Why Fallout 3’s Megaton Was Built Around An Atomic Bomb

Megaton is one of the more memorable landmarks in Fallout 3, being situated around an atomic bomb, but why was it built in such a dangerous place?

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When Bethesda modernized the classic RPG series with Fallout 3, it was many players’ first experience with the post-apocalyptic franchise, and a memorable step into the wasteland. For the first couple hours, Fallout 3 keeps the player in the proverbial cave inside the claustrophobic halls of Vault 101, so that stepping out of the iconic Vault door to the Capital Wasteland truly turns the game on its head. From the hills surrounding the entrance to Vault 101, the largest landmark on the horizon is Megaton, a settlement which makes the strange community inside the vault seem normal in comparison.

Megaton, a town mostly built out of scrap metal, is often the first location place players visit after exiting Vault 101, and is a good primer for the game’s absurd setting. The ramshackle buildings of Megaton are all precariously built on the slopes of a crater, at the center of which lies a dormant nuclear bomb. Not more than 20 yards away is a full service bar, where Megatonians are often found sitting and spending their bottle cap currency. It doesn’t take a nuclear physics degree to know that settling in the immediate vicinity of an atomic bomb is a bad idea.

In fact, it turns out to be an extremely bad idea if the player decides to indulge the wishes of affluent Allistair Tenpenny by detonating the bomb in order to rid the scrapheap city from Mr. Tenpenny’s penthouse view. Even without the threat of someone setting it off, it seems like an obvious place wastelanders would want to avoid, yet it became one of the largest settlements in Fallout 3.

How Fallout 3’s Megaton Became a City

Happenstance has a larger part to play than anything else in Megaton’s incorporation. One of Megaton’s older citizens by the time of Fallout 3, Manya Vargas, can tell the player about her grandfather, one of Megaton’s founders. According to Manya, the crater was initially used by people to avoid sandstorms or as a place of shelter after being denied entry to the nearby Vault 101 due to Vault-Tec’s ongoing experiment. Some even flocked to the bomb as a worship site, and still remain during Fallout 3 as the Children of Atom.

By the time Manya’s grandfather was born, Megaton’s crater had became known as a recognizable landmark, used as a trade post for those surviving in the Capital Wasteland. Using the wealth he earned on the caravan trade routes, Manya’s grandfather convinced some others to join him in constructing walls around the crater to protect it from the Capital Wasteland’s super mutants and raiders. Aside from providing the town’s name, Megaton’s bomb has very little to do with its establishment, with its advantageous crater being the reason people flocked there in the first place.

They probably would have been better off constructing a wall around an easily defensible position, but a dormant nuclear bomb might be good for attracting Capital Wasteland tourists. Megaton’s odd location certainly makes it memorable, and is a big contribution to Fallout 3’s world design. In a way, the close proximity to certain death epitomizes life in the Capital Wasteland, and is a poignant early stop for Fallout 3 players beginning their journey.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/fallout-3-megaton-live-atomic-bomb-why-nuke/