Fallout 4 is set in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston is pretty close to Salem, the town famous for the wrongful execution of women who were suspected of being witches. Naturally, Bethesda had to include Salem in some way in Fallout 4 — and they did!
I don’t remember how I heard about the Salem Witchcraft Museum location in Fallout 4. I think maybe a random NPC mentioned it at some point, in passing. I can’t say where, exactly, but what I do know is that one day I was browsing through my map and there it was: the Salem Witchcraft Museum, a location I hadn’t actually discovered yet on my own. With a name like that, I had to visit.
To my surprise, the front door was chained up. There was no way to get in. So I started exploring around the building a bit, and that’s when I found a mangled body right next to the museum:
The body contained a Holotape, which recorded a poor woman’s final moments. Listening to it, you learn that she was a part of a faction called the Gunners. The Gunners were hired to deliver cargo from the woods somewhere to a robot butler in a city, a job that seemed innocuous enough…except they weren’t actually told what the cargo contained. They were just expected to follow orders and to collect the caps when they were done. Along the way, however, the Gunners got wiped out by a monster that, for whatever reason, had been tracking them down for a while. You can probably see where this is going, right?
After Fallout 4 sets up this mystery, I noticed that the dead body was actually right next to a door for the museum’s basement. The Holotape made it clear that whatever devastated the Gunners was also inside the Museum. So I did the most logical, safety-oriented thing I could do there: I went in, too.
I wasn’t expecting any of what Fallout 4 threw at me. I won’t spoil it, but if you’re curious, you can watch me play through this mission below. It’s fantastic:
I really love how unique this mission is. While Fallout 4 has its share of scary moments, this mission in particular is entirely designed to be a horror level. It plays unlike any other mission I’ve experienced in Fallout 4 thus far. It has jump scares. It has ominous sounds. It constantly teases you of the terrors that await you further up ahead. And when you finally see just what is creeping inside the Museum of Witchcraft? It’s a huge HOLY SHIT moment.
I was not prepared at first, and got wrecked almost immediately. I didn’t mind it, though. The payoff was so juicy! Scary, but juicy. I did end up loading up an earlier save, and came back decked in Power Armour to handle the fiend. Hilariously, I did so with the Cryolator, a weapon that I modded so that it looks like I shoot small snowballs at enemies. Heh. Take that, you wasteland demon!
The Salem Witchcraft Museum is actually one of many different frightening moments hidden inside of Fallout 4, and so far, I’m really enjoying their inclusion. You never know when Fallout 4 will surprise you with a horrible creature, or an unexpected, tense encounter. And it feels so right, too: earlier Fallout games could sometimes feel like horror games, and it’s nice to see that make a comeback in Fallout 4. I can’t wait to see what scares the crap out of me next.
Comments
16 responses to “Fallout 4’s Nod To Salem Lives Up To The Terrifying Legend ”
ffs SPOILERS
There’s an old saying around these parts:
“Don’t click any articles about games you’re currently playing or intending to play, it’ll only end in tears”.
I prefer the rebuttal:
“If half the authors weren’t such bloody nutsacks, we wouldn’t have to self impose a media blackout”.
Oh COME ON man…
If you liked that one Patricia, find the Dunwich Borers quarry. It’s another awesome one.
Pretty sure I picked up the location of the museum from a random NPC’s conversation I overheard who was walking around in Diamond City.
Next time though, more spoiler flags Patricia.
I’m just hoping that future DLC have a nod to the imaginery towns of Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich etc. which are all towns from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories and are ”located” near Boston. Mutated frogmen etc. would fit within the Fallout universe quite happily. That would be a hugely scary DLC (or just wait until the FCK editor is released as I’m sure other Lovecraft fans will get the proximity to Boston and make their own expansions).
lol please call the spoilers at the start of the article 🙂 not after you’ve already spoiled a good chunk of the mission 🙂
I personally found the mission boring & disappointing.
First you get slaughtered by the savage deathclaw (which I had to kill with the Cryo gun but it still lived despite being broken apart) & then if you try to return the egg, another deathclaw ambushes you (it’s an automatic trigger if you put the egg in the nest) & you often get killed for no reason.The deathclaw wont attack unless you shoot it first as its a nest guardian and knows that your returning the eggWhat Thyco said.
I got attacked every time without shooting it unfortunately.
Might’ve been Dogmeat’s presence.
If you’re wearing power armor there is a bug with the targeting mod on the helmet (the one that makes enemies glow). Not sure if that happens on this quest but apparently it does make certain things hostile for no apparent reason.
Wasn’t in power armour but whenever I placed the egg in the nest the deathclaw ganked me.
Now I can’t complete the quest no matter what, so no matter.
I didn’t read all of that as I wanna discover it for myself, but as a fan of Boston and most things Stephen King this looks very cool
I find it disturbing your liberal use of the Pip boy light
Hi