One of Bethesda's major strengths is environmental storytelling: mysterious, unmarked locations with specific enemies and skeletons arranged in a way that tells a wordless story. At times, lore entries and audio diaries are thrown into the mix to tell a brilliant microstory that immerses players in Bethesda's universes. This is partly why its latest major game, StarfieldReceived much criticism, trading handcrafted experiences for procedurally generated worlds.
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Result 4Despite being a decade old, it still continues to impress with its abundance of bite-sized stories filled with environmental storytelling and maps. The Commonwealth is full of small places that tell heartbreaking stories of survivors fighting for their survival, only to face the harsh realities of a post-nuclear war world. Even after years, some of these sad stories may have escaped the players and deserve to be revisited. Some of them come with holotapes, others have notes, and a third type rely solely on visual storytelling, and all of them are off the beaten path.
Ivan's house
Tribute to a true fan
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South of Nuka Town in Nuka World
In Nuka World, exploring the southern desert can lead players to the small, humble house where Ivan lives. The location produces some loot that doesn't make Evan aggressive when taken, and talking to him rewards players with the Nuka-Love recipe, which lets players craft powerful Nuka-Cola variants that grant 300 AP and 100 HP. Nothing to scold.
The tragedy of this place is its background story. Evan is actually a tribute to a real fan of the franchise, the brother of a Reddit user NoohjXLVII. Two brothers had lost their father, and Bethesda was in the process of giving birth result luggage package. Unfortunately, Evan passed away before the package could be successfully delivered, resulting in Bethesda's tribute to the Nuka-world DLC.
Boston Mayoral Shelter
The mayor and his family met a tragic end
The mayor of Boston wasn't exactly a man of the people, and he met an end that many would argue he deserved in this lavish haven that was built with taxpayers' hard-earned money. When an atomic bomb devastated the surface, the Boston mayor refused to allow any outsiders to enter the shelter, turning the locals into an angry mob.
Inside the shelter, the player will find the remains of the mayor in the bathtub, where he committed suicide. Although he was selfish, he was willing to trade his life for the family's. Unfortunately, this plan, his body was hidden, and an angry mob dealt with the people remaining inside the shelter after the storm. This is one of those sad stories where too much is done too late.
Charlestown Abandoned House
A scientific experiment gone horribly wrong
While exploring the neighborhood just south of Bunker Hill, players stumble upon a house with Halloween decorations and some ghosts guarding it. Inside is a surprising mini-story. Peters, a research assistant, stayed in this house to test the effectiveness of a new antiradiation serum sample.
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As one might expect, things did not go as planned. The holotape found here tells the harrowing story of his death. Not only did she risk her health and subject herself to the experimental serum, but she exposed herself to the point of radiation where her body took a huge toll. It's unclear what happened to him after the serum failed, but it's possible that the remains of the shiny peter found upstairs may be the same.
Ranger cabin
The last record of the escape
An apocalyptic event always puts family discord into perspective, and one must wonder what would have happened if a young pregnant girl sheltering in a ranger cabin had been successfully reunited with her family after the fall of the bomb. This location is not far from the sanctuary, but is easy to miss for players who don't stray from the main road or their quest.
After her family's disapproval of her unplanned pregnancy, Katie finds shelter in a ranger cabin, where she leaves her last holotape. Finally hearing her think, “Will anything ever be okay again?” Really heartbreaking, knowing what the world will be like so much later, and how the conflict with her family is forever unresolved.
A train car surrounded by ghouls
The last moments of a mother and her child
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Southeast of Relay Tower 1DL-109
In Soul Survivor's journey, they will come across various distress signals. Most of them lead to unmarked locations that each have a small, mini-story to hit the players in the spirit, but this particular one, collected in Relay Tower 1DL-109, is on another level. Players can find it southwest of Oberland Station. Following the clue leads them to an upside-down train car and a pack of wild ghosts.
Here, a mother and her children meet a dead end trying to hide from the ghosts that pursue them. Just listening to the holotape alone is enough to make players shudder as they watch their mother's final moments trying to protect themselves, but in vain. It shows the most powerful enemy Result 4 Truly a total wasteland.
Attacker burying his friend
A reminder of the brutality of the wasteland
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Railroad tracks north of Greygarden
The Invaders are the scum of the post-war world, known for their brutality and lack of respect for anything or anyone (well, except those in the Nuka-world, one might argue). That said, some moments in the game challenge this perspective to an extent. Head north from Greygarden and follow the old railroad tracks past an irradiated train car with ghosts to find a wonderfully sad and hidden encounter.
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Near the railroad tracks, players may find an attacker in the process of burying their friend. It's a scary sight as many of the attackers are just cannon fodder to the player at this point, ready to shoot them to pieces at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, if the sole survivor arrives hoping to be friendly, the attacker will turn on them and attack them as the rest. There is no humanity in the wasteland, even when grieving, and this hits home hard.
sleeping place
A deadly final resting place
In a post-war world a high vantage point might seem like a good idea in terms of security, unless one happens to be an avid sleepwalker. At the end of the floating roadway, players can find a small, abandoned house with a note addressed to someone called Jamal. In the note, the former resident expresses his concern about walking from the shore, especially after a few drinks.
That is exactly what is happening, which is truly ironic considering the person who made their home here hoping to be safe. His body can be found by the side, in its final resting place, and the worst detail is the lone feline companion left behind after realizing what happened to his former companion and potential owner.
hill house
House of Tragedy
On the hill in Natick and near the lake is a home that has seen better days. It is unclear when its roof was crushed by a tree or when its inhabitants actually met their untimely end, but it tells of a world where despair ruled everything. Evidence of this is upstairs, in the bathtub where the former resident sits with a gun, and evidence of violence on the bathroom walls. The second skeleton is in the garage building, which has met a similarly dismal end as its bones hang from the rafters.
What makes this discovery so frustrating is that there are no holotapes, no scribblings, nothing to explain what happened. Players are left to guess. Did these people in question take their own lives when the bombs fell because they had no hope left? This is one of those moments in the game that makes one stop and reflect on the brutality Fallout 4's World and History.
- issued
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November 10, 2015
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, drug use
