In Skyrim, I could NEVER bring myself to join the Dark Brotherhood. I had no aversion to terminating people that "need killing" like bandits and Thalmor. But the very thought of killing someone for absolutely no other reason than because someone paid me to end the target's life makes my skin crawl. Similarly, after ONE foray into the Thieves' Guild, I couldn't stand ever joining them again, ever. The idea of taking from others just because they have what I want made me feel no better than a common bandit.

So here we are in FO4. Each faction has its pluses and minuses. I have yet to complete the Main Quest, despite having sunk over 400 hours into the game, but I have formed some opinions about each of the factions.

Brotherhood of Steel

Its members are more than happy to tell you if you give them the chance, "If you're not Brotherhood, you're nothing!" That pretty much says it all: They're not prejudiced; they hate everyone. Joining them feels like joining the KKK.

The Institute

To my mind, worse than the Dark Brotherhood. Patently, they don't give a whistle for the lives of anyone that isn't an Institute citizen. What makes them worse is they have no compunction whatsoever about snuffing out non-Institute lives in the name of Science -- no matter how trivial the experiment may be in the scheme of things. It may be argued that it is only The Powers That Be that are doing all the experimenting, but they are TPTB that all of the other Institute citizens allow to be TPTB. Willful ignorance of acts purportedly done on their behalf is no excuse.

The Minutemen

To my mind, these are the ONLY faction worth joining. But as a group essentially led by Preston Garvey, they are so needy, clingy, helpless, and hopeless unless YOU, personally, take care of their EVERY need, on demand, right NOW! that they pretty much alienate EVERY player sooner or later. Noble cause; poor execution.

The Railroad

Freeing any sentient entity, whether it be human or human-made, from slavery is to my mind a noble occupation. But how it is done is just as important as why it is done. The members of the RR seem to think that any non-synth that gets killed "for the cause", either as collateral damage or as slaver scum working for the Institute, knowingly or not, constitute "no great loss". And I have no doubt whatsoever that their attitude towards paranoia-driven Commonwealth citizens is that they are just as "evil" as anyone in the Institute. As such, it seems that the RR has elevated synths to be more important than any other kind of species in the Commonwealth. That makes the RR pretty much just as racist as anyone in the Institute is racist.

If I had my way, I wouldn't join any of the factions. In fact, that is pretty much what I have been doing with my current character of the last 250+ hours. It's quite a bummer that Bethesda has set things up so that it is thoroughly impossible to complete the Main Quest without joining at least one faction. So, given that limitation, I plan to complete as much of the game as possible before finally joining the Minutemen, complete the Main Quest, and then quite the Minutemen at the earliest opportunity. ("No, Preston. I do NOT want to be your [censored] General!")

I have no aversions of joining any of the factions, and neither does my character. They all have their good and bad sides. And I'm not idealistic enough to think everyone who is not a pure flower is bad.

I'm not sure what you are even basing this on. They are disinterested in Wastelanders, not hateful towards them.

Of course they don't care. When they tried, it ended in a catastrophe.

Which is why Shaun hides the FEV experiments and likely other ones.

- Some poor soul asks you for bed and food

- You have a good heart and give it to them

- The poor soul commits a murder and hides it so well you don't know about it

- They hide at your place for a while then leave

- The King comes and kills you because you deserve to die for you not knowing about it is no excuse

Not sure I understand the logic.

The problem here is: how the hell would they even know that the TPTB are doing immoral deeds. They talk with people from outside? Did someone invent Internet? Purposeful ignorance is when you ignore the evidence in front of you, not being unaware of a bad deed being done.

Gameplay-wise, yes. Story-wise, the Minutemen can handle themselves.

The only real problem is that the MM's quest designer does not understand the concept of "Can I get a quest?" dialogue option.

I've yet to join the BoS in any of my playthroughs. Dunno why. Just don't find them all that compelling this time around. Didn't help that was basically told I had to stop doing mercenary work in general when siding with them.

Thought it was weird that the game was telling me to not do quests.

Nope, I am planning on playing with every faction. There are factions I'm not fond of, but I will still join them.

Where is an option "no such faction "?

I join all of them to learn more about them.

I would never join the Institute voluntarily as a player, but I have to run through it because I'm a modder and need to know what happens in detail so I'm currently suffering through Father and his band of awful sidekicks. I thought I would dislike the BOS because I never really liked them all that much in FO3 and Maxson is so deluded, but I like them a lot this time. Love most of the BOS characters. I even like the RR and MM even though there are issues with each. Love the RR hideout and cast of characters and love defending the Castle with the MM.

Honestly, the only reason to join the Railroad is for the Ballistic Weave, I hope they remove that and make it available or obtainable for every faction, so I could kill them where they stand the next time I see them. I just can't join the Railroad, they're short-sighted, extremist, misguided, self-righteous, and hypocritical.

I can find a reason to join and finish with all the other factions but not the Railroad, but I always finish with the Institute or the BoS, since the BoS ending is basically the Minutemen ending with Railroad gone which is a good thing for me, and I also get promoted to sentinel which I can influence change or have command within the BoS.

Of the listed factions, the only one I refuse to join is the RR.

The Brotherhood at least has some cool gadgets to help me get past my natural dislike of them, and I don't hate the MM: I just find them utterly, completely, boring.

However, I've yet to complete a play-through fully with anyone but The Institute.

Agree 100% with the Op

I have attempted to play all four factions.

The MM, could have been great, but just gets too tedious.

The RR, two faced betrayers, and what they do on the Prydwen, unspeakably vile. I will never play this faction, it is too satisfying to kill them.

The BOS is my favorite faction, but I have to roleplay as a little mad in order to justify murdering a whole society (The Institute).

The Institute, my close second favorite faction. They are the least morally compromising for my character as my targets are legitimate military targets. The open attack on Boston Airport provides the BOS plenty of time to evacuate non-combatants and is frankly the most satisfying stand up battle in the whole game. Finally I get to be Director, so I can gradually implement reforms. Oh, and I can ally with 'Patriot' instead of betraying him and murdering his family.

So much Railroad hate, I think I'm the only one on these forums who DOES like them. Every faction has its flaws, yet people always point out the Railroads flaws.

Personally, I can accept other groups' flaws because they know and openly accept it, while the Railroad always acts self-righteous and doesn't take responsibility for their actions. I hate these kinds of groups the most.

Only two factions on my list that i will NEVER join.

Minutemen-Bethesda Django fetish since Fallout 3

Railroad-"Desdemona aka Preston 2.0"

I don't think I'd ever avoid playing one of the factions entirely. How I personally feel about the factions shouldn't stop me from role playing a number of different characters that will go through their own stories. I personally liked Mr. House, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of playing a Legion character.

However, I think I'd say the Minutemen will probably be my most least played of the factions. Being the most underwhelming one of them all, I feel going through the main quest with them is just a disservice to the plot with how boring they make it.

That's because most people would rather RP a Space Marine, Mad Scientist, or a frontier sheriff than a SJW, even if they feel that for once they have stumbled on a worthy Cause to pursue to their usual extreme.

The closest I have come to refuse to play was NV's Legion, as they utterly disgust me, but I still did a Legion run to see what happened and get the achievements.

Naw I too Love the RR and am not fraid to say it. And have yet to see any argument that would sway me away... Personal choice not withstanding as that is the best reason to like or hate a faction.

I do not think I would pass up any to be honest BUT i may have a hard time doing some again even in character (I am at the moment preparing for a Brotherhood run which well is hard for me as I really never cared for them or power armor, but I will still muck through it heheh)

EDIT "Raiders" I suppose I know people want this, but that would be one I would pass on....