Isn't he cute?

Almost all moral choices in the game are between a good option, an evil option, and, sometimes, a neutral option. There are only evil options to anything Betty wants you to do, but there are multiple ways to go about that evil. Besides from the previous stated final goal of killing everyone as the Pint-Sized Slasher, there are three to four ways to accomplish each goal Betty sets for you. For example, Betty wants you kill someone named Mabel Henderson. However, it can’t be a simple death from just punching her enough. Instead, you have to get creative or Betty will not be satisfied. In this instance, there are four ways you can kill Mabel, two being a bit obvious and the others being not so obvious. The obvious choices are to move a roller skate close to the top of the stairs so she falls or to loosen the links on a chandelier so it falls when she walks under it. However, you could also either break the oven and then ask her to make you a pie so that, when she tries to use the oven, she burns up or reprogram her guard robot to have no targeting parameters, thus having it kill her.

The fact that this kind of choice exists makes performing these tasks for Betty more interesting, as multiple options on one side is something that doesn’t come up much in Fallout 3 and it plays into the characterization given to Braun. While never implied, it would certainly fit Braun’s character to place these multiple options into the simulation so he wouldn’t know exactly what you would do to accomplish the goals he sets. He wants to be entertained and I doubt he would be if he knew exactly what you were going to do. I always like it when gameplay and story interact in a way that makes sense, and this was done well with the different gameplay in Tranquility Lane.

Of course, by the nature of the tasks, it seems like people who want to maintain good karma seem to be out of luck. However, as it turns out, there is a bit of a hidden route to getting through Tranquility Lane. If you talk to everyone in the place, you will inevitably come across Old Lady Dithers, who will even approach you if you don’t talk to her and just do Betty’s tasks. Dithers seems to be the only one, besides Betty, who knows that something is wrong with the entire simulation. If you checked her pod outside, you would see that there is an anomaly with her that is apparently giving her some form of awareness about the whole thing. Whatever the reason, she basically tells you that there is something in the abandoned house that will end the torment. Otherwise, even after Braun lets you and your father out, he would just continue to torture the people of Tranquility Lane forever.

Upon going into the abandoned house, you can find a bunch of random objects that can be “activated” and make a tone when you do so. Interestingly enough, if you find the correct sequence of tones, you can reveal a computer console in the wall of the house. What makes this great is that the correct sequence isn’t just something to guess at, but can be heard in two places: the tune that Betty continually hums whenever you go near her, and the music for Tranquility Lane itself. I really like how they didn’t directly present the solution to you, and instead incorporated it deeply into the area itself. You had to think about it to figure it out and I haven’t seen another puzzle implemented in this way in the game. Again, like much of Tranquility Lane, there are unique events that make you that much more invested.

I'll admit, this isn't one of the first programs I would think to install

Using the revealed computer, you can find out even more about Braun. As it turns out, Tranquility Lane is not the first simulation that Braun has run with the residents of Vault 112. He has gone through multiple simulations and switched when they failed to entertain him anymore, the lane being the third one. However, the real goal is to turn off the failsafe and start a Chinese officer simulation to permanently kill the people of Tranquility Lane so that Braun cannot torture them forever. This is the good karma option here, although there isn’t a truly happy end either way. I like how, through these different paths, you can learn different yet still interesting story bits about Braun and Tranquility Lane. It encourages a lot of exploration and replay with the opposing karma to the first time in order to learn as much as you can. It’s a good way to integrate story into both sides so that anyone can still feel the impact of what happened, no matter what path they choose.

Whichever way you choose to get out of the simulation, Betty will still be in the center area, now standing next to a door that represents the exit. If you fulfilled Braun’s requests, he thanks you for the entertainment, tells you that your father was the dog also present in the park the whole time, and will continue to have fun with the residents of Tranquility Lane. If you deactivated the failsafe, Chinese soldiers will shoot everyone except you, the dog, and Betty. Braun is angry because you have trapped him there alone for all eternity due to his status as overseer, but he also knows he can’t do anything to you due to you overriding the failsafe and still reveals everything you ask him about. Either way, you leave the “perfect” world to go back to the reality that awaits you outside, now including your finally-found dad.

Fallout 3 was a game I enjoyed quite a bit. I liked traversing the Capital Wasteland, exploring locations I found, and finding unique equipment and items all over the place. Despite that, I’d be the first to admit that the game could become very repetitive as many locations looked so similar to one another and were also played through similarly. As such, when I came across Tranquility Lane, I enjoyed it immensely due to its differences to the rest of the game in almost all aspects. The story of the place was cleverly presented, the tone was completely different than the rest of the game and yet fit perfectly, and the options presented to you throughout were unique. Tranquility Lane was anything but tranquil, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Awesome Area Analysis is a weekly column by Robert Heck that talks about great levels from all walks of gaming, exploring how and why they work so well. Look for a new AAA to be posted every Wednesday. Comments, constructive criticisms, and suggestions for other levels to look over are always welcome and always appreciated.