Hello, I'm back. Sorry for not blogging in weeks. I've been meaning to come back, but life happens and I've had a lot on my plate right now. I wanted to check in and share some thoughts on a recent experience with a new game I've bought. To be straight, this is not a review. If it were a review, I'd be complaining about bugs and lot's of crashing and bugs. Yes, this game is Fallout: New Vegas, and despite the bugs, it's still a great game that appeals on a number of levels. I recommend buying it after they patch a few of the bugs.
on that note, I want to talk about a part of the game that has had a real effect on me, and a point where I had to take my hands away from the controls and think about what I would say. This entry will have some minor spoilers, so leave now if you prefer to discover this for yourself.
At an early point in the game, you meet a sniper by the name of Boone. Boone's wife had recently gone missing and he believes someone from his town is responsible. He enlisted me to find the culprit, so he could shoot them.
I did find out who was responsible, and helped him take care of them. After, he was available as a companion and watched my back throughout most of the game. Having a trained sniper around really does help with this game, mind you.
While playing, you have the option of talking to Boone and having a conversation with him. I was intrigued at how well-rounded and deep the character was. I want to avoid making the point that this is a character in a video game, because I believe video games have just as much right to be considered art as film or literature. What Bethesda has created here is actually quite an epic tale between a savage tribal dictatorship, an expansionist autocracy, a monocratic overlord with a master plan, and the player character having to decide which group should be put into power, if any. The premise is engaging and the execution is excellent. If it weren't for the bugs, this would be one of the best games I've ever played, if only a bit grindy.
Boone was a member of an elite NCR squad called the 1st Recon, and one of the best. He resigned after his tour of duty for personal reasons and married his wife later. The Legion are the tribal dictatorship faction in the game and the main "evil" people. NCR is the New California Republic, the expansionist autocracy faction.
The first thing I did after hiring Boone was to attack a Legion camp, thus cementing my decision to oppose them taking over the Mojave. After retaking the camp, some NCR prisoners were strapped to crosses and left to die (crucifixion is pretty common practice for the Legion). I had the option of mercy killing them or releasing them. I chose to release them. At this, Boone, through a tough hardened exterior, opened up to me and told that as a member of the 1st Recon, he had to perform a number of mercy killings on his own people from a distance, rather than let them be tortured. He said he regretted it a lot of the time and always wondered if it was possible to save them. However, as I tried to get Boone to talk some more, he closed up again.
As my relationship with Boone grew, I eventually learned what really happened to his wife, and why he was so insistent that she was dead. After she went missing, he used his considerable talents as a recon sniper to find, and hopefully rescue her. However, when he found her, she was being sold as a slave and guarded by hundreds of Legion soldiers. Not willing to let his wife endure life as a slave, Boone killed her. That put a lot of his earlier comments about mercy killings into perspective.
As I played, I began to notice a suicidal streak in Boone. He would talk a lot about "what's coming to him" and some pending punishment. For a while, I made a point of specifically attacking Legion positions and eventually came across the main cove that leads to the main Legion base at the Fort. Boone's comment before leaving was to the effect of "This may be the last boat trip we take" before we shoved off into the abyss... And then with his help I killed the leader of the Legion, a guy named Caesar.. Yes, "Caesar" as in the Roman Emperor guy. As an in-joke, a lot of his followers pronounce it "Kai-sahrr" as if they were saying "Kaiser," one of the titles of the leader of the Third Reich. We assassinated his ass and it was damn satisfying.
However, even after this, Boone seemed unfulfilled, still suicidal, and still not at peace. At this point, Boone finally trusted me enough to tell me what happened.
At some point before the game's events, Boone was part of the Bitter Springs Massacre, a bloody atrocity by the NCR in which a miscommunication saw innocent civilians die at the hands of the 1st Recon and Boone included. Basically what happened is the NCR moved in and a tribe known as the Great Khans saw them as easy pickings. However, the NCR fought back and eventually chanced upon their home at Bitter Springs. The NCR military had a plan to annex to area and avoid any casualties, but a miscommunication caused the main force to invade too early and scared the locals into running in the other direction, toward the 1st Recon who were covering the other side exit. The first people to run through the pass were women and children. I don't think I need to say any more. They were following orders.
At this point, I was given a dialog option offering to go back to Bitter Springs with Boone to help him come to terms. He refused.
... For about 30 seconds, then he said he'd thought about and decided he wanted to go back. We went back. At this point, Bitter Springs was being used as an NCR refugee camp. He showed me around, and eventually we went to the pass where he had taken part in the massacre. Still lost, he asked if we could stay overnight for him to think it over. So we did.
He woke me up and said he saw some Legion troops advancing on the camp. After a brief dialog, he said he'd understand if I wanted to run off, but he was going to stay and defend the camp. I made a quip about us being here at the right time and not having to go out and search for the bastards. He said that was good point and that maybe fate had brought him back for this moment, so he could die defending the place he'd once committed an atrocity. Together, we held off the Legion assault, lost no refugees or NCR soldiers and were both alive to tell about it.
And he still seemed disappointed about that. So up came another dialog where we talked about karma and guilt and the usually steely Boone let it all out. Then the dialog option came up with three options for how to continue the conversation, and I had to stop and think.
1. You did your duty as a soldier.
2. That's not what I would've done.
3. Living with what you've done is your punishment.
In other words, I had to choose between a flimsy justification, a condescending remark and another flimsy justification. Each statement had it's own implications and I really thought about what I would say to someone if I had actually developed the same kind of relationship with someone as I had with Boone. I took my hands off the mouse and keyboard and considered those options carefully and came to a conclusion.
It's moments like this that determine the value of a story. This game went out of it's way to make me question my humanity and sympathize with the guilt of a man who felt he had lost his humanity. Bethesda, I have to say job well done. What you've created here is a work of art, one I have thoroughly enjoyed so far. Keep it up.
No, I'm not telling you what I decided to tell Boone. That would be the biggest spoiler of all, and I want anyone who reads this to come up with their own conclusion about what was the right answer.
- Ginsengaddict
