I would do it. Its fun

You get Xo1 paint that increases your intelligence by 1 when you complete the main story with them. And intelligence is arguably the best stat.

Joining the Institute is like being a storm trooper assigned to the Death Star, it is a premier posting with lots of potential.

The institute is an organization in decay that has been treading water faster and harder and is at the tipping point. The result of the tipping point will be "do we die out and get killed by our own rebellious creations in private, or in public?".

If you join the Institute you miss out on the big battle in their base. Reject them and you get to run amok killing synths and innocent bystanders. Loads of fun.

Originally posted by lp0rc:

Joining the Institute is like being a storm trooper assigned to the Death Star, it is a premier posting with lots of potential.

The institute is an organization in decay that has been treading water faster and harder and is at the tipping point. The result of the tipping point will be "do we die out and get killed by our own rebellious creations in private, or in public?".

Alright, but are there any gameplay advantages to them, or pure story?

Originally posted by Legostyle03:

What are the pros and cons of the institute?

Well obviously there is spoilers but you get synth relay grenades and other goodies. I joined them on my third playthrough to see what happens and guess what. Same ending.

If you play survival, you get a Doctor that cures you for free as well fast travel to the institute from anywhere, Clean water and Food.

To the point of no return you can play all sides. There is a mission that whomever you turn it into is 'your team' the rest of the story. Which if you consume all the content up to that point, is like another 4 missions to the end.

If you enjoy playing evil characters the Institute's the group for you. They're as black hearted a bunch of scum as any raider band, except they kill far more people.

Basically the commonwealth after the ending is pretty much the same whichever side you pick the only change is who is now in charge and what factions have been all but eleminated. If you have done a complete playthrough anywhere that you encountered the side you picked manning the checkpoints etc. after the end you will find that about the only change is who you encounter at those places.

Beyond certain perks or items being differnt based on what side picked, for example getting ballistic weave if you did a railroad playthrough or institute paint vs railroad or minuitemen paint for power armor, it is pretty much the same except for who is attacking and defending checkpoints and what the repeatitive quests for the side you chose are about.

Originally posted by danconnors:

If you enjoy playing evil characters the Institute's the group for you. They're as black hearted a bunch of scum as any raider band, except they kill far more people.

Personally I say BOS are the evil bastards. Forcing their perspective on everyone. I look forward to an eventaul confrontation and final resolution for the BOS. NCR vs BOS or some other primary faction as yet undiscovered. The BOS code can maintain but it can not Rule. They are now flirting with rulership over peoples not comiited to the BOS Code. The center can not hold.

Thus they must be destroyed utterly as much as the Enclave, or they must Evolve to embrace a more inclusive doctrine.

Originally posted by The Entire Population of Canada:

If you play survival, you get a Doctor that cures you for free as well fast travel to the institute from anywhere, Clean water and Food.

This so much. The Institute is amazing in survival.

Re: the Brotherhood being evil... Yes. They are a little behind the Institute in their development of evil overlordship, but Maxon's rule will help them catch up.

A little more isolation and the Brotherhood would have turned out like the Institute, noble aims greater than the individual forming a clique of those who know better and those who don't matter. The Institute had more insulation from others and more quickly and completely arrived at the unconscious doctrine that others do not matter and cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the Institute vision.

The Brotherhood has had to struggle for that kind of separation with a greater chance of direct confrontation, and has lagged behind. They have to work hard at being casual sociopaths, but they've been putting in the effort.

In other words, the only difference between the Institute and the Brotherhood in terms of being totalitarian absolutists in their own outlook is the Brotherhood is more in your face about it with something to prove, and even occaisionally question the validity of their own perspective. The Institute has moved pass that stage of self-doubt and need to assert, they just KNOW they are righteous.

Originally posted by lp0rc:

Originally posted by Dimathiel:

The Institute are very like Republicans in that they want to hang onto their "wealth" and don't really care what happens to the poor.

The Institute always seemed more like Democrats to me - unilaterally deciding morality for everyone else and completely discounting any dissent as a sign of bad programming or evil intentions. Willing to exercise emminent domain for any technology they wanted "for the common good", just as bad and worse than the Brotherwood in that respect. Look at University Point and the CPG. Of course their take on the "common good" is rather different than that of anyone else, and synths are their answer - an engineered humanity that won't be as messy with dissent and differing opinions. Ironically the more human-like the synths become the more prone they are to dissent and differing opinions.

The Institute values itself, they are the true humanity trying to fix and eliminate the undesirable qualities of the rest of us, while caring about themselves and humanity as a whole while casually steamrollering over individuals.

The Institute is every bit as fanatical and dangerous as the Brotherhood, even more so as they are pervasive and insidious. The Brotherhood is overt and in-your-face about how their mission is important, more important than you. The institute is just matter of fact about it, not even bothering to have a dialogue or issue an ultimatum. They've grown past that, just as the Brotherhood under Maxxon will. Under Lyons the Brotherhood was moving in more of a Minuteman direction, which is also doomed.

The Railroad is well intentioned, Gen-3 Synths are definately sentient. But the mindwipes? Ugh. They CAUSE many problems. While "Art v Art" may be driven by the Institute as a Warwick/McDonnough kind of thing, I wonder how many folks who have dropped by the Memory Den at one time or another have a doppleganger out there... Guess having the memories and the face match is easier.

The Minutemen may be loosely organized, but you are building the faction from Preston and you adding settlements and establishing supply lines. The player is the Federal government, the settlements the States. Probably the only reason the Minutemen don't end up as ♥♥♥♥♥ is because they are gathered by you. But give it a while, the Minutemen will implode again without you, just as they did before with the fall of the Castle, dwindling to infighting and ultimate collapse with the Quincy Massacre.

War, war never changes... More like people don't change. The Fallout Universe is populated with the wreckage of civilization, and the very same elements of human nature and ideology that brought down civilization are still present, working against each other.

I guess the moral of the story is once we grow beyond the clan or tribe stage the tradeoffs are a tightrope we as a species walk, all progress risks a fall and not progressing is regressing - there is no standing still.