» Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:37 am It can be easy to see Science as evil, technology unchecked as the source of all ills, all misfortunes.
-Old World Blues ending narration
There are two things in Fallout 4 that really get me depressed. The first is when "The End of the World" plays on on the radio. The second is the realization that from what we've seen, every single technologically advanced faction in the setting is either utterly ruthless, insidiously manipulative, insane, anti-mutant, or a combination of the above. Every known chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, the Institute, the Think Tank, the Calculator, the Van Graffs, the Zetans, it seems like the least nasty of such advanced groups would be House, and that's because he's "only" ruthless and calculating, and after 200 years, presumably quite consistent.
I love science and engineering, and I love the retro-futuristic Raygun Gothic super-science of Fallout. But it depresses me so much, when I realize that every faction capable of feats of engineering beyond 20th century artillery are too busy finding new ways to be unpleasant and exclusive, while acting on some morally myopic concept of "the greater good". Perhaps I'm simply barking up the wrong franchise, but I wish that "consistently at least remotely benevolent" and "technologically advanced" weren't always mutually exclusive.
I was always an NCR fan in New Vegas, but part of me thinks I should instead support House next time I play, simply to ensure that somewhere in the wasteland, there'll be technological growth and progress without the cost of ghoul genocide or synth subterfuge.
