Anticipation for Fallout 4 is at an all-time high. The game is a little over a month from landing in our hands. So of course, everyone has been looking back at the previous installments in the series as a way to remember exactly why they are so excited. We here at GameSkinny have been doing just that, and you can check out our articles on the extensive history of Fallout, as well as the 10 best easter eggs.
To continue our celebration of all things Fallout, we're here to count down the very best missions in Fallout 3. Of course we'll be coming back to do New Vegas in the near future - but for now, let's head back to Vault 101 and the Capital Wasteland!
Future Imperfect
It's almost impossible to understand Fallout 3 and what makes it so special, without experiencing that very first mission: Future Imperfect. This is the mission where you are born, learn to walk, celebrate a birthday, graduate school, learn to shoot, and have your whole life turned upside down. As far as first missions and tutorials go, you would be very hard pressed to think of a smarter, more enjoyable one than this.
Your time in the Vault is essential to making you appreciate and understand everything that comes after. Without a doubt, the moment you leave the Vault - blinded by the sun, hearing the radio crackle and slowly starting to see the giant open world in front of you - is one of the greatest moments in all of gaming.
Agatha's Song
This one might not jump out in your memory as a particularly special mission, but it was a fun one that had a real impact on the rest of the game, albeit a small one. Basically, you find this nice old lady, Agatha, in her little home out in the Wasteland. She asks you to go to Vault 92 and retrieve her Soil Stradivarius (a violin), so she can play music via her late husband's old radio. But of course it won't be that straightforward.
From there you have to find where Vault 92 is via the dangerous Vault-Tec Headquarters. Once inside the Vault, you will face a host of Mirelurks, Bloatflies, Radroaches and more. It's a very difficult Vault to pass through, and of course the violin is in the deepest possible corner. But once you get it and return it to Agatha, she will play it on her radio, which can be heard throughout the entire wasteland.
Sure, this mission is fairly straightforward and the only reward is a .44 Scoped Magnum and a new radio channel, but it's one of the few missions in the game where you feel like your work has actually made a difference and positively affected the world.
Our Little Secret
Without a doubt, one of the creepier encounters in the entire game, Our Little Secret, has you enter the cozy little community of Andale to discover a pretty horrifying secret.
You kinda know right away that something is wrong, because every resident of Andale is just a little "off". Then you speak to an older man, who warns you away from the town. Eventually you'll find your way down to the basement of the Smith's house and, through either Lockpicking or stealing the key, enter the basement room that contains "strange meat" (human flesh).
Once you exit the house, you will be confronted by the residents of Andale, who ask what you've seen. Here you can either play coy and accept whatever goes on, and they will let you walk away as well as provide you with "meat" pies everyday. Confront them on their cannibalism and they will attack you.
After killing them all, you can return to the old man, who tells you everything about the town and agrees to raise the children so they won't become cannibals. It's a rather strange mission in which case one outcome is beneficial to your playthrough, while the other is morally correct. Those are the most interesting.
Blood Ties
Here we have the heartwarming tale of a young man torn between his family and his friends. Well, it's actually a lot more weird and gross than it is heartwarming. No, in fact we've gone from one case of cannibalism to another.
The quest begins with Lucy in Megaton, where you agree to deliver a letter to the makeshift town of Arefu, which is really a dilapidated bridge. There you agree to help the locals, who are being terrorized by "The Family", a group that's killing their cows and causing a ruckus. You check on the residents of Arefu, only to discover that Lucy's family is dead. But there's no blood loss, and they have bite marks on their necks. Once you report the murders, you are told that Lucy's brother is missing. He was last seen with Vance, leader of "The Family".
After wandering the Wasteland, you eventually find "The Family" in a Metro system. Speaking with Vance, you learn that he is teaching the youngsters to appease their lust for human flesh by drinking human blood, like the vampires of yore.
From here, you can take multiple routes to finding Lucy's brother. But all in all you discover that he came to The Family voluntarily because he craved flesh. You can either convince him to leave the night-walkers or leave him be - either way you get a ton of good karma. You can also strike a deal with Vance where he agrees to either leave the town alone or even drink blood packs instead. Both outcomes result in Arefu and "The Family" joining forces.
This is one of those cool tasks that can be solved without a shred of violence, or a whole lot. And either way you feel like you've achieved a lot. It's also one of the more thematic and gothic missions in the game, which makes it stand out from the plethora of "go here, kill them, get this, return" quests. Blood Ties is a fun mission that helps define your character and shape the world you inhabit.
The Power of the Atom
This one is arguably the best of them all. The Power of the Atom is easily one of the more memorable missions in all of Fallout. When you first meet a shady gentleman in Megaton, who offers you an opportunity to better yourself in turn for detonating a bomb under the town, it seems fairly ridiculous that you would even consider it.
Regardless, your temptation gets the better of you and you find yourself heading to Tenpenny Tower. You meet up with the posh a-holes that live there, then reunite with the shady guy and Tenpenny himself. Suddenly Megaton seems a long way away, and it's so simple to just hit the detonator and get yourself a nice apartment and clean water for the tower. And if you're like me, you'll blow it up, then kill Tenpenny and take his fancy robe and sniper rifle.
Regardless, this is a fantastic mission that sets the bar for how the world evolves in Fallout 3. Especially if you decide to blow Megaton to smithereens, then return to the scene of the crime and witness the devastation and all of the radiation surrounding it. It's horrifically awesome.
Stealing Independence
This is one of the missions in Fallout 3 that made me giddy with excitement. I mean, there's very few game series in which you can complete a mission to steal the Declaration of Independence and meet a robotic Button Gwinnett, the second signee of the bill.
Washington D.C wouldn't be many people's first choice for a game setting, but Bethesda proved time and again just why it was so fitting for its post-apocalyptic universe. The nation's capital offered a wealth of history, politics, and unique architecture that made Fallout 3 feel completely different than everything else out there. And the mission in which you steal the founding declaration epitomizes that.
Oasis
I can vividly remember playing through Fallout 3 for the second time and approaching the 50 hour mark. Overall, that meant I'd been wandering the grey/green/brown wasteland for about 100 hours, and assumed I'd seen just about everything there was to see. I'm scouring the north-west region of the map when I stumble upon an odd gate, two guards, and GREEN TREES.
It's a testament to Bethesda's world-building that I was literally amazed by something as everyday as alive trees. But that's exactly what happens when you enter the world of Oasis. Once inside the settlement, you get to meet Harold/Bob, the tree/man that all life in Oasis surrounds. You then have the choice to increase his fertility, slow it down, or kill him. Each has different ramifications with the residents of Oasis.
This mission makes the list for being the most surprising. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was dumbfounded when they discovered Oasis, and deemed it a special haven. As mentioned previously, this mission/settlement, perhaps above all others, is proof of Bethesda's amazing world-building.
The Superhuman Gambit
It probably doesn't get much weirder than this one, in a good way. The Superhuman Gambit is exactly what you would hope it to be: a bizarre fight between a Superhero with robots and a Supervillain with giant ants.
The moment you arrive in the wrecked town of Canterbury Commons, you are embroiled in the fierce stand-off between the villainous AntAgonizer and The Mechanist. The two begin scrapping and once the dust settles they both tuck tail and run. From here you get to stop either or both of the superfreaks, by whichever means you see fit, and earn some money in the process.
This mission can vary greatly depending on what perks you may have and what path you take, but regardless it's one of the most fun in the entire game and shows a lighter side to the Wasteland.
Tranquility Lane
Only the second main story mission to make this list so far, but Tranquility Lane is probably my favorite in all of Fallout. Before Fallout 4 releases on November 10th, which contains a pre-war prologue, Fallout 3's Tranquility Lane mission is the closest thing we've gotten to seeing a world before the bombs dropped. And I say the closest thing, because even then, Tranquility Lane is nothing more than a virtual reality...kinda like The Matrix.
You enter the VR machine in Vault 112 in search of your father. With no idea what exactly you're going into, you see the lights dim and you realize you are in a sepia-tone pre-war version of the world. You're slack-jawed. The only thing that comes close to matching this kind of surprise is Oasis. And this maybe even tops it when you realize you're playing as a kid, your father is a dog, and the guy who runs the simulation is a little girl.
Tranquility Lane tells of scandal in the little slice of suburbia. Neighbors are cheating on one another, people aren't who they seem to be, and there's even a serial killer on the loose. Running around killing people with the clown mask and butcher's knife is probably the closest I'll ever get to being Michael Myers. (Yes, I ignore COD: Ghosts.) And I loved every minute of it. Tranquility Lane is Fallout at its best: unsettling, creepy, surreal and, most importantly, fun.
Head of State
Much like the Stealing Independence mission, Head of State has you restoring greatness to a national treasure. This time around, you're tasked with finding the head of the Lincoln Statue and bringing it back to the Temple of the Union.
The leader of the Union asks you to scout the Lincoln Memorial, where Super Mutants and slavers are guarding the head. This quest is interesting because you can choose sides between the Union and the band of slavers, which in turn can start a battle. Should you choose the Union, a battle will ensue around the Memorial, which is a sight in of itself.
Finally, I'd be remiss not to mention that you not only collect the head of the statue, but also Lincoln's hat, diary, repeater, coin collection, a voice recording, a Lincoln memorial poster, a civil war poster, a John Wilkes Booth wanted poster, and an Honest Abe action figure. For anyone interested in history, particularly American history, this mission is fascinating and, like Stealing Independence, something you cannot do in any other game.
Honorable Mentions:
- Operation: Anchorage
- Galaxy News Radio
- Scientific Pursuits
- Point Lookout
- The Replicated Man
- The Wasteland Survival Guide
- Mothership Zeta
Take It Back
And last but not least we have the final mission in Fallout 3, Take It Back. Not only is this the most bombastic and insane mission in the game, but it's also the most emotional and gratifying. Sometimes games, especially RPGs, can be amazing right up until that underwhelming last mission, but Fallout 3 ramped it up to 10 and gave players an amazing, memorable finale to their epic quest.
Take It Back is great because it is the culmination of your entire work in the wasteland. You've survived the harsh environment, battled Super Mutants, Raiders, Ghouls, and every nasty imaginable. You've helped the Brotherhood of Steel return to greatness, you've found your pops, and you don't plan on stopping there. No - you want one last hurrah in which you will take the fight to the Enclave, side by side with Liberty Prime, and restore clean water to the Capital Wasteland, just as your mother had wanted.
Depending on your final choice in the game, Fallout 3 can be pretty emotional, or very emotional. It's a wonderful ending that feels like the perfect cherry on top of the mangled, deformed cake that is your adventure throughout D.C, all while President Eden assures you the country will live again!
So there it is, our rundown of the very best missions in Fallout 3. Hopefully you enjoyed it and agree with most, if not all, of the choices. Looking back while writing this has reminded why I love Fallout as much as I do, and why I am so insanely excited for Fallout 4. And that was exactly the point. So I hope that I can instill some nostalgia and excitement in you as well!
However we aren't done yet. Fallout 4 doesn't release for another month, so to satiate your appetite, we will of course be doing a rundown of the best missions in Fallout: New Vegas. And that's not the only Fallout content you can expect on GameSkinny. Check back everyday for the latest updates, previews, trailers, and retrospects on Fallout 4 and everything before it.
We stand now, at the precipice.
Published: Sep 24, 2015 04:17 pm