» Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:22 pm
My first fallout 3 playthrough was at a friend's house. It was dark in the room, the rest of my buddies were over but asleep or getting there, and I was just fooling around with his disk on my Xbox. After killing the overseer and much of Megaton (disarmed the bomb, though) and trying to find tenpenny tower, I stumbled across the Dunwich building.
Curious, and feeling a bit like a superhero after finding a sawed-off shotgun on a raider, I strolled on in.
Oh [censored], this is kind of creepy. I went into sneak mode, and creeped in. Pilfered the ammo box. Bumped in the skeleton, which then had a physics glitch and jumped up in front of me. I jumped higher. Called my friend over, cause I wasn't used to games being creepy. Call it too much Halo and COD.
He began watching. I took a left into a room, and looted the vending machine.
That's when I heard a sound that I will never. EVER. [censored] FORGET.
My mind started freaking out a bit. I didn't know what was in here. I turned back towards the door, but heard footsteps, scratchy breathing, and a scratching sound. I froze, turned back around, and put my back into the corner, clutching my controller like my character probably was clutching his shotgun. Tightly.
"Dude.....I'm scared."
I waited for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, something walked around the corner. I spammed the VATS button.
"What the fu-"
"Dude!"
My friend had only played it for a few hours, and apparently had not encountered this scary freak of nature before.
I didn't know what to do. So, I let go of VATS so it could get closer. HOLY SH-geesh these guys are fast. Almost hit me. Lined up a headshot. Head disappeared, body ragdolled around. Reloaded. Holy crap, there's more? Fine. Lined up more headshots on the 2 that suddenly walked around the corner. Both died.
Well, at least they die fast, I thought.
Feeling a little better, I turned my pipboy light on and walked into the next room, only to realize that it wasn't bright enough to even slightly pierce the darkness in this massive room. I knew I shouldn't have been there. But I was curious. So, I stayed next to a wall until I found a staircase leading down. Opened the door. [censored] bricks during the flashback scene. Saw a glowing one. Heart racing a little faster now, I ran up to him and lined up a headshot. Okay, 2, just to be safe.
About 1/16th of his health went down.
[censored].
I spent the next minute getting overwhelmed by damage and radiation, alternating between lining up vats attacks and trying to dodge his attacks. Finally ran out of ammo and had to switch to my pistol. After I managed to finish him off, I didn't stay around to loot. I was nearly dead, and now out of stimpacks. I had accumulated massive amounts of radiation. I was nearly out of all ammunition. My friend was getting a little creeped too.
As I walked outside, I immediately noticed that it was suddenly nighttime. No way I was gonna trek back in the dark, which still scared the piss out of me. Set fast travel to Megaton, and saw the words I will never forget.
Enemies nearby.
My hopes plummeted. My heart raced. I was scared, and I was possibly doomed. I had no previous saves. I was done for.
I gathered my courage, and lowered my Pip-boy.
I saw nothing.
"Ryan? You see anything?" I said as I looked around. I didn't fully get the HUD yet, and was still deciphering the compass.
"No-wait! Right there!"
"Where?" I said, frantically looking around.
"To your left!"
I looked left. "Where?"
"Right there- no, to your right a little!"
Looked right again. "WHERE!?!?!"
"To your left, man! You're overshooting it! RIGHT THERE!"
"WHERE?!?!?!"
"RIGHT THERE!!!!"
"WHERE!?!?!?!"
"THERE!!!!"
A mole rat and his buddy jumped in my face. I fell off the chair. I suddenly realized that everybody in the room was starting at me, and that there were 2 oversized rodents gnawing on my crippled ankles. I killed them in VATS, and shot each corpse to make sure they were dead. Fast traveled back to Megaton, saved out in the open by some people, and shut off the game. Had some serious nightmares.
Went out and bought the game the next day.
No other scary experience has been able to top that to this day, but trying to find my way around Vault 34 did make me feel pretty panicked.