I've finally finished the main quest. There wasn't much left to it. Instead of cooperating with Colonel Autumn, you resist him, and before things can get ugly, a voice on the intercom intervenes - it's President Eden himself! He invites me to speak with him personally, and I get a chance to scope out the Enclave base.
It's all right. It's pretty much just a bunker. There are some science labs that house mysterious tubes containing biological samples of the various wasteland creatures, but I didn't really learn that much about the Enclave from just wandering around.
So perhaps it was just as well that Colonel Autumn countermanded the president's order and instructed the Enclave troops to shoot me on sight. Their weapons and armor were really valuable, and too good to waste on NPCs. Once I'd loaded myself down with as much loot as I could carry, and executed every living soul I could find, I made my way to the President (by the way Fallout 3's morality system could use some refining, because while I am undoubtedly a war criminal - shooting the fleeing scientists was the only way to be sure they wouldn't start up their twisted experiments elsewhere - the only "bad karma" I got was from killing Anna Holt, who used to work with project Purity until she switched sides - I guess having a name earns you some cosmic protection here).
In a shocking twist of events, it turns out President Eden is an AI. Which, you know, whatever. Like Malcolm McDowell isn't cool enough on his own, so you have to add a sci-fi wrinkle to it. Like most science fiction AIs, "President" Eden is poorly programmed at best. His great idea for advancing the Enclave's goals was to spike project Purity with a variant of the FEV that would target and kill all "mutants." The fact that the end of Fallout 2 revolved around the obvious fact that every single generation of human beings is a mutation of the one before did not seem to make the Enclave reconsider their fanaticism even one bit. Nor was he given pause by the notion that maybe, if all this radiation is causing mutations in an organism as complex as a human being, it will be absolutely devastating to a virus, and thus any countermeasures you might have in place to prevent blowback would be a crapshoot at best.
Even if you were a genocidal maniac, it's a terrible, terrible plan. Luckily, Eden's flawed programming is also vulnerable to being talked into suicide by random strangers (with Speech 100, granted, but still that's a pretty big security loophole). I rushed out of the base before it could self destruct, and once outside I met up with Fawkes, who had somehow tracked me down, acquiring a terrifying gatling laser in the process. Together, we reported back to Elder Lyons at the Citadel (I wound up giving him the virus to destroy, which only recently struck me as kind of a foolish move - the Brotherhood loves pawing through old technology, and historically has been pretty ruthless with outsiders, my only hope is that Fallout 3's characterization of this branch as heroic and honorable outliers remains consistent).
What follows is a sequence that made a very large, very favorable impression on me when I first played it, but now strikes me as shakily executed. The Brotherhood has repaired a giant robot called Liberty Prime, and is sending it to strike at the Enclave occupation of Project Purity. I had to follow along with it in a running battle through the streets of the DC ruins. In theory, it's pretty cool, and there is something awe-inspiring in seeing this giant robot lay waste to the Enclave troops. However, this time through I couldn't help but notice how superfluous I was to the whole mission. Liberty Prime was so strong, I didn't actually have to engage the enemy at all. All I had to do was stroll casually behind the robot and more or less automatically get to the quest objective. I did manage to pick up some pretty sweet armor from one of the corpses. Not only was it stronger than my regular power armor, it offered a strength bonus without an agility penalty. The fire resistance on top of that was simply a bonus.
The best thing about this mission is that Liberty Prime gives some intriguing insight into the mentality of the prewar society. It is, quite frankly, batshit crazy. The way in recites these bloodthirsty propaganda slogans while tossing around miniature atomic bombs like footballs. makes me suspect that perhaps democracy was not the main thing the people of Anchorage would be getting from the US government.
Once inside the Jefferson Memorial, I easily talked my way past Colonel Autumn (I think the big problem with speech is that it often seems to cut out content rather than opening it up), and was faced with a "moral dilemma." Unless someone entered the radiation-filled chamber to activate the purifier, it would explode and wreak terrible havoc on the Capital Wasteland. I could either nobly sacrifice myself to bring pure water to the wasteland or I could selfishly send one of my companions into the chamber and have them flip the switch . . . except that one of my companions is Fawkes the supermutant, who has already been established as completely immune to radiation, so there is no rational, ethical, or practical reason for me to go in instead.
Naturally, the original version of this ending, where not personally going in was treated like some kind of black-hearted betrayal, caused a great deal of distress amongst the fans. It didn't make sense and was also vaguely insulting. Broken Steel changed things up a bit so at least Fawkes acknowledged the basic sensibleness of him going instead of you. However, it did not change the fact that the ending cinematic basically calls you out for "not knowing the meaning of sacrifice," despite the fact that no one actually had to sacrifice anything. Ach!
I probably should have just done the damned thing myself, seeing as how Broken Steel first knocks you out in a purifier explosion and then wakes you up two weeks later none the worse for wear. As much as I love Fallout 3, I swear, this game never met a railroad it didn't like.
The situation now is that the Brotherhood is waging some mop-up operations against the Enclave, Sarah Lyons is in a coma, and I have been promoted to the rank of Knight (despite never formally joining the organization). I'm looking forward to some fun and blasty mission with this DLC, but the first thing I did, as soon as I had the freedom to move, was go and snag some of the more important and easily accessible Bobbleheads.
Mostly this involved going through some story-free dungeons, but I did stop at a place called the Republic of Dave, which felt like it should have had some politics-themed quest associated with it, seeing as how it was a corrupt pro forma democracy where only one person ever won the election. I really would have liked to throw my considerable skills behind elevating one of the ambitious young go-getters to displace the arrogant, delusional polygamist in charge, but there's no real way to sway people's votes or otherwise monitor the votes for fairness.
The other place that seemed like it should have a quest is Evergreen Mills, which didn't have much story, but it was a really long, elaborate dungeon and was home to a named character who had a unique shotgun (which, by the way, hot damn - its attack power when fully repaired was almost as good as a heavy weapon). But no one, not even Smiling Jack, even begun to talk to me, so I don't know, I guess the story is just implied.
I wound up getting four bobbleheads total, which is a significant boost to my power. I'm currently level 22, and I've been playing for almost 30 hours. There are a bunch of sidequests I could do, but I think I will focus purely on the DLC in order to get through it and start on Fallout: New Vegas. So, probably another ten hours at least.
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