The Railroad from Fallout 4 has to be one of the most frustrating factions in the game. On one hand they stand by the fascinating and noble cause of liberating sentient synths from the cold hands of their creators – The Institute, who treat their creations as property.
It’s the A.I. dilemma we’ve seen time and time again in sci-fi, but Bethesda put an interesting spin on it with an organization that acts as a spiritual successor to the historic Underground Railroad that freed slaves in the mid-1800s. They’d be an all-time great faction if they weren’t plagued with so many flaws, here’s 10 of their most apparent.
10 Their Password To Their Base Is Their Name…
Starting off this list if the problem that the internet has been nagging the Railroad with since the early days of Fallout 4. After a long journey traveling down the Freedom trail in an attempt to find the extremely cautious and very secretive Railroad, you come upon their hideout in an old church.
After the perilous journey, what could be the final obstacle to stand in your way? A password, and not just any old combination of letters and numbers but the oldest trick in the book… it’s their name, “Railroad.” It still gives us a good laugh to this day and Fallout fans berate the faction for it.
9 Some Think Protectrons Are Worth Protecting
Granted there’s only one individual in the faction that seems to hold this opinion, the battle-worn Glory. But seeing as she’s a high ranking individual in the organization this warrants a spot on this list. So let’s dissect her opinion and point out all the reasons why it’s a bit dumb.
Protectrons are not sentient robots that have stumbled upon consciousness and thus deserve to be treated more humanely. They’re the equivalent to your toaster if it was equipped with laser beams and spoke in short auto-tuned phrases.
8 They Have Some Of The Worst Endings In The Game
This is probably one of the most glaring problems with the Railroad, the fact that none of their quest lines have any real pay off. Siding with them proves to be one of the dumbest decisions you can make and leaves you in the same spot the Railroad was in before you nuke the Institute.
The Commonwealth still hates synths whether they be good or bad and The Brotherhood takes The Institutes place in hunting the Railroad. Plus you just killed hundreds of innocents and destroyed the most technologically advanced faction in the world just to save a few robots – good job!
7 Nothing Seems To Get Accomplished Outside Of What You Do
At the end of the day, these are video games, and just like nothing will happen in the Mushroom Kingdom if you don’t play as Mario to stomp on those Goombas and kill Bowser, Bethesda games are more or less the same. But with more modern games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or The Witcher 3, we have seen drastic improvements to NPCs.
In Fallout 4 however, the NPCs feel more antiquated then those in FO3 or New Vegas. Especially the Minutemen and Railroad factions which give you the same responses and the same tasks to the enjoyment of no one.
6 They Never Reach Out To The Minutemen
Speaking of the Minutemen, the Railroad deciding to never reach out to the Commonwealth’s most noble faction is quite bizarre. The Minutemen don’t have any prejudices and seem to be the most progressive faction in the game – giving them a strong reason to accept and work with the Railroad.
Granted the Railroad doesn’t trust anyone and secludes themselves out of fear of being betrayed and losing everything they’ve so painfully worked for. So it makes a bit of sense, but it would’ve been fun to see them open themselves up to a group that most certainly would’ve accepted them.
5 It’s So Easy To Find Them That We’re Surprised The Institute Hasn’t
The Institute is like a cheat code when it comes to the amount of power they wield over competing factions. The only one who even comes close is The Brotherhood and in an all-out battle, we’d still pick the Institute for their superior technology and army of subservient synths who have the power of tanks.
This isn’t even mentioning how smart the organization is and how they have enough intel on most factions in the Commonwealth to bring each to their knees. All this and they can’t completely wipe away the Railroad – granted the faction has no chance to take them on until you get involved – but it seems like something they could’ve done very easily anyway.
4 Their Scope Should Be A Lot Bigger
The synth dilemma in the base game of Fallout 4 is decently interesting, to say the least, but far from as gripping as it became in the DLC Far Harbor. It feels as though we barely scratch the surface in the main part of Fallout 4 where our ethical battle is our synths disposable property or not.
Then there are some pretty neat quests with Nick Valentine and Deacon and that seems to round it all out. The Railroad needed more DiMA’s who could’ve had us further invested in the synth situation in the Commonwealth.
3 They’re Even More Tedious To Work With Than The Minutemen
How is this even possible? The Minutemen seem to be the most tedious and fatiguing faction in any game ever. But somehow, someway the Railroad seems to be even more tedious, so much so that most gamers will stop interacting with them halfway through the game.
There’s just no incentive to continue working with them unless you believe in their cause and want to see how it ends (although we’ve already discussed how disappointing that ends up). Go in there and steal Deacon and never go back if you’re smart.
2 More Interaction Between Them And Other Factions Would’ve Been Nice
This ties a bit in with how the Railroad never reached out to the Minutemen, but it’s a shame to see that they have no real interaction with any other faction in the game. Sure, they comment on all the other groups in the Commonwealth – the Brotherhood and Institute are scum, regular folk are prejudiced and the Minutemen are okay, yet they don’t work with them.
Besides Deacon and Glory, none of them venture outside their headquarters and it’s really frustrating. They feel like a tacked-on group that has no real impact on anything, but they’re on agenda. That leads us to our last point…
1 Good In Concept, Poor Execution
The Railroad was a really great idea, it was a creative spin on the Underground Railroad that expanded excellently upon the original synth concept. And yet, the execution, the subtitles that actually would’ve brought the group to life and caused you to care about them and their cause was incredibly poor.
Bethesda has a knack for the absence of polish in their games which is apparent with the flood of glitches and bugs that plagues their titles. But they can usually bring it on home when it comes to fleshing out characters and factions – not this time. In Fallout 4 they got lazy, especially when it came to the Railroad.
NEXT: Fallout 76 Announces Its First Official NPCs
