Fallout 4: Some Of The Situations

I admit it.  This is turning into the ‘Fallout 4’ blog.  Don’t worry, this should only last a few years.

I’m really enjoying the game itself and enjoying some of the characters, side missions and ‘random encounters’.  Possibly what I’m going to describe here may be ‘spoilers’ for some, so keep that in mind.

Finding Valentine

One of the main story missions begins with going to Valentine Detective Agency in Diamond City, only to find that the detective is missing.  Of course, it becomes your job to find him.

The first half of the mission is really just a standard ‘work your way down through part of a subway past mooks. Though at this point I hadn’t met the “Triggermen” before and I wasn’t fully equipped – with my play-style – to take them on.  Still, with the aid of far too many Stimpaks I made it to where Valentine was being held prisoner.

This is where we find that Valentine is a Synth (android).  He’s very much in the “Sam Spade” mold, with the whole noir way of dressing and speaking going on.  Once you find him, you have to battle your way out, as reinforcements have arrived.  As you emerge at the top you’re confronted by the Triggermen’s boss, two henchmen, and his current girlfriend.

If you start a conversation before you start blasting, you can find out that the Boss is an old friend of Valentine’s, Skinny Malone.  It seems like this is some kind of misunderstanding.  Of course, there is the whole issue of just having wiped out a battalion or so of his guys …

If you manage to get Skinny and Darla (his girlfriend) at odds, you can get out without a fight.

I love that you can have that kind of option.  I also love the whole backstory of the two adversaries.  The whole encounter is a mixture of pathos, tension and humor.

Two DeathClaws?

So there I was, sneaking along, just skirting a Super Mutant encampment. I was so focused on them, that I failed to notice a Mr Gutsy, and an Assaultron.  I was woefully unprepared for  the Assaultron, and the Mr Gutsy was just overkill at that point.

Still, I managed to get away (just), and decided to take a route around those two.  That’s when I found two Deathclaws fighting.  I backed off from there and tried to navigate a course between the Deathclaw Thunderdome and the two murderbots hanging out.

One Deathclaw ended up taking on the two murderbots just feet away from me.  I began to back up, but the Assaultron noticed me.  I kept backing up – straight into the other Deathclaw.

Yep, reload time.

Strong

Strong is a Super Mutant who has been locked up with a human called Rex Goodman, who fancies himself as the saviour of the Super Mutants.  His method of civilizing them is to bring them the works of Shakespeare.  This actually goes better than expected, as he’s simply locked up with the one Mutant who partly heard his message, rather than being killed.

Once you rescue both of them, Strong can be your companion.  He understood that there is something called the ‘milk of human kindness’, and that this makes humans stronger than Super Mutants (or more powerful).

He wishes to travel with you, hoping to find this ‘milk’ so he can give it to the other Super Mutants, become stronger than humans, then wipe all the humans out.

A worthy goal, I think you’ll agree.

Vignettes

One thing I love about Bethesda games, is that they have a lot of purely visual storytelling – sometimes in out of the way places.

For example, there’s an obviously exclusive club you come across.  You take the elevator up to the top floor and find a bar and seating area with comfortable lounge chairs.  Every seat is taken up by a skeleton.  Obviously they were here as the bombs fell, right?

Maybe.  If you investigate further, you can find that all of the full wine bottles contain ‘poisoned wine’.  And now you’re left with a mystery: were they all poisoned by someone?  Did they all make a suicide pact to go out before the bombs hit, or perhaps before the radiation got them?

I couldn’t find an answer; but perhaps that would ruin the ‘story’.

There are a few of these around.  Sometimes a holotape (audio log) will give you a small snippet of story, sometimes it will be entries on terminals, and sometimes you’ll get a purely visual scene like this one.  Minimal information with enough hooks to make you wonder what really happened – and whether you’ll ever find out.

 

About Lisa

A Geeky Gamergrrl who obsesses about the strangest things.
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