For me personally, I was kind of dissapointed. Don't get me wrong, the Institute in the game is extremely gorgeous. The only problem is that it's really small and hard to navigate. I only find myself in the central chamber to buy and sell items. I don't even go in the labs because there's really no point to. Before I bought the game, I thought the Institute would have actually been living inside CIT. the area around the college was repaired and heavily patrolled by synths, almost like a futuristic New Vegas.

What did you guys think the Institute was going to look like, and are you overall satisfied with how they made it?

I thought the Institute would be a mad science freak show and instead is more like Star Trek.

Kudos.

I like the aesthetics, but I wanted something bigger. I was imagining something on the scale of Blackreach in terms of size. Hard, steel, and unfeeling laboratories in terms of tone.

It made me feel like I was playing a Star Trek game.

It felt sort of like the Citadel in Mass Effect. Even the music seemed to set that sort of tone.

But it was not what I expected which was a good thing. I really didn't know what to expect actually. I thought I was going to end up in some sort of Enclave stronghold surrounded by synths all ready to shoot me.

Instead I find this bright large underground location full of brilliant minds all working together. Calming music and even the main area's lights seem to change color based on the time of day. I found it all rather peaceful.

What I don't get is the absolute 0 IQ xenophobic response by the other factions. Lets just blow it up! Perhaps that is a reflection of actual humanity today... ugh. That tech is so crazy advanced you would take it over, not blow it up.

The only way I can understand why they made synths as to create vessels that their consciousness could continue to exist within. The idea of creating synth bio organisms that could replace your species seems like giving up, unless you can transfer your people into them. At which point it seems like the lower tech synths would be better as it would be easier to repair yourself in the future. I really don't get the reasoning behind the group and keep looking for some hidden text on a console that explains what they are really trying to do.

They're adamently against transhumanism. At least Father is.

Synths were created so they could infiltrate the surface undetected.

Which was a stupid plan because androids could only be created by the Institute.

There's no reason also to be afraid of Synths since they're all sterile and obedient if you think they're robots and if you don't, they're just human beings who don't sleep or eat.

Maxson's paranoia about Skynet is ridiculous, which is weird given we HAVE insane Super Computers out to wipe out humanity in Fallout (John Henry Eden, The Calculator)

All my expectations were based on my interactions with Zimmer in F3 so I expected CIT to still be standing but be so well fortified an defended it couldn't be breached. I expected he inside to be less lab-like and more science fair-like. I also expected it to be more like BigMT and I was disappointed it wasnt more wacky like BigMT. Still the nicest place in the wasteland though

I first played through as BoS... then the second was with the Institute, and honestly I thought the Institute was a bit boring. The environment was glossy and nice, but as you explored more and got into the LEV lab you see that it's not all "Unicorns and Glitter". What got me is that after "winning" with the Institute, there wasn't much to do there at all. It was a pain to get into, and trying to go from one "pod" to another up those stairs is a nightmare to navigate.

I would have at least thought you would get additional quests or secondary quests like with the BoS where you get some cool items. Ultimately I re-loaded and went back with the BoS (I did try to get the Minutemen but messed up the quest somehow).

So yeah... the Institute didn't leave me feeling like I fleshed out the story very well. At least with BoS I was able to see more things and do more things.

It seems so hollow. I guess I expected a real story would be revealed like with the vaults. Meh.

That's actually exactly what I was thinking it would be as well. Everything would be above-ground but heavily fortified and sealed off like a bio-dome almost.

But honestly I like how it is now as well. I love the pristine underground environment.

I kind of thought that area would be in oddly pristine but abandoned condition. Almost like it had been sealed up and abandoned. You go there, expecting to find the Institute, but find a creepily immaculate college campus instead, and only after doing some delving would you come across the actual passage way to the Institute itself.

I was expecting apple aesthetic enclave and i got exactly that.