Overview of Part 4 - My thoughts. The Good and The Bad

[BugReportEnthusiast]

This is just my personal opinion on how the update was.

The TL;DR of this update is: Incredible environment and story telling, weird + impractical new items, and a few missed opportunities.

Let's start with the good:

New Region: Incredible.
The layout of Zone Of Contamination is great. It looks very nice and the theme is excellent. The region has both contaminated dead areas and unaffected areas with life.
The pools of toxic chemicals and red, corrosive water are very threatening and cool looking. Lots of warning signs as well, which helps the atmosphere a lot.
The region's mines are so amazing that i can't describe it, you have to experience it yourself. Massive size and depth, with many dangers. Just perfect, loved all of it.
Also, we have a

Spoiler

new transition cave from Zone of Contamination to Forsaken Airfield now, so you aren't forced to go through the hub. Options are always nice,

and while it's not too practical because of it's awe-inspiring size, it's an amazing source of coal and also just plain awesome to explore. Felt like a true cavern, nothing like the usual caves this game has.

The new mechanic of toxic chemicals is unique and fun, poisoned wolves are also unique, a new challenge because you cannot get food out of them. You have to leave the contaminated area and go explore the region to find things to hunt so you can eat. Very nice choice.

The new gas mask is very well made, lovely sound and image distortion while wearing it

New Tale: Great.
The tale largely takes place inside the mine, and because of this it has an amazing atmosphere all the way from start to finish.
I like the story we got with "buried echoes", it's quite dark and mysterious, a choice that fits like a glove to the theme of the region and the dangers of the underground mines and tunnels. Also, the story telling feels much more well thought out and solid this time around. I have high hopes for episode 5 if it's handled with this much care as well.

And here's the bad:

New Clothing: Weak.
Unfortunately, the new clothes we've gotten are pretty bad, and there's not a lot of reason to use them.
Their theme is "physical protection"  because they're used by miners, but they're just.. bad.

• Hardhat: Absolutely pointless. It has the exact same protection as a rabbit/aviator hat, so it is a massive downgrade and has no purpose
• Jacket: Weak. A heavier, weirder version of a ski jacket with 1% more protection. Largely pointless.
• Pants: Weak. A lighter version of work pants, with WORSE physical protection. Largely pointless.
• Boots: Too limited. These boots serve a very important role inside the region by resisting toxic chemical spills, but their mediocre stats and inability to be repaired means that they'll never see use outside the region, where their gimmick isn't useful.

New Tale Reward: Weak and boring.
Spoiler ahead:
 

Spoiler

It's the third inventory buff we've gotten in the DLC, and it's just boring. (Rifle holster, travois, belt)
The reward is a utility belt that reduces the weight of 3 tools in your inventory by 50%.
A cool idea, but weak in practice. Even in the best case scenario (Hammer, Improvised knife, improvised hatchet), the belt will only decrease your weight by 1.75kg, or 1.5kg if you consider that the belt itself weighs 0.25kg. 1.5kg of less weight is basically nothing with an inventory size of 45kg, plus we have the travois now. This tale reward is boring (we already got a reward that reduces the weight of a specific item, the rifle holster), and it's also just not worth using, really. The accessory slots are much better suited for the satchel or improvised insulation and not this belt.

New gas mask: A beautiful tragedy
The gas mask looks and sounds incredible, but its functionality is pretty terrible.
The filters are hilariously bad at their job. Our survivor's lungs can last for 50 seconds before suffocating, but a gas mask filter can only function for 20 seconds? That's really, REALLY bad. The amount of canisters you're given should be cut by half and their duration should be doubled because right now the gas mask feels like a cheap chinese toy, not like an actual gas mask.
I literally never had to use the gas mask at all inside the mines (except once), because you can rely on your trusty lungs and sprint through the toxic air without issue

Also it is an absolute tragedy that the gas mask doesn't have any functionality outside of the Zone of Contamination (excluding Last Prospect).
It looks, sounds and feels amazing, but you have no reason to ever wear the damn thing.

• Maybe it could give you a warmth bonus, since it insulates your face from the cold air and traps your warm breath inside the mask, but also give you a mobility penalty since your breathing is restricted?
• Maybe it could give you a bit of physical protection in struggles, since your face is protected from wildlife behind glass?
• Maybe it could slow down how quickly your thirst meter depletes, because you're not breathing in super dry, frozen air all day?

You have to do SOMETHING with the gas mask. The first tale gave us the radio, which you can use everywhere during an aurora to find loot. But the gas mask is just a pointless trinket outside of the poisonous air inside sections of mines.

That's all for now. Overall this update was very very good, but once again the balancing of the new items and tale rewards left a lot to be desired, plus the new gas mask is unfortunately useless once you're done with the region.