Part 2 of Let's Play Fallout. Here we explore Shady Sands.

Welcome to this thing again! The story thus far:



Last time I left off... well... I just fought a bunch of rats and made it to the first town. Oh, and Ed, but nobody cared about Ed.

NOTE: In the screenshots, during dialogue I have highlighted the choices I make during them. Just so you can follow the conversations better if you feel like reading the dialogue.

...

Since last time, Brigg has decided to play nice after all. The guard will live... for now.

Instead, I shall show my disdain for him by speaking to the woman first. That'll fix 'im.

Vault 15 resident already? And I'm too late, friends. It's been ransacked. It's almost like the developers wanted Fallout to be longer than five minutes or something...

Raiders? Creatures? I'm playing a video game? You don't have to have taken the Educated Perk to do the math on this!

Vault 15 sounds deserted. Deserted and...

dungeony...

Also with the way Katrina pointed me to a nearby house that contains a guy with a name, I suppose I should go there?

Raiders, man. Always bustin' up $#%*.

I have a strange feeling that I shall find the necessary supplies to trek through Vault 15 in this here town!

Call it a hunch. (Also, GameFAQs walkthrough.)

I'd like a free copy of Fallout: New Vegas. If you can't give me that, then we have no business!

Raiders AND radscorpions? But no kangaroos. I am disappoint.

Side note time: One thing that sets this game apart from other games (even future Fallouts, to an extent) is how much attention was paid to make this a realistic world.

They are actually giving me explanations on how this settlement works! Unlike, say, Fallout 3, which allows us to eat 200 year old food and hack computers with no power source.

Everybody keeps telling me "talk to Aradesh." Y'all don't figure he's an important character, do ya?

FYI: This location has been marked on my world map.

Man: "Don't go there."

Game: "You're totally going there."

I GET IT ALREADY, GAWD! Guy who run town is important to town! @_@

I gots my first level. Brigg is a little sticky-fingered bastard, I tell you what.

My stats after putting my 16 skill points into... uh... stats that I cannot remember. Melee weapons for sure, 'cause that's how Brigg rolls!

To shut everyone up, I am visiting Aradesh now.

Fun Fact: I have pickpocketed EVERYBODY in the town up to this point!

Ah, man who I learned about five minutes ago! We finally meet face to face!

This is Aradesh, and he is our first 'talking head.' This is term for the important characters of Fallout, as they are given this special treatment as you no doubt noticed. Fully voiced and fully animated, I am glad to see this still holds up even today. Having recognizable famous actors voicing most of them helps too.

In case you're wondering, the voice actor for Aradesh here is:

You might remember this guy from the detective show Monk, or getting his head blown off by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones repeatedly in the Men in Black movies.

ANYWAY~

Wow... he believed me? That's surprising. I guess that's what happens when you have a well written character that isn't prone to convenient plot-based stupidity!

This is an RPG, brah. Everything is true. It's like prophecies and whether or not the main character's hometown gets destroyed.

It's kinda a given.

QUEST TIME! Also, Brigg is feeling generous all of a sudden. Notice how he is not asking for payment!

Our little ratslayer is growing up. *tear*

"Did somebody say FREE?"

Aradesh isn't the only character in this house! Nope!

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought my character's name was Brigg. Apparently it's BRIGG! For extra fun, imagine him screaming it every time.

Seeing as how Brigg can still be a bit of a jerk, he can't help but be a bit of a snot.

Our voice actor for this evening's character is Cree Summer:

While she has done many roles, the style of her voicework in this game is most reminiscent of her first, Penny from Inspector Gadget.

... you don't even remember her, do you?

... somebody don't like his 'tude!

Is he going to make it worse?

On the other hand... kindred spirits! Let's all talk badly about Aradesh's home behind his back! Yeah, that's the spirit!

HEY! LOOK AT ME, EVERBODY! I'M FORESHADOWING!

On the other hand, I am very interested in hearing all of her wonderful stories from 'down south!"



What happened to 'just stuff?' ...

Not so fast!

I just remembered: this game has the "Ask About" feature! You select it, then type in a word to see if the person knows anything about it!

Well... have ya?



With Tandi's speech options exhausted, it's time we head west and see about this doctor Razlo, and what he knows about scorpion venom.

I concur.

*reads encyclopedia to find out what the $%@# he just said*

HINT HINT, MR. VIDEO GAME PLAYER!

Before I head off in my quest, I just wanted to be a condescending jerkwad to Razlo. It's pretty much a requirement.

I met your brother. He made me put away my guns. Therefore I do not care for him in the slightest.

There is only one more occupied house here, so I figured I'd check this Ian guy out.

... I don't think this is going to end well...

Expectations subverted AGAIN?

Curse you Fallout, and your willingness to make your characters act like actual human beings...

Are, like, 90% of the residents here first come in bloody and bruised? It's a harsh wasteland, brah.

This is a lot to take in for a humble little vault dweller such as myself! I need a body shie- I mean partner!

You get the feeling this game is trying to point me in a specific direction? Maybe it's just me...

In other words, I'm a stingy tightwad who doesn't wanna pay anything for hard labor.

:america

I'll be right behind you, Ian!



Now I know how to let him do all the hard work for me.

This is a toilet. Just thought you'd like to see it.

TUTORIAL TIME: These green grids indicate an exit to another section of the same location. It is red when it leads to the world map.

Another small thing that makes this game neat; not only do they talk about what Shady Sands does to survive, you get to actually look at it.

In a shocking twist, the farm has a farmer.

'Sup.

Look at Brigg go with his intelligent dialogue options!

*hastily reads encyclopedia*

... I agree.

I got XP for telling a man how to do his job!

That's actually how the real world works, funnily enough.

A rope and a sledgehammer! Thanks to pickpocketing, I have a sledgehammer and 2 ropes by now. But I'm taking them anyway because...

...

reasons.

These are two-headed cows, otherwise known as brahmin.

Fallout 3 added brahmin-tipping. +1 for Fallout 3.

After pickpocketing more hapless saps, it is time I go after these radscorpions.

Foreboding like a BOSS!

Delving deeper into the cave, we find... rocks! I like the one in the corner. I'm going to name him... Rocky.

He ain't no Ed Jr., though...

I drag Ian's sorry behind northeast.

O_O SCORPIONS!



That was easy. Of course, I let Ian do his 'shoot the enemy in the face' thing that I non-hired him to do.

Razlo needs a scorpion tail so he can makes a serum for its venom. I'm just going to loot this thing...

20 POUNDS?!
We continue east and find MORE RADSCORPIONS!

... and a glitch! See that standing scorpion on the right? It's dead.



Ian now uses every one of his stimpaks because he did all the work and nearly died for it. (Or, I take them on him and activate them myself for him. Because companions in this Fallout game are simple like that.)

Brigg, on the other hand, is just fine, thanks for asking!

We conclude the radscorpion cave with me eyeing this ammo and telling Ian to kill the scorpions for me so I can take it.

Serious note: Since I had not put any points into small guns, I have about 30% chance of hitting anything even at near point blank range.

Brigg does Melee Weapons, not Guns.

And now we have gotten our first... uh... status effect? It doesn't really work like most RPGs I've played. Because this is Fallout.

I opt to wait and let the poison run its course. I'll ignore it and t'll go away eventually.

Like a bad foot fungus or Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

The final Radscorpion cave.

Even on the world map's entrance to towns we are given background to towns! It actually feels like there is a lot of an untold story in here.

... is that figure this Dharma Katrina talked about? Hrmm.

If this had been released on the Xbox 360, I'm sure I would've gotten an achievement for this.

"You are a savior to us all!"
"kthxbye"

I looted about 180 pounds of radscorpion tails. :rockon

I'd make a joke here, but then Ixzion would ban me. *wink*

I can now use all of my radscorpion tails to make more serum.

... or I COULD if it wasn't nighttime. Razlo, in a nutshell, tells you to buzz off when its night. Unless you are about dead, naturally.

Seth owes me one.

Thanks, guy! There was not a single drop of new information whatsoever!

So, our long day comes to a dramatically unfulfilling close.

Since Ian risked his life for mine and did most of the work against the radscorpions... he gets to sleep on the floor, apparently.

Gotta get up bright and early and go meet...