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It's time to face my past. Crispy Gamer's four-hour preview of
Fallout 3 winds down in this final installment. After
exploring the wasteland outside the Vault and
raiding the Jury Street subway tunnels, I make my way to the city Megaton, where what passes for civilization in this ruined world awaits. My tour guide, Pete Hines from Bethesda Softworks, is on hand to help me make sense of the proceedings.
Megaton, not to be confused with Detroit.
Megaton is a huge walled city, protected from the harsh wastelands by corrugated metal. A robot stands sentry out front; his arms hang limply to his sides like the rubber tube limbs of Robby from "Lost in Space." A jet engine mounted high above rumbles to life, lifting two giant doors -- much like the opening of a drawbridge or the great wrought iron door of a medieval keep.
Within the walls, Megaton has the feel of a shantytown. It's built into the slop of a huge crater, and homes, shops and other establishments ring the pit. I'm immediately met by the town's sheriff, a friendly but formidable man called Lucas Simms. Simms is a man with an amiable grin, but you get the sense that smile would creep from his face were you to get on his wrong side. I like the look of the guy and aim to win his trust.
I think that kind of thing is important -- allowing you to role-play who you are when you talk to folks. The sheriff is a good example: You come in and are really nice and polite to the sheriff, and he's like, "It's a pleasure to have you here." Or you can be a dick, acting like "There's a new sheriff in town. Let's go!" and duel with the sheriff right there in the middle of town -- being a jerk.
I tell the sheriff I'll have a look at his town's key feature: A huge, unexploded atom bomb lies at the crater's low point. The weapon of mass destruction has been there so long that a religion has formed around it. I crack the thing open and discover that it's still live -- I can set it to blow or disarm it.
What kind of asshole would set this thing to blow? And what would my life in the wasteland be like with my one lead, this town, left a smoldering pile of ashes?
It's a tradeoff. This place goes away, but another place opens up to you -- Tenpenny Tower -- and you get a house there. But it is actually harder to play the game. If you blow up Megaton you are removing some resources and making the bit tougher on yourself. But I'm okay with that, because you just wiped out an entire town. If your life becomes a little more difficult, then good.
Lucas Simms: sheriff, crocodile hunter.
I'm no mass murderer. (At least, not unless it's in self-defense.) I disarm the bomb and earn a bit of positive karma --
Fallout 3's way of measuring deeds both benevolent and sinister. I'm not sure how much of the stuff I've earned; I just know that I've racked up some good karma. I feel good about it.