Fallout 4: Vault-Tec Workshop Review - Screenshot 1 of 3

Fallout 4's penultimate slice of downloadable content comes in the form of the Vault-Tec Workshop - another settlement-based add-on in which you follow a series of short, simple quests while building your own underground vault. This certainly isn't your typically large expansion - as you can probably tell from the price tag - but it attempts to do more than previous Workshop DLCs, incorporating objectives that give you incentive to get stuck in.

After picking up a Vault-Tec emergency radio broadcast and putting some bullets in a few feral ghouls, you're free to start building your new underground world. The first construction space that you're introduced to is huge, and as you steadily work your way through tasks given to you by the facility's original Overseer, you gain access to other areas that lead deeper into the Earth. When all's said and done, you'll have unlocked a gigantic new location that's yours to customise.

Fallout 4: Vault-Tec Workshop Review - Screenshot 2 of 3

The quests themselves see you run experiments on your settlers, which sounds decidedly evil on paper, but you're never forced down the ethically questionable route that Vault-Tec seemed so enamoured with 200 years ago. You get to decide the parameters of each experiment, meaning that you can make them as harmless or as exploitative as you like. Although the featured experiments aren't particularly exciting to watch unfold, most have a dark comedy to them that's enjoyable, and they're fun to simply mess around with.

Needless to say, this latest Workshop comes with a large amount of new settlement objects and structures. All of the Vault-related assets that you'll have seen throughout the game are yours to build, adding fresh furniture, electronics, and everything else that a new life below the surface would require. That said, all of these new crafting items contribute to making the settlement menus even more cluttered than they were before. Unsurprisingly, scrolling through dozens of components just to find one small detail can be a real chore - especially if you're not sure where to look in the first place.

Fallout 4: Vault-Tec Workshop Review - Screenshot 3 of 3

Fallout 4's settlement building system has never been perfect, but there's no doubt that it does a lot to increase the title's lifespan - assuming that you actually enjoy it. With so much settlement stuff added through DLC, your options when it comes to creating cosy little getaways or manic post-apocalyptic fortresses are near limitless, and the Vault-Tec Workshop only broadens that creative scope.

Conclusion

Vault-Tec Workshop is Fallout 4's best settlement DLC, but that won't mean much to those who don't enjoy building settlements to begin with. The often comical experiments that you can subject your dwellers to offer a few hours of fun, and the add-on provides loads of new items and structures to work with, but at the end of the day, we're glad that this marks the end of the game's Workshop offerings - we're just not convinced that Fallout 4 needed so much premium crafting clutter.