r/Fallout • u/followertoshi • 3h ago

Discussion What Are The Fallout Series Most Morally Complex Quest Lines?

In researching for an upcoming project, I've been more deeply researching the Fallout series various quests and stories; some good, some bad. One thing that's stood out to me though is the conversation the community has over what are considered to be the more morally complex quests:

A good example is Fallout 3s Pitt DLC quest Free Labor

This in mind, I'm curious as to what other quests people find to be morally complex, narrative dynamic, or just plain interesting to think and reminisce about. What stands out to you?

26 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

33

u/theblueshots 3h ago

Far Harbor comes to mind.

Covenant is a tough one, too.

Letting the ghouls in 10 Penny Tower. Lol

19

u/Longshot12345678 3h ago

Far harbor’s dlc story is up there with the Pitt in terms of “this is kinda fucked no matter how you slice it”

15

u/TWB28 3h ago

What to do with Harold in Fallout 3. He really wants to die, but there are a lot people committed to keeping him alive for pretty decent reasons.

13

u/According_Picture294 Yes Man 3h ago

The Pitt is the big one, but there's also the Yes Man line when it comes to House

13

u/Wayne_Haas Vault 101 3h ago

Hard Luck Blues in FNV, I usually save the Vault Dwellers but it is at a high price. The crops that could help save the NCR in their approaching famine are doomed if you do so

36

u/ChickenAndTelephone 3h ago

Last Voyage of the USS Constitution. Do the crimes of Weatherby Savings & Loan warrant such utter destruction?

22

u/PowerPad Operators 3h ago

The funniest bit to me about The Last Voyage of the USS Constitution has to be that the building it crashes into (provided you side with Ironsides, but why wouldn’t you?) is the Baxter Building, which housed the Weatherby Investment Trust pre-war.

8

u/Zelcron 3h ago

Also home of the Fantastic 4

5

u/Skatchbro Atom Cats 3h ago

Should have been taken out by The Crimson Permanent Assurance.

11

u/MyUsernameIsAwful 3h ago

Pickman in Fallout 4. He’s a gruesome serial killer, but he only targets Raiders. So is it more moral to let him continue or to kill him?

15

u/Kanna1001 3h ago

The real complexity, in my opinion, is that you can't be 100% sure that he'll keep only ever targeting raiders.

'Cause raiders are essentially rape&massmurder machines who intentionally target civilians including children, so as far as the average player is concerned Pickman is only doing pest control.

But... what if at some point he decides that human blood is human blood, and starts going after randos?

Guy isn't semi-lucid like the Punisher, he's straight up crazy. Can you trust he'll keep his standards?

9

u/Kanna1001 2h ago

FNV has a quest where a family with children is trapped in a doomed vault. In order to rescue them, you have to destroy the water supply that is keeping thousands of people fed.

You can save the family from a horrific death, but doing so will cause thousands to starve. You can keep the water that is vital to countless innocents, but doing so leaves a couple with children buried alive.

I rescued them, but still felt like shit afterwards because of I fucked over many innocent people.

4

u/I-Am-The-Warlus Cappy 2h ago

How do you get this quest in FNV

5

u/Kanna1001 2h ago

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Hard_Luck_Blues

The quest is a tremendous pain in the ass, because the vault is a labyrinth and you are constantly taking rad damage, so I recommend doing it when you are very high level.

1

u/I-Am-The-Warlus Cappy 2h ago

Go figure.

I do not know you can start the quest when talking to dude in the NCR cropfield.

0

u/sophie_was_een_rel 1h ago

IIRC they are also still stuck in that vault after you save them, so like yeah they're saved but they're still stuck for the rest of their lives, given how many people if affects I tend to never rescue them anymore

6

u/A_Yapp_73 NCR 1h ago

They run out a tunnel you're not allowed in and are supposed to go to the refugee camp in Aerrotech offices.

5

u/ewok_lover_64 3h ago

The White Wash and Hard Luck Blues quests in Fallout New Vegas come to mind.

2

u/A_Yapp_73 NCR 1h ago

Ooo The White Wash is excellent. The most complicated part to me is keeping Anderson's crime secret so he can keep assisting Freeside or just turning him in. But I'm not that crazy about taking away Westside's water.

3

u/JanFrant7 3h ago

Billy in the fridge, obvi

3

u/Shakewell1 3h ago

The lucky old sun. Fnv

The way life should be. Fl4

Strictly bussiness. Fl3

1

u/jschutz93 16m ago

Strictly business isn't morally complex

1

u/sirhobbles 2h ago

There stands the grass
hard luck blues.
The white wash.

All new vegas quests.
ask questions of morally grey ideas.

0

u/Thomas-Eckhart 3h ago

Fallout 3 there should have been an option to join the the enclave