I Survived Four Hours of Fallout 3, Part 1

Gus Mastrapa gets his boots dirty in the Capital Wasteland. Bethesda project manager Pete Hines provides play-by-play commentary.
10/1/2008 6:42 PM | 4 Comments | Page 2 of 3

In Oblivion, [the plot] isn't presented in quite that same way. There's at least the appearance of urgency -- even if there isn't actually urgency -- whereas in Fallout we don't necessarily do that. You get a bit more of that as you start to play the main quest; you'll get more of a sense of the urgency. It is meant for you to ask, "Know what? Do I care where my dad is? Do I just want to go explore all this stuff? All I really want is a better gun." It's up to you to prioritize what's important to you.

I make a spur-of-the-moment to-do list in my mind. Dad doesn't even crack the top ten. I turn an abrupt 180 degrees from my intended direction and set off in search of adventure. It finds me at the end of a mutant stinger: Hovering five feet off the ground is an overgrown bee, mutated to the size of an owl. He's buzzing mad and intent on puncturing me with a barrage of airborne barbs. I pull up VATS -- the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System that comes bundled with my Pip-Boy 3000 -- thumb the reticule over the beastie's bulbous body, and proceed to fill the bug full of lead. He goes down fast. I close the distance, find my dead foe and loot his corpse for a single slab of insect meat. Already I've got the bug. I want to find something else to kill and farm. I long to find and collect detritus, treasure, guns and gear.

That's what everybody does. That's the fun. Just going through, whacking stuff, and taking whatever they've got.

I'm under the shadow of a wrecked freeway overpass propped up by tilting concrete pylons. The road, maybe two stories up, comes to an abrupt halt. The husk of a ruined bus teeters on the edge. There's got to be something good up there, I think. Picking my way across the landscape, I eventually come to the spot where the ramp meets the earth. My suspicions were correct: The elevated stretch of freeway has been claimed by survivors. Barricades have been propped up along its length, transforming the interrupted roadway into a defensible position. There are a ton of obstacles between me and my goal, where imaginary treasure awaits.

Navigating around the burnt shells of cars, I come eye to eye with my first survivor -- a leather-clad villain straight out of "Mad Max." The Renegade comes at me swinging a pool cue. (Apparently the guy isn't happy to see me. His friend, somewhere off in the distance, drives the message home by taking pot shots at me with a sniper rifle.) It takes a little trial and error to effectively clean house. With judicious use of save files, I try to maximize my effectiveness as a killing machine. On one go, I use too many stimpacks to heal bullet wounds. Another time, I wander too close to a burning vehicle: The thing blows up in my face, leaving my lifeless body sprawled across the asphalt. And then there's the guy with the Flamer. It takes several attempts to snuff the guy before he gets within range. I kill them all, adding their sniper rifle and flamethrowers to my arsenal.