Today’s mod review is another companion for Fallout 4: Buttons.
When I first saw this one my interest was piqued, largely because 95% of the companion mods are always females and it’s nice to see a non-vanilla male option. The mod author’s description is lighthearted and witty, so I figured I could expect a similar tone for Buttons in game.
Basic features:
- Companion found near Sunshine Tidings Co-Op
- Custom armor, and has a hunting rifle
- Buttons specializes in stealth and long range shooting
- Counts as a normal companion
Impressions Using Buttons In-Game
Aside looking like Jake Gyllenhaal, which I found amusing, Buttons is a pretty straightforward companion mod. It’s custom voiced with solid voice acting and good recording quality. He doesn’t have a ton of interactions as you travel and his dialogue trees are somewhat limited.
Since he doesn’t have a fully functional affinity system you won’t have ongoing chats with him about things like vanilla companions. The voice work included definitely puts Buttons ahead of most of the companion mods on the Nexus that are either un-voiced or poorly voiced, however.
In short, if you’re looking for a stable follower to help in battle that has a little personality flavor, Buttons makes sense. But if you’re expecting a more extensive follower that rivals vanilla companions in terms of dialogue, the author hasn’t gotten that far yet.
His intro dialogue is short and to the point. Good if you’re looking for a no-frills companion, but if you’d like a more story driven reason for a companion to join you, you may be disappointed here. It’s a bit reductive to say that it’s essentially, “Hi, I’m Buttons. How about I tag along?” But it’s not far off.
Buttons works for the Minutemen, but has no issue with your working with any of the other factions. He has no personal quests and won’t get mad if you don’t end up working with the Minutemen yourself.
He’s a bit of a coward, notable by his combat AI and comments he makes while fighting. I actually consider this a plus, mostly because of how many overpowered companion mods out there with super-powered stats and weapons. It’s nice to see a wasteland inhabitant that wants to help people but is also extremely aware of how dangerous everything you’re doing is. Not that Buttons is gritty or raw in most other ways, but I find that particular bit of realism refreshing.
At first I was disappointed by the lack of affinity system with Buttons, but really, with the number of times I’ve played this game and done the affinity dance with all the companions, it’s actually nice to just play the game and not worry about my character’s choices causing issues with companions. And so for me personally what could’ve been a criticism is actually something I like about the mod.
Buttons’ Equipment
From what I can tell Buttons has a standard hunting rifle as a weapon (with unlimited ammo). This makes him similar to Macready but without the confounding mix of affinity likes/dislikes.
His armor and hat, while cool looking, are things I removed quickly simply because of how high the armor ratings are between the two as early in the game as you can find him. It just didn’t make sense for my character to be roaming in a couple pieces of leather armor while this guy has a combined armor of 50+ between his armor and hat (that has ballistic lining).
He’s supposed to be a hang-back kind of character, yet this made him feel like he should be tanking for me. A good way to split the difference is to remove only his hat, which I believe has an armor rating of 30ish.
I like that the mod author created this custom armor that even features “Arefu” on it, citing his travels there and a good throw back to Fallout 3.
Final Thoughts on Buttons
Buttons isn’t bad when I’m running a ramped up difficulty game with 2-3 companions at once. But if he were going to be my sole companion he’d have to be a lot more developed.
The solid custom voicing is nice and certainly puts him a cut above most of the companion mods out there, but it’d be nice to see a male companion mod as fleshed out as a few of the female ones like Heather Casdin or Ellen The Cartographer. The mod author stated several plans for future updates, and I hope they come to fruition.
As functional and polished as Buttons comes as-is, he’s still rather limited compared to vanilla companions or some of the more developed mods. A lot of potential here, but may not interest heavy roleplayers as it currently stands.
I’d give the Buttons companion mod a B, with the potential to be an A if there were more to it.
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