Fallout 3 - Messiah Complex

Rampant Coyote catches up with this century, having finally finished Fallout 3. Like a lot of people, he found the ending unsatisfactory and writes about the difficulties of using this sort of ending. Spoilers, if you haven't finished FO3:

I finally finished Fallout 3 last week, as my new computer could finally run the game and only crash once every hour or so instead of every three minutes. I took plenty of time, and even took the “explorer” perk so I could check out much of the additional content beyond the main storyline. I played it without any of the expansions, like Broken Steel, which I understand “corrects” the ending of Fallout 3.
But I still wanna rant. If you have played the game, too, you may already know what I want to rant about (though the title of this post probably gives it away). IMO, it’s not a trivial thing to write a good martyrdom story. There’s a lot more to the story of Jesus than “oh, and then this guy chose to die to save others, the end.” I didn’t like it in the Matrix movies – where the whole martyrdom thing was at least handled better than in Fallout 3, but the later movies sucked the joy out of the first movie anyway – and it really has to be handled very carefully in a game where you are playing the would-be sacrificial victim.

More information.

I fail to see anything wrong about Fallout 3 ending. it could have been done better… but it's not bad, it's different… this can be a plus, I mean… all those "and they lived happily ever after" endings can get a bit tiresome at some point, it's nice to have something different from time ti time… something you do not expect. Yes it can spoil some of the fun the second time you play it… but it didn't for me.

Originally Posted by Francesco
I fail to see anything wrong about Fallout 3 ending. it could have been done better… but it's not bad, it's different… this can be a plus, I mean… all those "and they lived happily ever after" endings can get a bit tiresome at some point, it's nice to have something different from time ti time… something you do not expect. Yes it can spoil some of the fun the second time you play it… but it didn't for me.

The biggest problem with the ending is that the game was advertised having choices and consequences.
Now, if you remember, at the end there was this supermutant with you who is pretty much resistant to radiation. And this was even presented to you earlier, so even a low intelligence character could have realized that.
But you were simply denied of the only option (choice) that made any good sense in that situation.
So much for C&C…

Bethesda just wanted that "Messiah Complex" there.
And, actually, it could have been fine with me, if there had been the slightest hint or some long-standing narrative tool in the game that pointed in this direction.
But no, you just had to sacrifice yourself for no reason whatsoever.

Not only the false choices, it was even dumb on other levels. The fact that it was more fun as an open world game and you couldn't keep playing after the main quest, so they not only had a false ending but they killed the best part of the game, exploring by forcing the end of the game.

There was a mod that fixed the end of the game before Broken Steel called FreePlay after the Main Quest.

Yeah, I had the super-mutant. And I guess the robot would have been radiation-resistant too. But the main problem wasn't that there was self-sacrifice at the end… it was how contrived the situation felt. Especially after spending way more hours than I needed to at level 20 wandering the wasteland, exploring all different side-quests and locations. The prince's sacrifice at the end of Oblivion had more of an emotional impact to me.

So yeah. For me, it's "Good idea, poorly executed." One of those ideas that probably sounded cool in the game's design document many many months earlier, but really didn't work for the final release.

Have you noticed lately just how many games have had lousy endings? I think I've made that complaint in all my recent game reviews. What's going on here?? RC, I'm expecting BIG things from you with FN!!

I played the GotY edition and it had the option for fawkes to go into the project purity room instead of the PC. Is GotY different in that regard?

Wasn't as bad as the endgame in Risen…

I believe the GOTY edition includes the expansion that enabled the alternatives, so yeah. (Again, I don't have it, so my info is secondhand).

Gothic 3 anyone? A lot of open games have trouble working in a good ending.

I didn't love the ending, but the giant robot Liberty Prime was dealing such righteous and glorious whoop ass I will forgive all.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I didn't love the ending, but the giant robot Liberty Prime was dealing such righteous and glorious whoop ass I will forgive all.

That *was* pretty hilarious.