The Cathedral. It's a big building, and I can't help feeling like it's based off a real place, but a cursory internet search tells me that none of the more famous Los Angeles churches look much like this one. So where did this big, elaborate building come from? My inclination is to say that it's just a hypothetical building constructed in Fallout's alternate universe Los Angeles. But once I get inside, I have my doubts.
There's no discernible bomb damage, and a distinct lack of the game's "salvaged junk" aesthetic, so maybe the Cathedral was built after the war. Are the super mutants organized enough to put together such a project or did they steal it from some other group? Fallout was not quite as committed to seeding the world with setting details as later games would come to be, so there's no real way to be sure.
But I'm not here to admire the architecture. I have a mission. I have a Master to assassinate. The most logical place to look is on the upper levels. That's where these evil mastermind types love to hang out. Wearing the robes I looted back in Mariposa, I'm able to climb the back stairs unmolested.
Along the way, I noticed super mutants who appear to have some kind of cloaking device, the so-called Nightkin. They're a fairly dangerous high-end enemy, but I was incognito, so I didn't have a problem.
In the corner room of the highest level, I at last met the Cathedral's public leader.
However, he was not the Master. Getting through his conversation was kind of tricky, because he was incredibly suspicious and had a hair-trigger temper. Yet in the end, my near-magical bullshitting skills won out, and he escorted me directly to my target.
Blargh! The Master turned out to be some kind of creepy blob mutant. How he was even able to survive is beyond me. I think I probably don't want to know. I talk with him a bit, but I say the wrong thing and he kills me with casual ease. It was because I was wearing a robe instead of power armor, due to me trying to be all clever disguise dude.
There is a way to get past the Master without facing his incredibly powerful guns, but it requires some information I neglected to pick up. So, upon reloading, I take a brief detour back to the Brotherhood of Steel headquarters.
Informing the elder about my success in destroying the vats nets me some quick xp, but at this point it's kind of irrelevant. My real target is the librarian, Vree.
Aside from looking like a total badass, Vree has autopsy data which reveals some of the less ideal aspects of super mutant physiology.
Namely that they're infertile. The Master's dream of repopulating the earth with a robust breed of Homo Superiors is completely futile. With the vats destroyed, all humanity has to do is wait them out. And while I'm not sure why mutating everyone was so important to the Master, he apparently was doing it out of some kind of idealistic motive, because he doesn't take the news very well.
He commits suicide and sets the base to self destruct. Despite his fit of nihilistic pique, he decides to let me live -ish. I have three minutes to escape before the whole place blows up.
This does not work out.
The huge swarm of mutants and cultists is not much of a threat, but they force me to move through the map in combat time, which means all of their various turn-based actions eat up a huge chunk of my escape time. I have to reload and take a different approach.
This time I burst in through the front door.
It turns out the Cathedral was built on top of a Vault. These things keep popping up. I guess it makes sense that they would serve as nuclei for post-war civilizations, but I'm always surprised at how many there are. I think there are more in Fallout 3, but most of those are optional sidequests, and thus completely missable. Still, it's a wonder anyone died in the war at all, given how many impenetrable defense bunkers are just lying around.
I'm wearing my robes in that screenshot because, like an idiot, I forgot to put on my power armor. After reloading, I was able to waltz through this vault with relative ease.
I release some human prisoners from a holding cell, but they explode when they make a run for freedom, which seems like an unnecessary "fuck you" on the game's part. I'm trying to be a hero here.
I eventually make my way back to the Master, and the inevitable happens.
And that's it. I've done it. The game is beat and I get a brief epilogue. Most of the places I visited were better off for my bloody rampage, but there were some odd (and not so odd) exceptions.
I completely screwed the pooch when it came to Necropolis. There were super mutants there and I neglected them. In the end they wound up slaughtering everyone.
I also, apparently, wound up failing to save the Followers of the Apocalypse. But I don't think I can be blamed for that, because I didn't even encounter them.
The one that baffled me was the Hub. It wound up dispersing in the years to come, but I don't know how I could have prevented it. I solved the mystery of the missing caravans. There must have been some other quests I missed while passing through the city. Figures.
On the whole, though, I did more good than bad. Shady Sands will go on to form the New California Republic, the Brotherhood of Steel will end its isolation and help rebuild society, and Junktown will be peaceful and prosperous (also, there are a whole ton of dead raiders who will fail to bother people going forward).
All that remains is to return to Vault 13 and resume my life of peace.
Or not. It turns out the Overseer is a paranoid and small-minded control freak who doesn't want my fancy ideas of "maybe visiting the surface world isn't an instant death sentence" to spread among the young. So the bastard exiles me!
Can you believe the nerve of this guy?
What's more, his reasoning is completely bonkers. Yes, you may lose some people to emigration, but considering the high quality of life afforded by the Vault, you're likely to be able to pick and choose the best of the wastelanders to replace them. And that's to say nothing of the advantages of greater genetic diversity.
Ultimately though, ignorance and ossified social conservatism win out.
The door to the Vault slams shut, and I am left to make my own way in the world. Alone and deprived of any connection to my past or recognition of my accomplishments. Thus the world treats heroes.
Damn . . .
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