With Fallout 4 just a few months away from release, fans everywhere are passing the time by returning to Bethesda's last post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout 3.
With mods and fan-made content aplenty, the PC version of the game seems to be the most popular these days. It makes sense, given that players can choose exactly how they want to play — though some are taking it a bit further than others.
Take YouTuber Bryan Pierre: instead of simply playing through the game again, Bryan decided try something ... different.
Usually, Fallout 3 begins with the player's birth, then jumps forward through time — the true game begins when the player is 19 years old. However, by messing with the opening scene's scripting, Bryan is able to circumvent most of the opening. This changes two things: one, Bryan makes it to the game's open world in a faction of the time, and two, he's a baby.
Granted, it's not quite that simple: Bethesda didn't really program the game to allow for playable babies, so it's more that Bryan is stuck in a something like "baby mode." If that sounds bizarre in writing, just wait until you see it in action:
Basically, instead of creating an entirely new baby model for something that was only supposed to appear in a single scripted segment, Bethesda merely shrunk the player's character down to scale. Normally, this "baby mode" only lasts a few minutes; after that, it's on to the next sequence. However, by tricking the game into skipping the intro, Bryan manages to make his way into the open world while he's still shrunk.
Obviously, this changes the way the game plays: not only is Bryan super-tiny, but he's ridiculously slow. The game still thinks he's "crawling," and as a result, it takes forever just to get around. It also makes running from a fight nearly impossible, as everything in the world can easily outrun Bryan's miniaturized character.
Then again, it's not as if Bryan is at a complete disadvantage: with a small stature comes a small hitbox, meaning that some enemies have trouble even landing a hit. This is mostly relegated to melee-only enemies — either way, it's hilarious to watch a group of fully-armored Super Mutants try to take down what appears to be a toy soldier.
The best part of the whole run may be the ending: in Fallout 3, players must sacrifice themselves to complete the final mission before moving on to the game's expansions. However, Bryan's baby body is too small to reach the control panel needed to start the process — meaning that the next few minutes of the game are basically a group of adults watching a baby stack pots and pans on top of one another in order to kill itself with radiation. If that's not dark humor, what is?
Surprisingly, it doesn't take all that much to run through Fallout 3 as an infant. Aside from the initial door glitch, you'll need a mod to get the Pip-Boy menu system working properly. Otherwise, you'll be free to journey through the Capitol Wasteland as a toddler — hooray?
For those of you who are fine with making your way through a game normally, Fallout 4 is set to launch this November.
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