Does anyone else feel that the MQ practically loses nearly all its urgency after you've found Shaun? 'Cause after you've found Shaun and sees that he's alive and well (and old) there is little else to do but choose a side for what essentially boils down to how you feel about synths. And if you don't really care much about the synths or a particular faction you can essentially just let them duke it out for the rest of the game.

Depends on how you look at it. If you don't really care for any of the factions then, yeah, I guess it kind of does.

As for me, I was excited to destroy The Institute's enemies.

Don't you mean urgency? Agency is about choosing which path the Commonwealth will take while urgency is about rescuing the Sole Survivor's child from his kidnappers as quick as possible. Although for tons of players, it amounts to "Who is Shaun?" so there is a lack of urgency in their playthroughs. I explored the entire Commonwealth and did almost every mission before I set foot in the Institute.

How do you know that Father is Shaun? Shaun could be that kid locked in the cage or turned into goo years ago for the Synth program. All Father has to do is use mental conditioning or implants on Shaun to put him to sleep and say a few lies like being the Sole Survivor's son and the Sole Survivor believes that their actual son is merely a Synth.

Yeah sorry, I meant urgency. I'll fix it, at least the op.

I think the MQ could have benefited from some kind of reminder and maybe some sort of threat. In New Vegas I thought the Legion worked rather well as a driving force of urgency.

It's all up to interpretation. I'm glad that the game gives us a chance to resolve the initial motivation without having to see the main quest completely through - not having urgency after reaching the Institute means it feels more appropriate to take a break and side-quest. Honestly, the biggest complain most people have with Bethesda's main quests is the sense of urgency - I always find ways to roleplay to ignore it, though.

The main quest for me was essentially over when I found out that Shaun was essentially a sociopathic geek with a desire to establish a dynastic line. I would have been happy to put a bullet in his face and then go do something fun.

I think the main quest picked up after I found him, because I didn't really care about him in the first place.

So why didn't you?

On topic - It kind of does, but it benefits the story beeing told, or atleast it does for me. Made it have much more of an emotional impact when things can't end exactly how you want it to.

I normally don't do the MQ until I'm ready to beat the game . I just find Nick and ignore the MQ until I say "Okay I done all I wanted to do time to wrap this character up".

I'm just got to the Glowing Sea with my Sliver Shroud character and I'm level 50.

Yeah it kinda does.


I tend to think the entire point of the Find Shaun plotline really amounts to nothing more than a vehicle to meet all the factions. The main plot nudges you towards concord (minuemen), then the BOS airship shows up (BOS obviously), then after that whole mess with virgil and the courser, you have to find the failroad, then finally ending with the institute.

After that, the Shaun plotline simply vanishes into thin air. I know, the plotline should end with finding shaun, but there's really no closure to it. No epilogue. Throughout the whole game, your character won't shut up about finding your son. Everyone you meet (preston, Danse, Piper, Valentine, Virgil, etc) the first words out of your mouth is "AH GUTTA FIND MAH SUN!" Yet when you actually do, it simply stops and no one ever brings it up again, as if your whole search for your son was one giant big lipped alligator moment.


It's like the game basically says "Okay, here's your son. Now shut up and pick a faction already."


Your partner doesn't comment on it. Piper at no point says "Soooo blue, last I heard/seen of you, you waltzed right straight into the den of evil itself. I thought I'd never see you again, yet here you are. Mind letting me in on what happened?" Danse or Maxon never says "You've returned from the nest of evil itself. Tell me about what you saw. And did you find your son by any chance? I can only assume the worst since I don't see him with you." Nick never says "Well, you managed to waltz right into the boogyman's house yourself. Yet... your son. He's not with you. What happened? Don't tell me, he's dead, isn't he? I'm here if you need to talk about it..."

Even if you take them to shaun himself after the Battle for Bunker Hill, no one comments on it. Piper doesn't say "Wait, THAT was the Director the institute? Right in front of us? And your son? Never saw that coming." Danse doesn't make some allegory to Cutler, Nick doesn't say something like "So that was your son, huh? Talk about one awkward reunion, for the both of us."