Ya, regardless of the evil it's been doing, if you side with the Institute you become it's leader, so you can change their ways to whatever you want. And they won't argue on account of "I could kill everything in here single-handedly if you don't obey"

also one of the speach options you get into indicates that at least one of them realizes that they are not in the right.

That and and you find out that the leader has finally realised that there is a price to high to pay, since one of the synths you can rescue is a synth clone of Shawn who was implied to have been created originally to allow the leader to live on.

Didn't you go through the mercinary's memories? They killed everyone but you in vault 111 for no reason. They kill people and steal their identity, how are they not bad, what instance were they trying to help people and not kill them?
Also cary out orders without question? Why are some of them trying to escape? Because they question killing innocent people no matter what the cause is.

Not without reason, probably to eliminate witnesses. If you thawed enough to see them the others might have too, but they leave you because you can be a backup source of 100% pure human DNA.

That's one of the real kicks in the pants.

The Institution people who ordered the murder of all your neighbors in Vault 111....

They're all dead.

They died decades ago, happy, and comfortable in their bed.

not to mention that according to father, the institute doesn't consider the denizens of the wasteland to be saveable, and as far as the institute is concerned, the commonwealth is dead, and they are the only true humans left. They may mean well, but they are more like the Enclave than anything

Ignoring the synths are people argument, the Institute is pretty "evil." If not evil, unethical.

• Kidnapping and replacing wastelanders.


• Killing wastelanders and replacing them.


• Kidnapping wastelanders to put them in vats of FEV.


• Massacring settlements.


• Disrupting local governments.


• They don't view life above ground as life at all; the Commonwealth is dead, which allows them to use the denizens as guinea pigs.

Perhaps under a more altruistic, or at the very least ethical, leader, maybe the Institute can be a morally good faction. Or at least be a reclusive group of scientists that don't use the people above ground in unethical ways.

Also, I believe you can find the scientist that is intentionally playing God and programming sentience into the synths and stop him. It also seemed implied that it wasn't real sentience, but a mimicry. If [A] happens, feel [B], sort of thing. Then again, are humans any different? Just as synths are bound to their programming, are humans not bound to their genetic programming? Or is personhood granted when one shows that they can move beyond their (genetic) programming?

You killed the wrong one. If your persuasion is high enough the one at gunpoint reveals himself as an Institute Synth trying to replace the real person.

I have to disagree about the institute being evil since mankind is a disease existing in permanent misery of War and Conflict and Synth aswell as the Institute are the one true cure...

For my character it was the easy choice and I would probably say it's the best choice out of the 4.

Minutemen are ok but they need a leader and have the same problem that Ceasar's legion has long term. No Leader, No Group.

BOS isn't a terrible choice but they are too forceful and don't care about the commonwealths problems.

Railroad is full of extremists and having Synths that could possibly go haywire would be a disaster IMO.

Which leaves the institute and while they have their issues, for the most part it was the correct choice for my character and probably IRL too. The Geth are a perfect example of why Robots/synths need to be contained.

From a moral standpoint: Probably "evil".

But the Institute does not concern itself with wasting time and thought on "morals" if you could just ensure the survival and continuation of your species. It's that old argument of logic vs emotion.