Your Scariest character in the Fallout franchise

Ghost People weren't that scary for me, my first run on the Sierra Madre was with my trusty Unarmed character. At first they were pretty challenging because I only had the Police Pistol as the only weapon attached to my taged skills, but once I got the Bear Trap Fist my character just kept One Punch Killing them, to the point were I wasn't scared of tem at all. Then my other runs happened, it wasn't as easy with the other guys.

For me the scariest creatures are the Centaurs and Wanamingos in Fallout 2, I specially hate the later ones.

 

This was my experience, more or less. My first two playthroughs were with an EW guy and a dedicated Melee enthusiast. The first time out, the game didn't remove my drained SECs/MFCs from my inventory when it dumped me into the Villa, which, coupled with Vigilant Recycler, meant I could just plink away with the Holorifle all the livelong day (not that you need many targeted shots to take a Ghost Person down, anyway). With the melee guy, I found a lead pipe as random loot in the very first firehose box I checked, which boasts better DPH and DPS than any melee weapon you'll find in the course of a standard Madre run (and whose speed of attack, coupled with Super Slam!, is enough to make sure you're practically untouched while you go about your work). It wasn't until I went in with a bland overplayed gunslinger/sniper that I started to understand why so many people thought Ghost People were something to fear.

As to the original question, I'd have to give the award for "most chilling" to President Dick Richardson. There are a lot of interesting parallels between him and The Master, but in many ways Richardson is actually the more inhuman of the two, lacking any of the pathos, altruism, and capacity for reasonable discourse and redemption that made The Master such a relatable and ultimately tragic villain. Between the two of them, Richardson's views and aims are actually the more twisted, and to top it all off, where the Master was supposed to invoke an unsettling sense of humanity perverted, Richardson was purely human. He wasn't the other, he was us, and he was an absolute monster. (Plus, on a more personal level and at the risk of touching on the political, he represented, with unchecked rampancy, so, so many of the vices present in my country that I was raised to believe a good American and a good citizen of the world should oppose wherever they cropped up-- blind faith, immunity to reason, jingoism, selfishness and ignorance masquerading as patriotism, a runaway military-industrial complex, isolationism, unquestioned (and unquestionable) authority, and the persecution and marginalization of anyone deemed "outsider"-- interestingly enough, all qualities The Master was arguably devoid of. I was a pretty idealistic teenager, so Richardson evoked a special kind of dread and loathing in me, even if I thought The Master was the better villain overall.)

 

Frank Horrigan

When I first played F2 and encountered him near Klamath, slaughtering the innocents, that was just shockingly brutal - you dont expect that to happen.

Would I have played the EU version without child and gore, it wouldnt have been the same btw..

 

Not that I really had anything to add, or to raise a point with. I just found that particular segment to be a singularly delightful read. I can't really recall NOT enjoying your perspective on these boards, but I feel like lately I've just been seeing you crop up, and wherever you appeared, some brilliant prose would follow, with genuinely insightful thought behind each line. I loved the juxtaposition of details and comparisons you made between those two villains to facilitate your point about how utterly, absolutely despicable Richardson was. I suppose I knew all this subconsciously, but that paragraph certainly made me aware of the differences between the two. Well anyway, not trying to suck any ass, just that on top of appreciating how it was delivered I'd like to say, "Excellent points."

Also I can really empathize with your description of looking back on oneself as idealistic in a none-too-encouraging light. Often times when I make a statement, people ask me if I'm a cynic, and that always just leaves me puzzled. I just sorta feel, if you've had your worldview shattered by dark realities, time and time again, it's only reasonable to be wary of those same possibilities meeting up with you, again. I don't think relying on and applying Murphy's Law to infer that "wrong" can include corruption and injustice (or the like) necessarily makes one a cynic. But I digress...

I think the various "answers" to this topic are an excellent illustration as to the ambiguity of rather simple concepts, such as fear and horror. The topic has been raised on other threads about what is and isn't horror, for example, and the fact that I would react to the question of "Scariest Character" with someone (Horrigan) who literally left me feeling completely intimidated by, and others like Yamu would offer a character (Richardson) through which moral and psychological dread was evoked by virtue of their... absence of virtue, and that just provides a great example of how the basic notion of "fear" can still be felt and interpreted by various people in such distinctly, different manners. Both are totally viable responses to the same question, and yet completely separate interpretations of the question.

 

Swamp folks at point lookout.

 

D'awwww, shucks

I've never been any good at taking compliments, but seriously, thanks. I don't want to turn this into a love-in, but since we're already in genuine appreciation mode I think I can get away with saying that I've always enjoyed your zest for the interplay of discourse on these boards. Whether or not I agree with a given point you're making, the relish you jump into an exchange of ideas with, your articulacy, and your willfulness to get something out of even the most topical discussions makes this place a far more fertile ground, and it's duly appreciated.

(It's a good bunch in general here, though. As much tongue-in-cheek amusement as I derive from the "11 angry guys on a website" rep, I really do wish people would update their mental snapshot of this place. Eh, whaddayagonnado?)

At any rate, in direct response to that bit about drawing out parallels between Richardson and The Master, it's not something I'd ever really thought about myself until Vault Buster's initial question. I kept it to Cliff's Notes, but I think there could be an entire essay in there. This place just fosters good discourse.

 

Trust me, I know how you feel. =) And likewise, thanks for the praise. It makes me uncomfortable, but thanks. XD

I do enjoy that, as much as some users push my buttons, and some comments leave me puzzled, and as sweeping as tongue-in-cheek joking is around here, it's still one of the most civil and intellectually nurturing forums I've ever visited- if not THE most. But I think that's more praise (both dolling and taking) than I can handle, at one time... Back to scary characters! XD

 

Apologies. After all these compliments to one another I feel like I'm trespassing upon sacred ground, that my throwing in my own input will tarnish the intelligent prose between you two. So I'll try to put my own thoughts down as, if not as brilliantly, then at least as intelligently, as you guys have.

I never really had anyone that scared me as such. The Ghost People are creepy, and Frank Horrigan intimidated me, but neither scared me. But there was one 'place' (like the Glow mentioned earlier) that horrified me. I felt it "left an impact" as it were. That place was Vault 11, in Fallout New Vegas.

This was the Vault where the social experiment, to sacrifice someone every year to survive, was held. I discovered the Vault whilst playing and literally had no knowledge whatsoever of the place. I think I had been there for a quest once before but I hadn't really regarded it. I'd just grabbed the item I needed, and got out. But this time I figured I'd explore, knowing there was always something interesting in the Vaults. You never know, you might pick up a useful item or something.

So I explored the dark corridors (this was of course, by far one of the easiest Vaults to traverse, with nothing but a few rats and traps to obstruct you) But I slowly pieced together the story, how an Overseer would be elected, and it was to kill them. It's strange. You think at first that all of the posters on the wall saying "VOTE "..." are the people themselves wanting them, but then you realise it's other people, that the news bulletins in the computers slandering each other aren't so the other will lose. It's so they'll win.

The ending was a shock to me, when you realise that the challenge for all of them had been to refuse to sacrifise anyone, that all their fighting had been for nothing. The five people left were free to go, with a taunting message "You're a shining beacon of Humanity" behind them. I finally understood why they killed themselves at the open doors.

To me, Vault 11 is ingenious. It captures the lowest levels humanity will sink to to survive, and it left me feeling sick. What they did in that Vault felt so true, in real life people would have done the same thing, and that's what scared me.

(Now I'm going to discover they actually ripped this off from a book or something, or Per will appear saying scary locations are in another forum, but the point is for me, Vault 11 shocked me, and frightened me, more than anything else I had seen in Fallout.)

 

Vault 11 was a masterpiece. With Gamebryo's limitations (and decisions like Bethsoft's inexplicably changing radiation from "insidious old-world terror" to "minor annoyance,"), things like The Glow and Horrigan just couldn't be pulled off effectively in the new games. Obsidian seems to have recognized, wisely, that they needed to delve the depths of human darkness when they wanted to shock or horrify the player, and nowhere did it work better than 11.

If the franchise had handled more of the vault experiments with such skill and attention, I probably wouldn't have minded them retconning in the whole "experiment" premise at all.

 

Good you came in.

I was getting uncomfortable there for a minute reading those lol.

But seriously, Fallout 1 the characters themselves weren't so scary (except maybe the master because you actually got to see him talk in real-time) because everything is turn-based, and you have a moment to take a breather. But the places, now thats what made Fallout 1 have a scare/thrill to it. The Glow, the Cathedral, those were creepy as hell.

With the original Fallout it wasn't the characters that were scary for me because of the turn-based action, I was always able to take a breather and sort things out. However, in Fallout when you are moving through a place like the Cathedral, Glow, or Necropolis, that is when I felt the "scare/thrill" that some people like to relate Fallout with.

For example the Cathedral.

You never really get to see what the world would look like if the Master accomplished his vision when your out exploring the wasteland, you just get a sense of their ideals, and that, something behind them just isn't right. You enter the Cathedral, and a dark sense overcomes you, that behind this "pretty face" they put on for the rest of the world, something is not right, this is not all of their story, if any of it. You walk through the cathedrals main halls, passing in-between the rows of longchairs, looking at the walls which are painted black. Since the war, the paint has been neglected, it is chipping, peeling, yet it still remains. Just like the Unity and their plot, all this time, you have been chipping away at them, but one small piece still remains, holding all the rest together which must be purged. You then turn your head to the floor, as something is pulling you towards it. It is the dark feeling you got the moment entered this so-called "Cathedral", this is what is pulling you to the floor. There is a sodom below, and it must be purged. After you investigate, learning more, you gain access below the Cathedral.

There, when your slowly walking through its dark-halls, not running but walking, not because you are afraid you might stand out and they might see past your cover, but because you are so horror-stricken at the sights down there. The flesh hanging from what was once a place of cleanliness and (supposed to be) a place representing humanities will to thrive and push-on through all things, which has now been corrupted by an dark, unholy entity. Then you keep moving through the halls, and you feel as if you are looking unto the future itself. You think to yourself, is this what might become if the Master is allowed to succeed? Then you feel, out of all the horrible things you've seen in the Wasteland, all the death, drug addiction, people killing one another for next-to-nothing. Then you remember that what these scientists and these cultists are experimenting with, the FEV-2 virus, was of humanities own creation, then you think to yourself for a minute, maybe humanity isn't worthy of life, of existence.

Then... you start to remember the good in not only humanity, but in yourself. You remember Shady Sands, a community, while still struggling to survive, its people would give its last scraps of food to help one-another, though they may not like it, they do it anyways. You remember the Vault, home, and you remember what you are willing to do to protect it. You remember the good you came across through your journey, that, even in the times of darkness, when humanity had seem to all-but-lose hope, there was always a shining light in the darkness. Then you come to your own realization that, after all humanity has done to itself and everything else, after its own struggle to push on, it does deserve its own survival. After all, everyone deserves a second-chance, and what is humanities attempt to survive after a catastrophic disaster which they themselves caused, but not a second chance for them to pick up and try again, and learn from their mistakes. What is it but not, a second chance. Then you get, not a feeling, but a knowledge thrust upon you which you can't explain, that in this particular dark moment of humanity, YOU are the light shining through the darkness.

Then you turn your head back to the walls, which have flesh thrust upon, you look to the scientists, and then to the prisoners, not wanting to know what horrific experiments awaits them. You know what must be done. You continue down the halls to meet this "Master", and down the halls, the flesh seems to come to life, you feel as though your being watched. He knows your here. You arrive at the door, and stop for a moment. This is it. Whatever happens next, whatever you are about to meet, you know what must be done, and no matter what fate awaits you, you know this... thing cannot continue its plans. You lower your hand near your holstered weapon. Throw off your disguise, and enter the door, only to see the climax of everything you've already seen, the true destruction of humanity.

 

Caesar, whenever you say something stupid while working for him.

 

He got a good sense of Humor.


On-topic:

The Glow, The Master Vault, Vault 11.