The companions of Fallout 4 were some of the most interesting in the entire franchise, primarily because each of them had their own character arcs. However, one companion stood out from the rest for her versatile nature and utility: Ada.
A companion that was introduced with the Fallout 4 Automatron DLC, Ada comes with a unique story and is linked to the add-on’s relatively short questline. Despite the short-lived campaign, her arrival in the game also came with the new and extremely useful robot modification station.
Ada is Fallout 4’s Customizable Death Machine
Fallout 4’s Automatron DLC came with a new companion, questline, and the robot workbench. The new workbench allows the player to customize robot companions, like Ada and Codsworth, or create new automatrons from scratch. If the player wanted to, they could put together an overpowered Assaultron companion to carry them through the rest of the game. That Assaultron can be a heavily modified version of Ada.
This is part of what makes Ada such a creative companion. Players can modify her to suit any combat situation, and she can adapt to whatever weapons she’s given. Additionally, the miscellaneous robot mods in Fallout 4, such as the hacking and lockpick modules, further increase her utility on the field. It’s a level of customizability that players simply don’t have with other human companions.
Of course, this applies to Fallout 4’s Codsworth and Curie (in her robot form) as well, so in that regard, Ada isn’t exactly unique. That’s where her character arc comes in. Ada’s presence in the game brings up plenty of questions about robots and their self-awareness.
Sentient Robots in Fallout 4
First and foremost, there should be a distinction between robots and synths. The advanced synths manufactured in Fallout 4 by the Institute exhibit autonomy and sentience. This even applies to earlier synth models, notably including Nick Valentine and DiMA. Robots, on the other hand, refer to the machines that were created either pre-war or post-war by large corporations or tech-savvy wastelanders. Codsworth and Curie were made by pre-war robot companies, while Ada was put together by her companion, Jackson.
This already sets Ada apart from the other robot companions, but what makes her even more interesting is the fact that she appears to be more self-aware than both Curie and Codsworth. Codsworth’s affinity dialogue never paints him as anything more than a morally upright robot butler. In fact, he doesn’t do much apart from praise the Sole Survivor in Fallout 4 for everything they’ve done. That says more about the player, not Codsworth. In other words, he never acts beyond or grows past his programmed personality.
Curie, on the other hand, does end up transferring into a synth body. This most likely helped her develop some self-awareness and acquire that “spark” she was looking for. However, she never exhibited such self-awareness when she was still in her robot body. If anything, her desire to expand her cognitive capabilities is in line with the scientist personality that was programmed into her in Fallout 4’s Vault 81. She only manages to go beyond that personality (and even enter a romance with the Sole Survivor, if the player wishes) after her consciousness is transplanted into the synth body.
Now, these robot “personalities” aren’t signs of machine sentience or self-awareness. They’re pre-programmed algorithms that guide the machine’s reactions to certain stimuli. To illustrate, Codsworth’s dislike for the Sole Survivor when they commit wrongdoings isn’t a show of sentience. It’s simply his Mr. Handy programming adhering to the kind, butler persona that’s been programmed into his system.
The same goes for Curie when she seeks to discover more about the world. Curie in Fallout 4 was programmed by a scientist in Vault 81 who specifically based her personality on past lovers. So, her kindness and her enthusiasm for scientific discovery are both part of her programmed persona. She arguably only gains sentience and autonomy when she’s put into her new body, as the synth’s structural capabilities expand her own potential for thought. She quite literally gets her hardware upgraded, unlocking her potential to think and feel in a more “human” way.
Fallout 4 Ada is a Special Case
Ada is a special case because she never needed a hardware upgrade to exhibit her sentience. While Jackson’s process of creating Ada is primarily left unclear, the player learns through her that Jackson turned her personality “on” permanently, so no one else can disable it. Ada also reveals that her companions always treated her as a friend, not a servitor robot. This somehow led to Ada developing a consciousness that is, to some extent, beyond her personality.
In one of Ada’s last pieces of unique dialogue during the main questline of the Fallout 4 Automatron DLC, she shares that Jackson never wanted her to lose her personality but that she was beginning to think otherwise, wishing that he’d just left her personality mode off. She believes that that would have allowed her to do her work better. This is a pretty jarring level of self-awareness as Ada is essentially wanting to shut off a part of herself that makes her unique. She is aware of her pre-programmed personality and wants to do away with it, which is not something a standard robot would ever think.
However, if the player passes a speech check and tells Ada that her personality makes her “an individual,” Ada will recognize that her pre-programmed personality is what allowed her to build her unique identity (and, most likely, her self-awareness as well). She managed to do this without needing to be transplanted into a synth body, though it’s a shame that she doesn’t react to much of anything beyond that one Fallout 4 DLC.
Of course, this is simply a conclusion gathered from bits and pieces of Fallout 4 companion lore. There’s no confirmation that Ada is more sentient or self-aware than Codsworth or robot Curie, but it certainly seems to be the case given Ada’s way of talking about herself. Regardless, Ada’s incredible versatility as a companion and her interesting distinction as a robot are what make her one of the most creative companions in the Fallout franchise.
Fallout 4 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in development.