So it been awhile since the game has lunched and most of us are familiar with the buddies we pair up with, so what do you guys think of your companions you came across?

Cait - A tough woman with a pretty sad story of addiction.

Codsworth - The usual robot butler.

Curie - The cutest French robot (Human robot) you'll ever find.

Nick Valentine - The cool robot detective

Piper - The wise cracking journalist that can hold her own. Lacking in story but she a cool character to have around.

@metalsnakezero:

There are more companions than those...I think there are about 10.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think each companion has their own unique quest too. I know I just got the one from Cait about Vault 94.

I like Valentine because he pretty much doesn't frown upon anything you do. Cait is my primary, but she doesn't like helping people. Strong is cool, but doesn't like violence or mischievous deeds.

So this is full spoiler regarding the names of any mentioned. There are 13 total. I think Paladin Dance has the best quest related to a companion and it really explains a lot. I also enjoyed Strong and Hancock for being bad asses and Maccready was a nice addition from Fallout 3. Overall Deacon is by far the best companion, hes just hilarious from both what he says and...what he does and I would HIGHLY recommend getting him and using him at least for a bit and getting a few conversations from high enough affection out of him. I wasn't a big fan of the first few companions(Garvey, Codsworth, and Piper) and I didn't travel with the Institute one much, but he seemed ironically robotic.

So far I've only traveled with Dogmeat, Piper, and Valentine. I think Piper is a pretty good character they don't do too much with. Valentine is much better, especially in terms of personal story. I have the opportunity to take Deacon so I think I'm going to try and get full affection with him as I do Railroad quests.

Dogmeat is Dogmeat, and I think my time spent traveling with him has been my favourite. The Lone Wanderer and his dog friend roaming the wasteland and fucking up Raiders is a cool thing.

I tend to collect companions and just send them back to Sanctuary.

I use Strong like a mule basically, the extra 300 carry is pretty sweet.

Gameplay wise I feel like Codsworth is overpowered. Playing on the hardest difficulty and he steals all my kills. I had to switch back to dogmeat.

So far I haven't liked any of them to be honest. I prefer not using one though. Never did in the last two either. I don't like all the constant chatter from them. It distracts me.

Fuck em. Ain't no lone wanderer with a buddy.

They're cool but interacting with them and giving them orders is bothersome

I don't use any companions. They're obnoxious and get in your way. If I accidentally end up recruiting one, I send them back to Sanctuary to chill and then just forget about them.

Deacon and Hancock are my favorites as traveling companions. They just have some pretty funny banter and commentary on the people you meet and places you discover. But Mccready has hands down the best perk (+20% for headshots in VATS)

Paladin Danse could probably just solo the game for me at this point, and I'm playing on Survival. Permanent T-60 II power armor that you never need to repair for him, and for some reason he shoots his laser rifle at an ungodly speed.

I used Curie for a bit, but the constant quips do get old after a while. There's also the Lone Wanderer perk (extra carry weight, damage reduction, and damage dealt) which honestly beats out having any companion for me.

@jthom252: I've got the same problem with Cait. I take her anyway, because otherwise I'm never going to see the insides of all those goddamned safes.

I never got Cait, legitimately. I went to the Combat Zone and, upon entering, Cait was standing in the hallway with her back to me. Approaching her causes her to trigger everyone in the place, including her, to attack me. I kill everyone, including her, and then suddenly she's in the cage on the stage. I rescue her and then it triggers a bunch of speech and she winds up coming with me. The whole thing was SO baffling and felt SO much like I walked into it sideways, I loaded the game over again and tried to figure out the right way to make the scenario play out. I never could make it make sense so I avoided the place entirely assuming that eventually some quest would lead me there.

I defend Bethesda, but they really need to stop with the "This weird thing inexplicably happens!" events. I know it's neat for something to just spring on you, like the attempted assassination by the mafia goons, but the game is SO prone to glitches that when something happens without explanation, it makes it REALLY hard to figure out if it was SUPPOSED to happen, or if something went haywire.

Curie is my favorite so far, I just love how flustered she gets when you flirt with her.

I know some people are down on Companions, but I put two ranks in to the perk that buffs them and they can be very useful. The only downside is you have to provide all their ammo for them. So just I give 'em a shishkebab or super sledge and let em tank hits for me while I take pot shots from a safe distance.

Deacon is the worst.

I've been rolling with 8 different companions and Deacon and Curie are the best. Deacon is a huge ass, but his quips are pretty funny and his personal quest is cool. Curie might be my favourite and she turned out to be full of suprises.

I'm playing a sneaky character and the companions mostly have been fine, but sometimes they will make everything they can to get spotted, but sometimes they just follow you around and do nothing when the fighting starts.

So companions: Yay!

How are you finding that? I found it to be really strange. It took me a long time to realize what was going on because suddenly If found myself a)not triggering any traps even when I walked right through them and b) FREQUENTLY walking right up to badguys who were either asleep or just standing there. It felt like a glitch before I realized what was going on.

I don't get people saying they are useless. I only played with Piper the whole game but she was very useful. granted it was mostly when she ran into death trap situations and got herself "knocked out", but she was very useful in taking out turrets and in pulling badguys off of me to give me time to do what needed to be done.

"Hey, go standing front of Swan while I load up this rocket..."

Nick is probably the best humanoid companion. I'm a sucker for noir detectives, though.

I didn't really like the humanoid companions much. They all had more depth than the companions in Fallout 3, but the problem with Bethesda games is that their plots and quests have a lot of "and then" in their stories, as opposed to "therefore, but."

Obsidian has a lot of "therefore, but" for instance, which got me attached to even the most bland of New Vegas companions; Boone.

How are the personal missions, though? I just finished Cait's, and it was abysmal. I can't think of a less interesting resolution to her problems.

@milijango: Cait's is probably the worst one from a narrative perspective. I enjoyed Valentine's. I got every companion to max affinity except for McCready, and that's because I was done with my playthrough by the time I got to him. Paladin Danse's is probably the most interesting/out of left field of the handful of companion quests, though. Using him requires committing to the Brotherhood of Steel though.

In case you're wondering, companions don't have endings, so it's not like in New Vegas where random people show up in your ending that you've never met before or even knew about. Just pick the one you want to roll with.

In terms of effectiveness, my favorite is probably Danse. He really takes a beating and does damage while he's at it. That's probably my biggest problem with companions - too few of them have decent weapons and I'll be damned if I'm going to be an enabler for their haphazard aim on something better. It seems as though Cait should be perfect- equip her with a melee weapon and she's set for life (I gave her a power fist). In reality the pathing fucks her up even more than the others and she spends half of my fights staring at a wall. In terms of personality, Curie and Deacon are probably my favorites.

In general, I have trouble dealing with their saccharine "You're the only friend I ever had" dialogue for affection levels. Don't know why they couldn't come up with something more varied.

@oldirtybearon: Good to know. I guess I'll start using him then.

And yeah, all friendly AI behaves in strange, horrifying ways.

Probably because Bethesda doesn't have writers. At least not a writer like say, Chris Avellone. You know, somebody whose primary job is writing fiction.

They have hobbyists. They have people who have dabbled in writing. They don't have anyone who has actually honed their skills, however. Todd Howard once said his programmers are writers. That should say it all, really.

I say this as someone who really enjoys Bethesda RPGs, too. Their primary writers left after Morrowind and they just never got real writers again.

Yep, that's where I landed. I travelled with Nick for a bit, Curie for a lot less, and Dogmeat for about 85% of my time before completing the main story. The appeal of just me and my dog taking on the wasteland was just too hard to resist.

So far I've met about 7+ and from a personality perspective they have all been whatever.

The whole system of: you picked a 100 locks so now "you're the bestest and closest person in the whole wide world, I love you, my life has new meaning"; doesn't help.

"Hey what is the status of our RELATIONSHIP?" ... man, the subtlety in companion dialogues (to use the term loosely) is off the charts.

it's kind of weird that you can max your relationships so easily in this game, especially given that each companion gives you a special perk at max. Nick straight up gives you an extra hack chance and an extra guess, making terminals a cake-walk. Definitely go after these perks at least, if not for the incidental dialogue and color.

I've been rocking Dogmeat ever since I met him right at the start of the game. I've met some other companions along the way, but I can't bring myself to part ways with the furry little guy. He's helpful in combat, useful when scavenging, and doesn't get in the way with constant quips and one-liners.

Also, (minor mechanical spoiler) Dogmeat is the only companion that doesn't negate the Lone Wanderer perk. 100 more carry capacity, 30% more damage resistance, 25% more damage dealt, AND I still get the benefit of a pack-horse and a helping hand in combat? Yes please!

Danse is by far the best companion, imo. The "mentor" idea is something you don't see often, his storyline goes to an interesting place and following that storyline gives you an opportunity to argue with the Brotherhood's hardcore ideals, which is something this game sorely lacks in many places. (Specifically the institute, whose bullshit you are never given the opportunity to properly challenge.)

Cait is also interesting, in that she undergoes a serious life change throughout the course of your interactions with her. Her personal growth makes her stand out a bit from the pack. Also, dat accent.

Nick is pretty cool. His struggles with his identity are kinda predictable, but it's cool that they were willing to give him some conflict on that point: one of the game's core questions is whether or not a synth's programmed personality is "real," and it's a good choice to have even a synth be unsure.

I like Piper's personality, but she has basically no story or personal progression, so it's hard to rank her high.

I'm not fan of the overall companion system, though. All video game relationships are reductive by their nature, but strengthening my bond with someone via picking locks near them seems like a new low.

Taking Nick to Prydwhatever as soon as it comes in has been amazing.

I don't think I have seen an wRPG give less of a fuck about it's writing, character motivations or it's narrative beats in well, ever.

That's really unfortunate to hear. I was kind of hoping they'd freak the hell out and gun him the fuck down or something. Which, I realize would never happen, but at least some kind of response would be nice.

I had a moment that ruined immersion for me quite a bit with Piper last night. There were two guys shooting at each other in the middle of the wasteland, both the same person. So, one is clearly a Synth. When one dies, I went and looked at his stuff, and found no Synth Compounds, which would have been present if he was the fake. Armed with this knowledge, I shot the Synth in the head and took the compound off his body for "reasons".

Piper didn't like this, as I technically murdered an innocent person. As far as the game systems are concerned, there's no way to know I put together that my target was a Synth, so naturally I must be an evil jerk. Piper, who had been talking about how she hated The Institute a whole fucking lot, was real pissed off with me for killing a person replacing Synth.

All Dogmeat, all the time. I play on easy and play pretty casually, and just picture my character as a lone wolf looking for his kid, and enjoying the company of a pretty cool dog while he ventures about.

Also, dogs are cool. Also, yes, I stimpak Dogmeat every time he gets hurt, even if I know he'll just pop back up later. Gotta look out for the pup!

Companions have definitely come a long way from previous Bethesda games, but they still lack something. Sure they have backstories and whatnot but they still don't feel like real people. Mass Effect 2 is one of the few RPGs I can think of that treated each member of your party as an individual with not just a great backstory, but a with a life that will continue long after the game is over. I cared for my crew members in Mass Effect 2 and while the companions in Fallout 4 are the most I've been invested in a Bethesda game, they still feel like pack mules to me in the end.

Are any of the as good as Willow (NV mod)?

Have you been able to romance Dogmeat yet? I've been trying to, but haven't been successful.