7. Pickman Gallery
The "downtown" area of the Commonwealth is a pretty treacherous place. You can't turn the corner without running afoul of a pack of violent raiders or a gaggle of nuke-happy super mutants. Which is why it's easy to miss the unassuming red door leading into Pickman Gallery. Though it has the distinction of being an official location that shows up on the map, that name lacks the ominous ring of "Covenant" or "Parsons State Insane Asylum."
And then you go inside.
You'd be forgiven if you read "Pickman Gallery" and and thought of a family-friendly skeet shooting range or maybe a series of screenshots from that Nintendo game with the multicolored plant aliens. Instead,patrons are greeted with blood smeared on the walls, mounds of raw human flesh piled high and a series of decapitated heads that are less than thrilled to be impaled on spikes. It's like you unknowingly stepped into a portal to hell right after the 6000th Annual Murder Jamboree.
It quickly becomes apparent that this monument to depravity isn't just for funsies. In the mind of the infamous Pickman, his gala of gore is fine art. He fancies himself to be a more violent version of Rembrandt, or maybe a less pretentious Andy Warhol. Putting a freshly expired human into an open casket with a flower is his own version of the Mona Lisa.
It would appear as though the Commonwealth has its very own serial killer Banksy. You can actually catch wind of Pickman's activities before even stepping foot inside the gallery. In and around the area of the gallery, you can find pre-killed raiders whose corpses include Pickman's calling card: A heart drawn with blood, followed by a message goading any raiders dumb enough to come on down to his art show. It's pretty simplistic as far as psychopathic schemes go, but it appears to have worked wonders. Pickman has all the blood paint he needs to build his shrine to death and dismemberment.
As you work your way through the gallery, you come upon angry and scared raiders. They attack you, partly because they're the mindless Goombas of the Fallout universe, but they may also believe that you're Pickman himself. It's tough to explain between shotgun blasts that you're not the guy draining bodies and dumping them in the basement like dried-up paint tubes.
Towards the end of your journey through Pickman's house of horrors, you come upon a pack of raiders harassing what looks to be a civilian. It's not uncommon for players to completely ignore all the warning signs and let your inner Paragon take over, resulting in several raiders slaughtered and one innocent life saved. But that just wasn't any poor schmoe who happened to walk into Pickman's Gallery. You just saved Pickman himself.
Yep, this creepy-ass gentleman is none other than Pickman, the architect of this horrifying terror maze. Unfortunately, there's no dialogue option to ask him whether he named himself after the H.P. Lovecraft short story "Pickman's Model," in which a disturbed artist creates ghastly paintings. He simply thanks you for your service and hands you a key to a special safe. It's not a trap, but a genuine gift -- inside the safe is a pretty sweet knife. Yes, "Pickman's Blade" was almost certainly used to murder scores of people, but come on, they were raiders! They would have killed innocents themselves, given the chance. ...Right?
But the most unsettling thing in the safe would have to be the note that Pickman leaves for you.
You might have been trying to ignore it before, but this gruesome thank-you letter encapsulates what you've done -- you saved a psychotic serial killer. Because of you, many more people will die in the name of Pickman's twisted "art." But hey, at last that knife has some pretty sick stats.
6. Terrifying mannequins around every corner
If you've played Fallout 4 for a substantial amount of time, you're bound to have noticed them: The mannequins, those eerie white dummies that you often mistake for enemies. They're so common that fans have taken it upon themselves to mod the mannequins, whether it's to change them all intoharmless flamingos or even scarier mannequins.
At first it seems like an easy way to fill out a world with detail, but as you go deeper you keep finding mannequins in the oddest places. At heart, you know that it's just the developers messing with you in particularly tense areas, but part of the lizard brain can't help but think that that something sinister is going on behind those dull plastic eyes.
Some of the scenes you come upon are kind of funny, at least. Like this fella in the Concord Speakeasy, not far from where you start the game.
It looks as though he lived out his last days with some drugs and some artificial company. Not the worst way to go, right? And then you peek in the bathroom.
If you can resist the urge to exit this window and abandon the internet forever, you'll see that this scene just gets creepier the more you look at it. Three naked male mannequins, two armed with machetes and one wielding a plunger, surround a filled bathtub that contains a headless corpse. If you look to the left, you'll see that the missing skull is in fact resting in the toilet. As demented as it is to see it written out in print, it doesn't seem like a stretch to say the guy in the bed cut off his wife's head in a bout of apocalyptic insanity, then set up the mannequins to take the fall for him.
It sounds far-fetched, but this is the same game where you can find a mannequin standing in front of a mound of burned corpses.
You have to go out of your way to witness this scene in the Mass Bay Medical Center. By picking an advanced lock, the door swings open and you're treated to the sight of several human skeletons half-buried in their own ashes. The nearby flamethrower and the fact that the embers are still glowing just under the surface imply that this happened recently. The only other person around is a life-size doll with a lovely summer dress. And she's not talking.
But hey, this isn't Doctor Who, or even The Witcher III. There aren't any evil statues that move in Fallout ga--
via JoshuaCaleb75
Ha ha, Bethesda. You almost got me there. The fact is, there just aren't any living mannequins in Fallout 4. The closest thing might be those synths who look like the androids from I, Robot, but it's not like they hang out in groups of mannequins, waiting to attack while in perfect camoflauge.
That's it! Fallout 4 is just too damned creepy. I'm going back to the Deathclaw Sanctuary.
5. Hallucigen, Inc.
When it comes to dastardly experiments that push the limits of man's perverse relationship with science, Vault-Tec has the game on lock. It's hard to get more messed up than filling a bomb shelter with recovering addicts, rehabilitating them for five years and then giving them access to drugs -- all just to see what would happen.
But there's a promising new upstart in the world of Science Gone Mad. Hallucigen, Inc. has a large building located right in the middle of the Commonwealth. The first thing you'll notice inside is the odd green fog that fills up the entire facility.
This fog is accompanied by the unmistakable sounds of combat. Laser rifle shots are traded and battle cries echo throughout the halls as you make your way upstairs. Judging by the multi-faction conflicts seen elsewhere in the game, it sounds as though some raiders might be battling some synths, or maybe Pickman is looking to expand his territory. But instead, what you see is a little... stranger.
Every enemy in the building are members of the same mercenary group, the Gunners. You can find these well-armed yahoos in every corner of the game -- they're basically raiders that have leveled up from Mad Max to post-nuclear Blackwater. Though they're bad guys, they're all on the same side -- there's no reason they should be fighting each other, much less yelling insane gibberish. But once you hack into a few terminals and read the logs, it all comes together.
That green fog is actually a noxious gas produced by Hallucigen, a weaponized agent that makes everyone in the affected area go completely nanners. If you climb to the top of the facility, you'll find an observation deck that tells more of the story.
Once on the deck, an automated voice message welcomes you, and offering to show you to show you the product line. Pressing a series of switches activates corresponding methods of murder down below, ranging from flamethrowers to electricity-spewing tesla coils. Even after the bombs have fallen, Hallucigen is trying to sell you weapons. While there are only a few Gunners in the experimental pits when you arrive, back before the war they were filled with oblivious human beings. Potential clients would visit Hallucigen's and enjoy pressing the pretty buttons and watching human test subjects tear each other apart.
What's more, you can actually take a part of Hallucigen, Inc with you! There's a one-of-a-kind crafting station in the basement, which allows for the assembly of the Hallucigen gas grenade. All you have to do is toss one of those suckers into a crowd of enemies and watch as they instantly lose their minds and start attacking each other. Isn't the future great?
4. The Parking Garage Dungeon
Bethesda's open-world games guide you through their world with the markers on your compass; you know you're coming up on a cave when the little mountain symbol appears on the minimap. But some locations don't have symbols or official names attached to them. While you might be able to fast travel to the Milton General Hospital at will, no such feature is granted to the shady parking garage next door.
Those painted arrows beckoning you inside are more than a tad sketchy, but you don't play Fallout games to avoid exploring spooky deathtraps. Experienced fans might expect a pack of goons beyond the door, waiting for any traveler dumb enough to follow a hand-made sign in a nuclear wasteland. But once inside, you'll discover that this parking garage is a little more than your typical raider honey trap.
Some arrow-loving madman apparently took over the entire parking garage, filling it with a deadly maze of his own design. Rows and rows of plywood and rusted aluminum siding guide your way. You're not by any means locked into this dungeon, though. You can leave at any time. And there seems to be a decent incentive to do so, because many of the dead ends in the maze show you examples of the unlucky ones who didn't make it out.
So really, it's just your own morbid curiosity that propels you through this grotesque and strange puzzle. That's what the mazemaker wants from you. They want you to be the architect of your own demise, whether it's falling to a pack of local ghouls or stepping through a minefield of ricked bathroom scales.
Around every corner is a new oddity and a different disturbing sight. It's hard to miss this Christmas tree, whose lights might distract you from the fact that there's a turret right in front of it. And you know, a severed head as the Christmas tree topper.
via IGN
Eventually you stumble across the mazemaker's sleeping quarters, but unfortunately they've since flown the coop. Your reward is a magazine that gives you the ability to paint your power armor with pink flames, which is absolutely worth the risk of climbing a tower of death.
But there's one final test in store.
Two jail cells are rigged up with switches, though the Riddler-esque imagery immediately tells us there's a trick to this contraption. We can see through the bars that each cell has a stash of great items -- the only catch is, when you open a door, the goodies in the opposite cell explode. This mazemaker is basically forcing you to blow up loot, which any Fallout fan knows is the most terrible thing you can do to another human being.
3. Parsons State Insane Asylum
Now we're talking. You wouldn't want to scour an insane asylum while it was in working order, much less centuries after a global nuclear conflict transformed the land into a lawless hellscape. People can (and have) created entire games out of this kind of locale, so you've gotta think that Bethesda has something special in store.
But getting there is kind of tricky. See, to fully experience everything Parsons has to offer, you first have to take on a few missions for the Cabot family. They're just a little... off.
Notice anything in particular about the Cabot House? Exactly. There is nothing wrong with the place,which is why it's so freaky in a city where every other building is in shambles. After fulfilling a few quests for the Cabots, it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary family. See, Jack, his sister Emogene and their mother Wilhelmina are all immortal. They've been in the Commonwealth for 400 years -- meaning that they became ageless long before the war.
As Jack explains to you (and is catalogued in extensive terminal entries), his father Lorenzo Cabot came across a mysterious artifact that gave him great powers and everlasting life, but also drove him a little bonkers. The Cabots have been keeping dear ol' dad in a secure room in the Parsons asylum, synthesizing an immortality serum out of Lorenzo's blood and using it on themselves to live forever.
The main conflict of the questline kicks off when raiders -- who discovered the secret of the immortality serum -- attack the asylum in a bid to gain immortality themselves. When Jack leads you into the asylum, you see... kind of exactly what you'd expect to see.
It's almost kind of funny, by Fallout standards. Yes, these mentally ill patients were trapped when the bombs fell and undoubtedly died horrible deaths as they were helpless to escape, but come on! That guy on the left got stuck in the wall, and the guy on the right was fishing in the toilet. As far as excruciating demises go, these are downright hilarious.
The actual unsettling part comes when it's time to decide what to do with Lorenzo. You come upon him in his sealed chamber, peering out the window at you. He's wearing the artifact on his head like a magic hat, and he really, really wants you to let him out.
You're free to do whatever you choose. You can help Jack kill his father and end his family's immortality, or you can free Lorenzo and kill his family, thus netting yourself an everlasting lifetime supply of magical serum. If you end up going with the latter, just be prepared to be heartbroken when you read "Nick Valentine disliked that."
2. The Museum of Witchcraft
Okay, so the insane asylum turned out to be a tad different than expected, but now we're onto the Museum of Witchcraft. That's pretty promising. While it does deliver on scares, it takes a page from Parsons by subverting your expectations.
The front door has some sort of highly advanced bobby pin-resistant lock, so you've got to enter from around the side. That's when you'll see this:
About 60% of a mercenary is strewn across the side lawn of the museum. The holotape implies that Private Hart was on a mission with her group when they were set upon by a... thing that forced them inside the museum. The nearby cellar door lets you inside the basement, where you instantly come to the realization that whatever murdered Hart was still in the building. As you tiptoe through the cellar, you hear wood creak with every plod of the monster's step. Dirt rains down from the planks. It's right above you. The creature tosses a used corpse down a hole, in front of you. Probably one of Hart's group.
You can and probably should turn back at this point; otherwise you can get out your best weapon and maybe pop a few pills to head upstairs and confront the thing. And when you do, you're met with... mannequins.
Creepy as these goddamned things are, especially when assembled to burn their fellow unperson at the stake, they're not what you're there for. No, that's just a little to your left.
SHIT! I knew it, it was so obvious a huge Deathclaw was roaming the building! Nobody wanted it to be true -- it should have been a horrible serial killer or maybe a spooky witch ghost. Deathclaws are so much worse, especially one that seems as pissed off as the one in the museum. If you are able to hold your bodily fluids inside of you long enough to kill it (willingness to set of a nuclear blast indoors helps your cause), you'll find out exactly why this Deathclaw was so hellbent on murdering this random group of mercs.
Eggs. Several Deathclaw eggs, almost all of them cracked or shattered. No wonder mom was so pissed -- they kidnapped her children. To be fair to the mercs, another holotape reveals that they had no clue what exactly they were carrying until it was too late. In the mess you can find one pristine Deathclaw egg, and the game prompts you to return it up North, where it belongs.
Dad is waiting for you.
Though the Alpha Deathclaw's instinct is rip you open at the taint, placing the egg back in the nest initiates an uneasy truce between man and beast. You can even grab a sweet melee weapon out of the deal, if you're brave enough to grab it. Thank God for quicksave.
1. Dunwich Borers
Of all the various kinds of hideouts one might set up camp in during the apocalypse, a mine seems like a pretty sweet spot. Especially if it's as large a site as the one run by the Dunwich Borers. Located not too far off from the Museum of Witchcraft, the DB is teeming with raider activity. They've taken advantage of the fortified location and have set up shop on all different levels; there are lots of goons to take care of before you even step underground. When you do, you'll find raiders... working? What are they even looking for?
These minor mysteries soon fade as the early parts of exploring the mining operation are a bit dull. As you descend into the mine, capping raiders here and there, maybe a couple of ghouls, it dawns on you -- is this another one of those boring-ass Dwemer Ruins that Bethesda seems so fond of? Yeah, there are some computer journal entries that explain how dangerous and terrible it is to work for DB, but that's nothing we couldn't find on an oil rig in the real world.
Just when it seems like this place is meaningless, you come across a terminal belonging to a raider named Bedlam. The early entries are somewhat erratic, but aware of an arising problem being in the mine. But then the last log goes full-blown Shining.
Something down here is driving the residents insane. It doesn't help that there are multiple flashes of what seem like hallucinations. The first time it happens, you see a group of pre-war construction workers, toiling away in the mine. Then, as you approach Site 4, you see another flash -- this time it resembles a cult worshiping at a shrine.
It's over too quickly for you to ascertain any real details. The holotapes scattered around the site aren't of much help either. All you've got to go on is the centuries-old word of miners, and some random ghouls. Named ghouls.
Normally, these irradiated not-zombies are given names like "Feral Glowing Ghoul" or "Featherweight Champion Ghoul" -- but these all have human names. This is the one part of the game that really wants you to know you're blowing away former humans like John Hatfield. It's a subtle addition that really ups the creep factor of the whole area.
When you do flash back from where the cult shrine was located, you instead see a large pool of water.
Swimming is already sort of a dicey proposition in Fallout games, because the water is almost universally tainted with radiation. But this mystery is too intriguing, too insidious not to dive down and figure out what's really going on. Those brave enough to plumb the depths of Dunwich Borers will only want to ask more questions.
What the hell is up with this glowing underwater shrine? Has this statue always been there, waiting underwater? Why do all of these creepy quests give you dope-ass knives as rewards?
Part of what makes the Dunwich Borers quest unique is that it doesn't give you all the answers. There's a lot left lingering, but many have tied it to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Specifically, this quest shares part of its name with The Dunwich Horror, a story set in Massachusetts. "The Shunned House" is another Lovecraft work that might be considered an inspiration, as the story about a man who finds the elbow of a great monster buried in his cellar closely mirrors the statue we found at the bottom of that pool.
And then there's that part in Fallout 3. You know, the Dunwich Building.
Yep, there's a building in Fallout 3 owned by the same Dunwich Borers company responsible for the eerie mining site in the sequel. It has a disturbing quest of its own, which sends you down to an underground level below the building. While collecting tapes and piecing together what happened down there, you experience flashback visions, much like the ones at the mining site. At the end of your journey, you come across a pack of ghouls worshiping an obelisk, not unlike the vision you saw of the cult at Dunwich Borers.
It appears as though this statue (and a book that is tied to it) are responsible for creating the local ghouls, as opposed to typical radiation overexposure. It seems likely that this is what happened to the ghouls like John Hatfield at Dunwich Borers. Again, knowing more about this mystery only provokes more questions, rather than tying everything neatly in a bow. The scariest part of all this? It'll be at least 2020 before we find out more in Fallout 5.
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