When Fallout 4 mods first started appearing on the Nexus, there wasn’t much to try as far as mod companions. Most were unvoiced and silent. So imagine everyone’s excitement when Heather Casdin, made by the author of the extremely popular Willow mod for Fallout New Vegas, appeared.
Fallout 4 General Discussions Topic Details. Grsspirit Sep 24, 2018 @ 7:07am. There is a conflict with the unlimited companions mod and Project Valkyrie. Aug 28, 2018.
A little background there… I’d had mixed feelings about Willow back in the days of New Vegas. While technically what that mod did was far beyond any other companion mod on the Nexus, I felt a bit like Willow’s quests overshadowed my own at points. As some others pointed out, she also seemed (to me) a bit too clean, cute, and girly to believably be surviving in a desert wasteland. It was clear llamaRCA (the author) put a lot of work into the mod and I commend that, but I found I preferred other companion mods like Niner and Delilah more.
But Fallout 4 is a different game, and Heather Casdin, I hoped, would be a different experience.
P.S. Also check out some of my other mod reviews at the end of this post!
![]() Heather Casdin’s Mod Features
One look at the Nexus page for Heather and it’s clear that llamaRCA put the same commitment forth in making this mode as she did with Willow. The intro text states “over 1200 lines of dialogue” for starters, which far exceeded anything else on the Nexus upon release.
Some other notable distinctions:
Once again, Heather Casdin is the most technically robust companion on the Nexus. And since she can be used alongside any other companion in the game, and will interact with them (and comment about them) she fits right into the world easily. The mod is totally self contained. Heather uses CBBE as a custom body, but it will work whether you have CBBE installed or any other body mod.
Story and Impressions
Given my earlier comments about Willow, I’ll say right up front that I find Heather to be a much more believable person in this world.
Without spoiling anything as it relates to her quests, her parents were from the Brotherhood of Steel and she’s survived for years as a merchant selling medicine and goods she creates herself. And if you’ve been wondering given the last name, it does seem she’s related to Protector Casdin from Fallout 3.
Heather has a much more cynical, aggressive attitude toward raiders and the Institute than other companions, and especially compared to Willow. She’s kind enough that she makes sense with a ‘good’ player character, but also bloodthirsty enough to fit with a more ruthless play through.
The voice recording quality is pretty solid, though there are certain bits (like when she melee attacks and lets out a grunt) where the mic distorts and makes it clear she’s a mod. However, these are seldom and in general I think the author did a great job as a singlular modder without a whole recording team like Bethesda had.
The voice acting itself is decent. It isn’t as compelling as Piper or Nick Valentine generally, but also isn’t so flat or bad that your attention is drawn to it. Some of her taunts against mutants are funny. Heather makes a lot of comments in a lot of locations, which makes her more immersive than vanilla companions because she reacts to so many things that happen.
Early game I loved a line she said after Sturges tells us he needs our help getting through a door to a fusion core.
She says, “They expect us to believe… that that guy can’t hack a terminal?” It’s especially funny because Sturges is in the middle of hacking a terminal when you first meet him, right before that dialogue happens.
Her default laser rifle is a little overpowered if you pick her up early game. This didn’t bother me though since you can equip her with anything else and it will also have infinite ammo. Giving her a basic 10mm pistol instead makes her viable without overshadowing the player early on, for example. Give her any gun and a little ammo and it will be infinite for her, which further expands the range of options.
Speaking of recruiting her, I like that the mod adds “Heather’s Console” as a craftable item. This means while first arriving in Sanctuary in the beginning you can build this computer terminal and set her to hired without having to travel all the way to where you normally find her. (Role play it like she was in Sanctuary and you met her there.)
Note that doing this will bypass her normal dialogue when you meet her, so I recommend it for repeat play throughs and not your first time. Still, I think that’s a great feature and I haven’t seen that implemented with any other companions. Otherwise, you can find her near the cemetery in the middle northern area of the map.
Heather Casdin also features an optional romance path during her quest line. That’s fairly fleshed out and more “complete” than vanilla companion romances — you can even give her your spare wedding ring and she’ll acknowledge it. What I also like that the author has done is given clear dialogue options where if you’re role playing that your character is still grieving their spouse and not ready to romance someone else, it’s set up clearly for you to say so.
One minor gripe her is that it’s actually part of the dialogue that your character has to at least seem apprehensive about romancing her at first when she asks if you’re still in love with your former spouse.
If you were looking to role play that your character has dealt with the grief and put it behind them, you can’t simply say that. Still, a small thing.
Heather’s Compatibility
I’ve used this mod on and off in various play-throughs since its release. As someone who is always experimenting with new mods and removing old ones, my games are more prone to crashes than others. And yet I rarely experience any issues period, and none that I can trace back to this mod.
As far as I can tell the mod works with basically any weapons, armor, or body mod. None that I’ve seen conflict with the area that this mod designates as Heather’s bunker.
The only time I’ve had an issue is with another mod causing Heather’s radio quest early on not to play, but that was corrected by setting Heather’s mod to load later in the list. The mod author also notes a compatibility issue with Better Companions by Tech Prince.
Heather Casdin, Final Verdict
I’ve replayed Fallout 4 many times, and can say that since trying Heather Casdin she ends up on a lot of my play throughs. Even if I only travel with her for awhile and I ultimately trade her out, she fits so well into the world she makes sense as at least part of my character’s journey. She seems like a character that belongs in the wasteland, and believably survives within it.
She’s a complicated woman who has has to overcome some hardships that have left her vengeful and cynical, which I find refreshing against brighter and bubblier companions like Piper, Curie, or Deacon. Heather acts like someone who’s seen some stuff in her time, a survivor looking for someone she can rely on.
Heather’s quests seem to align with yours pretty well, and it’s a good partnership where (without spoiling much) you’re both after Kellogg. I didn’t feel like her quest overshadowed mine like I did before in New Vegas with Willow, which I think is a nice improvement.
Did I mention she’s a merchant? Dialogue menus allow you to trade with her like a normal companion ORRRR open a shop interface where you can buy and sell with her. Handy for when you’re lugging a lot of loot you’re going to sell anyway – you have a walking shop with you anywhere as long as she has the caps for what you’re unloading.
Also, I personally hate hacking terminals in the game, so her ability to handle that for me is super useful.
I’d give Heather an A. Very well developed, great tie-ins to the world, custom quests, and tons of dialogue that shows growth from New Vegas’ Willow. The author put a lot of work into this, and it shows.
Other Fallout Mods To Read About:
More Posts Like This:
One gamer’s review for Project Valkyrie and Depravity Quest and Companion Mods.
Active players taper off as a game has been out for awhile, but it’s cool to see nearly 5 years after Fallout 4’s release how many players are still at it. I’m certainly one of them, having taken breaks from the game but ultimately coming back to give it another go many times.
When you’re on what seems like your 100th play through your thirst for mods really starts going beyond simple rule changes, cool new guns or outfits, or companions. You want something that changes the journey itself and makes the world you’re diving into for the 100th time palpably different.
In this case I’m talking about Project Valkyrie and Depravity, large mods by Thuggysmurf on the Nexus.
In some Reddit threads discussing these mods I saw people who apparently didn’t like the author’s earlier Fusion City mod urging other people to avoid these ones. I could agree that I prefer these newer ones, with no disrespect meant to Fusion City. But that’s exactly why I wanted to point this bit out so players aren’t unfairly discouraged from trying this author’s work.
Some people’s criticism of Fusion City was that it was hard to navigate or caused crashes, or that it went deliberately over the top in a way that was totally lore-breaking. I’ll say that on my zillionth play through lore bothers me less, but while Project Valkyrie and Depravity still feature a fun, “don’t take things too seriously” vibe they feel much more at home in the Commonwealth.
^^ TL/DR: Let me tell you why these mods are worth adding.
I’ll begin with a brief overview of both, one at a time, and then discuss my larger impressions of their impact in the game.
If you’d prefer to skip straight to the conclusion/impressions, click here.
Depravity Review – A Fallout 4 Faction and Early Game Experience
Three of the big things this mod addresses are things that frustrated a lot of Fallout 4 players:
Depravity brings some grit to the game that I found appealing. You can meet the mod’s core characters just after leaving Sanctuary, and it provides some plausible framework for not only why you’d fight the gunners early on, but also a totally alternate track for going to Diamond City and finding Kellogg that doesn’t involve the Minutemen or rescuing Nick Valentine for the 50th time.
This actually gives me a reason NOT to skip over Concord like I’ve done so many times (where I’ve thus never encountered Preston and played as much of the game as possible pretending the Minutemen don’t exist).
The mod works itself well into existing quests, giving more depth to your motivations for quests you can do in Goodneighbor that ultimately help the town, as well as expanded ways of living in (and dealing with) Diamond City.
One thing that surprised me a bit with Depravity is that the name and mod description made me think this was going to be a hardcore “bad guy” set of play options, whereas most of the principle characters seem like reasonable people (especially Murphy), albeit ruthless. There are certainly still new ways to play a darker character in this mod, but I guess I would say it struck me as less overtly “bad guy” and more “a better set of options for being a variety of characters.”
For instance with no real spoilers, when you first meet Murphy (center of the mod’s quests) he mentions being involved with slave trading, but it doesn’t come up again for the majority of the mod unless choosing an optional path later. Over the course of the quest line I came to see him as more of a guy interested in securing the Commonwealth, even if he has to play dirty, and less a guy involved in seriously shady stuff.
That’s just an observation, not a knock against the mod. For me that took nothing away from having a good time.
Depravity’s Companions Quick Review
And, of course, the mod features 5+ new companions, most of which are available very early into the mod. Most of Thuggysmurf’s companions seem better-scripted than vanilla companions in the sense that they followed me more coherently, shot straighter, and spent less time cowering in cover and not really helping me.
Journal/terminal entries add a lot of depth to Kellogg and flesh out his reasoning for various things, humanizing him and making it more plausible for your character to optionally join up with him rather than just shoot him down upon confronting him. Also makes it feel more plausible that you take down a Courser, which everything in the game seems shocked at, knowing that you’re badass and you have the Institute’s most badass fixer in tow.
Some companions are more tongue-in-cheek like Harley, a girl who is fascinated by comic book Harley Quinn and wants help finding an outfit to look like her. I actually found this cool and amusing since in earlier play throughs with Cait I thought she reminded me of a Harley Quinn character, just too serious. Having the opportunity to (sort of) actually have Harley Quinn tagging along was fun.
In one of our early battles with supermutants coming into downtown, right after I shot the last enemy I laughed as I heard Harley say, “What’d I tell ya? We got game.”
The vocal inflections in the voice acting are, in my opinion, often better than the vanilla game’s companions. And the recording quality is also on-par, which I appreciate since poorly recorded vocals have ruined a couple otherwise promising mods in the past for me.
Project Valkyrie Overview – Companion and Better End Game OptionsFallout 4 Valkyrie Companion Model
As the author says, if Depravity could be thought of as a solution to some early/mid-game roleplaying shortcomings, Project Valkyrie would be the solution for shoddy endgame scenarios. (Though you can certainly enjoy the quests of this mod mid-game.)
There’s an answer to all these things in this mod.
Everything starts earlier into the game, potentially, as you work through the Cabot House quest line that brings you to the Parsons Asylum. You discover that Jack Cabot is a much shadier cat than you imagined and has been using his dad’s blood for more than just keeping himself and his family immortal.
About halfway into your infiltration of the asylum you’ll come across Valkyrie, who will join you once you free her. After completing the Cabot quest (either way you choose to do it) she’ll offer to join you more permanently. I successfully used her with AFT (Amazing Follower Tweaks) using Thuggysmurf’s instructions to leave AI intact, which gave me the ability to command Valkyrie as needed and didn’t break any of her quests.
Valkyrie is kind of like a female Captain America (in terms of powers and not ideology). I often roll with a couple companions at a time and therefore have to rotate some out to accommodate new ones throughout the story, and Valkyrie quickly earned herself a permanent spot on my team.
I think Valkyrie strikes the right balance of features as far as mod companions go, which is to say…
Normally companions with higher than vanilla strength (over 10) and health bug me because they just feel like the author is like, “My character is awesome because… reasons.” In Valkyrie’s case there’s at least a story reason for her physical strength and health, and it doesn’t come off as overkill because she doesn’t come with a crazy weapon that one-hits everything she shoots at. And as tough as she is, I’ve still had her go down in tough fights.
I’d say that’s true of all the companions in these two mods. They’re capable without feeling like activating cheat mode to have them tag along with you.
This mod ties directly into the author’s Outcasts and Remnants mod throughout helping Valkyrie.
Fallout 4 New Companion Mods
In general I appreciate the mood both of these mods add to the game. The mod characters make observations and criticisms of things in the game world that players can probably agree with, and it’s amusing to hear game characters questioning those things as well. It’s not quite 4th wall breaking, but adds some levity.
At the same time, both mods (particularly Depravity) add some grit and seriousness into a game that could use more of it in my opinion. This is supposed to be a post-apocalyptic land, but a lot of the game feels somewhat cartoonish. Not to the degree that it wasn’t fun to play before, but once you start darkening it up a bit with these kinds of mods it becomes obvious how much better the game is.
The backstory Depravity adds to various key elements of the game make everything feel more logically tied together, providing more depth even when those reasons and motivations are sinister.
For instance, we already knew the Institute was full of shady cats who are arguably wasting amazing tech on nonsensical projects where their own motivations aren’t clear (outside of simply filling the villain niche). But what if Kellogg’s relationship with them had devolved from a willing mercenary to something of a captive, where it’d become clear to him there was no escaping them or denying their wishes, so he had to simply buckle in and survive the stuff they made him do?
It doesn’t redeem him as a person for all the terrible things he’s done, but then again your own character is something of an angel of death in the game even if you try to play the “good guy”. It deepens the dynamic with one of the game’s main plot characters and provides opportunity for meaningful CHOICES in the game rather than feeling railroaded (pun intended) into a certain path.
One of Depravity’s main mod characters aptly points out that it seems weird none of the other factions in the Commonwealth seem all that concerned with the Gunners. After all, he says, they’ve taken control of every major bridge, overpass, several hospitals, Quincy, and the area’s major radio broadcasting HQ. Other than the Institute there isn’t any group that is that organized, nor has strategically taken control of that much of the Commonwealth.
Why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?
None of the vanilla game quests in Goodneighbor or Diamond City that involve the player helping the cities have any observable effect. What good does it do to help Abbot repaint the wall green other than giving you some XP and caps, for instance? Mayor Hancock wants the Triggermen out of Goodneighbor’s warehouses and appreciates the Silver Shroud cleaning up the streets.
But after those things are done, does Goodneighbor actually seem better off for it? Depravity addresses these concepts well and gives the player’s involvement in these cities some real weight.
And as you get further into the main story, Project Valkyrie offers the player some much-needed options in how to handle the major factions.
Becoming the Director of the Institute felt superficial in the vanilla game and was a common complaint among players. What’s your reward? More fetch quests by your subordinates, to the degree that you wonder who’s working for who. Can you actually make decisions and, you know, direct the Institute? No.
But now you can to a degree, and force cooperation with other major factions.
One thing that always bugged me in the vanilla game is when Father asks you to murder everyone in the Railroad to prove your loyalty. It’s not that he asks that bothers me, but HOW DOES HE KNOW WHETHER YOU’VE DONE IT?
The Railroad’s HQ is a secret. The whole in-game reason given for why the Institute hasn’t already wiped them out is they don’t know where the Railroad is hiding. Consequently, how could Father actually know whether you obeyed his order or not? Why couldn’t you lie and say you did it? If he knows enough about their whereabouts to know they’re still alive, he knows enough that he wouldn’t have even needed you to do it.
Fallout 4 Valkyrie Companion Mode
This whole conflict is contrived, and being able to avoid it is a big deal.
It’s clear the author and his team put a lot of work into these mods. The voice acting is solid, as are the technical bits of the mods. I’m using a whole bunch of quest mods alongside these two, including Tales From The Commonwealth, and everything runs totally stable. There are no FPS issues, no crashes, and no quests randomly becoming borked.
Given the complexity of the things these mods change about the main story, that’s impressive.
(Medford Memorial hospital had a couple weird issues with walls not showing properly during Valkyrie’s quest line, but I’m not sure if it was because of these mods or something else. In any case, I could work around it, it was brief, and the rest of the game was fine.)
The only caveat I’d mention is that including these mods causes a noticeable slowdown in load time when you initially launch Fallout 4 (a black screen before the title cards). Other than that things run smooth. And in case you’re wondering I’m using an i7 6-core CPU and a Samsung EVO SSD.
I recommend these mods to all players of Fallout 4 — especially if you’ve played the game through several times and are looking for ways to make your next play through feel notably different.
Not to mention that if you’re bored as hell with the vanilla companions, these two mods add over 10 new options. In my case alongside other mods like Tales From The Commonwealth (another excellent mod), you can effectively ignore all vanilla companions and play exclusively with new teammates and have a huge variety.
I think the companions from Depravity and Project Valkyrie are generally superior to all other companions available on the Nexus, with the exceptions of Heather Casdin and Kit from The Machine and Her. By superior I mean better fleshed out, less buggy, and better voice acting. And in the case of the two exceptions, I’d say they’re all on par.
(No disrespect meant to the efforts of anyone else who’s made companion mods — I simply say this to illustrate how well done these companions are and not to imply others are bad.)
Better Companions Fallout 4 Mods
The fact that the author was able to accomplish that while also adding this much depth to the main game, to me, makes these mods a must-have in your load list.
This has been a Fallout 4 Quest Mod Review. #companionmods #questmods #modreview
Read more of my Fallout Mod Reviews here.
More Posts Like This:Fallout 4 Valkyrie Companion Models
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |