History TearJerker / Fallout3

* Escaping from Vault 101. You see several people you grew up with killed by radroaches or security guards, some of whom were genuinely kind to you including a young couple who just wanted to live their own lives but get gunned down. Then some of the guards attack you, and you're forced yourself to kill people you grew up with. After this you're dumped out into the wilderness by yourself.

* Returning to Vault 101 in ''3'' and rescuing its inhabitants from the new draconian Overseer, only to be told that because you killed him you have to leave, never to return, ''by the character's childhood friend and possibly sweetheart'' is almost too much. Even if you convince him to give up peacefully, she still kicks you out. As a little bit of meta-text, talking either side down doesn't end the quest yet. The final mission objective reads "Leave Vault 101 forever".

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* If you kill Overseer Alphonse Almodovar while escaping from Vault 101 then his daughter Amata, your childhood friend, is horrified and calls you a murderer. What really makes this hurt is that you really might have had no choice; in one of his dialogue options Overseer Alphonse [[spoiler: asks you to turn over your weapons. If you do he attacks you, [[KillingInSelfDefense forcing you to kill him with your fists in order to survive that encounter]].]]

** After returning to Vault 101, when you find Freddie Gomez with the other rebels, he may be wiping his eyes, like he's crying. If he's talked to, he'll reveal that [[spoiler: Paul Hannon, the only kid besides Amata who was kind to the Lone Wanderer, died from an infected Radroach bite. What's worse is that Jonas could easily have treated him.]] Thanks, Overseer!

* The very sad BackgroundMusic that plays when you wander the wasteland; it almost makes you wish something will attack you so the confrontation score kicks in (or you could just use the radio). Even worse than that, though, is [[spoiler:the bit with the player's father. Damn, just damn. You have to do so much just to see him again after you leave the vault, and on top of that, he dies soon afterward.]]
* [[spoiler:Liberty Prime's death. "I DIE...SO THAT DEMOCRACY...MAY...LIVE."]] Made slightly better when you realize that [[spoiler:the Brotherhood of Steel are working to rebuild him.]] It will take decades to do it, but someday [[spoiler:Liberty Prime shall walk alongside humanity once again]].
** [[spoiler:Well, more along the lines of a single decade, as Liberty Prime is back in Fallout 4 to aid a Brotherhood-aligned Sole Survivor.]]

* Going back to the Disaster Relief Station in the Point Lookout DLC after getting the Krivbeknih and finding that [[spoiler: Marcella, the humble, goodhearted missionary you just met barely a few days ago, was murdered while you were gone]]. The ending of the audio recording you find with her, where she tearfully begs God for forgiveness even as she's [[spoiler: bleeding to death]], is just twisting the knife.

* Telling President Eden to [[spoiler: self-destruct using his override command]] can be quite jarring, even if he's a genocidal villain. Here he invited you to his office has been nothing but polite towards you, even answering your questions and offering assistance, and you perform what amounts to a PsychicAssistedSuicide to him. The tone of his reply is a mixture of surprise and desperation as he has no choice but to ''comply''.

* The Pitt expansion storyline in a nutshell. At first, it seems like a larger-scale version of what you can do at Paradise Falls. [[spoiler: It turns out to be MUCH more complicated and there's no absolutely good ending. Either a kid ends up with no parents and surrounded by people who only want her for a genetic anomaly, or you leave tens of dozens of people to slowly die of both abuse and sickness. It's enough to make one wish for the time when morality in the game was as simple as killing Amata's dad or not.]]

* Talking President Eden into destroying the Enclave at Raven Rock. As you flee the base and watch the security robots vaporize the Enclave soldiers, the background music turns into something that sounded like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn_iz8z2AGw "Taps"]]. Makes you wonder if those people under the armor were just [[PunchClockVillain Punch Clock Villains]].

* The very sad background music that plays when you wander the wasteland; it almost makes you wish something will attack you so the confrontation score kicks in (or you could just use the radio). Even worse than that, though, is [[spoiler:the bit with the player's father. Damn, just damn. You have to do so much just to see him again after you leave the vault, and on top of that, he dies soon afterward.]]

* Escaping from Vault 101. You see several people you grew up with killed by radroaches or security guards, some of whom were genuinely kind to you. Then some of the guards attack you, and you're forced yourself to kill people you grew up with. After this you're dumped out into the wilderness by yourself.

* If you kill Overseer Alphonse Almodovar while escaping from Vault 101 then his daughter Amata, your childhood friend, is horrified and calls you a murderer. What really makes this hurt is that you really might have had no choice; in one of his dialogue options Overseer Alphonse [[spoiler: asks you to turn over your weapons. If you do he attacks you, [[KillingInSelfDefense forcing you to kill him with your firsts in order to survive that encounter]].]]

* The log entries of the nurse in Germantown. Even up to the very end, running out of medication and dying of acute radiation exposure, she and her colleagues still went out every day and did everything they could for their patients, even if all they could offer was whiskey and painkillers. Her last log details her dismay that she couldn't have been the last to die, as she knew there were still people out there that needed care.

* Returning to Vault 101 in ''3'' and rescuing its inhabitants from the new draconian Overseer, only to be told that because I'd killed him I'd have to leave, never to return, ''by the character's childhood friend and possibly sweetheart'' is almost too much. Even if you convince him to give up peacefully, she still kicks you out. As a little bit of meta-text, talking either side down doesn't end the quest yet. The final mission objective reads "Leave Vault 101 forever".

** The luck bobblehead says "Dead mother, life in a post-nuclear Wasteland and not a friend in it. Yeah, you aren’t exactly blessed."

* The bobbleheads in **Point Lookout** do a great job at detailing the Lone Wanderer's inner turmoils. Two in particular stand out.

** Bonus: In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', you find [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Wasteland_Survival_Guide_(Fallout%3A_New_Vegas) the Guide]]. Not only did it get published, but it's so good it permanently raises your Survival skill. A CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming if there ever was one.

** Even worse, if you don't help Moira complete the quest properly, Three Dog will completely bash Moira's book and call it the most useless piece of dangerous trash ever. Moira's dream is forever ruined, and it's all your fault.
** Here's one for VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can talk Moira into not writing the book at all, which gives you the Dream Crusher perk. Moira also stops being cheery if you take this path.

** ''New Vegas'' implies that something like this ''did'' occur. Dr Whitley, the kindhearted creator of E-D-E was one of the personnel working at Adams Air Force Base in 2277 and is mentioned as being utterly devastated when Autumn cruelly ordered that his Eyebot "children" be [[KickTheDog scrapped and melted]] down into Hellfire armour. While his fate is unknown, it's speculated he most likely [[ButForMeItWasTuesday died at]] [[YouMonster the hands]] of the Lone Wanderer.

* You can come across a note in the Statesman Hotel called "A note from Little Moonbeam's father," where you hear a man asking his daughter to forgive him for dying on her, surrounded by super mutants because of a deal gone awry. The girl is actually Sydney, who is now a mercenary that can be a temporary companion for when you go relic-hunting. When you probe her about her dad, she mentions her hatred of him for abandoning her. [[VideogameCaringPotential At least until you let her listen to the note.]]

* Some of the audio and computer logs left in the Vaults are a little hard to read. They beg and plead for someone to come and save them, but you are two centuries too late to help.

* Also in Fallout 3, after returning to Vault 101. When you find Freddie Gomez with the other rebels, he may be wiping his eyes, like he's crying. If he's talked to, he'll reveal that [[spoiler: Paul Hannon, the only kid besides Amata who was kind to the Lone Wanderer, died from an infected Radroach bite. What's worse is that Jonas could easily have treated him.]] Thanks, Overseer!

* Take a look at your dad's computer before going to the GOAT exam. Turns out one of Butch's friends and fellow bullies, Freddie Gomez, has Vault Depressive Syndrome. Symptoms include lethargy, anxiety, and low self-esteem, and James notes that when Freddie has the energy to actually be active, he's a bully to try and hide what he's going through. The recommended Vault-Tec solution is medication, but James fears he'll be on it the rest of his life. If there was ever a way to get you to sympathize with a bully, this is surely it.

* Sort of FridgeLogic, but talking to people in Rivet City tells you that Trinnie, "loose" alcoholic, came from Lamplight. After running the Big Trouble in Big Town quest and realizing just how unprepared Lamplighters are when they're forced to leave, it kind of makes you wonder if bright, mature Lucy or adorable little Bumble could wind up like Trinnie someday.

** And as a final jerk of the tearducts, the last visual is a photo of the Lone Wanderer as a child with his father, while the music box from the tutorial sequence plays.