Automatron starts well enough, as our character comes across a horde of murderous laser-toting robots in the middle of a massacre. Once we've waded in and the smoke has cleared we find one assaultbot left standing, who introduces herself as Ada and tells us about the threat posed by The Mechanist, an egotistical engineer responsible for the robot hordes marauding across the wasteland.

It's a nice idea in concept, and what follows is a respectably lengthy quest chain that pings us back and forth across the Commonwealth. I'm happy to admit I quite liked the dungeons added by Automatron, and following the downfall of a company other than VaultTec was a refreshing change of pace.

However, one can't escape the crafting mechanic, which is foisted on you during the questline in much the same way as it in the main game. I despise the crafting and its constant scrounging busywork, and I'm just as irritated by it here. It feels like a removal of my agency as a player to have the choice of how I engage with the game.