Vault-Tec forms a major part of any Fallout game, giving the franchise its iconic narrative start points and providing a chance for the team at Bethesda to get creative with the horrors they could throw at players. The Vaults were originally pitched as a safe place from an inevitable nuclear apocalypse, prompting widespread trust in Vault-Tec.

But little did these people know that the Vaults were simply ground zero for extensive psychological and social experiments and their inhabitants merely test subjects. Indeed, it is many of these experiments that gave rise to iconic locations across several installments of the franchise and are quite significant to the main narrative in a lot of them.

Chills, Literal Chills

Like their live-action counterparts, things in Fallout’s Vaults were never really designed for safety in any manner, despite their promotional billboards. Their unfortunate inhabitants would never know what was in store for them when they entered them, thinking themselves safe from the world outside. But Vault-Tec had other ideas.

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Each Vault was designed to study its inhabitants in some form, often with little to no regard for their actual safety. Vault-Tec certainly pulled off the biggest lie that humanity could ever encounter over the history of the franchise.

Let’s dive right into some of the most horrifying Vaults of the Fallout games:

7. Vault 87

In Fallout 3, the Capital Wasteland hosts some interesting enemies, like Super Mutants and Centaurs, that the player must fight during their playthrough. It is Vault 87 that is responsible for these creatures. The inhabitants of the vault were exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Viruses (FEV), with the lucky ones succumbing to it early.

As for the rest, it is up to your character to put them out of their mercy.

6. Vault 111

Seen in Fallout 4, Vault 111 experimented with putting its inhabitants in suspended animation for Vault-Tec to study the effects of cryopreservation on the human body. Inhabitants of the Vault were put into cryo-pods, being told the lie that it was simply for decontamination.

Yet, as systems failed over time, and supplies dwindled, it is only the Sole Survivor left in the Vault, the horror of events before their stasis fresh in their memory. The remaining inhabitants are reported to have died by asphyxiation as their life support systems failed, as ordered by the Vault’s Overseer.

The events of Fallout 4 ensue, however you like them to play out.

5. Vault 12

One of the Vaults from the original Fallout game, this one was designed to fail from the very start with its malfunctioning blast door designed to allow radiation into the Vault over time. Its former inhabitants were tricked into claiming it as a safe spot, gradually turning into ghouls as the radiation took its toll. All for the sake of Vault-Tec wanting to know more about what the radiation could do to human beings.

All of the ensuing strife that followed, and the rise of differing ghoul factions, can be attributed to that single experiment – and the door that never closed.

Interestingly, it is these events that led to the establishment of Necropolis city, which ghouls called home.

4. Vault 19

Things get really disturbing from here. Vault 19’s primary purpose was a social and psychological experiment. It divided its inhabitants into two groups, assigning them either red or blue as a color. Vault-Tec’s scientist then used subliminal messaging and triggering stimuli to make the two groups distrust each other over time, and studied data from the ensuing conflict.

Logs and other lore from the area point to that conflict ending very violently indeed.

3. Vault 112

Think The Matrix, but Morpheus is really a madman. Run by a man who was once a pioneer in psychology, Vault 112 is a tragic showcase of Dr. Stanislaus Braun’s fall from grace. His oversight saw the Vault’s inhabitants placed in suspended animation while he put them through physical and phychological torutre through VR and technology.

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Vault 112 is a part of Fallout 3‘s story and you may even find yourself helping the doctor conduct his gruesome business.

2. Vault 101

The Vault that was never meant to be opened. Vault 101 forms a major part of Fallout 3‘s main story, designed to study the effects of a human society under the total control of a single overseer. A disturbing experiment into totalitarian regimes notwithstanding, the Vault’s tumultuous history is a showcase of the experiment’s effects on many of its inhabitants over the years.

“Born in the Vault, live in the Vault, die in the Vault” takes on a whole new meaning, and this was certainly one Vault that stands out from the others.

1. Vault 95

Originally touted as a safe haven for those with substance abuse problems and psychological trauma, Vault 95 did indeed help them on their way to recovery. However, these unfortunate people were not there to be tested on how they could readjust to the world later on.

Five years on, a Vault-Tex agent “found” a hidden stash of drugs, exposing everyone to their former addictions to devastating effects. What’s worse, these poor souls were indeed able to cope without relying on substances, a fact that’s commented on by the Vault-Tec agent in communication logs.

And that’s some of the most horrifying Vaults you can find in the Fallout games. They could make Vault 4 from the TV show look tame in comparison.

Stay tuned for more on Fallout, and the latest games around!