"....their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the LORD will be among them.
Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand."
Zech 14:12-13

Your first reaction to seeing an article about a computer game on this site might be one of incredulity. That would probably be my reaction as well, but it would be tempered with curiosity. My reason for writing this article will unfold as you read. I have an interest in computer games that came into being back in the '80s when I acquired a Commodore 64. Now obviously there is much more to a computer than game-playing, but the development of computer games has been fascinating to observe, from both a technical and creative standpoint. In 1987, the computer game

Interplay, the creator of the FO games, describes the first game this way: "Set in the aftermath of a world-wide nuclear war, Fallout will challenge you to survive in an unknown and dangerous world. You will take the role of a Vault-dweller, a person who has grown up in a secluded, underground survival Vault. Circumstances arise that force you to go Outside -- to a strange world 80 years after the end of the modern civilization. A world of mutants, radiation, gangs and violence. Your immediate task is to find a replacement for the broken water purification controller chip. Without that chip, your fellow Vault dwellers are doomed to dehydration or be forced to leave the safety of the Vault for the Outside." After a well-done explanatory prelude the story picks up when The Overseer (the stubborn old man who runs the vault) asks you to go out and find a new water chip. He estimates that you have about 150 days before the remaining water supplies run out. You are then sent out into a harsh world to find the water chip before the people in your vault perish.

There are honest people

and there are dishonest people.

You can choose to ignore them, work with or for them, or against them. It is assumed that you will of course obey the Overseer of the Vault and find the needed water chip replacement. But you don't even have to do that - you can let the people in the vault perish purposely or by your carelessness. You can be a hero or a villain. The game of course has its surprises. The ending will come as a surprise. But what is perhaps the biggest surprise about this game is how very true to life it is. Perhaps even more true to life than its creators intended. As is stated on my page, God's Impending Judgment of America, it is expected that the USA will undergo nuclear attack and subsequent invasion by foreign powers. I am saying this with great sadness - but with a great deal of certainty. The creators of FO scrupulously detailed certain aspects of post nuclear reality, and in so doing perhaps inadvertently laid bare the very nature of mankind.

As was stated, the Vault-dweller's initial instructions are to find a water chip and return with it to the Vault before the people in the Vault expire. During his search for the chip the Vault-dweller learns some very bad news.

He meets Harold, a mutant who suffered severe exposure to radiation, and Harold tells him an unexpected story of horror. Then during his quest the Vault-dweller uncovers information concerning a "secret" military base that is producing an army of "super-mutants" that - with the guidance of a "master" - are to dominate the world and eventually replace humans. After he finds the water chip and returns with it to the Vault, there is of course momentary elation that the inhabitants have all been saved. But when the Overseer asks the Vault-dweller to give a full report of what he has encountered in the outside world, and then studies it, he has a predictable reaction to what he finds.

The Vault-dweller then receives a second set of orders: to find and destroy both the "master" and the army base lab that is producing the super-mutant army. The Vault-dweller's reply is, "Once more into the breach, my friend."

As the Vault-dweller continues exploring, he uncovers evidence of scientific research and experimentation of a nature that would have made Baron Frankenstein extremely envious. The research began with the purpose of countering the effects of biological weapons of the enemy by altering "uninfected DNA so that it was no longer susceptible to viral infection." But as many times happens with experimentation, there were "unforseen side effects....Animal test subjects began showing an abnormal growth rate accompanied by increased brain activity." The project was renamed FEV - Forced Evolutionary Virus project.

At the military base of which the mutant Harold had told him, the Vault-dweller ran into the "Master's" trusted Lieutenant:

Would you think of this being as "an urbane and well-educated college professor" or "evil incarnate?" Actually, he does sound like the former though he certainly is the latter. In fact, he is really quite charming - in a gruesome sort of way. He is also the source of much information and will answer the Vault-dweller's questions even if it takes all night. Because he knows that the Vault-dweller is in his hands now, and will tell him the location of Vault 13 before he is "dipped" in the vats. Or will he? (Personally, I enjoyed talking with this monster - though later I found myself stripped of all my inventory and on the wrong side of a locked cell door. Nevertheless, I had quite an interesting adventure working my way out of that situation, killing the Lieutenant and fighting my way out of the base after instructing the computer to destroy it.)

The Lieutenant calls the base "the great procreator" where they "make others of the master race and insure the Unity. It's all quite glorious." But he's aware of a "slight...problem in the reproductive process." The FEV virus was made to "create the perfect man," and the success is "plainly seen...The Master has been the first to truly utilize the FEV to its full potential...We are the future." Civilization is in a "steady downhill slide" and "the Super Mutant is the next advancement in human evolution." To save the world "all worthy individuals must be converted...Like you I was a slug, wallowing in the mud before being exposed to FEV and undergoing my glorious transformation...We are highly intelligent and immune to disease. The strong survive! It is our goal to improve the human race."

What is amazing to me is that creators of FO treat this as evil, when clearly so much of "science" and the rest of the world has treated it (and still is) as good. Oh, excuse me, I forgot we were just talking about a "game" here - or are we?

The vats have now been destroyed, so the mutant threat has been halted. But we must next visit the "Master." He is the guy who started it all and must be also eliminated, or he might do it again. Actually, for the purposes of this article, he's not of that much interest. There is more than one way of destroying him, including setting off a nuclear bomb he has conveniently had placed on the level under him. Of greatest interest is talking with him and telling him of the one critically fatal flaw his project has. The Lieutenant mentioned it. But if you visited the Brotherhood of Steel on your way here, you probably have scientific evidence of it and can present it to the Master and watch him literally explode. From a safe distance of course. He's nice enough to give you that chance.

The Master's concern is for "Unity," to bring about the "master race...As long as there are differences, we will tear ourselves apart fighting each other. We need one race...One people." But the Vault-dweller understands that means the mutants, of course. "Of course. Mutants are best equipped to deal with the world today. Who else?"

Yes of course. The mutants. Well, folks, here's where "the rubber really meets the road." I could go into a lengthy discourse about who the "mutants" really are in our society. There's a lot of material here to give a lengthy scholarely or spiritual (or both) discourse on that subject. However, I'll let a simple illustration from a well-known book and movie suffice. The movie version of Oscar Wilde's book The Picture of Dorian Gray told the story of a profligate man who literally sold his soul to the devil in exchange for a youthful appearance and the promise that a painting of him would instead grow old. As it turned out, the painting reflected the extent of his profligacy - as he grew older, the uglier it became. In the end, he could stand it no more and in trying to destroy the painting he met his own destruction.

What is the application here? Very simply, man without God is profligate. Society without God is also, and subject to God's judgment. In the game of FO, the Mutants represent what is actually in the heart of man in our society today here in America. Look at the leadership of this country, many of whom are responsible for the sickness of America's soul. The sickness of the American people. The sickness of profligacy. Behold Dorian Gray:

And what about FO2?

Much could be written about the power struggles that the descendent of the Vault-dweller encounters as he seeks to fulfill his assigned mission. It is enough to say here that these "power struggles" are patterned after real life though they are in a "game" setting: the same people who were originally reponsible for creating the mutants suddenly become "shocked" and blame the victims for what their progenitors had done. The victims were responsible ("guilty"), not the perpetrators. Sound familiar? Can you imagine Baron Frankenstein blaming his creation for being who he was? Or Dr. Jekyll blaming Mr. Hyde and excusing himself? "Rationalization" is the correct label for it, and it applies to each of us who refuses to acknowledge our sin before God. We each of us are responsible for our actions, accountable to God first and each other and society secondly. I find the FO games to be amazing in the truths they point out - whether intentionally or not - about mankind.