Discover The History Of Lockpicking In The Museum of Mechanics
Video games are chock-full of locked doors and chests, and getting through them—and to the sweet, sweet loot behind them—usually involves some lockpicking. It is, by now, one of the most ubiquitous mechanics in games, particularly across sprawling RPGs: Skyrim has it. Mass Effect has it. Pathlogic also has it. But even something as common as lockpicking can vary greatly across these games, some of which requires you to twist a lockpick around until you hit a specific sweet spot, and others that are so far removed from the reality of lockpicking that they are simply presented as, say, a picture matching puzzle game instead.
Putting together a fascinating virtual exhibition on the various lockpicking mechanics is Museum of Mechanics: Lockpicking, which houses a dizzying variety of lockpicking mechanics across several games and genres, from the original Fallout to Bethesda’s interpretation of the series. Each exhibit also comes with a short description and analysis of each lockpicking mechanism, which makes for a deeply informative visit for those who’re keen to learn more about what goes on, behind the scenes, in game design. At the same time, the Museum also serves as a nostalgia trip for players who have played these games before.
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You’ll soon discover that realism and authenticity aren’t always the impetus to developing a lockpicking minigame, even if there are some similarities across the exhibitions. A steady hand is usually crucial, and one of my favourites was Oblivion’s lock-picking mechanic, which is about tapping the pins of a tumbler gently with a lockpick until they stay up and unlock with a satisfying click. Then there’s Mass
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