Summary
InFallout, you may think that the scariest thing would be a Raider or radiation poisoning. However, you’d be wrong, and that’s not because there’s some other villain trying to stop the world (although that certainly doesn’t help things). The world of Fallout has plenty more to offer when it comes to the absolutely terrifying, even if it leadsto more questionsthan answers.
There is just so much to be constantly afraid of, but there are some things that are so scary they have to be put on a list like this. Whether it’s an eldritch god that is still being worshipped or a city full of ghouls, here are some of the scary things that you can find in the many wastelands of the Fallout series.
Fallout has eldritch gods. Yes, you’ve read that right. Although we don’t know much about them, there is one in particular that has come up from time to time, known as Ug-Qualoth. This Lovecraftian entity was introduced in Fallout 3 and further expanded upon in the Point Lookout DLC.
Ug-Qualoth is a forgotten god worshipped by cultists. Not much is known about the deity, which ultimately makes it all the more terrifying, as we have no idea whether they could ever return or just what havoc they would bring to the nuclear apocalypse.
7Forced Evolutionary Virus
As If The Wasteland Needed More Mutations
In the very first Fallout game, you encounter a lot as you step out from the vault into the wasteland. Raiders, Ghouls, and, of course, Super Mutants. Super Mutants are people who have transformed into yellow and green hulking humanoids from something known as the Forced Evolutionary Virus.
This man-made virus was used by the antagonist of the first game, The Master, to create Super Mutants. Ever since its appearance in the first game, the FEV has come up constantly in the series with different strains. This is a constant terror as you’ll never know whether someone you love will be transformed unwillingly into a Super Mutant or if another strain will have even more dangerous effects.
America is a complete wasteland. The howling wind and songs from the radio are akin to the gasps of a dying empire, and with them comes a horrifying spectacle of all the soldiers, civilians, homes, and hovels that were obliterated along with the rest of the world. In the Honest Hearts DLC of Fallout: New Vegas, you come across such a spectacle. You might be desensitized to the charred skeletons and corpses throughout the game.
However, nothing will prepare you for encountering a school bus at the bottom of the Grand Canyon that doesn’t need a holo-tape or note for you to understand what happened. The small bones of children are a grim reminder of those caught in the crossfire of the nuclear apocalypse.
5Keller Family
One Of The Worst Holo Tapes
But what about those who did leave notes? Recordings? Those who wanted to leave some sort of message, their voices akin to the howls of a ghost, some specter in the apocalypse. There are plenty of sad ones, but one that truly captures how absolutely scary a nuclear attack is is the Keller Family tapes in Fallout 3.
One of these tapes, Keller tape 3 is from the perspective of a woman, Candace as she tries to get inside of a Vault while seeing a nuclear cloud in the distance. you may hear the terror in her voice and the waves of explosion catching up to her before the tape cuts out.
4The Cloud
Just Hope You Never Breathe This In
What happens when you build a testament to your folly? Well, a casino happens, of course, specifically the Sierra Madre. The casino was constructed along with a villa to house a safe place for the owner and their lover, Vera Keyes.
However, the casino has a dark past which includes experimentation and a breakdown of the ventilation system leaking out The Cloud, a toxic red gas that mutated people into nigh-unkillable humanoids known as Ghost People. What’s even worse is that you have to deal with these people in the DLC known as Dead Money for Fallout: New Vegas and it turns Fallout into a horror game with theterrifying antagonist, Elijah.
3Necropolis
A City Of The Dead
Other terrifying settings are Necropolis from Fallout 1. Also known as the City of the Dead, it is infested with ghouls and Super Mutants who tend to be more wary of outsiders to the point that everyday survivors tend to avoid the city.
For first-time players, the chilling music and the way the city is built before you go there make it all the more imposing. Although Necropolis is a safe place for the ghouls, the atmosphere is haunting and really showcases how different the world is now.
2The Divide
Once A Settlement, Now A Scourge
However, not all places are so lucky to have been inhabited. Some are just too far gone. The Divide isone of those places, but it wasn’t always like that. Once a peaceful community, you discover that before the events of Fallout: New Vegas, a delivery you made triggered nuclear warheads beneath the ground.
Now The Divide is full of Deathclaws and a new type of enemy, Tunnelers. These dangerous beasts are mutated monsters of The Divide that live beneath the earth and will eventually tunnel into the Mojave Wasteland, potentially wreaking havoc over the communities there.
1The Glow
The Deadliest Place In Fallout 1
The first Fallout also features an inhospitable place known simply as The Glow for the high amounts of deadly radiation that spills out of it. You are constantly warned about this location, which is avoided by all sorts of travellers going through the Wasteland.
However, if you decide to brave the location, you learn more about the area and see just how terrible the atomic war has been for the world by seeing one of the more scarred places in it. Not to mention the fact that The Glow is littered with enemies, creepy music, and a ton of radiation that will keep increasing while you’re in the location.
