I Survived Four Hours of Fallout 3, Part 2

Gus Mastrapa gets his boots dirty in the Capital Wasteland. Bethesda project manager Pete Hines provides play-by-play commentary.
10/2/2008 7:17 PM | 5 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Maybe I should have gone to Megaton first. I ponder turning back, grabbing my stuff out of the oven in Dot's and finding some place to unload what I've accumulated -- all the extra guns, armor and items. But the lure of the subway tunnels is just too tempting. What fascinating stuff will I find as I plunge deeper?

Down on the tracks, I am immediately beset upon by more Renegades who pick at me with firearms. When they're feeling brave they run up close to whack me, but with VATS, I'm able to stop most of them dead in their tracks. Rounding a corner I'm met with another nasty surprise: a giant mole rat. The hideous thing charges; I unload my pistol, but it's not quite dead. It makes a leap for me and I put one last bullet in its thick hide. The horror collapses to the ground quivering. I swallow my disgust and pull one mole rat steak out of the creature's hide.

More mole rats and Renegades wait for me in the twists and turns of the tunnels. I claim a potent assault rifle from one enemy before coming face-to-face with Ryan Briggs. He's got a swagger to him, and he's not like the rest of the thugs I've been fighting. This guy looks like he's in charge.

You can find named folks all over the place. They're not necessarily quest targets; they're just named folks. There are scavengers wandering around the world. It's the same as in the school: When you go in that elementary school, there are a bunch of random raiders, but then you find a named guy -- a boss guy -- and he has the key that gets you down to the basement. But it's a self-contained [quest]. There's nobody who says, "Can you go to Springdale Elementary and get rid of this guy?" It's set up as its own self-contained little story. And if you look at a computer terminal, then the leader of these guys will talk about what they've been up to.

Briggs puts up a fight. I'm already low on heath and fresh out of stimpacks, but through trial and error I come up with a strategy for taking this Renegade leader down. I noticed a series of bear traps in the tunnels leading up to Briggs, but I didn't have the skill to set them, make them deadly. I tried chucking a pair of grenades at Briggs before he spotted me, but they fell just short of him, exploding harmlessly in the space between us. After falling to his aggressive machine gun fire over and over again, I finally come up with an approach that works. I crouch into a squat and sneak up behind Briggs as he patrols the tunnels outside his lair. When I get as close to him as I can, I use VATS to crack several assault rifle rounds at him. I'm granted a "surprise attack" bonus: The camera follows the bullet in slow motion as it extends from my barrel, through the darkness and into Briggs' unsuspecting back. My second salvo does the same. It's not long before Ryan Briggs is facedown in the dirt.