0451 Vault
0451 is a series of easter eggs most likely started by Warren Spector and Looks Glass' System Shock in 1994. It is often believed to be a reference to a book Fahrenheit 451, but according to Warren, its origin is way more basic.
"Many think it's a reference to Fahrenheit 451, but it was actually the key-code to get into the Looking Glass offices in Cambridge."
0451 Vault - Silent Hill 2 (2024)
The Silent Hill 2 remake had a pretty high bar to clear. The original 2001 game is a cult classic, filled with complex narrative elements and not-so-obvious symbolism. The remake not only had to attract a new generation of fans, but also satisfy the vast majority of old ones with new content. Did it succeed? In my opinion, yes.
One of the things it added, however, was a little digital safe puzzle at the motel, where one of the notes hides a well-known combination - 0451.
0451 Vault - Still Wakes the Deep (2024)
Still Wakes the Deep is a horror game developed by The Chinese Room. It’s far from being an immersive sim or even something with hub-like design similar to Amnesia - just a linear game. In the first hour of so of the game, you end up picking a fire-extinguisher and putting out some fires, which gets you an achievement “Fahrenheit 0451” - which woud be probably accidental if it wasn’t for the 0 at the beginning.
0451 Vault - Phantom Fury (2024)
Phantom Fury is a shooter that advertises itself as inspired Half-Life and SiN inspire and while to some extend this is true, it has all of the faults that the other titles of Slipgate Ironworks have. And it features that easter egg - because they implemented keypads ¯\(ツ)/¯
0451 Vault - Shadows of Doubt (2023)
Shadows of Doubt is a first-person detective game with a procedurally generated world and cases to solve. 0451 Easter egg is easy to miss - when you start a PC in the game, it displays command line text. One of them says:
SBL>LOADBOOTTOOLS[0451]>CRUNCH
Crunch? CRUNCH?! Oh no….
0451 Vault - Fortune's Run (2023)
Fortune’s Run is a fast pace first-person shooter mixed with stealth… maybe immersive sim for some (certainly way of im sim than most of the titles that tried to advertise themselves as such in the last year). Whatever you see it as immersive sim or not - it still takes a lot of inspirations from Deus Ex or EYE Divine Cybermancy (per developer’s words) and it just wouldn’t be complete with 0451 put somewhere as an easter egg - here, a classic, which is: Open the door with keypad in a tutorial segment - code is somewhere in the enviroment. Good stuff!
0451 Vault - Weird West (2022)
With recent problems of Arkane, we’ve had yet another situation where veteran devs quit to try something on their own. The result of that is 2022’s Weird West by newly formed WolfEye Studios - a very interesting immersive sim with an isometric camera perspective, which once again features good old 0451 easter egg around 1,5h into the game.
0451 Vault - Redfall (2023)
Redfall is a game made by Arkane Austin - the developers of the fantastic Prey reboot (which wasn’t even supposed to be a reboot) - and is a prime example of what you get when you decide that you don’t really want to have a custom engine, and you don’t want to have a team whose job it is to make sure that the engine can handle the project and what you’re throwing at it, and instead decide to just go with the Unreal Engine, because it is an industry standard and therefore you have a sea of programmers and graphic artists who know how to add stuff to it and who will work for you at significantly lower wages, so you can - in theory - stuff your pockets with all those profits, except… what you end up with is a game with horrible performance (because getting Unreal Engine 4 to work with multithreading requires people who know a thing or two), horrible graphics, brain-dead AI, an empty city that doesn’t give the player any freedom in how they approach their objectives, and that has no understanding of what the fuck an immersive sim is supposed to be, so it just throws 451 references pretty much anywhere it can without a care in the world. Just hollow and soulless.
And since I can’t be bothered, cause clearly something went really wrong with Redfall to a point, where everyone burnt out and could not be bothered eithered - here are some screenshots from Sinnoware that feature lazily put 451 references in this game: https://twitter.com/Sinnoware/status/1653582901529960450
0451 Vault - Atomic Heart (2023)
Coming out from Mundfish - a developer with spotty history, Atomic Heart is a Immersive Sim-lite somewhat similar to Bioshock, which sadly lacks some of the self-awareness in order not to bore the player towards his/her experience with the game. Ironically, this lack of self-awareness carries over to how its 0451 reference was implemented - as in, an in-your-face line right at the beginning of the game, which is imidietly left and abandoned (somewhat like the one in Mafia 3). Oh well.
0451 Vault - Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (2022)
Coming from Eidos Montreal, who previously managed to make 2 great Deus Ex sequels after the further sequels got canceled - Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy also features a 0451 easter egg. This time as a code to a Nova Corps’ security grid, which you enter really early on in the game.
Thanks to kynapse and TrakkDay for reminding me and providing screenshots.
0451 Vault - Filcher (2021)
Filcher is a small Thief-inspired first person stealth game developed by Johan Hjärpe. In one of the later missions, you get to visit our protagonist’s appartment and in it and obtain the equipement in the hiden closet. The code to the closet being 451.
0451 Vault - Deathloop (2021)
While this game by Arcane Studios doesn’t use 0451 code for any of its keypads, trying to input 0451 instead results in achievement being unlocked. Not bad.
0451 Vault - INFRA (2016)
During a visit in ruined dam, when you open one of the watergates, the ceiling starts to collapse. After a poorly explained puzzle involving turning valves and waiting, a screen unlocks with a keypad to enter a code. The code of course ends up being 0451.
0451 Vault - NITE Team 4 (2019)
Found during one of the last training missions in the game. Still personally, I do not recommend this getting hacking adventure game - it’s not very good.
0451 Vault - Half-Life: Alyx (2020)
Sadly I have no other information for context. Sadly.
0451 Vault - Life is Strange: Before the Storm (2017)
Someone at Deck Nine managed to somehow cram this reference into Life is Strange Before the Storm… somehow.
0451 Vault - Clandestine (2015)
This asymmetrical coop and singleplayer stealth game features 0451 reference as a key to one of the doors in first level.
0451 Vault - ATOM RPG: Post-apocalyptic indie game (2018)
This little, but ambitious isometric cRPG also decided to pay a little tribute with this easter egg found in the tutorial of the game.
Also thanks to TrakkDay for info.
0451 Vault - Wolfenstein: Youngblood (2019)
When hunting down Brother 2, you eventually end up using this code.
0451 Vault - Deus Ex Go (2016)
Even this little puzzle tie-in to Deus Ex, had to feature it… of course!
Also thanks Jelmeree for the image.
0451 Vault - Postal 3 (2011)
After landing in jail in Postal 3, the Postal dude ends up having an inmate shirt with “Dude no. 451” written on the back… but fuck that game. No screenshots.
0451 Vault - Mafia 3 (2017)
In an easter egg that pretty much nobody saw coming, in a cutscene related to one of the underbosses we need to kill, he reveals to one of his new goons, that the key to his elevator is 0451. WHAT A TWIST!
0451 Vault - Bioshock 2 (2017)
Highly anticipated sequel to Bioshock, also featured 451 easter egg as a code to the first secured door you can encounter, although reversed to 1540.
0451 Vault - Dishonored 2 (2016)
Just like in first game, this one is also for the safe. This time however, it’s very possible, you can miss the safe it’s for, as it’s a bit off the way. It’s in the building on the left side of a street in the Dunwall Streets level. Code is hidden behind the painting, that you steal.
0451 Vault - Prey (2017)
So reboot of Prey tried in many ways be like Bioshock and System Shock and whilst it was a bit of hit and miss, it did also feature 0451 easter egg.
Also, special shoutouts to 0451 speedrunning team and especially to CoolsVilla for providing the screenshots.
0451 Vault - Dishonored (2012)
Dishonored also features a 451 reference. This code, hidden in sewers leading out of the prision is hidden behind some whisky and opens the first safe in the game.
0451 Vault - System Shock 2 (1999)
Oddly enough, while 451 appeared first in System Shock (1994), people mostly remember it for being in Deus Ex. System Shock 2, being a sequel to System Shock obviously had to have featured it in some form. It’s a bit of a variation on the code, but it’s still good old 451. And it’s even a door code.
0451 Vault - System Shock (1994)
Probably the first instance of 451.
0451 Vault - BioShock (2007)
It’s a spiritual successor to System Shock… or at least it tries to be, so naturally it has to reference 451 - again, as a door code.
0451 Vault - Alien: Isolation (2014)
Creative Assembly also decided to implement that easter egg as a door code.
0451 Vault - Deus Ex Mankind Dividied (2016)
Another Deus Ex, another 451 reference. This time, again - as a first door code ever used.
0451 Vault - Deus Ex The Fall (2013)
Even that crappy game with Deus Ex in the title had used it.
0451 Vault - Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link (2011)
I actually don’t know, if the code mentioned in any pocket secretaries. Doesn’t matter though, as trying it on the very first door is going to open it.
0451 Vault - Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011)
It was a Deus Ex game trying to rekindle love for Deus Ex series, so obviously it had to have 0451 as a first code ever used.
0451 Vault - Deus Ex Invisible War (2003)
This may be the worst of Deus Exs, but it did have 451 reference as well. Our protagonist’s appartement number is 451.
0451 Vault - Deus Ex (2000)
I’d say the game that started the easter egg series, but that’d be a lie, as there have been many games featuring 451 as we will see in the future. We do know however, it’s directly inspired by Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.