Continuing my trek through the capital wasteland of Fallout 3, I finally reached Rivet City last night. As I’d suspected though, getting there was not just a leisurely stroll along the coast.

I set off from the Brotherhood of Steel’s Citadel to take a bridge over the river. Upon approaching the bridge, I spied a raider chilling in some wreckage. I dispatched her, and just as I was about to ascend the collapse end of the bridge, a huge explosion went off. I had no idea what caused it, but was startled enough to stand still and survey the area for any more raiders that might be trying to explode me. It was lucky that I stopped too, because two more explosions followed shortly after, and they were exactly where I would have been had I kept moving. The area was free of any more attackers, so I wrote it off as ghosts and pressed on.

On the other side of the bridge I found a peddler who tried to rip me off and a small encampment of raiders. I relieved them of their heads and proceeded to loot their base.

Moving farther south along the coast, I came upon the Jefferson Memorial, which was fairly heavily guarded by super mutants. These were the garden variety, and it was here that I learned that my combat shotgun was by far my most effective means of dispatching super mutants. This was a great discovery not only because super mutants take way too long to deal with otherwise, but also because by this point I was hauling around well over 600 shotgun shells.

I went the long way around the memorial, and coming up on the entrance to the aircraft carrier known as Rivet City, I noticed a super mutant outpost across the square. Me and my shotgun cleared the mutants out, looted the place, and were even able to rescue a hostage.

Finally reaching Rivet City, I started exploring the ship and meeting the inhabitants. In the science lab I completed one mission by telling some dopey white-collar that I’d found the corpse of an android he’d been hunting. I also picked up a fourth bobblehead for my collection back in Megaton.

While I was there, I also made the mistake of talking to Dr. Li, which sort of broke the game. There’s an achievement for each quest in the game, and my next story-relevant quest was to go to Galaxy News Radio to find my father. The stop after that would be to visit Dr. Li in Rivet City, and since I skipped the GNR bit, the game wrote off the rest of the quest and didn’t give me the achievement. Load game.

I continued exploring the ship, causing trouble and helping the inhabitants as I went. I broke into many locked rooms and computer terminals, but never stole anything. I made a hefty donation to the church to bolster my good karma, and helped a young couple get married. I bought a bunch of ammo and talked to a few people about their problems, but couldn’t find any ways to resolve a few of the situations. Eventually I met the aunt of the orphaned boy that had originally inspired my trek to Rivet City, and she happily agreed to take him in. 330XP. Nice.

Checking the list of unresolved quests on my Pip-Boy, I noticed that I had agreed to enslave a man named Flak who lived in Rivet City. He was one of the local arms dealers, so I figured it would be best to get him alone in his room to capture him with as little fuss as possible. I broke into his quarters and waited in a dark corner for the duration of a day. He never came in, so I figured it was time to try something new.

I snuck into the Rivet City marketplace, and quietly moved into place behind Flak’s stall. He was lounging on a couch, and I was hidden from everyone’s sight in the shadows. I pulled out my mesmetron, which would put him into a submissive state so that I could get him to willingly put on a slave collar. The mesmetron’s blast just made him aggressive at first, and he shot up his partner before going into the stupor I was waiting for. I made my move and collared him, but apparently the other citizens didn’t like that very much, and as Flak ran off to a life of slavery in Paradise Falls, the rest of the Rivet City dwellers pulled out their weapons and proceeded to ventilate me. Load game.

I figured that my business wasn’t something I’d be able to do in a populated area, so I tried following Flak around until he went up to higher deck where nobody else was present. I zapped him with the mesmetron and he turned violent and shot at me for a bit. After dodging his bullets for long enough, he  became passive and I collared him. He ran off to Paradise Falls again, and I waited a bit, double-checking the area to make sure nobody knew what was going on. I left Rivet City, and the guards posted at the entrance apparently had deduced what I’d done and unloaded into me. Load game.

I decided at that point to give up on Flak until I’d completed all of my business at Rivet City. Once there was nothing left for me in the ship it wouldn’t matter if the inhabitants wanted me dead. I left and pursued a new quest that I’d gotten from a mercenary in Underworld: to find and save the rest of her group who were pinned down on a hotel roof.

I’d already found the hospital that was adjacent to the hotel in my prior travels, so getting there wasn’t an issue. The super mutants surrounding the area didn’t put up much of a fight either. I had to get into the hotel via a makeshift bridge from the second floor of the hospital, and that part was quick enough. a Mr. Handy helped me out for a bit, setting all the super mutants and centaurs that got in my way ablaze. Unfortunately, he floated in the way of one of my shotgun blasts and is now lighting super mutants on fire up in robot heaven.

The Statesman Hotel was far more annoying than it needed to be. I battled my way up six or seven floors (I stopped counting after four), and reached the top after an incredibly draining trek. My ammo reserves were eaten up by dozens of super mutant masters, and if the hospital hadn’t been loaded with stimpaks I’d probably be almost out by now. I might even have to go back and search for more later. My new best friend, the combat shotgun, broke about halfway up. That’s been the worst part of it. A combination of my hunting rifle, sawed-off shotgun, and frag mines/grenades don’t work as efficiently as the combat shotgun does.

I sit at the top of the hotel now, the mercenaries I’ve come to help too weary to fight their way back down. They’ve asked me to find a fission battery that they’d seen on the third floor that they can use to repair the hotel’s elevator. I really have no idea how many floors there are in this place, but I’m not looking forward to working my way back down and then all the way back up. I killed every super mutant I met during my first ascension, so hopefully their numbers stay down when I head back in. I’m considering fast-travelling back to Megaton to get my shotgun repaired and then just starting from the hospital again. I’m not sure if this will respawn the super mutants or if my leaving the area will get the mercs killed, but I suppose that’s why there’s a “load game” option.

Either way, I’d better get a boatload of XP for this one.