post-apocalyptic video game wasteland formula, and the atmosphere is a big part of what makes it so memorable. However, there are certain quests in the various Fallout games that are terrifying, especially for new players who are just venturing out into the wasteland for the first time.
These quests involve visiting spooky locations, investigating serial killers, or venturing into dangerous radiation-infested vaults. Whatever the case, these quests bring on white knuckles, clenched teeth, and plenty of heart palpitations as players go forth boldly, not knowing what's around the next corner.
Vault 22 (Fallout: New Vegas)
Many Fallout: New Vegas gamers still fear Vault 22, and those who have never ventured into its depths are sure to the experience. The Vault is included in six of the game's quests, but it's the location itself that deserves all the notoriety. It's one of the scariest locations in any Fallout game.
The Vault is best known for a special project that went on inside which involved the creation of advanced fertilizers resistant to nature's extremes. Unfortunately, the experiment ended up creating an airborne fungus that infected the entire population, turning them into terrifying half-human, half-plant hybrids.
The Dark Heart Of Blackhall (Fallout 3)
There are plenty of quest mods for Fallout games, but many players don't want to go through the hassle. Very few of these mods involve injecting the supernatural into the game as well. This particular quest involved finding and retrieving the Krivbeknih book, which is reported to possess dark powers. To find it, players will have to enter one of the scariest locations in Fallout - the dreaded Dunwich Building. Essentially a simple office, it's also the site of a very scary chapter in the quest.
The entire building is infested with feral ghouls, which is bad enough. However, the deeper the player descends into the bowels of the building, the darker everything becomes. Add in creepy hallucinations, a mysterious obelisk that is part of a strange ritual, and a host of other oddities, and the Dunwich experience soon becomes a lot to handle.
Pickman's Gift (Fallout 4)
This quest is easily one of the creepiest and most frightening in Fallout lore, and for good reason. The entire premise of the quest revolves around a serial killer named Pickman, who has a strange fascination with the player's character. By following clues and audio logs found on holotapes, it's their job to hunt him down.
What makes the quest so scary is the subject matter in question. Pickman is a picture-perfect horror villain - he's calm, emotionless, and thinks little of his actions. Other elements such as his collection of paintings are quite off-putting, making this a Silence of the Lambs-inspired questline.
Dunwich Borers (Fallout 4)
Not to be confused with the Dunwich Building from Fallout 3, this location is actually situated within the marble quarry in Fallout 4, where Dunwich Borers LLC was operating. The site is home to a grand total of 10 quests, but it's the content inside that truly matters.
Within the marble quarry is an abandoned system of chambers populated by feral ghouls, some of whom were former employees of the company. The creepiness of this location cannot be overstated. It feels like an abandoned mine haunted by the souls of the dead long since ed.
Hard Luck Blues (Fallout: New Vegas)
Hard Luck Blues is another questline in Fallout: New Vegas that involves descending into yet another creepy Vault. This time, it's Vault 34, which has been bathed in high amounts of radiation. It's also infested with feral ghouls who will rush the player immediately and without provocation.
In addition to how creepy the interior of Vault 34 is, it also comes with a terrible choice attached to it. The quest offers the player two options for how to complete the quest. They can either save the surviving humans within the vault or poison the farms of the NCR sharecroppers with radiation on the surface world.
Necropolis (Fallout)
Any location with a name that means "city of the dead" is bound to be scary, and that's certainly true in this case. The original Fallout's Necropolis is home to a community of ghouls living underneath, and a group of surface dwellers above who were extremely xenophobic.
Four individual quests involve visiting Necropolis, and some of them have a direct impact on the citizens within. The deep foreboding atmosphere and hostility of the region made Necropolis one of the first of Fallout's scary locations to visit.
The Ghost Farm (Fallout 2)
A good ghost story fits well with Fallout's ominous atmosphere, and the Ghost Farm handled that marriage well. This spooky location houses four quests that shine greater light on the small farm and its history. It's home to a group of mutant militia officers known as Slags, who created a series of crops on the surface to survive.
New players don't know much about the Ghost Farm, besides the rumors they hear from other characters of ghosts wandering about. It turns out that the Slags covered their bodies in a glowing fungus to frighten would-be visitors while impaling dummies to look like real corpses. Venturing into the Ghost Farm for the first time is a scary affair.
Democracy Inaction (Fallout: New Vegas)
This quest is one of the most horrific, and scariest in Fallout lore, but for a much different reason than gamers might expect. It takes place in Vault 11, which was designed to run a social experiment on the survivors within. Vault-Tec created a narrative that forced these survivors to choose a new Overseer in order for the community to continue on.
The caveat is that each Overseer needed to act as a sacrifice in order to prevent the system from killing everyone else. Paranoia and power politics overwhelmed the survivors, and the badge of Overseer was considered a curse rather than a blessing. The true horror of the quest comes to light near the end, when it's revealed that freedom actually came from ignoring Vault-Tec's order, standing together as a group, and refusing to choose another Overseer.
The Devil's Due (Fallout 4)
Players don't need to install any Halloween-themed Fallout 4 mods in order to get a few good scares out of the vanilla game. The Devil's Due is a quest that still has players talking years after the fact. It takes place in the Museum of Witchcraft, the site of a horror lurking within.
The entire quest is one horror movie playing out in real-time, with the player learning more about the fate that befell the people inside the Museum. When the culprit is finally revealed, it's one of the most panic-inducing battles of the entire game, and one that few players survive on the first encounter.
Deathclaw Sanctuary (Fallout 3)
Fallout 3 is considered one of Bethesda's highest-rated games, and level design plays an important role, especially when it comes to places like the Deathclaw Sanctuary. This may not be an overt quest, but it is worth checking out for its loot. Completionists will be attracted to the Endurance Bobblehead located deep within the cavern, but it'll take some skill to get it, for the entire place is crawling with Deathclaws.
Terror is synonymous with these hulking, terrifying beasts, and encountering just one in the wasteland is enough. Deathclaw Sanctuary lives up to its name by housing tons of them, and players will need to be of high level, with a lot of Stimpaks on hand to keep from being torn apart.
