The Wasteland Series: A Journey Unfolds

Warning: May contain spoilers

The world of tomorrow must have been an amazing place, but alas, I look out now and see nothing but ruin. The rubble that was a house, the uneven cracked blackness of a former road, and in the distance, the shattered dome of the once grand capitol building are the things I see. My, what a place this must have been.

I feel the sun; a thing so warm, so great yet so cruel. My shoulder aches from my escape, and I feel the weight of the things I carry. I must find this town Megaton and find my father. But first, I must rest.

So, after emerging from the vault, I made my way down to some ruins of a town called Springvale and then headed off to Megaton. Megaton is a rather interesting town which gets its name from the unexploded atomic bomb in the center of it. Wow… an unexploded atomic bomb. The town is circular and rather easy to find things. My first stop took me to the local saloon where I was trying to gather information on my father. It turns out the owner knew his whereabouts but wanted 100 caps (Fallouts currency). Of course, I didn’t have that, so I decided to get some quests to help the locals.

I headed to the general store, Craterside Supply, to sell some stuff and met Moira. She offered me a quest to find food and medicine at a nearby store called the Super Duper Mart. After gathering supplies and resting, I headed out. The Super Duper Mart is a pretty decent size place, and it was crawling with raiders. I had a lot of good fights and got my character a sawed off shotgun and a SMG. The V.A.T.S. system is really fun to use, and the results are always graphically amazing. I found the food and medicine and headed back to Megaton.

My next little side adventure was delivering a letter for Lucy West to her family. I spent a lot of time wandering through The Wasteland and eventually found the town of Arefu perched on what seemed to be an old highway bridge. After a brief talk about some local troubles with the local mayor, I found the West’s house and went inside. There was blood everywhere, and it looked as if one of the bodies had had their throat ripped out. I informed the mayor and he told me it was the work of The Family and that they most likely have the West’s son, Ian.

I knew I had to do something, so I went out looking for The Family. I eventually found them in an old subway station, and wow, these guys are weird. At first, they just describe themselves as a gang, but their leader, Vance, told me what they really were. He started talking about cannibalism and transcending the desire of flesh and simply drinking the blood of their victims. Basically, they are the 23^rd century version of vampires.

Well, after a nice conversation with Vance, I found Ian and convinced him he should leave. I then talked to Vance and proposed the idea of the town of Arefu donating blood to the “vampires”, and in return, The Family would protect them. He took to the idea nicely and said I was welcome anytime. Vance also offered to teach me the ways of the vampire which I accepted (come on…), and my character is now able to regain 25 HP from blood packs. Good stuff.

I’d like to note that I had a bunch of in between mission encounters, but it would make this entry way too long. This game is amazing. I have only completed the very first part of the main story line, and I am not worried one bit. I love being distracted and exploring and fighting.

So much for the world of tomorrow…

The Vault: Prelude to The Wasteland Series

Warning: May contain spoilers

I’m going to be posting a lot about Fallout 3 (PS3) since it is a game I have been looking forward to for a long time. There may not be a post everyday, but I will document my journeys through The Wasteland often. I won’t really be posting a through the eyes of type of thing. It will be me playing a game and what I am doing in it, so I will use I or my character interchangeably.

Before we begin, I want to describe my character game play style to you so you are aware of what to expect. My characters in these free roam type of games are usually played as ‘on the fence’ types. They aren’t evil, but they aren’t good, and they don’t just stand by watching. I basically play to maximize my characters experience, so sometimes my character may rescue a person from certain disaster to advance in level and then turn around and kill that same person to get his loot. I don’t incorporate this sort of thing in my personal life, and in fact am a very peaceful person. I understand this is a game and do not allow it to affect my real world judgment.

Let’s begin:

The Vault

What can I say? Fallout 3 has a very innovative character design system and tutorial. You are literally born in the game where you pick your gender and what you will look like when you are older, and you even learn basic game mechanics as a one year old learning to walk and interact with things. I turned ten and received my Pip Boy 3000 and messed around with that a bit, and I also received a BB gun where I learned simple combat mechanics and the use of the V.A.T.S. system. At 16, I took the G.O.A.T. which determined which three skills I focused on. For me, it was small guns, science and lock picking which is actually a good three to start with. You are also able to change them if you don’t like the ones given to you.

When my character reached 19, he was awoken by Amata (childhood friend) to find out his father has left the vault and they were after you. This is where the game starts to pick up action wise. I was supposed to meet Amata by the Overseers office, but I am an explorer and did my thing. Armed with a BB gun, 10mm pistol and a baseball bat, I headed down the hall and ran into a guard. I’m sure I could have run away, but I saw his helmet and his body armor and knew I wanted it. Using the V.A.T.S. system, I took him out with two well placed shots to the head. I must say the way that system works is amazing. I love the camera angles and the slow motion aspect to it. I looted the corpse and moved on.

Further down the hall I ran into Butch who is a bully that used to pick on me as a kid (that’s how it is made to seem at least). He wanted me to rescue his mother from some Radroaches, so I went in swinging with the baseball bat and saved his mother. Well, since he was so mean to me as a kid, I decided to pay him back (insert imagination). By this point, I was a danger. I was wildly swinging my bat at anything coming near me, and by the time I ran into Amata, the guards were shooting at me. I really had no choice since the Overseer was attacking me like a wild man, but Amata didn’t want to hear it. I left her alone and went into the Overseers office and hacked his computer. There were some interesting notes there but nothing ignited a quest of any sort, so I opened the secret chamber and headed towards the vault entrance.

I opened the vault door and headed through the tunnel. At this moment, I was appreciating the graphics. You open the little door at the end and the sun blasts you with light, and the game gets all bright and slowly fades as your eyes adjust. It was amazing. The game gives you the option to change anything about your character you don’t like (exactly like Oblivion) and then completes the tutorial stage.

I played further, but it will have to wait for the official journal to start. This was just a little taste.