So I'm one of the handful of people on the planet who didn't really like Fallout 3, but New Vegas with its hardcore mode and expanded crafting and much, MUCH better writing at atmosphere is just exponentially better than Bethesda's work. As always, Obsidian has made an awesome game with one major flaw (the bugginess, in this case).
Anyway! I just finished exploring Vault 11. Well, you know, as much as it's possible to explore, at least. And the final section of it was one of the most brilliant and unique gaming moments I've ever had.
Spoilers ahead!
The whole vault was great, with the dark, twisted mind games that Bethesda made VaultTec all about combined with the weird humor of the first games. At first I saw all the campaign posters and went "oh, cool, political commentary vault." And then I started reading them, and paying attention to things, and went...oh. Ohhhhh.
By the end, you figure out that the reason people are campaigning to avoid becoming Overseer is because this particular vault's social experiment involves a single resident being selected every year to be a human sacrifice. At least, that's what they're told. When you finally open up the Overseer's passage, you find a long hallway and a cheery computer voice telling you that your "journey has just begun."
"Oh, so this was all just a big mind-screw," you say. "The 'martyr' just walks out of the vault by a secret route."
So you walk down the hall. The voice keeps talking to you. You get blinded by some light. And you reach a room with a comfortable chair, an end table with a potted plant and a few bottles of whiskey, and a big TV screen. The voice tells you to sit in the chair.
"Oh, cool," you say, "I get a little video before they let me go."
So you sit, and you watch the video. It's funny, in that cynical Fallout way, and as it ends, the narrator tells you to close your eyes and focus on all the wonderful things waiting for you in the afterlife.
"Can you picture it? Can you see it? ...Good."
And then the lights go out, the walls slide open, and a dozen turrets and robots obliterate you in seconds.
Against all video game logic, against all the genre savvyness you may possess as a player...it really is a death trap, and you are going to die.
It is one of the funniest, most subversive moments I have ever experienced in a game. Obsidian, however much you pay your writers, it's not enough.
Anyway! I just finished exploring Vault 11. Well, you know, as much as it's possible to explore, at least. And the final section of it was one of the most brilliant and unique gaming moments I've ever had.
Spoilers ahead!
The whole vault was great, with the dark, twisted mind games that Bethesda made VaultTec all about combined with the weird humor of the first games. At first I saw all the campaign posters and went "oh, cool, political commentary vault." And then I started reading them, and paying attention to things, and went...oh. Ohhhhh.
By the end, you figure out that the reason people are campaigning to avoid becoming Overseer is because this particular vault's social experiment involves a single resident being selected every year to be a human sacrifice. At least, that's what they're told. When you finally open up the Overseer's passage, you find a long hallway and a cheery computer voice telling you that your "journey has just begun."
"Oh, so this was all just a big mind-screw," you say. "The 'martyr' just walks out of the vault by a secret route."
So you walk down the hall. The voice keeps talking to you. You get blinded by some light. And you reach a room with a comfortable chair, an end table with a potted plant and a few bottles of whiskey, and a big TV screen. The voice tells you to sit in the chair.
"Oh, cool," you say, "I get a little video before they let me go."
So you sit, and you watch the video. It's funny, in that cynical Fallout way, and as it ends, the narrator tells you to close your eyes and focus on all the wonderful things waiting for you in the afterlife.
"Can you picture it? Can you see it? ...Good."
And then the lights go out, the walls slide open, and a dozen turrets and robots obliterate you in seconds.
Against all video game logic, against all the genre savvyness you may possess as a player...it really is a death trap, and you are going to die.
It is one of the funniest, most subversive moments I have ever experienced in a game. Obsidian, however much you pay your writers, it's not enough.
