Vault 92 was officially opened with the intention of keeping art alive in a post-apocalyptic world, with the country’s greatest artistic talents invited to become residents. In reality, the vault was created with a far more nefarious reason in mind. White noise generators were scattered throughout the vault, implanting subliminal messages in the minds of the vault dwellers. These messages were intended to turn the residents into super soldiers, who would be totally obedient and fight with added ferocity. According to recordings found by the player in Fallout 3, one resident began demonstrating intense aggression, ultimately tearing apart three people before being taken down by over 20 gunshots. Despite the vault’s Overseer being initially happy with these results, half of the population quickly became similarly unstable and uncontrollable, with predictably
Vault 34 came with a large number of recreational amenities, including a swimming pool, as well as an overstocked armoury. However, this was at the expense of living space, leading to the facility becoming quickly overpopulated. Many residents soon began demanding access to the weapons in the armoury, but were denied by the Overseer. In the ensuing riots, a group of dwellers were able to escape, resulting in the entrance being fully sealed. Soon though, it emerged that radioactive gases had been leaking in due to infrastructure damage, and the vault door was now inoperable. With no means of escape, the remaining inhabitants were all either killed, or became feral ghouls. Ironically, Vault 34 dweller Chris Haversham left the facility after incorrectly believing he had been turned into a ghoul due to his work maintaining the reactor. It was due to his vacancy that the reactor malfunctioned, and turned the vault into a radiation-filled nightmare.
Vault 108 had a number of bizarre oddities that took place within its walls. Most notably, the vault contained a cloning facility, along with the usual amenities. However, there was also an elaborate experiment that led to a total collapse of the vault’s population. The first Overseer of Vault 108 went into the vault knowing that he was expected to die within 40 months of entering the facility. The experiment was researching conflict for leadership, and as such no authority positions were assigned to the general residents of the vault. On top of this, the power supply was intended to fail after 240 months, no entertainment was given, and there was an excessively stocked armoury. The cloning experiments also quickly got out of hand, with each clone having an extremely violent temperament towards non-clones. By the time the player reaches the vault, only clones are left alive inside. Eerily, each clone can only say one word. Gaaaary?
One of the more memorable locations from Fallout 3, Vault 112 was a small facility that housed virtual reality pods. The pods were designed to suspend the 85 inhabitants in a virtual utopia until the vault’s opening. However, thanks to the actions of Overseer Stanislaus Braun, this was sadly not the case. Braun became mad with power, gaining something of a god complex. By the time the player reaches Vault 112, the inhabitants have become Braun’s playthings, trapped in an endless, sadistic virtual cycle. Rather than allowing everyone to live in a perfect utopia, as originally planned, Braun took total control over the simulations. Creepily taking on the persona of a little girl named Betty, Braun has been psychologically torturing his fellow residents, before wiping the virtual worlds and booting up new ones. The player is able to permanently kill the dwellers to free them from the nightmare, and also has the option of trapping Braun in his simulations, alone forever.
Vault 12 was a huge facility, able to support over a thousand residents. It was also one of the best stocked of all the vaults, with an abundance of amenities, both recreational and practical. Unfortunately for the inhabitants though, the door was never closed fully. Thanks to the lack of a sealed entrance, the entire vault was exposed to the outside world. This not only meant that the insides became weathered and unreliable, but also that the inhabitants were slowly exposed to radiation. Vault 12 was also forced into by outsiders after they realised the door wasn’t sealed, leading to extensive overpopulation. Despite being relatively unaffected by the explosive blasts themselves, the residents of the vault succumbed to the creeping radiation, turning them into ghouls. Ultimately, this led to the founding of the ghoul-town Necropolis, an important location in the original Fallout game.
Vault 22 was designed to be an experiment on self-sufficiency, with a focus on plants keeping the facility’s population alive. However, while initially successful, there were some gruesome side effects that later marked the vault as a place to avoid at all costs. The plants released fungus spores, which infected many of the inhabitants. This led to the fungus taking over the body, killing the host and becoming a deadly, humanoid creature called a Spore Carrier. These Spore Carriers initially appeared as normal humans, who would walk around spraying spores and infecting further victims. However, they soon took on a more plant-like appearance, with a ferocity matching that of the feral ghouls. Vault 22 was all but abandoned by the remaining survivors, and the vault is surrounded by dozens of warning messages. Horrifically, the player can come across a number of very small Spore Carriers, suggesting that many of the victims were babies and infants.
Vault 106 was another facility that was constructed with a specific experiment in mind. This time, it was with regards to psychoactive drugs, and their effect on an enclosed community. 10 days after the Vault was closed, vaporous hallucinative drugs were continuously pumped into the air. The Overseer assured the population that there was no problem, and the facility swiftly descended into insanity. When the player encounters the vault, there are still drugs being pumped through the filtration system, causing strange hallucinations. There are still some vault residents still alive, though they are totally mad, and attack the player on sight. The drugs in the air can also be thanked for this delightful poem, discovered near the Overseer’s office: Scribbledy bibbledy hoodelly hoo. Wing wang bricka bang choo choo choo. Upsideup popsicle tastes like blue Ghosts in the hall go boo boo boo!
Vault 77 never appeared in any of the games, instead being featured in the official Fallout webcomic series. While many of the other vault experiments involved overpopulation and crowding, Vault 77 was inhabited by just one man. For months, the man bashed on the vault door, assuming that more vault dwellers were on their way. Soon, he discovered that he had been left a crate of puppets, which he later gave names and personalities. Becoming quite mad due to the prolonged isolation, he invented a whole life based around the puppets, even becoming embroiled in a murder mystery involving the ‘death’ of one puppet. Eventually, the Vault 77 dweller managed to escape, and entered the wilderness. After being captured by slavers, he managed to kill both of them while wearing a ‘vault boy’ puppet, earning him the ‘Puppet Man’ nickname.
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