A giant a part of any Fallout game is the companions. It will get lonely within the wasteland so having an individual by your aspect to share the post-apocalyptic distress is nice on your well being. Unless they get caught on a chunk of geometry in an space of excessive radiation and you need to watch as a radscorpion smugly scuttles in for the kill. Stress is likely one of the main causes of dying, women and gents.
There have been a lot of memorable Fallout companions over time: from the synth detective Nick Valentine in Fallout Four to Fallout 3’s devoted good boy Dogmeat, and the wounded bartender and veteran John Cassidy in Fallout 4. However, my favorite needs to be Ian, from the primary Fallout game.
Ian is a guard you encounter in Shady Sands. He’s prone to be the primary character you’ll recruit within the game and, as such, ought to function the stick we will measure the remainder of the companions throughout the collection towards. That’s the idea, anyway.
Let’s begin with that title: Ian. Most companions have names that may be barked out, making your mouth kind chopping sounds – a tough ‘k’ or a crunchy ‘ch’. They’re known as Shark, Tycho, and Gretch. By title alone you may mistake these companions for one of many street warriors in Mad Max. Then there’s Ian. Ee-uhn. It’s a reputation that you simply squeeze out sheepishly from the again of your tongue at first, after which it simply flops out on the finish, like a boneless fish.
Ian is just not like the opposite companions, then. And it goes past the title given to him. He’s the primary take a look at product to come back out the manufacturing facility; the damaged prototype, a large number of a person. Indeed, he has grow to be notorious amongst Fallout followers for his propensity for pleasant hearth. The truth {that a} man this dumb has survived the nuclear apocalypse is an insult to everybody who hasn’t. So notoriously moronic is Ian that developer Black Isle Studios later referenced his behaviour in Fallout 2 in a throwaway line. It comes up in dialog with Angela Bishop in case your character’s intelligence is low sufficient.
Rogue warrior
Ian wears a black leather-based jacket and blue denim denims. He was a guard within the Crimson Caravan till he was shot throughout a bandit raid. It’s maybe this brush with dying that gave him his unreasonable confidence.
Yet, regardless of his terrible fight abilities and skill to consistently entice your character in doorways and slender corridors, I discovered myself caring extra about Ian than any of the companions in Fallout 2. This is partly all the way down to my weird fondness for lovable goofs – certain, he’s a strolling travesty, however Ian’s all the time attempting his greatest. What little doubt elevated my affection for Ian is the truth that he can die completely, as with the opposite Fallout 2 companions – which is a function I missed within the current Fallout games.
Due to this, I took it upon myself to attempt to take Ian with me by means of the entire game. If you’re going to undergo the top of the world you could as properly take a liked one with you, proper? This made my playthrough a lot extra dramatic, giving me an precise motive to maintain observe of my allies in battle, and micromanage them one of the best I might. One slip up and Ian can be gone without end (until I loaded up a earlier save).
Getting any companion by means of the whole thing of Fallout 2 is a problem however this goes doubly for Ian. I bumped into hassle with him in a short time. Like I mentioned, Ian is a number of caps in need of a group. Give the person a melee weapon and a gun and he’ll choose the melee possibility as a rule. It doesn’t matter in the event you’re going up towards an unarmed raider or a terrifying Deathclaw – Ian’s buffoonery is aware of no bounds. It’s a ridiculous trait to must take care of and sometimes annoyed me. But it additionally by no means did not make me giggle. The picture of Ian operating as much as a large radioactive beast, armed solely with a knife the scale of a small letter opener, is completely on repeat in my thoughts.
Ian is not only an additional gun on your crew, he has a persona
To be honest, he does generally handle to drag out an honest weapon, however that doesn’t imply you possibly can breathe a sigh of reduction. If this playthrough taught me something it’s that it’s best to by no means underestimate Ian’s means to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. I had one save during which I had labored my means by means of the whole thing of Necropolis to get the water chip, having slaughtered limitless ghouls and mutants to get to the place I wanted to go. All that remained was a single Super Mutant blocking the doorway to the underground vault. Easy, or so I believed.
As we confronted it, within the nook of the display screen I noticed Ian pull out his SMG and reload it, catching myself involuntarily gritting my tooth. There’s a momentary burst of bullets and an explosion of guts. I’m lower in two. The ugly dying animation finishes and I watch as Ian stands over my corpse, stone-faced. Great work, mate.
I did ultimately end the game with Ian alive however not with out making in depth use of save scumming to progress. Never earlier than has a companion given me such a tough time in a Fallout game, and but, that’s what I cherish about Ian. He’s not simply an additional gun on your crew, he has a persona, even when it’s one which frayed the connection between him and my vault dweller. Ian, you’re a idiot, however I’ll always remember the time we spent collectively, even when for half of it I used to be a large number of limbs and blood on the ground.
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