My First Fallout Experience Was The Absolute Worst Time I’ve Ever Had Playing…
I’ve been a die hard fan of the Fallout franchise for many, many years now. By far it’s my favorite game series and one I’ve played over again easily a dozen times each. Typically when someone finds their favorite game it’s a fantastic and exciting experience, for me, not so much. I was unfortunate enough to experience the absolute worst the wasteland had to offer on my very first run through, and I’m talking RIGHT AWAY. An experience I’ve never seen anything come close to in my near 100 following play throughs of the series, you’d think I had a real life Luck of zero!
A few things to keep in mind before I get into it:
• The copy of Fallout 3 I purchased came with all the DLC on a second disc .
• I used to keep my TV relatively dark to get away with playing it last midnight on school nights.
Alright, so the year is 2010. I was the absolute last of my friends to play Fallout 3. I decided to pick it up from my local Game Stop after hearing my cousin talk it up for quite some time. Opting for the slightly more expensive Game Of The Year edition, I got home and began installing the DLC from the second disc. Later in the evening once everything was installed I began my journey into the Fallout universe.
Upon starting the game everything ran like expected, Tunnel Snakes, GOAT tests, Overseer , all that good stuff. Then, came time to exit the vault. Stepping into the bright blinding light of the wasteland with nothing but my vault security armor and a baseball bat, I was beyond excited to explore the Capitol Wastes. That lasted all about 15 seconds however. Taking roughly 10 steps from the door, I began to walk toward a tall black figure that stood just off to the right of the vault entrance. Immediately without haste I was greeted with a barge of fire flying towards me. That’s right, the very first enemy I encountered in Fallout was none other than an Enclave Hellfire Trooper. So here I am, level 1, never played before, wood baseball bat, and being repeatedly spawned in front of and killed by a Hellfire Trooper with a heavy incinerator. Fortunately after a dozen deaths and a few tears, I realized I had saved before I left the vault while figuring out the controls.
After loading a new save file and exiting the vault for a second time, I was able to leave in peace! Arriving in megaton I began the main quest of finding my dad. However once again my game wasn’t having it. After informing Lucas Simms about Mister Burke’s offer to blow up the town, I met the two at the saloon, as you do. Only before Burke shot Simms, Simms’ body vanished! Burke shot thin air and Lucas was nowhere to be found for the rest of the game…. alright… guess he’s dead then. Moving on. Exiting the building and coming to realize the day cycle exists, I began wandering aimlessly around Megaton unable to see a damn thing in the dark.
The run from hell wasn’t over there however, opting to help out Moira after the whole Mister Burke incident, I began to make my way down to Super Duper Mart. Now, while I was warned about the vast amount of Raiders that can be found there, what I was not warned about was a damn Deathclaw. Upon arriving to the parking lot I was greeted with the body of a wastelands being thrown about as the giant mutated monstrosity charged toward me. After several deaths, my level 2 ass had just about had enough. Finally having the sense to just turn around and run the opposite direction upon spawning, I opted to run down the map and AROUND Super Duper Mart, just far enough to not be noticed by the Deathclaw.
My plan was fool proof, until I began to get a little too close to the parking lot once again. Finding myself in [Caution] I slowly began to back away toward the bridge just south of the store before turning and running away in full sprint… well, Fallout 3’s equivalent to a “full sprint”. Sprinting right into a Mirelurk King. Keep in mind, I didn’t even know better than to try and engage it! So here I am running away from the Mirelurk King back TOWARDS the Deathclaw just praying one of them would target the other. Fortunately for me the Deathclaw wasn’t having it and decided to attack the king, providing me just enough time to get the fuck outta dodge.
After this, I promptly turned off my Xbox wondering if I had just wasted $40. It would take me about a month or two before I finally gave it a second chance with a new profile and a normal ass play through. Here I am 10+ years later still playing Fallout 3 and every other Fallout title 100 times over, yet I’ve never once experienced anything that has even come close to that first one.
I’d love to hear about your first and/or worst Fallout experience! Let me know if you’ve ever experienced anything like what I went through my first time around and be sure to check out more Fallout right here!
-Style
Style's Rebel Radio 