DLC Review: Making Settlements a Little More Fun with Fallout 4's Contraptions

Fallout 4's Contraptions add-on is the kind of downloadable content that a lot of players are going to brush aside. It's not the sort of DLC that'll drag lapsed survivors kicking and screaming back to the Commonwealth, and it's certainly not the kind of add-on that's going to breath hours upon hours of new life into Bethesda's open world title, but for what it is, it does offer up some amount of fun - at least, if you're the type who gets giddy thinking about how you can further customise your settlements.

Contraptions adds a slew of more nuanced objects to your crafting menus, allowing you to cobble together things like elevators and machines that can manufacture certain items. It also plops stuff like armour and weapon racks into the mix, giving you a nice way to display your most prized possessions. There are some nice bits and pieces here, and many of the fresh objects do a decent job of spicing up settler life if you can find a good enough use for them.

Perhaps Contraptions' most interesting addition comes in the form of logic gates. These devious little devices open up a whole new layer of tinkering, giving you the ability to put together wacky automated systems that are controlled via any predetermined logical pathway that you desire. Actually putting logic gates to practical use will likely take some trial and error at first - unless you're well-versed in low-level computer programming or electrical engineering - but the potential to create some truly in-depth doohickeys is clear to see.

However, the depth that's just waiting to be discovered here does bring up one important question: what's the point? If you're already hundreds of hours into Fallout 4, you'll have either constructed numerous impressive settlements, or you'll have largely ignored them in favour of more traditional Fallout gameplay. Either way, Contraptions doesn't feature anything that makes you stop and think "how did I ever make do without this?" Everything that's on offer here simply expands upon the fundamentals - it's fluff that's fun for maybe a few hours, but none of it's necessary.

But hey, we suppose that's the nature of additional content. Ultimately, Contraptions gives dedicated settlement builders several new, neat ideas to play around with, but as is the case with Fallout 4's previous crafting expansion, Wasteland Workshop, it's an acquired taste. Will it fill the gap while you wait for Nuka World? Probably not. Does it add anything meaningful to the game? Not really. Is it an enjoyable distraction? Yes, if you've got enough steel lying around.

What do you think of the Contraptions DLC? Are you having fun with it, or are you sick and tired of Fallout 4's settlement system? Hunt down some crystal in the comments section below.