When Bethesda released a little-known game called Fallout 3, it took the gaming world by storm! The open world, free roam gameplay, and RPG elements were a huge hit, as were the graphics and first-person shooter style. With actors like Liam Neeson involved wi🥃th the project, everyone knew that the game was going to be something special. It was, for the time, a masterpiece.
However, even today, people are still unearthing new and exciting secrets hidden within the Capital Wasteland, Fallout 3's game world. These range from amazingly well-hidden references to other games and movies, to secret NPCs that you can only find by using the console command cheats on a PC. Bethesda put a lot of effort into including as many easter eggs and hidden gems within Fallout 3 that they possibly could.
But even as gamers out there discover and share more of these little secrets, many still remain overlooked by the majority of players. From tiny little numbers that appear on specific signposts, to the smallest little details about the future of the Fallout world, and even creepy, seemingly out of place events that reference entirely different mythos, there's a tonne of secrets out there. With that fact firmly in mind, here are 25 of the best secrets, easter eggs, and references within Fallout 3 that you need to𒀰 be a superfan to spot, let a𓃲lone understand.
25 🐟 The Tale Of Van Buren
When it comes to Fallout 3, we all know the outstanding game that Bethesda gave us. With a brilliant mix of first-person shooting and open-world RPG elements, it was a massive success! However, it almost didn't exist. At least, not in the way that we now know. You see, Fallout 1 and 2 were made by Black Isle Studio♏s, the developers of other great games like Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate. As part of Interplay, Black Isle Studios had a huge heritage when it came to role-playing games that had huge depth and great storylines.
The original version of Fallout 3 was going to be a top-down, tactical role-playing game. This was far more in keeping with the previous two games, which had been 2D tactical RPGs themselves. However, Interplay had to file for bankruptcy and close down a number of studios before this version of Fallout 3 was completed. This closure took Black Isle Studios with it, ending development of the original Fallout 3, now ཧreferred ♓to by its development codename; Van Buren.
Shortly later, Bethesda bought up the rights to the Fallout s⭕eries, giving them all publishing and development control over the future of the series. This led to the huge change in gameplay and style that we have become accustomed to.
24 ൲ A Harold Of The Times
For those of you who haven't played Fallout 1 or 2, it might come as a surprise that there is a character featuring in all of the first three Fallout games. Originally a member of the Vault ♌29 populace, Harold became a staple of the series as a regular character that fans quickly fell in love with. Growing up in a Vault entirely filled with other children, where the parents had been taken to a different Vault, Harold was raised by a human brain that was connected to a supercomputer.
As one of the chosen Vault 29 Dwellers to go outside and see what the state of the world was, Harold was taken to the Nursery, a sepa🌟rate place where Diana (the supercomputer brain) resided. He was given a choice to stay with her or go out to the wasteland. Being an adventurous type, he chose the wasteland.
Eventually, he came into contact with FEV, a chemical designed to cause evolution, and began to mutate.
His mutation included a small, slightly sentient tree called Bob. A🍸fter years of walking through the wasteland together, Bob finally consumed Harold's body, turning him into a tree and creating the area of the Capital Wasteland known as Oasis.
23 ܫ The Future Of VR Gaming
Whilst it may be part of the actual storyline of Fallout 3, Vault 112 has a very interesting history🧔. Those who were chosen to enter the Vault were placed in pods connected to a Virtual Reality system. This would allow each and every one of them to live an idyllic lifestyle in a world exactly as they were used to. In this sense, they were effectively placed🥂 into the Matrix.
For years, these people were stuck in the simulation as their bodies withered away within the tanks.
It really is a horrific scene to think about, as they were kept happy as they sadly faded away. Whilst this may seem like a reference to The Matrix, it is also a very vivid reference to the potential future of Virtual Reality gaming. As we move closer into the world of VR, with each game g𒅌etting more realistic and third-party controllers allowing full-body interaction with those games, things are mov💮ing very quickly towards the technology of Vault 112.
Are you ready to get into a pod and live out the rest of your days in a virtual world, n꧟ot realizing that you're perishingꦡ in the real world? It's a scary thought, isn't it? As is the fact that, when you escape from Vault 112's virtual world, you actually end everyone in the Vault who was still alive.
22 💜 Nothing But ﷽White Noise
Have you ever had to sit and listen to nothing but white noise? If you were born after the release of satellite and cable TV, probably not, but for those of us old enough to remember life before ꦕthat, it was quite common. For example, if your TV aerial wasn't positioned correctl🐲y then you'd only be able to get static (or white noise).
This constant, grainy noise pierced right into your brain and was simply horrible to listen to.
Vault-Tec obviously knew this when they put together the sociological experiment for Vault 92; to fill the vault with musicians of all genres and talents, before filling theไ Vault with constant white noise. This was designe൲d to test whether white noise could psychologically alter a person's mental state, turning them into psychopaths who were happy to attack and end anyone.
Whilst this may not have been the most horrific Vault-Tec experiment (the Vault with hundreds of men and just one woman, and vice versa, come to mind), it certainly is a rather psychotic thing to come up by itself. Really, though, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to weird Fallout vault experiments.
21 The T💝ruth Behind Vault 101
Fallout 3 starts off with you, the Lone Wandꦍerer, growing up within Vault 101. The community in the Vault is very tight-knit, with families all being very close. However, the reason for this is that the Vault door has remained sealed since the war, hundreds of years ago. This was yet another test being run behind the scenes by Vault-Tec. With enough food and supplies to run for hundreds of years, Vault 101 was designed to test the effects of isolation on a community, seeing how that community may change through time.
Each was designed specifically told to never open the Vault door, never let anyone go outside and never let anyone come inside frౠom the wasteland. This worked perfectly, up ꦛuntil the Lone Wanderer's father managed to get outside. At least, that was what the Overseer at the time wanted everyone to believe. However, in reality, the player character's parents actually came from the outside world in the first place.
So the experiment had already largely failed.
This was really a blessing, however, a🌼s the population of the Vault was already dwindling. Eventually, it would have led to inbreeding and chaos without opening it up to the rest of the wasteland.
20 ♚A Puppet Master 𝓰
Whilst it may not be considered actual canon, the writers and artists behind the amazing webcomic, Penny Arcade, came up with a spin-off comic to the Fallout universe. Titled One Man and a Crate of Puppets, it tells the tale of yet another Vault-Tec experiment. As well as the aforementioned tests, as well as one where there were 30 people and a panther, the team at Vault-Tec decided to ruin one person's mental state entirely. Trapping him in Vault 77, 𝓰this young man found that he was entirely alone, with the exception of a crate filled to the brim with puppets.
Over the course of almost two years, the young man completely lost his mind. In his head, the puppets were alive, and after a case of the King Puppet being ended, he decided to leave the Vault with a Vault-Guy puppet and take on the wasteland outside. Due to his now entirely psychotic manner, he began ending everyone around him. This garnered the nickname The Puppet Master, which would go on to become infamous at establishments and bandit hideouts all over the wasteland. This is something that fits in perfectly with the Fallout universe that we know and love.
19 🎶 Stockholm Syndrome
Did you know that there is a secret, hidden section of the outskirts of Megaton that you can only access by using the "noclip" cheat? Well, there is. On PC, if you open the console and enter the command "tcl", you will be🔜 able to pass through walls and fly.
This will allow you to find your way to a small viewing platform on the outer wall of Megaton.
Here, you'll find an NPC taking watch over the wasteland, that you can't meet through any other means. When you talk to him, he will start asking you questions about how you managed to find him. This is a very amusing little easter egg that the developers put into Fallout 3, knowing that those of us on the PC would find and make use of consolܫe commands as soon as possible.
Fallout 3 is full of hidden easter eggs, like the next one on this list, but this one is so well hidden that, when found, you can imagine the developers sitting back with a smirk on their face. It might take a long time to find secrets like this, but they're fun a🎃nd make the game a lot more interesting.
18 🦄 The Oblivion Of Fallout
As we already mentioned, Bethesda bought the rights to the Fallout series before making the third game. They are also verܫy proud of their games, and because of this, they have made little references to them throughout other video games that they have developed. It is their way to give mention to their achievements without many people 🧔noticing.
One of these mentions happens in Fallout 3. When you are walking through the Capital Wasteland, there are road signs and various other signs scattered around. One of them, affixed to a post, has the code TES04. This, specifically, refers to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, one of Bethesda's most popular open-world, fre🃏e roam games in an already extremely popular franchise.
It is incredibly easy to miss entirely, but that just makes it all the better in terms of a hidden mention.
It doesn't take anything away from Fallout 3, but definitely manages to bring attention to another incredible game. Since a lot of people have strong opinions over whether the Fallout series or The Elder Scrolls series is better, it's fun to see the two of th𝕴em come together in this way. It's a great shoutout to a great game.
17 💯 Isla Neg𒁃ra Holdings
Amongst all of the other great additions that Point Lookout put into the already massive Fallout 3, the developers at Bethesda also manages to add little nods back to the previous developers of the Fallout series; Black Isle Studios. However, rather than specifically stating the name of the stud🅘io or the developers, Bethesda used their typical creative genius to put subtle references that could easily be missed but make you feel clever when you notice t🎶hem.
In particular, you can find out about a real estate company that used to exist and operate in the Point Lookout area.
The cဣompany would continually try to build up the tourism industry of the area, whilst also owning the People's Bank of Point Lookout. T꧙his particular real estate company was named Isla Negra Holdings, which translates back into Black Isle Holdings.
It is a really clever way to put a tribute to the original developers into the game, whilst also referencing how important they were to building the Fallout series in the fir🦄st place. It's something that not a lot of people༺ would recognize otherwise, which makes it a really nice inclusion. Though it really is one of those easily missed secrets!
16 Beneath The C💎hildren Of Atom
When you think about post-apocalyptic movies, a few different series probably come to mind. This first one is probably Mad Max, but we're not going to talk about the references to those movies that appear in Fallout 3. They are pretty obvious, really. Instead, we are going to look at how Megaton's unexploded nuclear bomb and the religious cult that h🐓as formed around it reference yet another movie series.
The Children of Atom and their beloved unexploded nuclear bomb are a direct reference to the movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes. This entry into the Planet of the Apes universe features a very similar situation within the movie. In♑ fact, it is so similar that it is almost a mirror image of the scenario.
This is something not a lot of people might realize.
Mad Max may well get the most well-known movie references in the Fallout series, but the developers managed to hide a whole bunch of others as well. This one likely went under the radar to many, as Beneath the Planet of the Apes wasn't as much of a success as other Planet of the Apes movies, but is definitely an awesome reference!