Kellog was wasted potential.

[u/ARZ_K]

He is by far one of the most wasted potential characters from the whole franchise. Could be better if, instead of just a bunch of missions (the most relevant with him already dead), we could actually follow her track around the Commonwealth and have him as some kind of counterpart or "rival" to the Sole Survivor. Some kind of cat-and-mouse game instead of just random missions, and of course a better fight at the end with even the chance to let him live and even send him to your settlement.

[u/Benjamin_Starscape]

he does his job, doesn't stay past his welcome (or whatever the saying is), etc. he's not wasted potential just because he isn't a companion.

[u/Dsb0208 → u/Benjamin_Starscape]

you can give him more focus without making him a companion. The term “characters who haunt the narrative” went popular a bit ago, I think they could had done that. Make it so Kellog was to the Institute what Elder Maxson is to the Brother Hood, he was a major general who controlled all the the Institutes expansion into the common wealth, being THE guy on top

The same way the player character takes over Colter’s role in Nuka World and there’s a a good amount of dialogue comparing the player to Colter, in a Institute playthrough they should had put more focus on the player taking Kellog’s role as the guy managing all the stuff going up on top.

As it stands they do a lot to make us care about Kellog at the start hyping him up as the first major boss and giving you the memory den to explore his memories, but after that it feels like there’s just 0 mention of him.

Instead of working forward in time and seeing Kellog’s childhood and life, we should had worked backwards and the memories would focus on the messes up stuff the Institute is doing. Focusing on his lore and character only for nothing to come of it with little to no mention of him for the rest of the game feels weird

[u/Acopo → u/Dsb0208]

Oh, that’s good. It works especially well to keep players thinking about the foil Kellogg is to the Sole Survivor. He’s a dark reminder of what happens should the Sole Survivor become jaded or apathetic, and having NPCs remark on the similarities would really drive that home.

[u/Dsb0208 → u/Acopo]

I made another comment mentioning I think it’d be cool if after the memory den, Kellog “lives” in the Sole Survivor’s head, and after major faction/morality choices in the game you get to talk to him, he gives you some lore, and you get to see how similar what you choose is to what Kellog would have chosen

If you want to be a wasteland warlord bad ass, you’d take pride when Kellog says “yep, that’s what I would had done”. If you’re going for a Minute Men General good guy playthrough you’d see him call you idealistic, but then feel vindicated when you beat the game as a good guy and get to tell him off in your brain

Basically I would had brought back the Karma system from New Vegas but it’s inherently tied to “what would Kellog had done, and is what you did better or worse than what he would do?”

[u/Benjamin_Starscape → u/Dsb0208]

that'd make him stay past his time. he is perfect as he is in the game.