Fallout 76: Real West Virginia

Reclamation Day ends at Vault 76, and the first quest, First Contact, sends you down the road to Flatwoods. The Overseer has already moved on, leaving a holotape in the church with the Command Post sign; across the street you register as a volunteer with the Responders. It is the first main town in the game, and the Flatwoods monster is part of its folklore. In the real town, the 1952 sighting made the name; the monster's museum is in nearby Sutton and admission is free.

Location precision: The game's Flatwoods stop is the town itself; the pin marks the town centre, where the church and tavern stand.

Visitor guidance: The Flatwoods Monster Museum is in nearby Sutton and is free to enter.

The Responders' trail leads north to Morgantown Airport. In Final Departure you enter the terminal, find the Overseer's cache beside Maria Chavez's body on the upper floor, and listen to the Overseer's log about the Inoculation Project. The answer waits in a hangar marked Medical, at the Responders' laboratory terminal. The real airport is three miles east of Morgantown, with a single 5,199-foot runway, and it has handled passenger flights since Capital Airlines flew DC-3s here in 1949.

Visitor guidance: The airport is three miles east of Morgantown; the quest site is the terminal.

Charleston is where the Fire Breathers put you through their physical exam: you sprint across town to a checkpoint at the Capitol Building with the gold dome, and back before the timer runs out. Later, the Free States quest Coming to Fruition sends you to Sam Blackwell's locked terminal on the third floor. The real Capitol was designed by Cass Gilbert and dedicated in 1932; the building stands 292 feet tall, four and a half feet higher than the one in Washington. Guided tours are available.

Visitor guidance: The Capitol is in Charleston and offers guided tours of the building and complex.

The New River Gorge Bridge is one of the game's biggest pieces of scenery. In Fallout 76 its western maintenance room is locked; the West Bridge Key lies on a body in a broken roller-coaster cart at Camden Park, and behind the door is a suit of power armour. The real bridge is 3,030 feet long, with a 1,700-foot arch and a roadway 876 feet above the New River. It was completed in 1977 and is the centrepiece of Bridge Day.

Visitor guidance: The Park Service visitor centre at the bridge's northern end has overlooks.

Point Pleasant is the Mothman's town, and Fallout 76 makes the creature a central figure: it appears as a variety of mutated creatures that can be hostile or passive. The real town leans into the legend. The Mothman Museum and Research Center opened in 2006, a 12-foot metallic statue by Bob Roach was unveiled in 2003, and the Mothman Festival fills the streets on the third weekend of every September. The museum and statue are both in town.

Visitor guidance: The museum is at 400 Main Street; the Mothman Festival runs the third weekend of September.

Harpers Ferry is the Free States' stop. In Coming to Fruition the Free States send you south down Route 65 to the Armory Access terminal on the south side of town. The real town sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah. In 1859 John Brown raided the federal armory here; the armory was destroyed, and only its fire engine house survives as John Brown's Fort, now moved from its original site. The town is also the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail.

Location precision: The armory was destroyed; its surviving fire engine house, John Brown's Fort, has been moved within the town, so the pin marks its present site.

Visitor guidance: John Brown's Fort and the Appalachian Trail headquarters are in town.

Weston's asylum becomes the game's Fort Defiance, a Brotherhood of Steel base on the border of the Savage Divide and Cranberry Bog. In Defiance Has Fallen you search Camp Venture for its location, then power up the old building to learn what happened to the Brotherhood. The real hospital opened in 1864, was built on the Kirkbride Plan by Richard Snowden Andrews, and closed in 1994. It reopened for tours in 2008; its main building is one of the largest hand-cut stonemasonry buildings in the United States.

Location precision: Fort Defiance is the game's renamed, relocated version of the asylum; the pin marks the real building in Weston.

Visitor guidance: The asylum in Weston has been open for tours since 2008.

The Greenbrier is the model for the Whitespring Resort, right down to the government bunker. In One of Us you enter the Whitespring Bunker on the south side of the resort and meet MODUS, the artificial intelligence who leads the Enclave. The real Greenbrier is a luxury resort in the Allegheny Mountains near White Sulphur Springs, covering 11,000 acres with 710 guest rooms. Its secret bunker, Project Greek Island, was built between 1959 and 1962; its existence became public in 1992, and part of it is open for tours.

Visitor guidance: The Bunker is open for guided tours; the Greenbrier is a working resort.