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Far Harbor is a paid DLC add on for Fallout 4 and is generally considered the best DLC for the game, and perhaps one of the best DLCs in the franchise. It is a dark, gritty, well written story that introduces new characters, factions, monsters, weapons, armor, and locations. It is generally sold for $5.99 to $14.99 but as I have mentioned in other DLC reviews, can be acquired on sale as part of the Fallout 4 GOTY edition for just $9.99, which is a really great deal since it includes all of the DLC for one price. So, let's discuss the pros and cons of Far Harbor so you can make an educated decision of whether it's for you or not.
Far Harbor starts with a mission found at the Valentine Detective Agency in Diamond City, and it is recommended that you bring Nick Valentine along as your companion to the island. While this is not required, and another companion (Old Longfellow) will become available shortly after your arrival, Nick Valentine has quite a few unique and interesting dialog options. This interaction really gives Nick a more full back story that will be unavailable later in the game, so it is recommended that he be brought along. Regardless, shortly after your arrival on the island you are thrust into a battle against new creatures, the various factions are introduced, along with new named NPCs, new quests are made available, and new locations are unlocked.
The island of Far Harbor (Bar Harbor in reality) is a large open world explorable area with quite a few new locations. This will eventually include four new settlements, each different from the last. A new building set with new walls, etc is included with the DLC and to be honest is far better than the vanilla build set. New weapons like the lever action rifle are also introduced, which once modified the legendary variants became my new go to sniper rifle. The best non power armor in the game is also found here (not including modded versions), and a brand new ammo type (.45-70) is also introduced and is quite powerful. But what makes Far Harbor truly stand out is the writing and atmosphere this DLC creates.
Far Harbor is just different from the rest of the game. The NPCs talk differently than the NPCs in the Commonwealth, both in tone, substance, and type. They consider themselves completely removed and always refer to themselves as Islanders, Harbormen/women etc and speak with a distinctly Maine accent (minus the one fisherman from Yorkshire). The island is covered in a perpetual fog or haze that makes vision at distance quite difficult allowing creatures and enemies to sneak up on you quite easily at times, especially at night. Far Harbor has a darker and more intense atmosphere than the rest of the Commonwealth and investigation of the island, especially when the player is at a lower level, always feels like danger is right around the corner. The writing only adds to this impression.
Once arriving on the island we are introduced to the major factions: the men and women of the town of Far Harbor, the Children of Atom, and the synthetic humans of Acadia. Each faction will have their own quests of course, but they'll also have their own options on how to resolve the Far Harbor main quest. Unlike the rest of Fallout 4, decisions made by the player here will change the outcome of the main quest. Decisions have consequences and will forever alter how the factions and NPCs interact with you, other factions, and in all three cases survive or not based on your choices. The writing is quite good here, the voice over work was excellent, and I personally really enjoyed seeing my choices actually affecting the story. For me Far Harbor was a perfect DLC since it was basically a mini game within the larger game. The only real negative for me, and it's quite minor, is that one settlement continued having the "fog condensers have failed" alert almost every time I fast traveled to it. I'm not sure if it was a bug but it got a bit annoying after the first few times considering the attacking creatures were bullet sponges for my low level sniper build. But again, that's the only 'con' for me with the entire DLC.
Currently the Fallout 4 GOTY Edition is on sale for $9.99 which includes all of the DLC so I'd certainly recommend picking it up at that price (especially since it includes Far Harbor). Considering the Creation Club's pricing for just a weapon or skin mod, this is a great deal for hours and hours of content. I hope this review helped and that you enjoy playing Fallout 4 as much as I do. Take care.