The average player probably spends an hour in Fallout 3 simply creating a character. Speedrunner Rydou on the other hand manages to blaze through the entirety of the game in an astounding 18 minutes and 53 seconds. God damn.
Those of you that saw our previous coverage of Fallout 3 āany percentageā speedruns know that they make ample use of clipping through the world, as well as dialogue skips via quick saving and then quick loading. āEverytime you quickload, the collision detection doesnāt work during something like 10 frames, allowing me to clip through objects and walls,ā Rydou explained on Reddit.
There is also a ton of ārunning the hell away from everythingā in this run. This isnāt how most people would play Falloutāexperiencing the story and engaging in combat is a part of the funābut, speedruns are a testament to how far people can push the game. You need a deep understanding of what makes Fallout 3 tick for this sort of playthrough, and that in of itself can be its own reward. Plus, itās kind of hilarious to watch Super Mutants or terrifying enemies with mini-guns run impotently after a person that has the god-like ability to walk through walls. Suckers!
The previous world record was also held by Rydou, and that run clocked in at 18:57. You can check out the Fallout 3 speedrun leaderboard here, if youād like. Worth noting that the clock starts running when the gameās first āautosaveā is available, not during the character creation portion/the cutscene where the player is born. The run is considered complete immediately after the player successfully enters the code in the final level of the game. You can read the rest of the rules for this category of Fallout 3 speedruns here.
