After completing the first season of the Fallout TV show, it's time to find out about the lore, story and endings in Fallout: New Vegas. Considered by a significant portion of fans to be the best modern Fallout game, New Vegas has been praised for its approach to the series' factions, story and gameplay, and for what some say strikes a good balance between the classic isometric Fallout games and their first-person shooter sequels.
It should be noted that Fallout: New Vegas' unique approach to the world and gameplay is largely due to the fact that Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 were developed by a different studio, and New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, known for games such as The Outer Worlds, Pentiment and the upcoming Avowed. As a result, New Vegas has a significant amount of its own history and backstory that is quite different from other modern Fallout games.
Factions and history of Fallout: New Vegas
While most recent Fallout games have been set on the East Coast, New Vegas is set in the Mojave Desert, in and around the titular New Vegas—a remnant of Las Vegas that, as a result of the nuclear war that defines Fallout's setting, is much better preserved than most of its surroundings. In turn, due to the differences in setting, New Vegas has factions that are completely unique to it, not appearing in any other Fallout game, and the existing factions that do appear differ significantly from their depictions in other entries in the series.
Central to the plot of New Vegas is the ongoing war between two major factions - the New California Republic, or NCR, and Caesar's Legion. NCR, which originated in the first two Fallout games, had become a barely functioning nation by the time of the events of New Vegas, largely mimicking the old world American government structure and attempting to annex the Mojave. Thanks in part to an alliance with the local Desert Rangers, NCR manages to hold onto part of the Mojave, although the game does address problems with bureaucracy.
NCR's main adversary in the region is the Legion, a faction styled after the civilization of Ancient Rome and led by a single dictator, Edward Sallow, or "Caesar." Caesar's Legion, the most obviously evil faction in the game, is formed primarily from the conquered and assimilated remnants of the Wasteland tribes, whose members are either brutally forced into serving the Legion, or enslaved, killed or crucified. Unlike other factions in the game, the Legion is strictly segregated by gender: women in the Legion are treated more like objects than citizens.
Complex relationships between factions
The last major faction in New Vegas is the city of New Vegas itself, or the "New Vegas Free Economic Zone" as leader Robert House calls it. House, the antebellum CEO of RobCo Industries, used his resources to protect and keep himself and Las Vegas and the surrounding area safe from the worst nuclear bombs dropped during the war. By the time of the events of New Vegas, House is trying to maintain the territory as an independent city, ruled by himself and the "Three Families", formed from tribes of the wasteland, who have Securitron robots at their disposal.
The remaining factions of New Vegas play relatively minor roles in the main plot and are mainly revealed through side quests or companions - the Brotherhood of Steel, for example, is present in the Mojave, but the faction was greatly weakened after the battle with NCR. Likewise, the Enclave is virtually non-existent in New Vegas aside from a few former members, and other minor factions such as the Boomers and Great Khans play a smaller role in the main conflict.
History and endings of Fallout: New Vegas
The story of New Vegas begins with the player character, a courier, being shot in the head by a man named Benny for a platinum chip he was tasked with delivering to New Vegas, but miraculously survives and awakens in the small town of Goodsprings. At the beginning of the story, Benny is tracked across the Mojave, which eventually leads the Courier to New Vegas, where they meet with House, who, as it turns out, was the recipient of the delivery, and who instructs the Courier to retrieve the chip from Benny.
To get the chip back, you must either kill Benny in New Vegas or track him to the Legion camp. In any case, the Courier meets with Caesar and discovers House's secret weapon - a bunker under the Legion camp in which securitrons can be produced and upgraded using a platinum chip. Destroying the factory on Caesar's orders or upgrading it with a chip will open paths to several New Vegas endings, allowing the player to side with one of the main factions and gain control of the Mojave.
There are four main endings in Fallout: New Vegas: siding with the NCR, Legion, House, or some other faction, and using Benny's modified "Da Man" Securitron to create a completely independent New Vegas. To achieve either of these endings, you must destroy or gain the support of various minor Mojave factions, including the Brotherhood of Steel, the Boomers, and the Great Khans, and then win the Battle of Hoover Dam for that faction.
Note: In each ending, you will have to deal with some factions differently. For example, House himself must be killed to achieve any ending other than his own, and in order to side with House or Caesar's Legion, the Brotherhood of Steel must be destroyed.
Fallout New Vegas ending explained
In the NCR and Legion endings, the winning faction of the battle takes control of the Mojave and New Vegas strip, essentially driving the opposing faction out of the region. NCR, in case of victory, behaves more diplomatically, negotiating with local communities, but still annexing them. The Legion, on the other hand, takes over territory by force, enslaving many of the inhabitants and becoming even more brutal if Caesar dies or is killed during the events of the game.
In the House and Independent endings, both NCR and the Legion are forced out of the Mojave. In House's case, an army of upgraded Securitrons is mandatory for his ending. House largely maintains the status quo in his ending, taking control of New Vegas but leaving most of the major remaining factions in the Mojave to fend for themselves. The "Independent" ending is the most uncertain: the fate of the now completely independent New Vegas changes depending on the Courier's many actions throughout the game's plot.
Fallout: New Vegas' place in the Fallout timeline
While the ending of Fallout: New Vegas is technically "canon" within the franchise is unknown, it is known that the game takes place in the year 2281, making it the third in the overall Fallout chronology - so far it precedes only Fallout 4 (2287) and Fallout series on Amazon Prime (2296). Notably, the ending of the first season of the Fallout series has interesting implications for events that occur after New Vegas, as NCR's first capital, Shady Sands, was destroyed, and the season ends with a shot of what appears to be a destroyed New Vegas.
| Game/event | Year |
|---|---|
| Bombs falling | 2077 |
| Fallout 76 | 2102 |
| Fallout (the game) | 2161 |
| Fallout 2 | 2241 |
| Fallout 3 | 2277 |
| Fallout: New Vegas | 2281 |
| Fallout 4 | 2287 |
| Fallout (TV series) | 2296 |
Since most modern Fallout titles are set on the opposite side of the country from New Vegas, the Mojave Desert and its surroundings have remained largely untouched by Bethesda, with little development from New Vegas and its predecessor. However, with the revelation that the Fallout series' second season will involve the city of New Vegas and will likely explore the overall state of NCR, it may be time for the events of Fallout: New Vegas to take on greater significance for the wider series.
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