Further play (just over 7 hours now) and it's finally hitting its stride. I suppose all Fallout games have to have a slightly pants, off-puttingly rubbish beginning (FO1 with the cave, Vault 15 and Shady Sands, FO2 with the godawful temple, tribal village and Klamath Falls) that you have to grit your teeth through to get to the good bits.
The map is bigger than it first seemed... certainly now I've wandered around a bit. The 'vicious dogs' are damned annoying, one crippled my leg earlier. The bloatflies are also annoying, while the super-accurate fire from the raiders seems a bit unfair at times.
I note that traits are gone, and a number of them (Bloody Mess, Night Person among them) have become Perks instead. I'd also note that skills that had a less direct or obvious effect (such as sneaking) are much more and appreciably useful than they were in the original games. It seems that the game is a lot stricter about whether or not you can do certain things, or at least more explicit about telling you: in the original games, you could try your lockpicking or repair or whatever skill on an appropriate item and you might succeed, you might not. Whereas here, you try and hack/pick/repair something and unless you meet the exact skill requirement it won't even let you try.
The Eurogamer review made an interesting point in that you have to learn to let go of Megaton... he describes using it as a 'lifeboat' and struggling to build the nerve to leave it for the other proper towns. I too have yet to do this.
I am, by the way, playing Ironman style. It certainly makes for a more tense, exciting time of it... whereas I might have quicksaved or quick reloaded if I had a bad fight and felt I'd wasted equipment, I just have to deal with it here. A costly (both in terms of ammo and healing stuff) battle with raiders becomes a very tense affair indeed.
Sheelagh the vault dweller's diary, part the second:
ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
An Irish arse called Moriarty who runs the local bar claimed to have information about my dad. Unfortunately, he wasn't giving it away for free, and it would have cost all my money to get it. Fortunately, he let me solve a little problem for him, and go and deal with a former employee who'd run off with some drugs and money that were supposedly his. I don't care to being treated like this... so I agreed to take only some of the caps off her in exchange for warning her to move on before he finds her.
It would appear that my dad has gone to Galaxy News Radio, which is popular in Megaton. This was confirmed by a mention of my dad on the radio... and they seem to know I've come out of the Vault as well.
Lacking anything else to do, I decided to help Moira with her book some more. My next task was to research scavenging food from old supermarkets. I duly made my way over to the nearby Super Duper Mart. Outside, I encountered something very creepy - a giant ant. I'd seen dead ones outside Megaton, but this was the first living one I'd seen. Inside the supermarket, a group of Raiders were on patrol. I snooped around until one spotted me. I shot him in the face, and was astonished that none of his friends heard me. Trying to find some medicine for Moira, another opened fire with an assault rifle. A huge fight broke out, and I emerged from the dust with half a dozen dead raiders on the floor and more new weapons and armour than I could carry. Raider armour doesn't seem particularly useful (huge parts of your body are exposed) so I left most of it behind, but kept the guns.
I'd been in the store for hours, and had found a lot of very nice items, including two laser pistols, a whole mess of energy cells and even some purified water. That Micky guy outside Megaton was going to be happy. As I was climbing back up the ridge towards Megaton, I spotted a blip on my HUD. Spinning around, I drew my gun only to see it was a young boy in ragged clothing. It seemed his village not far away had been attacked by giant ants, and his dad was missing.
I agreed to help... later. The boy, Bryan, returned to the town to wait for me, while I gave Moira her food and medicine. Her next task was to irradiate myself so she could study the effects and test her homemade radiation sickness remedy. A few gulps of water from the pool surrounding the infamous bomb and I was at over 600 rads. And I'll tell you what: radiation sickness is almost preferable to how you feel after gulping down Moira's medicine. Blerugh. I still don't feel the same.
Her final task for the first chapter of the book was to research landmines. There were a few in an old town a long way to the north, but I didn't feel like hiking up there quite yet, so I helped Walter with the leaking waterpipes first. As we stood out by the purification plant having a cigarette that evening, I remembered Bryan and the giant ants. Whoops. He'd still be waiting for me by his house. I'd get straight over there... first thing tomorrow morning. Still no beds in the flophouse, so I slept rough, again.
The following morning I found myself in Greyditch, fending off giant ants. As per Bryan's directions, his old house was in an old apartment block. His dad was in there, all right... dead, surrounded by dead ants. He'd gone down fighting, as the place was filled with guns. He even had a Chinese assault rifle! Cramming my pockets with weaponry and ammo, I headed outside to the personal bomb shelter where Bryan was hiding. He was understandably upset, and wanted the fire ants stopped once and for all so nobody else would suffer a loss like he had. Sure, kid. I'll get around to it.
However, with my new weapons, I felt ready for the long trip to this 'Minefield' place. Stopping by Megaton along the way, I unloaded all my damaged Raider weapons and unwanted junk with Crazy Wolfgang, and headed out.
It was a LONG way. The water level in the rivers sure has gone down compared to what the old maps show: there were a few beached boats sitting on what must have been the old riverbed. A few raiders were easily dealt with using my new laser pistol, including one unfortunate who was completely incinerated.
Minefield seemed like a nice enough little town... until I spotted the first mine. Except, it was a reflective cat's eye set into the road. This threw me so much that I didn't even spot the first actual mine, and when I heard it beep I didn't react quickly enough to disarm out. That hurt like HELL, and as I was injecting myself with stimpacks another mine further up the road exploded, causing a nearby car to burst into flame. I barely had time to stumble backwards before the old fusion core exploded and knocked me flying.
Proceeding with much greater care this time, I continued towards the playground in the centre of town and managed to disarm and recover one of the mines. As I entered the playground, I scanned the area with VATS as I always do every little while... and detected someone. An older looking man with a sniper rifle was atop a building in the distance, keeping a lookout over the town. I was no mood for any further injury, so I took my leave as soon as his back was turn. Creepy guy.
I began heading back towards Megaton, but the journey out had taken me well into the afternoon, and the sun was now setting. I bumped into a hunting party, who sold me some strange looking meat. I opted not to eat it. A group of raiders ambushed me, and I sustained several wounds before managing to elude them. I was even further off course now, it was getting dark and I needed a place to bunker down for the night. A huge valley stretched out to the right, so I went to have a look. At the bottom of the cliff was an old train yard. I picked my way down the cliff and wandered among the wrecked trains. None offered any shelter, but the tunnel portals leading into the DC subway system had maintenance rooms which I gratefully curled up in for the night.
The following morning, it was with trepidation that I peeked into the tunnels themselves. No way I'm going down there. Checking my rifle, I headed back to Megaton. Moira was delighted, and rewarded me with much-needed stimpacks and a few frag grenades. Time for a beer and a rest, I think. I've earned it.
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I have quite a lot of stuff stashed in a toolbox at the Radio station in D.C. though, and it has persisted so far. I may do a big move now I've got my own shack in Megaton.
