Key

While I may have already mentioned the White House in the previous post, I wanted to talk more about the Washington D.C. mall and my experience upon arriving there for the first time. Fallout 3 certainly captivated me from the start with its honest vastness, but when you make your way into the centerpiece of the game, it blows you away in a way that only a game of this caliber can do. I just remember taking everything in and looking around me noticing burned down buildings and structures that had to be fixed and used for other things. For example, the Washington Memorial is used for as a satellite to transmit radio broadcasts. It's also gotten severe damage throughout.



It's just amazing and remarkable what the atmosphere can do to a city you know pretty well. I think this resonates with me in this way because I actually saw the Washington Memorial in person. I've been to D.C. so playing this game was sort of surreal to me in a way.

I mentioned in the previous post about the Lincoln Memorial and its missing head, well, yes, it is a thing. Check this out:



The first thing I thought about doing when I walked into the mall for the first time is "I should find the Lincoln Memorial". Though when I went there, I was evidently unprepared. But eventually I got up close enough to realize that the head was missing. Nice touch, Bethesda. But yes, it's pretty striking to see such a beautiful structure in real life be resulted to a pile of trash. And yes, there is a way to get the head back.

I still remember trying to actually walk slowly through the D.C. mall for the first time in this game because I genuinely wanted to take everything in. I mean it when I say that this game had an effect on me like most other games have not been able to do. Not all, but most. Fallout 3 is just a beauty to play and honestly, the outdated graphics give it that extra charm that makes it the unique beast that it is.

One of the cooler parts about the D.C. mall is the potential to find other things within it. Like going to the Museum of Technology and try to loot those places. But when I walked into the Underworld for the first time, I was thrown back by the fact that there were ghouls living down here. And they were all so chill too. I decided to just keep neutral with these ones because they were extremely helpful. But god damn, this place looks beautiful.



I thoroughly enjoyed walking around this place specifically because of the dark sense of emotion it brought. A world beneath the dead world full of ghouls. Brilliantly done.

And that's about the most I can remember about my first time walking into the Washington D.C. mall in Fallout 3. I know it was a pretty cool moment for a lot of people but it especially resonated with me again, because I've been to Washington D.C. in person. We'll be continuing to talk about more of my personal experience with Fallout 3 in the next part or two. I just wanted to talk about this beautiful center piece in this game on its own.