Fallout 4 - "Turned Me Into A Hoarder"

Pixel Dynamo's Chan Khee Hoon became a hoarder, thanks to Fallout 4.  She tells her sad tale here.

My love affair with junk starts here.

A conniving, smooth-talking scoundrel. A battle-weary marksman. A one-punch man skilled in unarmed attacks. These are the kind of characters I expect to become when I first embark on my Fallout 4 journey—but not an incorrigible hoarder of junk.

After the terrible nuclear explosion that wiped out most of humanity 200 years ago, post-apocalyptic Boston is brimming with junk of all sorts – coffee cups, silver spoons, cigarettes, rolls of duct tapes and even teddy bears. This is nothing new for the series, but unlike the totally unremarkable trinkets that litter the wasteland in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas this junk can be further broken down into useful raw components such as ceramics, silver, cloth, and adhesive, which in turn can be used to craft anything from weapons to buildings. It is astounding how the end of the world has provided us with so many resources to rebuild our lives with.

With that out of the way, I hope you can understand how my collection of 89 dinner spoons was absolutely essential for the construction of a power generator that can produce electricity to power my entire settlement. And yes, I am very sure I needed that plastic spoon too, Codsworth.

...

I have no idea if this is one of Fallout 4’s biggest flaws – the fact that something as inconsequential as picking up rubbish has consumed me so much that it has interfered with my enjoyment of the game – or if that is evident of how well-designed the game is. Think about it: how many games offer the same degree of freedom as Fallout 4? Not once have I been so absorbed in a game world before, and I’ve played Skyrim. And that is a game that allows me to catch butterflies.

For the first time in a very long while, the skies in a Fallout game are of a bright blue hue, filled with white wispy clouds that slowly waft over the desolate skyline of long-abandoned buildings. Get out of bed early, and you might even catch a glimpse of the morning sun peeking behind a distant hill. I wouldn’t know, though. I am still too busy staring down at the dark grimy ground, looking out for any spare parts I might have missed. Worry worry worry, woe is me.

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