A man and his dog walked across the lands that might once have seen children playing, families relaxing and people laughing. Dust and death had taken their place.
The dog had been a good companion, and most importantly, a good friend. They had battled through everything together. An army of ghouls, deathclaws falling out of the skies and swimming animations when on land. It was time for the dog to rest, he had seen too much in such a short space of time.
When a twee robot with razors for hands approached the man, he knew it was the perfect chance to give his trusted companion a rest and take this stranger with him instead. Unloading the mini-nuclear launchers and Power Armour that burdened his four-legged friend (the man realised later that he must have been on the roids), he sent the dog on his way.
The dog was never seen again.
Despite Dogmeat being one of the weakest companions in Fallout 4, I stuck with him for the better part of ten hours after I first came across him at the truck stop. He was pretty poor in combat, but the ability to dress him up to look like an adorable little air pilot was hard not to love.
When I realised that I had to mix it up a little and increase my chances of getting sweet, pointless XP bonuses from romancing two-legged companions instead, I sent Dogmeat away and went with Preston Garvey for a few missions. After noticing that Preston had about as much personality as a bowl of Bran Flakes, I realised the error of my ways and set off to retrieve Dogmeat.
After searching all the settlements and the last place I had interacted with Dogmeat, I just couldn’t find him. I set up doghouses in all the settlements where he could be and searched every house in Sanctuary Hills and each individual crop in Finch Farm, but without any luck. I couldn’t use console commands, either.
Dogmeat was gone.
Fallout 4 hasn’t exactly had the smoothest of launches with complaints about bugs and glitches being a real issue. Having never encountered  a serious one myself, I laughed off the umpteenth time a Super Mutant breakdanced his way into a shopping trolley and just shrugged at the “oh, Bethesda” moment. The developers behind some of the greatest open-world games of all time sure know how to paint a landscape, but they don’t know how to stop the landscape from looking like a demented Dali painting sometimes.
However, I don’t think Dogmeat’s disappearance is down to a bug. I know he is out there somewhere, it’s just almost impossible to track him down. The Commonwealth is huge and with 30+ hours of gameplay recorded, I don’t think I have even explored half of it yet. So, with such an expansive and broad world to explore, why is there no mechanic to easily find your companions at any given time?
The irritation isn’t just down to Dogmeat’s disappearance, either. I have recruited new companions before deciding I don’t want them with me just yet, so I dispatched them to a settlement. It’s been almost twenty hours since I encountered Curie and I still have absolutely no idea where I sent her. She could be in the Glowing Sea necking off with a feral ghoul for all I know.
Even though they are probably going to have a monstrous amount to get sorted for the next update, would it be so hard for Bethesda to include a mechanic to allow you to track your companions on your Pip-Boy? I hope not, it’s been days since I watched a dog do a backflip and it’s starting to deeply sadden me.
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