Across the entirety of the Fallout series, there have been a number of standout quests both marked and unmarked that have received widespread fan acclaim. Whether it's Beyond the Beef in Fallout: New Vegas or Fallout 4's Kid in a Fridge, the franchise is loaded with great questlines. Although to be fair, that last quest, Kid in a Fridge, isn't one of those by any stretch of the imagination.
In fact, its one of several quests that, for one reason or another, has become the focus of significant fan ire. See, alongside some of those great quests there's a litany of frustrating and even flat out bad questlines throughout the 25-year-old franchise, as one could imagine. Here is a list of just some of the less than stellar ones one can find when playing Fallout.
8 Best Left Forgotten - Fallout 4
Best Left Forgotten is perhaps the best possible name for this quest because all anybody wants to do after completing it is forget it exists. The only thing more frustrating about trying to complete this quest is trying to think up a reason as to why Bethesda might have thought it was a good idea to put one like it in a Fallout game in the first place.
It's tedious, everything looks the same, it bugs out somewhat often, and on top of all that it's simply out of place in a game that fancies itself an open world RPG. It's no wonder that there are several mods that allow the player to skip it entirely.
7 Those! - Fallout 3
The problem with Those! as a quest has less to do with its concept than its execution. It begins the same way every time; little Brian Wilkes (who really isn't that little by the way) will randomly run up to the player begging for them to save his father from fire breathing ants.
The player has next to no freedom in how the quest plays out until the end, at which point the player is given a set of binary choices; either kill the ant queen or don't, and either give Brian Wilkes a home or sell him into slavery at Paradise Falls. None of these choices are particularly compelling from a practical or moral standpoint.
6 Hidden Valley Computer Virus - Fallout: New Vegas
As far as unmarked quests in New Vegas go, this is definitely one of the worst. Never mind the fact that there literally is no need for the player to juggle multiple computers at once to catch a virus when the Brotherhood could just spare a few scribes to assist, the quest is quite simply the epitome of janky.
There's no real way for the player to strategically complete this quest because the virus jumps between computers randomly. There is also practically zero reward for doing so besides gaining access to the Hidden Valley database, which means very little in the grand scheme of things.
5 Hole In The Wall - Fallout 4
What makes Hole In The Wall so annoying is that as the player navigates the secret vault, getting bitten by one of the infected mole rats will permanently poison the player and reduce their max health more and more with each bite. The player can only cure this effect if they essentially sacrifice one of the infected children at the end of the quest, which most players are just not going to do for a variety of reasons.
There is also a bug where companions and even non-hostile robots getting attacked by the mole rats will result in the player getting infected even if they weren't touched.
4 Trouble On The Home Front - Fallout 3
Trouble On The Home Front would be a much better quest if it didn't resign itself to being a rather hollow reference to the ending of Fallout 1. The set-up is actually pretty great, with the player receiving an SOS from their former home after they've escaped and after consequences of their choices during the introduction have set in. The problem is that even if the player is able to find the best solution for everyone, they still get kicked out because for arbitrary reasons.
This is a reference to the ending of Fallout 1 in which the Vault Dweller is kicked out of Vault 13 because he was fundamentally changed by the wasteland. In Fallout 3, this reasoning is completely absent.
3 The Moon Comes Over The Tower - Fallout: New Vegas
This quest isn't so much annoying to complete as it is just pointless and a waste of time. The only thing the player has to do is bug Mr. House's network and then collect their reward. The bug doesn't work for very long, however, and the entire operation ends up being a wash no matter what. Sure the Player can get a few extra medical supplies and a meager EXP reward, but by this point in the game neither of which are really worth all that much.
Admittedly, if the quest was unmarked this would be less of a waste because the player could simply ignore it even after talking to Emily Ortal, and it wouldn't remain incomplete in the Pipboy quest log.
2 Minute Men Radiant Quests - Fallout 4
The Minute Men faction's radiant quests given out by Preston Garvey have become something of a meme within the Fallout community and beyond. These radiant quests consist of Preston telling the player that a settlement needs their help, tasking them with going to a random settlement and fending off an attack of some kind. That's it.
These quests go on ad infinitum with almost zero variation between them and nothing of value gained each time. They almost feel antithetical to the very concept of a quest because normally a quest can be completed, whereas these repeat forever.
1 Kid In A Fridge - Fallout 4
Few quests in Fallout 4 have received as much infamy as Kid in a Fridge. At face value it's easy to see why, however, as the idea of a kid being locked in a fridge for over 200 years without a single person helping them out is rather silly, especially considering the fact that he shows no signs of psychological trauma after being in isolation for that long. Add onto this the fact that the kid's parents are only a short distance from said fridge and have made next to zero effort to go out and look for him.
The other issue that has longtime fans so miffed is that makes the absurd claim that ghouls can live for 200 years without food or water, something that directly contradicts not only previous Fallout games, but Fallout 4's own settlement system.