I Survived Four Hours of Fallout 3, Part 3

Gus Mastrapa gets his boots dirty in the Capital Wasteland. Bethesda project manager Pete Hines provides play-by-play commentary.
10/3/2008 5:51 PM | 3 Comments | Page 2 of 3

We could have been very obvious. The game has numbers all over the place for everything else; it wouldn't have been a big deal to just say "karma" and a number. But it's not really what karma is. Karma is more of an ambiguous thing; it's much easier for us to do without a number, but still have it feel right for the player.

Things are moving fast now that I've engaged the citizenry of Megaton. The sheriff, pleased with my deeds, has given me the keys to my own abode. The place is more than a hovel -- it's a multi-floor apartment with a fridge and places to work and sleep. I put my head to the pillow and wake up six hours later feeling "well rested." That's a buff that's earned when you bunk down in a place that you own.

My new digs could use some decoration. After my haircut (performed by my live-in robot butler), I head over toward an establishment run by Moira Brown, who reminds me a bit of Kaylee, the cheerful spaceship mechanic on the show "Firefly." She's a cheery type. Cute, too. Her kind attitude seems at odds with the dreary, violent hours I've just spent.

It's a harsh, brutal world. Things aren't going well. But then you get somebody like Moira Brown who sounds like a housewife in Wisconsin. Sometimes you get just a bit of humor. [Despite] the harsh gruffness of the world, every now and then you get something unexpected.

I unload a bunch of junk with the businesswoman in exchange for the world's currency: bottle caps. I spend some of my earnings by stocking up on ammo and repairing some of my more treasured firearms. Moira has some work for me. She's writing a book -- a survival guide of sorts -- and she wants me to do the legwork. Moira's offering me co-authorship as well as some opportunities to explore new places, and kill interesting people. I accept.

You actually get to flavor what it is she writes, based on what you tell her. She doesn't know whether you go to Minefield or Super Duper Mart or not. You can go to the wasteland, come back and just lie. "Yeah, there was nothing there." And the quests that you get are also different based on what your responses are.

I'm the honest type, so I opt to explore Minefield, scope out the area and, hopefully, recover one of the town's storied explosives without losing a limb. But before I leave Megaton I've got one final bit of business to take care of.

There's still the matter of my father -- that first quest that's been buzzing in my Pip-Boy 3000 since the moment I stepped out of the Vault. A guy in Megaton knows who my father is. Apparently he's spoken to the man. I approach the stranger, who opens his mouth and immediately drops a bombshell -- a spoiler as earthshaking as the nuke lurking in the center of Megaton.

I walk away with a new goal, another trail of breadcrumbs leading off into the wasteland. My father is out there fighting the good fight, and I'll join him, eventually. First, there's a little town called Minefield that needs exploring. Survival guides don't write themselves.