After frolicking through Fallout 4, again, several months ago, going back to the game so soon wasn’t on my late-2026 dance card. Only then, a couple weeks before Halloween, something called “FEVer Dreams” is announced for the game, and I feel a sudden draw. Because this wasn’t proper DLC, but rather a mod produced in conjunction with Bethesda. And it wasn’t just any mod, but a mod with story, voice acting, a new location, and characters, and new gear. Well! It seemed too good to be true…but what it? Good, I mean. In short, yes. Yes, it was.

SPOILERS ahead!

FEVer Dreams story picks up where the very first inkling of Fallout 4’s story begins. During character creation, the couple, Nate and Nora, discuss the Veteran’s Hall speech Nate, an army veteran himself, is supposed to give that evening. Their plans, however, are suddenly blindsided by air sirens, a trip to nearby Vault-Tec Vault 111, and nuclear destruction.  So much for Nate’s speech, right? Wrong, if you’re playing FEVer Dreams! In it, the surviving lone wanderer is kidnapped by…err…whisked away to Camp Jefferson—the newly designated spot for the original Veteran’s Hall get-together—by an army robot. Nate/Nora (or whatever folks named their characters) wakes up in the long-abandoned facility to find that it’s been placed in lockdown, which they are tasked with lifting to so the speech/event can happen accordingly.

You Give Me FEVer

What sounds simple enough is anything but, because Camp Jefferson, as it turns out, is hiding a terrible secret in its bowels: FEV, or the Forced Evolutionary Virus. Originally intended as a super-soldier-creation serum, FEV instead created Fallout’s perennial big, green baddies, the super mutants; and Camp Jefferson’s underground labs are full of the stuff. So full, in fact, that the lone wanderer accidentally end ups falling into a still-operating FEV vat, becoming infected. The cure? Two doses of a special antidote, the first dose of which they find immediately. Locating the second dose propels the bulk of the mods’ story. The wanderer’s primary nemesis throughout is a ghoul who got into Camp Jefferson previously, became trapped, also became infected with FEV. He’s looking for the second dose of the antidote, as well, and won’t hesitate to take it if he can find it before the FEV takes hold.

That last bit is important, because the first dose of antidote only keeps the FEV at bay rather than curing it. As the wanderer progresses through Camp Jefferson, so too does the FEV within their system, which results in the wanderer experiencing bouts of extreme pain and…hallucinations. Oh, and not just any hallucinations, but those that involve their family. Nate sees Nora, or Nora sees Nate, in dulcet scenes where the bombs never fell. The wanderer can react in these scenes with everything from acceptance to disdain. They also come to realize that the hallucinations serve a purpose in keeping the FEV from taking over by making them remember what it is that makes them human.

FEVer Fervor

I went into FEVer Dreams with no expectations and came out pleasantly surprised at how good an experience it was. So good, in fact, that I played through it twice with two separate characters, because its hallucination scenes drew from choices made during Fallout 4’s original main story. In my first playthrough, my character had fully supported The Institute, and that choice was questioned and recollected in some remarkably thought-provoking ways. My second playthrough was with my Railroad supporter, and interestingly, those choices were questioned too, but much more subtly. To my limited knowledge, Fallout 4 doesn’t have a canon ending, but I’ve played through it enough to know that it feels as though supporting The Institute is “bad” and supporting any other faction, especially the Brotherhood of Steel, is “good.” With that in mind, it makes sense that the wanderer would receive a pricklier line of questioning regarding The Institute. To truly satisfy my curiosity, I’d have to do another run through the mod with a BOS supporter…another day, perhaps.

As far as the mod’s structure and atmosphere went, nothing felt out of place. The fact that the team was able to attain Nate and Nora’s original voice actors, along with a few other familiar sounding voices, was a huge win and made the mod feel as though it was meant to be part of the original game all along. As an added bonus, the mod includes some new plasma weapons and special armor. One weapon is handed out during the general questline, and another can be attained by using an in-mod and abundant currency called “challenge tokens.” The special armor can be picked up in pieces along the way, though some of it is also given automatically upon completing the mod. Either way, players don’t leave the mod empty-handed.

FEVer Fails

I can’t say I had any gripes about the mod, but if I’m being nit-picky, I wasn’t a fan of the underground lab’s confusing layout. Part of that is just me and my terrible sense of direction, but I found myself running in circles while navigating the lab’s maze-like levels. I also thought the lore of Camp Jefferson and its secret lab – information left behind on computers and holotapes — was a little weak. The computer entries, especially, read as if someone was trying to imitate “Bethesda writing.” Good but lacking the studio’s signature tongue-in-cheek flare. The voiced holotape entries were better, as some of them tracked the progress of soldiers who were purposely exposed to FEV, but they were only okay, at best. This isn’t to put Bethesda’s storytelling abilities on a pedestal, but FEVer Dream’s lore ultimately felt like an afterthought.

FEVer Finale

FEVer Dreams is an easy thing to recommend to Fallout 4 fans and onlookers; and better yet, it’s free to anyone who owns the game. At just a few hours long, FEVer Dreams starts and ends strong, doesn’t overstay its welcome, and leaves a few nice parting gifts. It played out like well-crafted mini DLC rather than “just” a mod, and it offered up an interesting perspective on the life of the game’s lone wanderer. Giving credit where credit is due, the team that put this mod together, in conjunction with Bethesda, did good. Really, really good. It’d be awesome to see additional (and free) Fallout 4 story mods come to life, but until they do, FEVer Dreams is definitely worth playing.