It's fairly profound. It caused me to make a decision about an issue that doesn't even exist yet-- artificial intelligence in androids/ "synths". Are they truly sentient? I decided (with the movie "Ex Machina" weighing on me), "hell no." Thankfully, I will probably never need to invoke that belief in my everyday life, but my kids will probably need to deal with such matters.
Fairly early during the game, when I discovered the Minutemen, I was completely on board with their cause, and not just because I love such references to American history. I loved that Preston Garvey (I assume a reference to Marcus Garvey--again, I love American history) bestowed the title of "general" on me and allowed me to call the shots. So, when I discovered The Brotherhood of Steel and realized that they wanted me to serve them as a grunt soldier, I rejected their invitation to join them. Plus, Preston spoke about them as if they were evil.
By the end of the game, I wished I had joined them. I maintain that the Minutemen UNDER MY COMMAND were good, but the other factions were garbage. The Institute was comprised of elitist morons who believed that they could save humanity by dehumanizing everyone. The Railroad asks you, "are you prepared to die for a synth?" as an opening question. When I answered "no" then received disapproval from a supposedly "good" character (Piper) I believed that I made the wrong decision. Then, when I joined them, they wanted to send me on assassination missions against The Brotherhood because they're SO MUCH MORE DECENT... I guess.
Although the game has a theme of its "good" characters siding completely with the synths and "selfish" characters hating synths, it drops subtle hints that they are simply robots with implanted human memories, and there is an additional creepiness of them replacing actual organic humans surreptitiously.
By the end of the game, I knew that my transition from "undecided" to "HELL NO" about supporting synths was complete when Preston looked at the smoldering wreckage of The Insititute after we demolished it and said something to the effect of, "I wish it didn't have to be that way. But they brought the fight to us."
I wanted to say, "Dude... Shut up. I loved it."
Fairly early during the game, when I discovered the Minutemen, I was completely on board with their cause, and not just because I love such references to American history. I loved that Preston Garvey (I assume a reference to Marcus Garvey--again, I love American history) bestowed the title of "general" on me and allowed me to call the shots. So, when I discovered The Brotherhood of Steel and realized that they wanted me to serve them as a grunt soldier, I rejected their invitation to join them. Plus, Preston spoke about them as if they were evil.
By the end of the game, I wished I had joined them. I maintain that the Minutemen UNDER MY COMMAND were good, but the other factions were garbage. The Institute was comprised of elitist morons who believed that they could save humanity by dehumanizing everyone. The Railroad asks you, "are you prepared to die for a synth?" as an opening question. When I answered "no" then received disapproval from a supposedly "good" character (Piper) I believed that I made the wrong decision. Then, when I joined them, they wanted to send me on assassination missions against The Brotherhood because they're SO MUCH MORE DECENT... I guess.
Although the game has a theme of its "good" characters siding completely with the synths and "selfish" characters hating synths, it drops subtle hints that they are simply robots with implanted human memories, and there is an additional creepiness of them replacing actual organic humans surreptitiously.
By the end of the game, I knew that my transition from "undecided" to "HELL NO" about supporting synths was complete when Preston looked at the smoldering wreckage of The Insititute after we demolished it and said something to the effect of, "I wish it didn't have to be that way. But they brought the fight to us."
I wanted to say, "Dude... Shut up. I loved it."