Megaton (Fallout 3)

Megaton is a fictional town in the video game Fallout 3, part of the post-apocalyptic Fallout franchise. Located in the Capital Wasteland, the former Washington metropolitan area, Megaton is a fortified settlement housing dozens of survivors from a devastating nuclear war, constructed out of scrap metal and other scavenged materials. It is roughly situated in McLean, Virginia. Megaton has gained recognition from critics for its visual design, its inhabitants, as well as a quest, The Power of the Atom, involving a dud "C-23 Megaton" nuclear bomb located in the center of town. While the townspeople believe the bomb to be inert, it is revealed that the warhead is still primed. The player may choose to disarm the bomb permanently, or detonate it from the nearby Tenpenny Tower to appease Allistair Tenpenny, an eccentric entrepreneur who wants Megaton destroyed. This moral choice, which can result in Megaton's permanent annihilation and the deaths of most of its residents, proved controversial and led to the game being censored for Japanese audiences, due to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Reception
Megaton's ramshackle appearance and design inspired commentary from critics who were supportive of or opposed to its layout. Drew Toal of The A.V. Club expressed a highly positive view of the town despite its downsides, calling Megaton "one of the better crappy post-apocalypse communities". Comparing it to the Vaults, hermetically sealed bunkers once used to survive the Fallout universe's apocalyptic war, he described life inside them as a "mildly fascistic and sterile existence", noting that their inhabitants "traded their freedom for security". Saying that "the citizens of Megaton have learned to depend on the person next to them to get along", he called Megaton "in many ways [...] the ideal post-apocalyptic neighborhood." Citing the town's inhabitants, including its sheriff Lucas Simms, he says that Megaton "has all the charm of Mayberry, without white picket fences, Little League fields, or trappings of civil society," calling it "downright quaint when considered alongside other end-times groups". He noted that the Megaton bomb would be "empowering" to its residents, suggesting they had nothing more dangerous to fear.

GamesRadar+ also described Megaton as beautiful despite its scrappiness, and believed it was one of the game's single most iconic locations. While calling it the epitome of Fallout 3 's "grand adventure", they nevertheless were not entirely happy with the town, noting their frustrations with its difficult navigation, despite the entirety of it being visible to the player at all times, akin to an amphitheater. G.B. Burford of Kotaku called Megaton "an interesting location, one of plenty in a game loaded with places that have their own personality and flavor," singling out the quest-giver Moira Brown and her "Wasteland Survival Guide" sidequests as "a fantastic way to get an introduction to the world".

The Power of the Atom quest was discussed the most heavily in relation to Megaton, due to the tremendous potential consequences to a town that would otherwise be a player hub. GamesRadar+ called the quest "game-defining", as well as "game-redefining [...] if you live in Japan." Citing the fact that the Japanese ratings board modified the quest so the bomb was permanently defused, the publication called the censorship evidence of the country's "gaping cultural wounds", despite the game having been "voted one of the top ten RPGs ever by readers of Famitsu". Calling the quest "the power of Megaton, which would amount to very little had Bethesda not followed it to its bitter end", GamesRadar+ states that if the player follows through with the quest, "the horrors of the game’s backstory are wrought in realtime on characters you could almost call friends".

The publication states that players often "take back" their choice after "call[ing] the game's bluff"; upon gaining an apartment in Tenpenny Tower as a reward, they kill Allistair Tenpenny and the rest of the tower's residents as revenge, then reload their save, effectively "killing themselves". Asking whether the game has "no real consequence", they ask whether the player would rather have Megaton's destruction be a "permanent feature" or "a nightmare that ends with a quick reboot".

Jade King of TheGamer, in a 2023 retrospective, noted that the quest's decision remained one of gaming's hardest. She stated that, while she "saved the day" in her first playthrough by completely disarming the bomb, she later decided to destroy Megaton, yet felt guilty afterwards in a way that lingered with her for years. Saying that the game was "happy to make clear" how evil the player was afterwards, she cited allowing the player to return to the town as an "irradiated husk".

Robert Purchese of Eurogamer called Megaton one of the best "destructible objects" in gaming, saying that "the main reason the destruction of Megaton has stuck with me" was that "I didn't really have to blow it up". He stated that when he "revisit[ed] the location" and spoke to the only survivor, "a newly ghoulified Moira", he was "confronted by the consequences of my actions".

IGN ranked the nuking of Megaton number 42 in its list of the most unforgettable video game moments of all time, with Brendan Graeber discussing its significance in exploring the consequences of the player's actions in a video game.