Let me explain: A little while ago, I was playing Fallout 3 [small](again)[/small]. This was fairly early in the game, so I was at a pretty low level, vulnerable to the many hostilities of the wasteland. I was heading to the sewers that led to the GNR building [small](again, because it was early)[/small], until I was attacked by some raiders. Normally, I would be able to kill them at faster than you could blink, but I was low on health and ammo. I was screwed.
Or so I thought.
Behind the raiders came a lone super mutant. He crushed each one of the raiders and I was saved! He didn't hurt me or anything. I thought this was some sort of glitch or something along those lines, but then I realized that he had no weapons or armor. Hell, he even had a name: Uncle Leo. I even got to talk to him for a bit. He spoke of how other super mutants kicked him out of their group because he said there was more to life than senseless killing.
Now, I've played Fallout 3 quite a bit. Up until this point, I've seen it all. Unique weapons, locations, all that jazz. But this is the first time I've ever seen something like this. Other than Fawkes, I never saw a friendly mutant before. I thought this guy was really cool and I hoped to see him again.
A few levels and gameplay hours later, I finally say Uncle Leo again, but not in the way I hoped: He was dead.
I don't know what got him. Maybe it was some raiders, some muties, a radscorpion or two. It didn't matter, though. He was dead. I was crushed. I felt so bad that I wasn't able to save the most harmless mutant around. But there he was, face down near the Potomac. I thought he didn't deserve that. He was too cool, too wise for that. I dragged his body [small](a very heavy body, mind you)[/small] into the Potomac and let it drift off, one with the wasteland, you might say.
Then it hit me: I just spent twenty minutes of my time dragging the body of some random computer generated guy to some computer generated river. It had no effect on either my life or the game. And yet, I was still compelled to do this.
Discussion: Have you ever felt this way for an NPC as well? If so, who? Do you have any interesting stories, like mine?
Or so I thought.
Behind the raiders came a lone super mutant. He crushed each one of the raiders and I was saved! He didn't hurt me or anything. I thought this was some sort of glitch or something along those lines, but then I realized that he had no weapons or armor. Hell, he even had a name: Uncle Leo. I even got to talk to him for a bit. He spoke of how other super mutants kicked him out of their group because he said there was more to life than senseless killing.
Now, I've played Fallout 3 quite a bit. Up until this point, I've seen it all. Unique weapons, locations, all that jazz. But this is the first time I've ever seen something like this. Other than Fawkes, I never saw a friendly mutant before. I thought this guy was really cool and I hoped to see him again.
A few levels and gameplay hours later, I finally say Uncle Leo again, but not in the way I hoped: He was dead.
I don't know what got him. Maybe it was some raiders, some muties, a radscorpion or two. It didn't matter, though. He was dead. I was crushed. I felt so bad that I wasn't able to save the most harmless mutant around. But there he was, face down near the Potomac. I thought he didn't deserve that. He was too cool, too wise for that. I dragged his body [small](a very heavy body, mind you)[/small] into the Potomac and let it drift off, one with the wasteland, you might say.
Then it hit me: I just spent twenty minutes of my time dragging the body of some random computer generated guy to some computer generated river. It had no effect on either my life or the game. And yet, I was still compelled to do this.
Discussion: Have you ever felt this way for an NPC as well? If so, who? Do you have any interesting stories, like mine?
