History NightmareFuel / Fallout4

** Oh, and lest you think you'll just get used to the horror once you've cleared the ghouls out? The miners skimped on supports for the mine to cut costs, so the mine's constantly rumbling like it's going to collapse on you at any second.

--> '''X6-88:''' [[FridgeHorror I have used some of these techniques before.]]

* When you enter Back Street Apparel, you can eavesdrop on a pair of Raiders swapping stories. One of them tells of a new recruit they got, an 18-year old kid, and when she tried to light a fire at night, he panicked and knocked the match from her hand, before explaining he's afraid of fire. She consoled him and told him it was fine. That night they got the kid drunk, and once they were passed out, they got seven old mattresses, tied six of them together with him on the seventh mattress in the middle. They lit up the ring of mattresses and pushed it into the river, and then threw rocks until the kid woke up -- on a soggy mattress in the middle of the river surrounded by fire with no idea how he got there. The Raider finishes the story with the dark summation "he didn't know how to swim."

** The Insane Asylum is creepy enough as you descend towards the basement. Some rooms are completely dark. One ward is completely is in this darkness and a bunch of monkeys sit on the floor and a bed surrounding a plain suitcase.
* Speaking of the Parsons State Insane Asylum, when you descend to the lower levels of the asylum proper, there are cells with one skeleton each. One cell has "Help Me" spelled out on the floor with pieces of chalk. The walls have question marks on them, as if the resident was trying to figure out which one was the weakest in a possible breakout attempt. Implying that when the great explosion happened, the asylum residents were left in their cells to slowly starve to death, or die of radiation poisoning. It sounds like the same-old same-old of what happened to the rest of the world... Until you remember that Jack Cabot, the administrator, was still alive. He was still keeping his father in the administrative building, still harvesting his blood for his family's serum. So Jack was there at the asylum, knew his residents were still in their cells, and ''let them'' starve to death. He could have at least let them out to [[DownerEnding die in freedom]].
** Some of the patient notes are down right terrifying as well. Special mention goes to Bobby Smith a patient who cheerfully admits to having killed several people, and continually laughs during his stay in the asylum's isolation ward, with only Bach's Toccata and Fegue in D Minor silencing him. [[EnfantTerrible All before his tenth birthday]].

* The [[GiantEnemyCrab Mirelurks]] enemies also got some pretty radical changes. They're rarely bipedal anymore, instead looking a lot more realistic and sometimes different kinds of crustaceans as well. Oh and say on your adventures you see some sort of shrine that has a Mirelurk Egg on it, and you say to yourself ''[[SchmuckBait might as well pick it up]]'', you'll soon find yourself [[JumpScare suddenly getting attacked]] by a Mirelurk King, and while they no longer have the UncannyValley face they did in 3 or New Vegas, they do look like a fish man from an Creator/HPLovecraft book. They also attack extremely aggressively and scream like a banshee when using their sonic attack. To say nothing of the Mirelurk Queens, which are ridiculously huge. With the right dialogue choices during the quest "Retaking the Castle", you can ask what happened to it. Preston says that a giant monster that came out of the sea. Considering the Dunwich Borers and other Lovecraftian references, you might think it's just a cheap Cthulhu reference and you just have to clear the Castle of Mirelurks. You quickly learn it's not. After a bit of time destroying egg clutches and Mirelurks, you feel a rumble and hear this freakish roar. As it turns out, the Queen isn't too happy with you doing this, as the three story behemoth rises out of the ocean to confront your party herself. Oh, and if you think you can be smart and lob missiles or nukes at her from a distance? She'll ignore everyone else and make a beeline for ''you'', wherever you're firing from.
** If you have ostraconophobia (fear of shellfish), for all that is sacred, do NOT go to Nahant. There's hordes of Mirelurks of all kinds and its eastern shore has a massive nest nearly as big as the Castle's.

* If Nick Valentine's with you when the ''Prydwen'' makes its appearance, thus signalling the Brotherhood of Steel's full-fledged arrival, he'll quote a line from Edgar Allan Poe. Which goes to show his shock, given how this was the ''last'' thing he expected to see.

*** One is the sealed off FEV Labs, where the Super Mutant Serum was likely created before being unleashed upon post-apocalyptic America. No matter which way you enter, the result is the same: a room full of broken tech, non triggered traps, an [[KillerRobot Assaultron]], dead Super Mutant subjects with dead cats, and finally a room with Super Mutants in what look like [[PeopleJars stasis tubes]]. Are they alive? Are they dead? One thing's for sure: you're gonna wanna grab that cure for Virgil and get the hell out, ASAP.

* Continuing the never ending march of horrors that are the Vaults, Vault 95 is both this and a TearJerker. The Vault was intentionally filled with alcoholics and drug addicts. They were allowed to elect their Overseer, and most of their days were filled with therapy, and other forms of treatment. Vault-Tec even installed brand new technology to help people get clean. After five years, the Vault was clean, happy, and stable. That's when Vault-Tec's mole within the vault unlocked and revealed a huge stash of hidden chems, most of it ''Psycho.'' All just to see how people would react. Sadly, the vault rioted and even those with the most willpower gave into temptation or violence. The place collapsed within days.
** To make matters worst, the detox chair where you cure Cait of her addiction looks more like something from a torture scene. The addict sits down underneath a painfully bright lamp, the wrists are secured as a set of machines insert needles into the addict's neck and apparently suck out the toxin. As demonstrated in Cait's personal quest, the procedure is ''very'' painful.

** Perhaps the most horrifying one is the Miller family radio signal out of Big John's Salvage. It's a repeating call for help from the husband/father of the family, explaining that the generator powering the ventilation system for their vacuum sealed, underground bunker died, they were running out of oxygen, and they couldn't open the hatch. The message ends with the father trying to keep his daughter calm, and giving her breathing instructions. When you finally find and enter the bunker, there are no notes or terminal entries needed, the scene itself makes things crystal clear. Two child-sized mounds of dirt with toys on top of each, and a male and female skeleton curled up, spooning, on the mattress on the floor.
** Another incredibly chilling one is from a train car south of Oberland Station. You hear this pre-recorded message from a panicking mother and her son Thomas who took shelter in an overturned train car after being chased by ''[[NothingIsScarier something]]''. The mother pleads for help for her son because he's injured, and then the creature manages to [[OhCrap open the door]] and she shrieks in pure terror for her boy to make a run for it. When you open up the train carriage you see a skeleton and a train car full of blood, and [[UncertainDoom no sign of Thomas]]. The voice actress really nailed the terror of a [[AdultFear parent who's child is in danger]]. Just listen to it [[https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Distress_signal_(Relay_tower_1DL-109) here]].

* Ever played VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas on Hardcore Mode at the highest difficulty (including DLC)? How the game increases the realism factor with aspects such as the addition of a food/water/sleep meter, permanent companions' death, and ammo having weight? We ask this because Fallout 4's Survival Mode makes playing the former look like child's play and arguably better simulates what it would realistically be like surviving the Wasteland and how bleak and terrifying it can be traversing a world where one wrong move can either quickly or gradually kill you if you don't prepare yourself accordingly. Even with some usually armor, there will be points where even a low-level Raider can kill you quickly with just a few bullets if your guard is down. Think you can conserve ammo by meleeing a group of [[TheGoomba Radroachs and Mole Rats?]] Maybe if you like the risk of getting sick from diseases that can drastically hurt your stats or even kill you if you don't treat it soon. You're in a situation where you're very hungry or thirsty can the only food you have is uncooked meat or dirty water? And you're miles away from a cooking station? There's no fast traveling in Survival Mode, so you have to gauge the risk of eating and drinking your unprepared supplies or risk getting closer to starvation, dehydration, or getting killed by a random enemy on your way to a cooking station. Oh, and forget about SaveScumming, in Survival Mode you only save by going to bed, so death can set you back greatly if you're too reckless and aren't constantly keeping an eye out for beds you can use. Survival Mode, all in all, is the epitome of EarlyGameHell.

** You can loot the Bloatflies glands and use them to craft "Bloatfly larva syringes" that you can shoot at enemies with the Syringer to inflict this on them. When they die they explode and release a full-grown adult Bloatfly.
* The player can be this to raiders, if they are skilled enough in stealth. You can kill one of their buddes, dissapear into the shadows, and if you are not detected but have killed a few more in the interm and lose their aggro, they become noticably spooked, especially if none of then got a good look at you.

* What's scarier than a brutish [[TheBrute super mutant]] sprinting towards you at top speed? A ''[[SuicideAttack suicide bomber]]'' super mutant sprinting towards you at top speed. Here's hoping you can shoot down the massive threat before it explodes into an appropriately massive explosion.

* When you enter Back Street Apparel, you can eavesdrop on a pair of Raiders swapping stories. One of them tells of a new recruit they got, an 18-year old kid, and when she tried to light a fire at night, he panicked and knocked the match from her hand, before explaining he's afraid of fire. She consoled him and told him it was fine. That night they got the kid drunk, and once they were passed out they got seven old mattresses, tied six of them together with him on the seventh mattress in the middle. They lit up the ring of mattresses and pushed it into the river, and then threw rocks until the kid woke up -- on a soggy mattress in the middle of the river surrounded by fire with no idea how he got there. The Raider finishes the story with the dark summation "he didn't know how to swim."
* Every once in a while, you might find a group of super mutants leaving a building in the middle of nowhere. No big deal, on the surface, but if you investigate you'll find a group of dead settlers, obviously the victims of the mutant war-band.

* One of the new mutant critters, glimpsed in the E3 demo, is the [[BloodyMurder Bloodbug]], a ''giant mosquito.'' It's introduced sticking its enormous proboscis into the protagonist's chest. ''In first person.''. the Cazadores of New Vegas fame ''wish'' they could reach this level of pants-soiling.

** At the very bottom of that watery pit? The metallic, half-obscured face of a ''metal giant.'' [[NothingIsScarier With absolutely no information about it.]]

** As the anchorman reads off the sudden report, you can ''hear'' the [[DespairEventHorizon hope draining out of him]] like a deflating balloon - ''struggling'' to not only maintain a professional demeanor, but ''process the fact that America is officially destroyed.''

* The entirety of the [[BleakLevel Glowing Sea]], the game's answer to the Courier's Mile. Located to the south/southwest of Boston, like its name suggests, the place is extremely radioactive (though not actually a "sea") and has a SicklyGreenGlow, the sky is blocked out by radiation clouds and lightning storms (making visibility absolutely awful) there's no vegetation, just a barren wasteland, and it's ''filled'' with [[SarcasmMode really friendly]] [[DemonicSpiders creatures]] such as Deathclaws, Feral Ghoul Reavers, Red Widow Bloodbugs, Radscorpions, and others. It is this way because that's where the Boston area was hit by the atom bomb during the Great War. There are buried towns and structures and wreckage, ranging from churches and factories to a Super Duper Mart. Basically, it's an absolutely hellish and terrifying experience. The whole area feels like an alien world and did we mention that you need to go through a ''huge'' stretch of that hellhole for a storyline quest? [[BadNewsInAGoodWay There's some good news, though]] -- [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth you won't find any Super Mutants there]]. Except for the one friendly guy. For maximum effect, be sure to wear a hazmat suit or Power Armor (they raise your Rad Resistance so high you'll usually only take fractions per second.) Turning the entire trip into a serene walk with little risk of radiation death [[NothingIsScarier makes it even worse.]]

** In an old parking garage just to the west of the Milton General Hospital, you can find a maze that seems ripped from a horror movie. While the maze itself is relatively straightforward, back-ends contain surprises like human bodies strung up on chains, a Christmas tree with a surprise turret underneath, a room full of mannequins that are oriented to look at you as you enter, and another room FULL of the monkey dolls, which are all timed to go off at once. Brrrrrr. Who the hell set all that up?

* Even Vault 111 has some twisted undertones. It says a lot about Vault-Tec (and ultimately, the Enclave) that the Vault itself had only about six months' worth of supplies. That in addition to the cryogenic experiment's parameters, those tasked with overseeing said experiment were told to wait for an All-Clear signal from Vault-Tec before they could leave the Vault for remote observation, under the presumption that the main office would rescue them. As the All-Clear never came and everyone else aside from the Sole Survivor, the spouse, and Shaun died either from cryogenic failure or armed infighting, it just highlights how much the whole Vault was never intended to save anyone, even those meant to ensure that everything went smoothly. They were all expendable, to the point that the research team was only allowed to intervene and save one of the frozen residents if ''eighty percent of the population had already died in cryogenic suspension,'' and even then they couldn't thaw them out.

* The [[GiantEnemyCrab Mirelurks]] enemies also got some pretty radical changes. They're rarely bipedal anymore, instead looking a lot more realistic and sometimes different kinds of crustaceans as well. Oh and say on your adventures you see some sort of shrine that has a Mirelurk Egg on it, and you say to yourself ''[[SchmuckBait might as well pick it up]]'', you'll soon find yourself [[JumpScare suddenly getting attacked]] by a Mirelurk King, and while they no longer have the UncannyValley face they did in 3 or New Vegas, they do look like a fish man from an Creator/HPLovecraft book. They also attack extremely aggressively and scream like a banshee when using their sonic attack. To say nothing of the Mirelurk Queens, which are ridiculously huge. With the right dialogue choices during the quest "Retaking the Castle", you can ask what happened to it. Preston says that a giant monster that came out of the sea. Considering the Dunwich Borers and other Lovecraftian references, you might think it's just a cheap Cthulhu reference and you just have to clear the Castle of Mirelurks. You quickly learn it's not. After a bit of time destroying egg clutches and Mirelurks, you feel a rumble and hear this freakish roar. As it turns out, the Queen isn't too happy with you doing this, as the three storey behemoth rises out of the ocean to confront your party herself. Oh, and if you think you can be smart and lob missiles or nukes at her from a distance? She'll ignore everyone else and make a beeline for ''you'', wherever you're firing from.

* Even though only one bomb hit Boston (as opposed to the absolute ''carpet-bombing'' that Washington DC received), it was apparently a pretty hefty bomb, as it left an enormous jagged crater behind, buried the nearby town under ash and soot and left enough ambient radiation in the area to make traversing the area difficult 210 years after.

** The robotics facility. Out there, in the center of the room, is the "factory" that produces synths. You get to see what is essentially assembly-line production of fully formed human beings, starting with the nervous system, then the bones, then the muscle, and only then the flesh, with occasional dips into a vat of biomass that looks like a giant pool of blood. Even if you've taken their side, you might find yourself avoiding that room when possible.

** Speaking of the institute and their treatment of Synths, Nick Valentine's whole existence is nightmare fuel if you think about it. Upon gaining enough affinity with him you find out he has the mind, personality and memories of a pre-war detective who's brain was scanned in attempt to treat PTSD. From Nick's point of view, he went into hospital to get mental help after the murder of his fiance and woke up in a dumpster 200 years later in a body that isn't human and a world that's been ravaged by atomic war.

* [=HalluciGen Inc=] manages to somehow make Pre-War America even more disturbing. How much ? They used dangerous, hallucination-inducing gas on protestors. Said gas could cause "catastrophic adrenal failure." To make it nightmarish, when you arrive you will notice a few Gunners' bodies all around the entrance, then hear shots, wondering if they're fighting monsters, raiders, Super Mutants, etc. Nope. A whole team of Gunners, usually smart and organized, are actually turned into wild Raider-style freaks, busy killing each other while giggling madly, spouting some rather psychotic-sounding lines, or saying sadly that they're hearing voices, and asking for it to stop. Some are locked up in cells, like the guinea pigs that [=HalluciGen Inc=] used Pre-War for psychological torture under drugs, while selected guests were watching them getting gassed from the comfort of a viewing booth. Terminals will explain you that it was all official, to make citizens more passive.

* You can visit a school where you'll find evidence that the teacher arranged to have his students take mentats in the hopes of raising their grades. As terrible as a principal hooking his students on drugs is, the worse part is this: You can find evidence that his drug pusher got wise, thanks to those mentats, and tried to blackmail the principal. The evidence implies that the principal murdered that student, and hid it.

* In just another horrible example of how the Great War screwed up the earth's ecosystem, you can find the bodies of mutated sea creatures on the shoreline. [[UncannyValley They look a bit...]] [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Sea_creature?file=FO4-dolphin-whale-render.png off.]] The coasts of New England are home to a surprising number of great whites, so these could be mutant sharks, but there's no gills and the tail fins are horizontal rather than vertical. But if that's supposed to be a dolphin, it looks like a throwback to their ancestors like Basilosaurus or Dorudontinae, creatures with oversized, conical teeth for ripping apart flesh. And then you have to wonder, what tore up the corpses like that? Mirelurks, or land-based scavengers? [[ParanoiaFuel What else is swimming around down there?]]
** A random conversation you can come across between some caravan workers in Bunker Hill has one of them recall an old story her grandfather told her of his encounter with a gigantic, ghoulified blue whale. According to the story, it did nothing but surface and submerge, but the sight of it was enough to make her fearless grandfather [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere flee for the first time in his life]].

* In the southernmost part of the map, you can find a GINORMOUS swamp that just seems to fulfill every [[SwampsAreEvil "creepy haunted swamp"]] trope ever imagined: dark water that can pool suddenly to over your head, clumps of reeds that block vision, stands of dead trees as far as the eye can see, etc. On certain nights, fog can even sweep in and prevent you from seeing more than 20 feet in front of you, something the Mirelurks and Ghouls are sure to enjoy. But, it is just a swamp, right? Nothing special? Well, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3hsiwe/the_deep_swamp_lands_in_fallout_4_as_stated_by/ according to players from the area that post on Reddit]], that swamp could very well be nothing more than the "Hockomock Swamp", a well-known area in the region for paranormal activity. Seriously, plug the name into your favorite search engine and read up on the history. In Colonial times, the area was known as "The Devil's Swamp", and... "weird" sightings continue to the present day. Enjoy your trip.

* One small but plot-relevant location is Listening Post Bravo, a little pre-War underground bunker. The terminal there has log entries from an Army sergeant assigned to the one-man station for a four-week stint, monitoring for suspicious radio signals. One day he picks up a garbled but audible message including the phrases "internal void," "dreams are getting darker" and "blood runs so still" from the enigmatic callsign "D.E.K."[[note]]It's a little less creepy when you learn it's a ShoutOut to Music/{{Katatonia}} and their album ''Dead End Kings''[[/note]]. He sends the recording off to Washington in hopes that someone will be able to figure out what the hell is going on, but gets no response. A week later he's woken up by something banging on the access elevator door for an hour straight, even though all the systems report that it's been locked down since he got there -- so he can do nothing but activate the automated defenses on the surface, clutch his rifle, and wait for the noise to stop. A few days after that, Washington finally reports back to say that the tape with the "mysterious transmission" he sent them turned out to be blank, and sure enough when he checks his copies he can't hear anything either. Did the sergeant GoMadFromTheIsolation like his bosses suggested, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane or is something stranger at work?]]

*** The Mr. Handies in the island's Oceanological Center reveal that the percentage of oceanic life in Earth has increased from 70% to ''97%'' after updating their database. This means that even after 210 years of recovery, the amount of life in the planet's surface is still a tenth of what it used to be.

** Even worse, you'll frequently find them just lying on the ground seemingly dead. Then once you get close enough, they spring up from their false slumber to ambush you with the sheer surprise of it leaving you defenseless.

* Ever played VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas on Hardcore Mode at the highest difficulty (including DLC)? How the game increases the realism factor with aspects such as the addition of a food/water/sleep meter, permanent companions' death, and ammo having weight? We ask this because Fallout 4's Survival Mode makes playing the former look like child's play and arguably better simulates what it would realistically be like surviving the Wasteland and how bleak and terrifying it can be traversing a world where one wrong move can either quickly or gradually kill you if you don't prepare yourself accordingly. Even with some usually armor, there will be points where even a low-level Raider can kill you quickly with just a few bullets if your guard is down. Think you can conserve ammo by meleeing a group of [[TheGoomba Radroachs and Mole Rats?]] maybe if you like the risk of getting sick from diseases that can drastically hurt your stats or even kill you if you don't treat it soon. You in a situation where you're very hungry or thirsty can the only food you have is uncooked meat or dirty water? and you're miles away from a cooking station? There's no fast traveling in Survival Mode, so you have to gauge the risk of eating and drinking your unprepared supplies or risk getting closer to starvation, dehydration, or getting killed by a random enemy on your way to a cooking station. Oh, and forget about SaveScumming, in Survival Mode you only save by going to bed, so death can set you back greatly if you're too reckless and aren't constantly keeping an eye out for beds you can use. Survival Mode, all in all, is the epitome of EarlyGameHell.
* The story of Kim Wu, whose terminals you find in the Pearwood Residences and Natick Banks, is this mixed with {{Tearjerker}}. When China invaded Alaska, Sinophobia swept through America like wildfire. Kim, a very young Chinese-American boy, wrote about many of his experiences during that time, [[ChildrenAreInnocent but clearly didn't understand what was really going on]]. When he and his mother were out shopping for Halloween costumes, an angry mob destroyed the Paifang that marked the entrance to their neighborhood. Later on, the police began searching for Chinese-American residents, rounding them up and loading them onto a bus. Kim and his mother managed to hide from them, but his aunt Song was later taken. When asked where she went, his father explained that Song was taken to a camp, but not a fun one for kids. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Yeah.]] And while Kim and his family successfully avoided being taken to such a camp, they were stranded in Natick Banks when the Great War commenced.

** [[NothingIsScarier Little about the dungeon is ever outright explained]], but you can piece things together from the site's terminal logs and the flashbacks. Evidently, the company management had something in mind beyond a simple dig, and was trying to conceal the nature of the project from its workers. They also wanted all their employees to come in for a company picnic. The final flashback shows someone in the temple chamber preaching, surrounded by a crowd of kneeling civilians -- and they're not kneeling in prayer, their hands are tied behind their backs. The implication is that the company was made up of cultists, possibly even an early Children of Atom, praying for a nuclear apocalypse or worshiping the giant underneath Boston.

* There needs to be some special mention of the new redesign of the [[BearsAreBadNews Yao Guai]]. Introduced in Fallout 3 and reappeared in New Vegas ''Honest Hearts'' DLC, these were essentially mutated, and possibly ''ghoulified'' black bears. Although being absolutely ''terrifying'' looking, they didn't really scream 'bear' so much. Fallout 4 is correcting this in [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the worst way possible]] by making them very realistic looking bears. That are giant. ''And mutant''. The SPECIAL videos add a new layer of horror. A Yao is shown to lick the player's face, which then burns off like it was spashed with acid. Yes, even a friendly Yao is life-threatening.

* Since the Main Game is set in Massachusetts and the horror from Fallout 4 and [[VideoGame Fallout 3]] are references/based on H.P. Lovecraft, and Far Harbor is set in Maine, home to the one and only Stephen King, how about horrors like that out of a Stephen King novel anybody?

* There needs to be some special mention of the new redesign of the [[BearsAreBadNews Yao Guai]]. Introduced in Fallout 3 and reappeared in New Vegas ''Honest Hearts'' DLC, these were essentially mutated, and possibly ''ghoulified'' black bears. Although being absolutely ''terrifying'' looking, they didn't really scream 'bear' so much. Fallout 4 is correcting this in [[RealityEnsues the worst way possible]] by making them very realistic looking bears. That are giant. ''And mutant''. The SPECIAL videos add a new layer of horror. A Yao is shown to lick the player's face, which then burns off like it was spashed with acid. Yes, even a friendly Yao is life-threatening.

** Even the "painted ghouls" are pretty creepy. What's even creepier is that Oswald the Outrageous meticulously paints these feral ghoul "friends" of his

** Browsing terminals at the Institute, you may stumble across one detailling advances in Gen-3 fighting abilities stating that ''the combatant can actually visualize the percentage of effectively hitting targets'' and improved perception that ''mimics the effect of slowing, or even stopping, time''. Sounds like V.A.T.S. mode - and if you know that you can access V.A.T.S. prior to getting the PipBoy ... it sure makes you think.

* The story of Kim Wu, whose terminals you find in the Pearwood Residences and Natick Banks, is this mixed with {{Tearjerker}}. When China invaded Alaska, Sinophobia swept through America like wildfire. Kim, a very young Chinese-American boy, wrote about many of his experiences during that time, [[ChildrenAreInnocent but clearly didn't understand what was really going on]]. When he and his mother were out shopping for Halloween costumes, an angry mod destroyed the Paifang that marked the entrance to their neighborhood. Later on, the police began searching for Chinese-American residents, rounding them up and loading them onto a bus. Kim and his mother managed to hide from them, but his aunt Song was later taken. When asked where she went, his father explained that Song was taken to a camp, but not a fun one for kids. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Yeah.]] And while Kim and his family successfully avoided being taken to such a camp, they were stranded in Natick Banks when the Great War commenced.

* Bloatflies tend to be TheGoombah, and even their higher level variants are relatively weak. But that thing they're shooting at you? It's their ''[[WeaponizedOffspring offspring]]''. Their larva [[BodyHorror embeds itself]] in human or animal flesh and later hatches. Thankfully thank to GameplayAndStorySegregation this doesn't happen to you, but if you switch to third person you will see an ''enormous'' maggot embedded in your character and wriggling!

** The ferals in the Suffolk County Charter School are worse. Unlike most ghouls, who are decomposed or pale, they're bright pink, and [[FullFrontalAssault most aren't wearing clothes]] (fortunately, they have BarbieDollAnatomy). Terminals inside the school say that to receive government funding, the school administration agreed to test out a "Nutrient Alternative Paste" in place of regular food; and in fact would confiscate any regular food students brought in. Teachers said it increased student misbehavior... and their skin took on a weird pink color...]] Adding to this terror is that the ghouls' inventory ''all'' have some kind of toy. The creatures are feral, yet retain enough of their previous selves to hang on to their favorite toy.

* One of the game's additions to the franchise is that any enemy, not just ghouls, can become irradiated enough to become a Glowing One. This means that you can and will come across a Glowing Deathclaw. They start spawning at low levels, have high health, and deal radiation damage to boot. Enjoy!

*** And of course there's Kellogg's lovely line he says after killing your husband: "At least we still have the backup...." He says it regardless of your gender, but the....[[BabyFactory implications]] when addressing a female Survivor are quite a bit darker in hindsight.

** There's a random encounter of a wandering group of ghouls with the names of your neighbors that weren't admitted to the Vault, meaning that they survived only to succumb to radiation poisoning.

** The way the other Vault dwellers died. Trapped in an airless metal coffin to asphyxiate to death. This is made worse by the fact that while exploring Kellogg's memories you discover that Kellogg and the Institute scientists with him thawed everyone out and were only ordered to refreeze the Sole Survivor meaning that ''they were probably conscious up until they ran out of oxygen, pounding desperately at the doors of the cryopods in an attempt to escape.''
*** Once you reach the the Memory Den and play through Kellogg's memories, you find out... that's ''exactly'' how they died. For whatever insane reason, Kellogg had only been ordered to refreeze the "backup", and left everyone else to die.

* One of the game's additions to the franchise is that any enemy, not just ghouls, can become irradiated enough to become a Glowing One. This means that you can and will come across Glowing Deathclaw. They start spawning at low levels, have high health, and deal radiation damage to boot. Enjoy!

** Like the Super Mutants, Ferals have been given a makeover to be even more horrifying. Instead of the shriveled, zombie look they sported in ''Fallout 3'' and ''New Vegas'', Feral Ghouls now look like misshapen, hunchbacked, tumorous mutants. If you look closely, you can see that some ghouls have [[NauseaFuel different levels of decomposition]]. They also have different genders, and somehow, that additional human quality just [[UncannyValley makes them even more unsettling.]] Even the way they move is disturbing, a realistic shambling, staggering sprint that incidentally makes them a bitch to hit as they rush you. Oh, and they can crawl through [[DangerousWindows windows]] [[ThereWasADoor and ceilings]] to come at you, or make a diving charge that a [[VideoGame/Left4Dead Hunter]] would appreciate.
** Your first time encounters could seem like a horror movie. Imagine going to a cabin at night where it appears to have a group of survivors. Then as you approach you hear growling and suddenly one ghoul rushes you and the rest chases you as you try to gain distance and shoot them.

** A random encounter exists in the game, whereupon you come across a brood of named feral ghouls. Specifically, the names of your neighbors who didn't make it to the safety of the Vault.
** There's also the Forest Grove Marsh. A seemingly-empty, flooded town with nothing in sight initially, save for a mutated fern you can get for Solomon... then the ferals start waking up, and soon there will be around 20 of them coming for you. The rooftops aren't safe either -- their pathfinding is good enough to get you from almost anywhere over there!

* Think the [[ApocalypticLog Keller family tapes]] from ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' were creepy? Particularly, Candace's tape in which you [[NothingIsScarier hear]] the exact moment the nukes hit? In Fallout 4 you'll experience the [[SarcasmMode joy]] of ''seeing the nuke hit and go off right in front of your eyes while you're powerless to do anything but watch as the air-burst wave rapidly approaches.'' In the ''prologue.'' And as the elevator drops you into the vault at an agonizingly slow pace, the blast wave sweeps overhead with an orchestral sting whose violins sound like nothing less than the screams of the damned. Sweet dreams!

** The soldiers, having to control entry to the vault, never have an opportunity to seek shelter themselves, for that matter. When you reach the surface, you can find skeletons in military fatigues still littering the area 200 years later. It's likely the only survivors from the squad were the two men in power armor. A scenario that really isn't that much better if you take a moment to think about it for two reasons. First, they were in the middle of a nuclear holocaust, right as it ravaged the environment and killed everyone in front of them with all the trauma that brings. Second...what do they do now? They're the only people we see in the intro wearing power armor. Their colleagues are dead, they have no transport and they're now in a ravaged hellhole landscape, bathed in radiation.

* Seeing the group of civilians at the entrance being refused entry from the vault by a group of power-armor wearing soldiers. Even the Vault-tec representative who reserved your place in the vault is refused entry. It takes a soldier revving up his minigun on him to make him stop begging.

** To put it into perspective: It's late October, you're talking with your spouse, possibly about going to park, maybe preparing for Halloween...and then you turn to the TV and see the news on. The anchor looks nervous..no, ''frightened.'' And then he says those words that cause your heart to drop into your stomach: "Nuclear Detonations." For the next few moments you don't hear anything else he says, instead just hoping, ''praying'' that music will play and the anchor will admit that it's all just a joke, a cruel prank pulled by the news station. But then outside, the sirens go off. It's really happening...TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

** The soldiers, having to control entry to the vault, never have an opportunity to seek shelter themselves, for that matter. When you reach the surface, you can find skeletons in military fatigues still littering the area 200 years later. It's likely the only survivors from the squad were the two men in power armor. A scenario that really isn't that much better if you take a moment to think about it for two reasons. First, they were in the middle of a nuclear holocaust, right as it ravaged the environment and killed everyone in front of them. Second...what do they do now? They're the only people we see in the intro wearing power armor. Their colleagues are dead, they have no transport and they're now in a ravaged hellhole landscape, bathed in radiation.

* The fact that the facility was taken over and run by the U.S. Army becomes a lot more disturbing when you consider that Nate, the male [[PlayerCharacter Sole Survivor]], was a soldier. Not only was he alive while this facility was operational, it's possible may have ''known'' people who were working in this place.

*** Epsilon-VI Security Alert: This one is in place in case of [[AIIsACrapshoot a mass uprising of the robot janitorial staff]]. Like with Gamma-IX, terminals will be shut down and defenses will activate, along with the Control Center entering an automated lockdown state. From there, employees are to hunker down and arm themselves while the Military Robotics Oversight Committee decides how to respond within ten business days. In other words, this involves being stuck in an underground facility with rogue robots for up to two weeks while a group of bureaucrats decide how best to handle the situation. ''And this is the one protocol that was initiated before the war.''