Within recent years, there has been a great many games released with a post-apocalyptic setting. One of the most well-known and popular of these games is Fallout 3, another game in the long-running Fallout series where continued wars eventually led to a gigantic nuclear disaster that killed the vast majority of humanity. While some underground shelters, called Vaults, escaped effects of the blasts, the majority of the world was similarly destroyed. Subsequently, the areas you traverse over the course of the game are mostly destroyed buildings, vast wastelands, and the like. The entire area you can explore in Fallout 3 is even called the Capital Wasteland, so named because it is the area around the ruins of Washington D.C. Despite this, there is one small hamlet that escaped every effect the nuclear holocaust could have possibly had and, indeed, is more or less the ideal suburb: Tranquility Lane.

You come across Tranquility Lane as you continue on the search for your father, who left your home Vault for an, as of yet, undisclosed reason. Your search brings you to an area called Smith Casey’s Garage, where, upon further inspection, you find the hidden Vault 112, the place your father went looking for a device called a G.E.C.K. Upon entering, you find a robot that tells you to get into a “Tranquility Lounger” and, as you go further in, you find a room full of pods with people inside. From what you can see, these people are all inside a simulation and, having no other options, you sit in a pod and are thrust into the simulation yourself, waking up in Tranquility Lane. While the buildup to entering this area is slight, it is effective in making you feel that something is clearly strange. It’s uncertain what to expect when you enter the simulation, but, regardless of preconceptions, Tranquility Lane is almost sure to be a surprise.

You wake up to find yourself in a child’s body with a picturesque, black and white suburban neighborhood around you. The people here appear to be living those wholesome lives one would watch on an old television sitcom, as almost everyone is very friendly, a kid is running a lemonade stand, and everything seems sickeningly perfect. The music of the area only adds to this perception, being a very bouncy, happy tune with an overabundance of whimsy that really completes the nature of the place. Even before you actually start doing anything on the lane, it feels like a complete 180 tone shift from the rest of the game that can figuratively throw you off-balance. However, I like the perception the area gives, as the true nature of Tranquility Lane is far more sinister than the overly happy appearances would portray. The contrast between the bubbly surface and dark nature is very well done and constantly gives a reminder that, no matter how secluded and separated any character or place seems to be from the world that Fallout 3 creates, the ramifications of what has happened cannot be ignored.

It's a trap!

Trying to talk to almost anyone in Tranquility Lane is an exercise in futility. They don’t seem to realize they are in a simulation and will laugh off anything you say about the subject. The only useful thing they will say is that you should talk to Betty, a young girl watering flowers in the center of the playground. Talking to her results in her being very happy to find someone new to play with and, even though it’s obvious she knows something, she practically refuses to talk about anything worthwhile. Instead, she asks you to make a kid named Timmy Neusbaum cry. Doing so and going back to Betty results in both negative karma for the morality system of the game and interesting facts presenting themselves about Betty.

Every time Betty asks you to do something and you accomplish her goal, she will answer a question you have, such as the nature of Tranquility Lane and the location of your father. However, it’s obvious that she knows far more than she should and it’s even more strange when, half the time, the little girl’s voice is replaced with an old man’s. The truth presents itself rather quickly; Betty is the avatar of Dr. Stanislaus Braun, the overseer of Vault 112 and complete controller of the Tranquility Lane simulation. After such a long time being locked up in a perfect world that no one else knew was fake, he became bored and decided the best way to entertain himself was to mess with and kill the residents of the simulation for all eternity. He can continuously bring them back with no memory of what he’s done, so he can do it again and again and again.

The reveal of Betty’s identity and what has twisted this perfect world so thoroughly is very nicely presented. The old man’s voice intermixed with the little girl’s body and voice is always off-putting and made for a big surprise when first heard. That, combined with the clever hints of just what Braun has done presented through the dialog, makes for very good storytelling that I never found matched throughout the rest of the game.

As previously stated, Betty, or Braun, is bored with what goes on in the simulation and, as you are a new source of entertainment, he wants to watch you do some horrible things for his amusement. Betty gives you increasingly awful goals, starting off making the aforementioned kid cry to finally killing everyone in the hamlet dressed up as an old ghost-story killer, the Pint-Sized Slasher, all with the promise that he will let you and your father out if you entertain him. While the opportunity to do bad things is available throughout the game due to the nature of the morality system, there is a major difference in performing these evil acts on Tranquility Lane: multiple choices.