Summary
Fallout 4is a controversial game among some fans. While boasting many new features and a more advanced engine, opinions on the writing remain mixed. This includesFallout 4’s quests and factions, which feature many good ideas but imperfect execution. The Railroad, for example, is one of the game’s most interesting factions but remains divisive even among fans who sympathize with its cause.
Part of what makesFallout 4’s Railroad faction interesting is that players must do a bit of legwork to find them. After overhearing a rumor about the organization’s hideout, players must decipher the opening clue and embark on a journey across the ruins of Boston. However, while the adventure is fun the first time, it doesn’t hit quite the same the second time, when players can just show up at the hideout.
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Fallout 4’s Freedom Trail
Fallout 4players find the Railroad during the quest “Road to Freedom,” which begins in one of several ways. Multiple copies of a Railroad recruitment tape are scattered around the Commonwealth, and multiple NPCs have dialogue about the organization. However, the most common way is for players to overhear two citizens ofFallout 4’s Diamond Citytalking about The Railroad near the entrance to Nick Valentine’s Detective Agency. This adds the quest to the player’s Pip-Boy, with the description “Follow the Freedom Trail.”
Players who know enough about Boston might recognize the Freedom Trail as the name of a real-life tourism route of 17 major historical sites. Each location has a seal on the sidewalk nearby, with a line of red brick leading from one stop to the next. However, whether they head there on their own, or stumbled across it while looking forNick Valentine, the next stage of the quest begins when players arrive at the first marker in Boston Common.
From there, players must follow the trail from marker to marker, taking note of the letters circled in red paint and the number next to them. The trail eventually takes players to the Old North Church and putting the letters in numerical order spells the word “Railroad.” Inside the Church, following the lantern painting eventually leads them to another Freedom Trail seal in the catacombs, which players can rotate to enter the password “Railroad.” This opens a secret door leading toThe Railroad’s current hideout.
It’s a cool little adventure and stands out from the other quests inFallout 4. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of puzzle that only works the first time. The password isn’t exactly hard to remember, and once players know where the Church is, they can beeline there on future playthroughs. Even if returning players forget the exact route or decide to walk the trail for the sake of role-playing, it still loses some of the magic on repeat playthroughs.
This is a problem with many puzzles in video games, but the Freedom Trail is one of those situations where foreknowledge radically alters the player’s experience. This specific situation is also hard to fix because it’s baked into how the puzzle works.Fallout 4’s Freedom Trailfollows the real-life path, which already takes more or less the shortest route to each stop. Meanwhile, hanging the password in each playthrough would turn a fun adventure into unnecessary padding. There are also only so many words that can be made from the letters on the Freedom Trail seal, so players would likely end up brute-forcing the password anyway.
Short of designing an entirely new quest, the only real solution would have been to put The Railroad’s hideout in a different building each time. Not every stop is suitable, but it could have worked. However, doing so would also prevent Bethesda from using those locations inotherFallout 4quests. Ultimately, there really is no perfect option.
Fallout 4is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
