The theme of this update is revenge. It turns out that all three of my plans to acquire new equipment were in fact one in the same. The Brotherhood of Steel had an outpost in San Francisco, and in order to gain access, I had to infiltrate Navarro Base (you can actually go there any time, even at the very beginning of the game, but that causes a lot of stuff to become trivial).
I was worried that I would have to go to Navarro out of sequence, because though it is high level content, it doesn't really require high level skills to do. So it always seems like cheating to go there early. However, having made the trip at both level 1 and level 12, I'm not entirely sure how the game intends for you to survive. See, the low level run requires you to progress through small leaps, moving slightly, then saving, so you can reload after the random encounters inevitably kill you. I always assumed that by the time the game actually sends you there, you'd be able to travel in a bit more dignified a fashion. Yet my character, who got the mission in a more or less legitimate way, was barely able to handle random bandit attacks, let alone Enclave patrols wearing power armor and wielding high-end energy weapons. And the Brotherhood representative suggested I go alone. So I think the game may just have been fucking with me.
Anyway, once you are in, all you have to do is bluff your way past the guard out front by pretending to be a new recruit and the enclave will just hand you the game's most powerful weapons and armor. They'll make you more or less invincible to lesser foes (though even with the added protection, I died five times trying to make my way back to San Francisco). This sudden transition between fragile bullet sponge and walking colossus makes me wonder about the game's balance. As far as I know, the only other place to get power armor is in the Brotherhood base, but that is inaccessible until after Navarro. The second best armor in the game is also pretty hard to find. I found a set in the Brotherhood base and another in Vault 13. I think there is a weapons dealer in San Francisco that has a set for sale (I haven't actually explored that much of the city yet).
All I can think of is that game is not, in fact, very well balanced, and that much of one's progress is luck-based. Which is kind of depressing, because a lot of effort went into building the game's world, and its a shame to think that much of it would be closed off due to the insurmountable danger of its enemies. Fallout 2 is one of the most popular old-school rpgs of all time, but I wonder how many people toughed it out all the way to the end. It's so much easier to give up when the game starts kicking your ass.
Which brings me back to the topic of revenge. Having paid my dues getting kicked around by every two-bit thug in the wasteland, and then save-scumming my way to a nigh-invincible (to anything less than an Enclave patrol, which still managed to waste me more often than not) set of equipment, it was time to revisit some old enemies.
First up was Darion, the bandit who occupied Vault 15. Last time, he was able to one-shot me with his flamethrower. This time, I was able to do the same to him with my plasma rifle. From his computer, I was able to get the location to Vault 13.
No revenge at Vault 13, though I can't help but feel a certain amount of retroactive vindication in the fact that the Overseer was ousted by a rebellion some time after the events of the first game. That'll show him to screw over the Vault Dweller. Anyway, the Vault was abandoned by humans and subsequently occupied by intelligent deathclaws. It's kind of a terrifying prospect, and a potential harbinger of humanity's eventual extinction, but however much they may deserve it for what they did to the planet, the people of Fallout's earth are probably safe. The creatures were nothing but kind and gracious to me, offering to give me the G.E.C.K. if I could but repair the vault's computer.
So I broke into the store room and stole it. Hey, don't judge me. I have no idea how to repair a computer, and the village shaman has once more contacted me psychically to tell me of Arroyo's imminent demise (and this last message sounded really dire). And it's not as if I intend to leave them hanging. I'll be back to fix the thing, just as soon as my other business is concluded.
From Vault 13, I immediately rushed back to Arroyo, to save them from starvation . . . making only two quick detours along the way. First to the NCR, to wipe out a band of slavers who were too powerful for me the first time through. And then to the Den, to teach Metzger a lesson about how to talk to a lady (and also to free his slaves). They were two easy and satisfying victories, and both of them were practically on the way.
Plus, it's not as if rushing would have changed the village's fate. Once you return to Arroyo with the G.E.C.K, you find that it has been destroyed by the Enclave, its people kidnapped and taken god-knows-where, and its cryptic shaman severely wounded (but not so wounded as to be unable to exposit to you at length).
It's a good thing I enjoy revenge so much, because my next stop is Navarro. . .
(would be a dramatic and badass thing to say - actually my next few stops are a circuit of missed sidequests, but Navarro is definitely on the list).
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