BoS, I actually would just want to acquire Liberty Prime to remove it as a threat and then keep it for research. If the threat of more BoS returning is real, then... capture as many of them alive as possible and replace them with Synths. Also allows me to infiltrate the larger organization. The "survivors" including a synth Maxson would tell the DC branch how the Institute came out of nowhere to disable Liberty Prime and destroyed the Prydwen. (same goal as their actual plan except now I have informants in the BoS ) Oh, and we are going to research and develop the hell out of Power armor based on what we take away from that battle.
I finished the game today with the Minutemen ending. BoS & Railroad still active. More than likely going to do one more play though with the Institute ending. I saw the merits of backing the Institute but could not justify murdering Desdemonda and an organization who risks their necks rescuing sentient beings, even if the contradictory idiots at the Institute suggest otherwise.
Looking back, I should've given the BoS the biggest middle finger. After watching some YouTube clips regarding the Danse story thread, they come off as dogmatic zealots. Should've gone with Institute/Minutemen.
i just beat it...I think. It seemed very bizarre towards the end.
It seemed like the whole Shaun reveal was brushed over(I knew beforehand, so it might have been better if I hadnt). I finally get into the institute, find shaun, turn him down...very next mission is building the teleporter to go massacre all of them...wtf. I get there, shaun is for some reason laying in his bed dying, from something that I will never know...oh well, blow the whole place up...the end. Unless the explanations were hidden in terminals that I didnt find or something, I have so many questions. I got confused with everything quick
Beat the game. The main story was an absolute disappointment.
The Shaun reveal was just like a plot device. There was no oomph to it. You're just told "and yes it's me" and you can accept it so easily even though clearly shit seems off at first what with the guy you just killed haven't not aged and shit.
Then after that point it basically becomes a factions game, which faction do you want to choose to destroy 2 of the other factions? That's fucking disappointing, especially considering that once you reach the institute and have to start doing missions you almost instantly have to choose sides between Brotherhood and Institute.
May I ask what's the point of being a double, even triple agent, if choosing what method you use to get to the location makes the other faction instantly aggressive towards you? Why do you even give me charisma checks if I can't even pass a hard charisma check to convince them that no that I was working the other guys the entire time.
Pisses me off a bit more with the railroad because the whole plan, or any faction really, because the insta-aggression was solely so you'd need to do an assault on the faction's main base.
But the plans of everybody, outside of the Institute with the Liberty Prime, was basically to go to their base and put some explosives or destroy the leaders. The institute at least doesn't make people instantly aggressive towards you and actually gives you the chance to talk it out with Desdemona.
But the others the opposing party just finds out out of nowhere. Shaun and you never really had a chance to talk and get to know each other during all of the downtimes in the game, so you're basically helping him solely because he's the family member if your character. Which is hard to roleplay as when you have no emotional investment in them.
The dialogue system, particularly the checks for different knowledge, was ruined in this game.
Having said my opinions over the main campaign/ending, I gotta say I enjoyed the game. Railroad is probably what I'll take as my canon ending simply because it's a scrappy group against two big corporations/armies that won by audacity.
I don't think I'll keep playing the game tbh. I wanna move on from it. If I ever return it'll be once all DLC is released and mods have been released on PS4. Which I don't expect until like late 2016-early 2017.
Just finished the game, was pretty disappointed with the story. it seems like there's no goal other than to destroy the other faction. The factions aren't doing anything to better the wasteland, it's all moves of self interest that amount to nothing.
I'm just a couple Brotherhood quests away from getting Platinum now and went through all the other faction lines.
The game just left a horribly sour taste in my mouth. I fucking hate that no matter what you're going to have to have a 3 way war and kill the fuck out of people you potentially made friends with. I'm extremely disappointed that there was no way to make everyone just fucking be nice. It's bullshit that there's no diplomatic solution and every story end has left me completely unsatisfied. It's 2015 and we HAVE to pick a side and kill everyone else? Fuck you, Bethesda. That's some bullshit.
I don't even know what I want to pick as my main save for future DLC. Maybe the Railroad since at least none of your companions have to die in that one and Deacon dies no matter what in the Institute and Brotherhood lines. I'm going to keep my save that's set before every point of no return just in case Bethesda pulls their heads out of their asses and adds in a non-shitty ending where you can be diplomatic and not be forced to just violently slaughter everyone.
also most of the factions could genuinely co-exist if they weren't so far up their own ass and talked things out.
Railroad, Institute and Minutemen could exist easily. Institute's ultimate goal is to improve humanity from underground and to get the power source to be able to thrive and continue planning for the future of humanity. Their thoughts that the Railroad were a hindrance were like SOLELY on the fact that maybe a couple, probably a minority, of the synths they rescued ended up in a life of crime. But do we judge a whole group based off the bad apples? No. That's fucking stupid. Even if they disagree on Synths having liberties they can reach a point in between. They're already sending people out to replace real humans with Synths. Stop doing that and let Synths that want to leave be monitored above ground and write reports occasionally on certain projects the institution gives them. Or let them leave completely, they really never gave a reason as to why they didn't want them to leave outside of "stolen property" it was stupid.
Minutemen just get along with most people since all they want is to help people above ground.
BoS is the only faction that straight up has to be destroyed, everybody else could coexist but they are the most antagonistic by far. I mean literally their only goals are the complete destruction/hoarding of technology and to murder all synths/super humans. They'd never drop their hate for the synth unless you killed Elder Maxson and convinced them it isn't worth it and to go back to killing super humans or something.
I'm just a couple Brotherhood quests away from getting Platinum now and went through all the other faction lines.
The game just left a horribly sour taste in my mouth. I fucking hate that no matter what you're going to have to have a 3 way war and kill the fuck out of people you potentially made friends with. I'm extremely disappointed that there was no way to make everyone just fucking be nice. It's bullshit that there's no diplomatic solution and every story end has left me completely unsatisfied. It's 2015 and we HAVE to pick a side and kill everyone else? Fuck you, Bethesda. That's some bullshit.
I don't even know what I want to pick as my main save for future DLC. Maybe the Railroad since at least none of your companions have to die in that one and Deacon dies no matter what in the Institute and Brotherhood lines. I'm going to keep my save that's set before every point of no return just in case Bethesda pulls their heads out of their asses and adds in a non-shitty ending where you can be diplomatic and not be forced to just violently slaughter everyone.
Nope, I did the Blind Betrayal quest (that's the farthest you can go in BoS before triggering bad shit) and maxed out Danse's affinity before I did Mass Fusion and have him alive on both my Institute and Railroad post-game saves. He's chilling in Sanctuary with everyone else.
Nope, I did the Blind Betrayal quest (that's the farthest you can go in BoS before triggering bad shit) and maxed out Danse's affinity before I did Mass Fusion and have him alive on both my Institute and Railroad post-game saves. He's chilling in Sanctuary with everyone else.
huh, apparently Blind Betrayal is related to the Liberty Prime quest then. Unfortunately the game's AI is shit and I didn't finish the Liberty Prime mission before reaching the 'do or die' mission for BoS and Insitute. The robot lady in BoS wouldn't let me turn in the other mission. I had to do the main 'choose this faction and the other hates you' mission first. Fucking stupid.
iirc if you hang out w random institute motherfuckers and x6 they make it clear that they p much plan to wipe out the surface life bc they're impure or whatever. like they'd rather kill em all over helping em
but that's not made clear. that your position as director would end in some mad science shady bullshit the instant you went against em
isn't obviously presented either
that the last director+guy who made Kellogg peaced out because they wanted to make evil cyborgs while the rest of the institute wanted to make evil robots/people is p funny cuz of that bc the game makes it sound like shaun actually helped clean up the institute from omnicidal science and abomination level shit but ended up inheriting their idioitic policy on the surface/killing fools for no reason due to growing up there
The institute under the right leadership could drop all the bullshit of replacing people above and/or attacking them. They could just focus on making their science/technology better and preparing for the future underground.
I NEVER felt I understood their reasoning. Was it just "Evil evil evil"?
I'm just a couple Brotherhood quests away from getting Platinum now and went through all the other faction lines.
The game just left a horribly sour taste in my mouth. I fucking hate that no matter what you're going to have to have a 3 way war and kill the fuck out of people you potentially made friends with. I'm extremely disappointed that there was no way to make everyone just fucking be nice. It's bullshit that there's no diplomatic solution and every story end has left me completely unsatisfied. It's 2015 and we HAVE to pick a side and kill everyone else? Fuck you, Bethesda. That's some bullshit.
I don't even know what I want to pick as my main save for future DLC. Maybe the Railroad since at least none of your companions have to die in that one and Deacon dies no matter what in the Institute and Brotherhood lines. I'm going to keep my save that's set before every point of no return just in case Bethesda pulls their heads out of their asses and adds in a non-shitty ending where you can be diplomatic and not be forced to just violently slaughter everyone.
Watch them sell the diplomatic solution as DLC ala how Broken Steel fixed Fallout 3's flawed ending.
But yeah. The lack of a more diplomatic option sticks out like a sour thumb. I am not sure you can do a happy ending where all the factions comes out alive and well but maybe at least the non institute factions agree to team up for their offensive against the institute.
Maybe they could have done that if they had some kind of faction rep system but that got hut with the streamline bulldozer so I dont know what they could have done.
The Institute were really slimy. Their overall strategy was pretty evil and I never felt like Shaun did a good job explaining their methods. I wasted them (and him) without missing a beat. The .44 Magnum blast to Shaun's head, knocking him out of his death bed, was pretty fucking funny. Adios, douche bag.
Brotherhood of Steel certainly has some sticks up their asses, but they seemed more genuine than anyone else, which is why I joined them.
The Railroad? What a fucking joke.
Only time I felt really bad in the game was when I wasted Virgil and Danse.
huh, apparently Blind Betrayal is related to the Liberty Prime quest then. Unfortunately the game's AI is shit and I didn't finish the Liberty Prime mission before reaching the 'do or die' mission for BoS and Insitute. The robot lady in BoS wouldn't let me turn in the other mission. I had to do the main 'choose this faction and the other hates you' mission first. Fucking stupid.
It's more or less right. Only thing really wrong is the placement of Mankind Redefined (it happens after Bunker Hill) plus the fact that you can safely go all the way through Blind Betrayal with the BoS.
The institute under the right leadership could drop all the bullshit of replacing people above and/or attacking them. They could just focus on making their science/technology better and preparing for the future underground.
I NEVER felt I understood their reasoning. Was it just "Evil evil evil"?
think an alternate take on brotherhood's view- they believe they're the inheritors of humankind's future as they derive from pre-war organizations w the idea that only they can hope to save humanity. w the institute its a scientific bent rather than a military bent but neither organization is interested in the well-being of outsiders, only their own.
less nazi Nazis and more science nazis
the last director actively sabotaged attempts in the Commonwealth to create a state and any budding attempts at civilization bc it'd increase the chance the institute would be discovered. he also started a fev program and helped release super mutants on the Commonwealth
most of the guys in the institute follow that kind of train of thought- the topside is unsalvageable and is only good for the rare geniuses that can help them and as a testing ground for their crazy bullshit
) Oh, and we are going to research and develop the hell out of Power armor based on what we take away from that battle. 
