Are you tired of the Commonwealth? Do you trudge wearily from settlement to settlement, answering the call to action with a shrug and a sigh? Perhaps you only come alive when staring down the barrel at an assortment of the wasteland’s nastiest scumbags? Then, believe me, the Settlement Ambush Kit is for you.
Fallout 4‘s Creation Club has been the topic of some discussion since it went online almost 2 years ago. As a host for mods created by the community and approved by Bethesda, the idea was is to give modders the credit they deserve; of course, the community itself saw ‘paid mods’ and ran a mile, yelling and hollering about the ‘traditions’ associated with modding.
Most of the content thus far has been cosmetic, though new power-armors, weapons, and player homes also make their appearances on the site. The Settlement Ambush Kit comes as a complete surprise, an unusually hefty mod that adds more new content than some of the official DLC. And I am happy to report that, well, it’s a whole lot of fun.
The Settlement Ambush Kit breathes something resembling new life into Fallout 4. Now, your settlements and their populace have a purpose: arm the people, decorate your land with the new lookout tower and high junk walls and plonk as many turrets down as you can. There are even surveillance cameras, that you can watch remotely from any of your settlements. Any settlers that live in the area you’ve chosen to take the heat will have their morale affected by each passing wave; let morale drop too low – i.e. refuse to Stimpak fallen friends – and you’ll lose the fight.
Once you turn on the beacon – a fake distress signal for human enemies, and a rotting Brahmin for animals and other beasties – the violence begins.
The enemies arrive in waves. There are 10 waves per round, each punctuated by a named boss who will try their utmost to ruin your day on wave number 10. The difficulty level increases very gradually, and is also dependent upon which settlement you’ve decided to defend; it seems that building somewhere in the South of the Commonwealth will net you harder enemies, more Legendaries, and therefore better loot.
At first, enemies will drop ammo, Stimpaks, and weaponry for you to gleefully scavenge. Before long, though, the ammo dries up, and Stimpaks become scarce. Any turrets you’ve placed will begin to randomly shut down at higher rounds/waves, and before long the waves themselves begin to arrive with less of a pause between them. Suffice it to say that without a fortified base to call home, you’ll be limping before you know it.
I bring you this news because this is Bethesda’s Creation Club finally proving its worth. Monetising the modding scene was never the sole intention here, though it is a beneficial side-effect; the Settlement Ambush Kit is proof that talented modders can produce fun new content and receive compensation for doing so. Bethesda is not preventing modders from releasing their mods for free, but I’m sure the creator of this particular mod is dead chuffed at the positive response it has received.
It’s crucial to find a balance, and the Settlement Ambush Kit is the best example so far of just that; a bit of fun that extends the life of Fallout 4 and is well worth the cost. If you want to know more, check out the Bethesda.net community page here. At the time of writing, this content is available on Fallout 4 for PC and console.
