Fallout 3 endings

 

“So ends the story of the Lone Wanderer, who stepped through the great door of Vault 101 and into the annals of legend.”— Narrator, FO3 ending

Just like the intro, the ending is narrated by Ron Perlman. The first and final parts are the same for each player, the 3 middle parts depend on their choices, Part 4 may not be played if the player entered the wrong code when trying to activate the purifier (the purifier will be destroyed in an explosion that case).

Unlike previous Fallout games, there is no ending narration for individual towns visited by the player during the game. The only thing influenced by side quests is the choice of some of the slides shown during the ending cinematic.

Ending

Part 1:

• Video segment 1 - Will always be included.

Part 2:

• Video segments 8, 17, 18 - These segments are based on player's Karma. (One of them will always be included.)
• Video segments 2 to 7 - These segments appear to be based on whether player completed a specific side quest. However, only one of them will appear.

Part 3:

• Video segments 9, 10, 11 - These segments are based on player's end-game decision in the control room. (One of them will always be included.) #9 is slightly altered by Broken Steel
• Video segments 27 to 29 - Same as video segment #10 (Sacrifice Another), but showing RL-3, Charon, or Fawkes instead of Sarah Lyons. These are added by Broken Steel

Part 4:

• Video segments 12, 13, 14 - These segments are based on player's end-game decision on FEV. (One of them will be included if player did not let Project Purity blow up.)

Part 5:

• Video segments 15 and 16 - These two segments have identical voice overs. They are based on whether the Lone Wanderer was male or female. (One of them will always be included.)
• Video segments 19 to 26 - These segments show the same scene, differ only on player's race and gender.

Video segments

There are 26 (29 with Broken Steel installed) independent video segments for the Fallout 3 ending. They can be viewed on the PC version using the external software "RAD Video Tools". Whether they are shown depend on whether the player performs certain task in game. Some are mutually exclusive.

#	Voice-over narration	Description of the scenes	In-game Condition
1	And so it was that the Lone Wanderer ventured forth from Vault 101 intent on discovering the fate of a father who has once sacrificed the future of humanity for that of his own child.	1/4	Video appears generic, therefore should appear almost always
2	None	1/3	Completing Head of State by helping the escaped slaves.
3	None	1/2	Completing Agatha's Song by bringing the violin to her.
4	None	1/3	Good Karma
5	None	1/3	Completing The Power of the Atom by detonating the bomb
6	None	Harold burning	Completing Oasis by burning Harold, (Flamer, Shishkebab.)
7	None	Rivet City market area laid waste. The bodies of Flak and Seagrave Holmes can be distinctively identified.	This seems to trigger if you kill anyone in Rivet City OR enslave Flak as part of the Strictly Business quest, however, enslaving Flak will not always get this ending, Or just negative karma.
8	The Capital Wasteland proved a cruel and inhospitable place.	1/3	Neutral Karma
9	But it was not until the end of this long road that the Lone Wanderer learned the true meaning of that greatest of virtues – sacrifice. Stepping into the irradiated control chamber of Project Purity, the child followed the example of the father sacrificing life itself for the greater good of mankind.	1/11	Step in the Control Chamber yourself at the end and activate the Purifier. Occasionally you may get ending 11 with the destroyed Purifier instead, even if you see the Purifier activated, because you took too long to do so and therefor triggered ending 11 instead. In Broken Steel, this segment is replaced with its own version. This version is the exact same, but with scene 4 cut out of it for obvious reasons.
10	It was not until the end of this long road that the Lone Wanderer was faced with that greatest of virtues – sacrifice, but the child refused to follow the father's selfless example, instead, allowing a true hero to venture into irradiated control chamber of project purity and sacrifice her own life for the greater good of mankind.	1/11	Let Sarah Lyons enter the Control Chamber at the end.
11	It was not until the end of this long road that the Lone Wanderer was faced with that greatest of virtues – sacrifice, but the child refused to follow the father's selfless example.	1/4	Let the Water Purifier explode. Sometimes you will get this ending even if you activate the Purifier because you took too long in doing so.
12	Thankfully, when selected by the sinister president to be his instrument of annihilation, the Wanderer refused. Humanity with all its flaws was deemed worthy of preservation. The waters of life flowed at last – free and pure, for any and all. The Capital Wasteland at long last was saved.	1/5	Do not add FEV at the end. Do not destroy Raven Rock at the end.
13	Thankfully, when selected by the sinister president to be his instrument of annihilation, the Wanderer refused. Humanity with all its flaws was deemed worthy of preservation. The waters of life flowed at last – free and pure, for any and all. The Capital Wasteland at long last was saved.	John Henry Eden Raven Rock destroyed A few scenes near Wilhelm's Wharf	Do not add FEV at the end. Destroy Raven Rock at the end.
14	Sadly, when selected by the sinister president to be his instrument of annihilation, the Wanderer agreed. Humanity will be preserved, but only in its purest form. The waters of life flowed at last, but the virus contained within soon eradicated all those deemed unworthy of salvation. The Capital Wasteland, despite its progress, became a graveyard.	1/16	Add the FEV at the end.
15	So ends the story of the Lone Wanderer, who stepped through the great door of Vault 101 and into the annals of legend. But the tale of humanity will never come to a close, for the struggle of survival is a war without end, and war – war never changes.	1/7	Occurs in all endings with Male protagonist, even if these locations are never visited and Dogmeat is never encountered.
16	So ends the story of the Lone Wanderer, who stepped through the great door of Vault 101 and into the annals of legend. But the tale of humanity will never come to a close, for the struggle of survival is a war without end, and war – war never changes.	Female character walking away from the camera with a dog companion Arefu with Evan King walking away from the camera Grisly Diner Canterbury Commons showing Uncle Roe and Derek Pacion Arlington Cemetery	Occurs in all endings with Female protagonist, even if these locations are never visited and Dogmeat is never encountered.
17	The Capital Wasteland proved a cruel inhospitable place, but the Lone Wanderer refused to surrender to the vices that had claimed so many others. The values passed on from father to child – selflessness, compassion, honor – guided this noble soul through countless trials and triumphs.	1/8	Good Karma
18	The Capital Wasteland proved a cruel inhospitable place, and the Lone Wanderer ultimately surrendered to the vices that had claimed so many others – selfishness, greed, cruelty. These were the values that guided a lost soul through countless trials and triumphs.	FO3 bad karma endslide 8.jpg FO3 bad karma endslide 9.jpg 1/11	Bad Karma
19-26	None	1/1	8 videos for each of the 8 combination of race and gender player may choose.
27 -29	It was not until the end of this long road that the Lone Wanderer was faced with that greatest of virtues – sacrifice, but the child refused to follow the father's selfless example, instead, allowing a true hero to venture into irradiated control chamber of project purity.	Lone Wanderer walking away from the camera Exterior view of the Jefferson Memorial Follower entering the control chamber A shot of the statue of Jefferson from behind	Send one of the three eligible followers into the control room. You can only send a follower in if you have Broken Steel installed. 27 = RL-3, 28 = Charon, 29 = Fawkes

Comparison to other Fallout titles

Fallout and Fallout 2

Fallout and Fallout 2 also had a narrated slideshow as the ending, but with no added visual effects (Solid full-screen images). The images were high quality artwork, not in-game images (As these titles were played from an isometric perspective). While the first part of each ending was the same no matter how the game was played, it was followed by a town-by-town epilogue based on the actions of the player. Locations that had been 'skipped' were not mentioned. New Reno in Fallout 2 had no less than 7 endings (Siding with one of the four families, Knock up one of the Bishop family women, Not siding with any of the families, Massacre everyone in the city).

There are 47 possible ending "factors" in Fallout 2 - This means that the ending you get after completing the game can vary in many different ways. Only a few of these endings are "required" (in that you get them no matter how you complete the game and cannot change or avoid getting them), but the rest of them appear or do not appear depending on actions that the player takes throughout the game.

Continue playing

Fallout 2 allowed a player to continue playing after completing the main quest line. There were no 'consequences' to having beaten the game, and new endings would not display if the conditions later changed. Aside from a few little extras (like congratulatory remarks on defeating the Enclave), it was the same as having never triggered the event that takes the player to the final area. Fallout and Fallout Tactics did not allow the player to continue playing, although there are mods that change this in Fallout.

It should be noted that the add-on "Broken Steel" for the PC, PS3 and 360 allows the player to continue past the end of the main quest. In this add-on, the ending is altered and the player is able to see the effects of the choice made at Jefferson Memorial during the final quest, Take It Back!

Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel

Fallout Tactics had a combination of a "True" cinematic ending and a narrated slideshow. The cinematic was the same under all 5 possible endings, with the slideshow following the Fallout and Fallout 2 formula of solid images with voice-over. Fallout Tactics had no town-by-town analysis, as the game featured few RPG choices (Kill someone or don't kill them).

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel features a rather short narrated slideshow which ends with the three main playable characters watching the mushroom cloud blossom into the air after the final boss fight and the Vault is blown up. This game had little to no RPG choices. No characters other than predetermined enemies could be killed. Only one possible way to play the game. Although there are side quests but you can't return to an area after clearing it so you'd have to back track to complete them, however they held no impact on the overall plot.

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas follows the style of the Fallout and Fallout 2 endings, going through all of the player's major choices in a slideshow with voice-over, and showing the consequences of each of these actions. Thirty topics are covered in this slideshow, and each topic has several different slides; which one is shown depends on the player's actions. Thus, like in Fallout 2, there are hundreds of different ending combinations.

The player is placed into a very small room where they are unable to move, and they are shown the "slides" on a screen in in front of them. Without mods, it is impossible to continue playing after the ending in Fallout: New Vegas.

See also

• Fallout 3 intro
• Fallout endings
• Fallout 2 endings
• Fallout: New Vegas endings
• Fallout Tactics game endings

External links

• Videos of all endings