Fallout 3 Preview
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The task, given by the somewhat one-dimensionally evil Mr Burke, is to clear out Megaton by detonating the nuclear bomb in the middle of the town. Why he wants you to do this isn't really made clear, but he does and he's offering money, so Pete Hines decides to take the quest, arming the bomb and running off to travel through the subways to meet Mr Burke at Tenpenny Towers. The subway tunnels are expansive, ruined and filled with supermutants, so basically the prototypical fantasy dungeons. This portion of the demo is used to show off combat again, as well as taking a further look at the management of guns as you can use parts from one gun to repair another, upgrading its accuracy and rate of fire (adding up to an increased Damage per Second). Pete Hines uses a combination of wild shooting and aimed shots to pass through the tunnels battling of supermutants (which would normally be harder to do, but the protagonist's stats are pumped up).
The protagonist sneaks past the next batch of supermutants, takes a drink of water from a nearby toilet to heal a bit and then hacks into a nearby computer to reactive a Protectron ticket-bot. "Hacking" is done via word-guessing game, where you have to guess which word is the password. With each guess the mini-game will tell you how many letters you got right. The hacked Protectron lumbers out of the room and asks the nearby supermutants for their tickets. They're unable to present them and threaten to tear off his arms, causing the Protectron to turn the laser gun in his arm on them, quickly dispatching them.
Exiting the subway, the protagonist gets involved in a gun fight between a group of power armored clad soldiers, identified as Brotherhood of Steel members, and a bunch of menacing supermutants. He talks to the Brotherhood of Steel lieutenant and is invited to tag along, which he does, picking up a laser rifle from a dying BoS member along the way. A lot of time is spent in the following gunfight, the most noteworthy things to say about this struggle being that the protagonist's lack of skill can make him miss the supermutants even when the player aims correctly and that the combat AI didn't seem to be very advanced.
The fight moves on to a square near the Tenpenny Towers building. And just as you think it's over, an endboss tune is heard and two busses are seen exploding in the distance, as a huge supermutant identified as the Behemoth lumbers out. Armed with a car door and a fire hydrant, he wears a shopping cart on his back that stores corpses.
The Brother of Steel members shooting him with their laser rifles doesn't seem to do much, but luckily the protagonist can pick up a "portable mini nuclear bomb catapult" from a nearby corpse. The Behemoth is killed with two well-placed (including one aimed) nukes, causing it to fall down dramatically as a mushroom cloud erupts. Stat-wise, Pete notes that the Behemoth has a ridiculous amount of hit points and does a massive amount of damage (with his fire hydrant), while the Fat Man nuclear catapult does more than 80 times as much damage as a Chinese assault rifle (the weapon of preference for supermutants).
The protagonist climbs up and meets Mr Burke atop the tower. He is handed the detonator, and after pushing the button a huge and beautifully crafted nuclear explosion is seen in the distance, the shockwave of which hits the protagonist a bit later.
