Summary
Between my playtime in Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4, and watching the entire first season of the Fallout TV show in a couple of days, I’mpainfullyaware of how post-nuclear wastelands twist and corrupt not only the biology of all living things, but also the minds of people subjected to the conditions of their environment.
Because of this, despite power armor looking intimidating as hell and being largely overpowered, I have the humility, context, and background knowledge to know that even with an advantage like that, an untrained newbie like me willdefinitelyrun into problems at some point or another.
Spoilers ahead in certain places, especially for the Fallout TV show!
7Getting The Armor In The First Place
The Average Person Can Only Do So Much
Before I can worry about getting into, wearing, and using power armor, I have to get some. The question is, how in the world am I going to do that? Some games, like Fallout 4, make it pretty easy to get power armor, but others, like New Vegas, put up barriers that, without the necessary prerequisites,prevent you from wearing the stuff in the first place.
I don’t really like the idea of becoming a grunt in the Brotherhood of Steel, where I’ll likely serve as cannon fodder for some Knight with a superiority complex, so it really comes down to making my own, hodgepodge, bandit-like power armor, or just getting extraordinarily lucky.
6Is It One-Size-Fits-All?
You Guys Thought Of Accommodations… Right?
Similar to having a height requirement at an amusement park, are there certain people that simply won’t be able to wear power armor if they’re too short or too tall? Are there attachments or modifications that would fix that kind of problem?
Being six feet tall on a good day, and five feet, eleven inches on days with bad posture, I’d probably fall into the average height range that a military might take into account when designing war machines like power armor, but I can’t help but envision someone wearing a suit without a helmet, only to see their eyes poking out as they bark orders at you.
5Does It Have Air Conditioning?
The More Comfy I Am, The Better I Do My Job
Although power armor is largely made up of thick, heavy metal plates, you do see the occasional corrugated tube here and there. Largely, I’d imagine these kinds of features are for providing filtered oxygen to the helmet, and dispersing heat generated from the fusion core, or from moving around in general.
With that said, though, I don’t see any intake or exhaust fans inside the helmet, or anywhere on the armor really. I guess I can only hope the designers took into account the creature comfort of staying cool, because how else am I supposed to send feral ghouls flying when there’s sweat in my eyes?
4Painting A Target On My Back
Stop Looking At Me, You’re Making Me Nervous
Think of your favorite console that came out, and the hype surrounding it;everyonewants one, and whoever has one was or is a source of envy. That’s pretty much how I imagine most people in the wasteland would view me wearing power armor; as if I had 100 Nintendo Switch consoles strapped to my body.
In my mind,all it takes is enough bandits on Jet, or otherwise desperate people willing to put their lives on the line if it means making a bunch of caps to take me down and scrap the armor, so more often than not, I’d be looking over my shoulder often, regardless of how exhausting it got.
3The Maintenance
A ‘Bit’ More Technical Than What I’m Used To
While I do like to tinker with electronics once in a blue moon, like switching out the shell for a Game Boy Advance SP, or replacing the fans and thermal paste on my GPU, learning how to take care of, repair, and maintain power armor seems like adrasticleap in technical aptitude.
Sure, I could easily clean and take care of certain components, like the helmet, or that crotch plate that Knight Titus threw at Maximus in the TV show, but what if something more serious comes up? If the armor’s leg or arm suddenly locked up, there’s a 90 percent chance I’d start to panic.
2Having To Rely On Others
Alright look, I’m not trying to make this all about me and the trust issues I’ve picked up from people in my past, but still, I’m someone who tends to try and solve or deal with my problems on my own, so opening up and trusting someone is going to be hard for me, regardless of whether I have power armor or not.
That being said, despite an ends justify the means mentality, there’s probably a decent reason why the Brotherhood of Steel send Squires with Knights on various missions, so whether I get to use power armor because of a faction’s resources or not, I guess I’ll still have work to do, even after the world gets blown up…
1Developing A False Sense Of Confidence
Nobody Is Immune To Wielding This Much Power
I like to think I’m a person who doesn’t have much of an ego.In fact, I think it’s been more difficult to accept praise in most situations, or recognize that I’m actually good at certain things, but that still doesn’t mean I’m immune to letting all that power get to my head.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from the show and some of the Fallout games,all it takes is the wrong Ghoul with an unfortunate amount of pre-war knowledge and experience of power armor, or a couple of Super Mutants with Mini Nukes, to crush a god complex real quick.
