Fallout 4: Revenge is Sweet

I should mention that there are spoilers for Fallout 4 ahead, you have been warned. About a year ago, I got what I considered to be the greatest job ever. I had been hired by Bethesda to help test their games, and aid them in fixing bugs (these are big games so sometimes bugs slip through the cracks though or deadlines prohibit them from being fixed, so sorry.) When I got inside and had my orientation, I got what I considered to be some of the best news of my life, I'd get to help test Fallout 4. I was told my assignment was simple at this point, I was to beat the game as fast as I could in any way I saw fit. All while writing down any bugs I saw or any glaring problems that seemed to enter my mind.

I started playing but kept my mind open, knowing bugs and glitches would be abundant (I still remember exiting the cryopod to have my character fall through the floor on my first go.) But all in all, it had amazed me how well they had the game made already. I happily played through, and was thrilled when I joined the Brotherhood of Steel to find that Liberty Prime was back. And I damn near cried when I saw Shawn on his deathbed, angry at me.

At work on the other hand, I was genuinely liked as I had replaced this rather... interesting fellow (we will call him Nick to keep his identity a secret.) Nick had been fired for threatening a female employee with bodily harm. He was a slacker and a general creep whom no one liked, so they were all too glad to see him go.

Within two days I had the game beat (we could take it home for 6 hours of overtime a night) and I turned in my notes. I was then told to log at least another 100 hours in-game and that I was to check each area in the Salem sector of the map (the northeastern corner that is) and give feedback. I was thrilled to see on my list of places to visit was Dunwich Borers. For those who don't know, the guys behind Fallout love HP Lovecraft's horror novels, and the company Dunwich Borers LLC (a play on Lovecraft's novel, Dunwich Horrors) was their homage to him. Typically each place related to the supernatural and occult, and could be good for some genuine spooks.

I decided to save the best for last and wait to go into the Borers on my last day of playing, when I could go home, curl up under a blanket, and scare myself with what I'd see. When the night finally came, I kissed my wife goodnight at 10 (she had epilepsy and her meds always made her drowsy) went to my office, sat in my chair, and journeyed to the Borers.

On the outside, things were much like they are now, a ton of raiders, including one in power armor, patrolling the outside, along with some burnt skeletons in a cage in the bottom. I quickly mowed through them and went into the mines below. This is where things got weird... you see the inside seemed to be empty, no machinery, nothing artificial, not even a light, making it so I had to use my pip-boy and a night-vision scope on my laser rifle to even see where I was going. So I wrote in my notes that it didn't seem too believable and that maybe they should add some equipment inside to make the area seem more realistic. I loved the lighting though, it gave the area an atmosphere of not knowing what was to come. I headed down into the mines and within a few minutes, was startled when the cave started to shake, like an earthquake was happening.

Further down I found a group of raiders, the odd thing was, only one was alive, he wore bloody clothing and was missing an arm. This surprised me because humans couldn't lose limbs without dying. I put it off, figuring the developers has specially made this guy as a scare. Keeping my sights on him, I approached to see if he would just attack, or if he'd do something. Once I was about 5 feet from him, he let out an ear-piercing screech and ran at me, clutching a machete. I quickly killed him and he took the wounded animation, like what you'd get if you shot a key NPC. He looked at me and said "He will have your head, no one can come into his sight without going mad." He then laughed and died. My eyes went wide and I carried on "Damn, going full out psychological horror, props there." I whispered. As I carried further down I heard a deep voice echo through the caves "Come no further, Seth, lest you wish to go mad and feel my revenge."

At first, I was shocked, did the game know my name? I laughed off the thought though after a second and reminded myself "You named your character Seth, Codsworth calls you by name, so they probably did the same here." I whispered to myself, surprised to see all the effort they put in.I carried on around a corner and heard "Fine, you have doomed yourself." A jump-scare of a Ghoul's face flashed on my screen, making me jump before I was rushed from the front by 5-8 new creatures, they were called hell-spawn. They looked like re-skinned feral ghouls with red skin and fire seeping through it, this became the only source of light other than my pip-boy. I went into vats and made short work of them, they were only a little more durable then normal ferals after all.

I heard the voice again "Congratulations mortal, you have passed the first test, the test of body, now, you must pass the test of mind to be graced by my presence." I carried on like normal, excited to see what the test of mind was. I found soon that lanterns began to guide my path at my feet, making it so I could switch off the pip-boy. I didn't know though, that a personal hell awaited me.

The lanterns led me to a narrow crevice, just big enough to walk through. I began to hear music as I entered, slow and eerie as I found my character unable to move faster then a walk. I heard the voice once more "No mortal has ever survived this, the test of mind will end you." My hell began as I suddenly saw an image of a real-life accident scene, a mangled corpse that had been cut in half by a truck, it looked like someone had slipped in and took a picture with a camera-phone. I nearly vomited at the sight, I began to wretch and heave. "What the fuck!?" I said "What is wrong with these people? You can't have that in a game!" As I went further and further to see what other depraved shit they had in, I was greeted by more images and even a few short videos, a pregnant woman killed with her child cut out and laying next to her, a man with his head split open, even a clip of a man blowing his brains out with a pistol. All these eventually made me vomit into my trashcan.

Soon enough I made it to the end and was greeted by a bunch of lanterns surrounding a stone eye. "Congrats, you made it to the end Seth." I heard, the voice filled with spite "But I have one more image for you, one that shows you my own personal demon." An image flashed, this time, I was greeted with my own face, a day before I started my job, at the supermarket with my wife. "You see Seth, you ended me, you took my job, you took my every reason for living. I know I could never kill you, but I could kill your spirit. You see, this modded disk was my idea when I was told I had three days before I was let go. I knew they would have you come here, and now you get to be the first know that I am going to kill myself three days after your first day at work. This is on you Seth, I am dead because of you, and isn't that a bitch?" The game then crashed, and I was left in shock. My mind went racing to Nick, the man I had replaced, how no one liked him, and in his shoes, I'd probably be pissed off as well, I didn't blame him for blaming me, hell, I even blamed myself at this point.

I immediately called my boss and let him know of my experience and he told me he was on his way and he would call 911. I went up and woke my wife, telling her of what happened while sobbing. She comforted me until my boss showed up and we waited in the living room for police to arrive and begin the investigation of the disk. When they arrived they seized the disk and everything related to it. A detective then sat with me and told me that they checked Nick's house. They found him hanging on a noose in his room, a note clutched in his hand saying "Revenge is Sweet."