Fallout: New Vegas is a 2010 action role-playing game created by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It takes place in the Mojave Desert 204 years after a nuclear war. The player controls a courier who survives an assassination attempt and becomes involved in a conflict between different groups fighting for control of the region. The game includes a large world that players can explore freely, and players can fight using many types of weapons. Players can also talk to non-player characters through choices in conversations, and these choices affect their reputation with different groups.
After Fallout 3 was released in 2008, Bethesda asked Obsidian to create a spin-off game in the Fallout series. The developers chose Las Vegas, Nevada, and the surrounding Mojave Desert as the setting because it reminded people of 1950s imagery from the series and the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max. The project director, Josh Sawyer, wanted the story to focus on greed and excess, and used the history of Las Vegas as inspiration. To create the game’s map, Obsidian used data from the United States Geological Survey and photographs taken by Sawyer. Bethesda gave Obsidian 18 months to develop New Vegas, which many journalists said was a very short time to make a high-quality game.
Fallout: New Vegas was a commercial success and sold about 11.6 million copies worldwide. Critics praised the game’s writing and quests but noted that it did not change gameplay much compared to Fallout 3. Some also criticized the many glitches in the game when it first launched. Six downloadable content packs were released, including four story-based add-ons that added new areas for players to explore. Since its release, fans and journalists have reconsidered New Vegas and now regard it as one of the best games in the Fallout series and one of the greatest video games ever made.
Gameplay
Fallout: New Vegas is an action role-playing game that can be played from a first-person or third-person viewpoint. It takes place in the Mojave Desert, 204 years after a nuclear war that destroyed much of the United States. The player controls a courier who survived an attack by an unknown person. The main goal is to complete quests to find the attacker. The game ends with a war between groups fighting to control the Mojave Desert. Players can also complete optional side quests. Kristinie Stiemer of IGN estimates that completing all quests takes about 100 hours.
The game has a large, open map that players can explore freely. Locations include small settlements, abandoned buildings, and major places like the Hoover Dam and the city of New Vegas, which was built from the remains of Las Vegas. Players use a device called the Pip-Boy 3000, which acts as a menu. It lets players check their items, view character stats, track quests, and look at maps. The Pip-Boy also allows fast travel to previously visited areas and listening to radio broadcasts.
Players can fight non-player characters (NPCs) using weapons such as guns, energy weapons, melee weapons, and explosives. Guns can be modified with attachments like scopes. During combat, players can use a system called the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS). VATS pauses the game and lets players target specific body parts of enemies. This system uses a stat called Action Points. Attacks using VATS cost Action Points, and players must wait if they run out. Some NPCs can be recruited as companions to help in battles.
At the start, players choose the courier’s gender, age, and race. They then assign points to seven attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. These are called SPECIAL stats. Thirteen other stats, such as barter, energy weapons, and science, are influenced by SPECIAL stats. For example, a high intelligence stat improves medicine, repair, and science skills early in the game. Players can increase skill points by earning experience, which comes from killing enemies or completing quests. At even-numbered levels, players can choose a permanent upgrade called a perk, such as the Rapid Reload perk, which speeds up gun reloading by 25%.
Players can talk to NPCs using dialogue trees. For example, a doctor might tell the player they helped them recover and searched their belongings. The player can respond with options like, “Thanks for patching me up, Doc,” “You shouldn’t have gone through my stuff,” or “What do I do now?” Some choices require certain stats, like 50 points in Barter to ask for a discount or an Intelligence of 7 to impress someone. Conversations and actions affect the player’s reputation with factions. Helping a faction might earn new armor or access to secret bases, while harmful actions could lead to attacks or blocked quests. Reputation also affects companions, who may leave if a faction dislikes the player.
An optional difficulty called Hardcore Mode adds survival rules. Players must eat, drink, and sleep to avoid dying from starvation, dehydration, or lack of sleep. Healing items slowly fix injuries, but broken limbs can only be healed by doctors, beds, or special medicine. Ammo has weight, requiring careful inventory management. Companions can permanently die in this mode. Hardcore Mode can be turned on or off at any time, but completing the game with it enabled unlocks an achievement.
Plot
Fallout: New Vegas takes place in 2281, 204 years after a very destructive nuclear war between the United States and China, called the Great War. Three main groups are fighting to take control of the Mojave Desert, which is known in the game as the Mojave Wasteland. These groups are the New California Republic (NCR), a democratic group trying to bring back a government where people vote and keep order; Caesar's Legion, a violent, dictatorial group that uses slave labor, modeled after the Roman army; and Mr. House, a private businessman in New Vegas who controls an army of Securitron robots and rules the city using technology.
As part of an effort to expand eastward from California, the NCR took control of the Hoover Dam, which provides electricity to the surrounding area. Both Caesar's Legion and Mr. House want to control the Hoover Dam to advance their own plans for the region. Other groups include the Boomers, a heavily armed tribe that hates outsiders and lives at Nellis Air Force Base; the Powder Gangers, escaped convicts from an NCR prison; the Great Khans, a tribe that sells drugs; and the Brotherhood of Steel, a group that tries to protect and keep old-world technology.
While delivering a device called the Platinum Chip to New Vegas, the courier is attacked by Benny, a mobster and casino owner. Benny steals the chip and shoots the courier in the head. A Securitron named Victor pulls the courier from a shallow grave, and a doctor named Doc Mitchell helps them recover. The courier then searches for Benny and the Platinum Chip. They confront Benny in a casino on the New Vegas strip; the courier can either kill Benny and get the chip back or let him escape.
The courier's actions draw the attention of the NCR, Caesar's Legion, and Mr. House, and all three groups try to recruit the courier to help them. It is revealed that Mr. House survived the nuclear war in a life-support chamber. He created the Platinum Chip, which contains a program that can improve his Securitron army. The device was meant to protect Las Vegas during the war, but the war began before it could be delivered. After the chip was found, the courier was sent to deliver it to Mr. House. Benny stole the chip as part of his plan to take control of Mr. House with the help of a reprogrammed Securitron called Yes Man.
The Hoover Dam becomes the main point of conflict between the NCR and Caesar's Legion. The player can choose which group to support, leading to one of four possible endings. If the player supports the NCR, they stop the Legion's attack at the dam and add the Mojave Wasteland to the Republic. If the player supports Caesar's Legion, they force the NCR to leave as the Legion takes control of New Vegas and the surrounding area. If the player supports Mr. House, his powerful Securitron army drives both the NCR and the Legion away, giving Mr. House full control of the region. Alternatively, the player can take control of the Securitron network themselves with the help of Yes Man, creating an independent New Vegas.
Development
Fallout: New Vegas began after Van Buren was stopped. Van Buren was supposed to be the third main game in the Fallout series. Black Isle Studios planned to make a game with real-time action and turn-based combat set in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. The game was stopped in December 2003 because of money problems at Interplay Entertainment, the publisher. Before Van Buren was stopped, some former Black Isle and Interplay workers started Obsidian Entertainment. Over the next few years, Obsidian made role-playing games like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Alpha Protocol. They also worked on a canceled Alien role-playing game.
In 2007, Bethesda Softworks bought the Fallout game rights. The next year, Bethesda released Fallout 3, which critics liked and sold over five million copies in 2008. Before Fallout 3 came out, Bethesda had already started making The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bethesda wanted to add more content to Fallout 3 and hired another developer to make a large expansion pack. Todd Howard, Bethesda’s creative director, wanted a full game instead of an expansion and suggested Obsidian. In 2007, Obsidian had refused a request to make a Star Trek game but agreed to make a Fallout spin-off.
Bethesda wanted the game to take place on the West Coast, where the first two Fallout games are set. Obsidian thought a similar setting would let them expand ideas from Fallout 2, like the New California Republic. Other ideas included a city based on Reno, Nevada, and letting players choose to be human, a ghoul, or a super mutant. The last idea was stopped because of technical problems with armor-wearing ghouls and super mutants. The developers chose Las Vegas and the Mojave Desert because they reminded people of 1950s style and the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max. Josh Sawyer, the project director, used digital assets from the canceled Alien game for Fallout: New Vegas. He said, “I did not want to change anything. We wanted to use what was there and make great content.” Obsidian wanted the game to happen between Fallout 2 and Fallout 3, but Bethesda said each game should follow the order they happened.
Josh Sawyer wanted the story to focus on greed and excess. Las Vegas’ history inspired the game because of its connection to organized crime. One working name for the game was Fallout: Sin City. Sawyer used the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 as a cutoff for historical references. The game’s story was built around faction conflicts based on fan feedback. Sawyer said factions would care most about water access in the desert, so Hoover Dam became a key part of the world. At a game conference, Sawyer said Obsidian wanted to avoid making factions clearly good or evil and instead let players face moral choices.
To create the Mojave Desert’s feel, Obsidian used data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Sawyer took photos of Las Vegas and nearby areas like Red Rock Canyon. Obsidian used the Las Vegas Beltway as a reference for the map’s road network. Bethesda asked for big structures as landmarks. While Fallout 3 used monuments in Washington, D.C., New Vegas used kitschy attractions, like a large dinosaur statue inspired by Cabazon, California. These choices helped New Vegas stand out from Fallout 3. Locations in New Vegas are more spread out than in Fallout 3, which focused on Washington, D.C. Other differences include a warmer color palette and local plants like Joshua trees and prickly pear cacti. Obsidian made New Vegas look like 1950s Las Vegas, with casinos having bright neon signs and Googie-style buildings.
The gameplay in New Vegas was similar to Fallout 3. Obsidian made small changes, like letting players aim guns more precisely and making movement affect accuracy. They added features like item-crafting and Hardcore Mode to give players more challenges. Sawyer said these features were for players who wanted harder gameplay. Obsidian was inspired by Fallout 3’s modding community, which improved the game. Bethesda gave Obsidian the Gamebryo engine used for Fallout 3. Since no Obsidian staff had used it before, they hired a modder with experience from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Inon Zur composed the soundtrack for Fallout: New Vegas, which was meant to sound like the American Southwest. Zur got a message with words like “Southwest in the Future. Open, Spacious, Raw, Lonesome, Cowboy, Rattlesnake, Desert, Wind, Heat, Rust, Steel, Dirt, Grit.” He was inspired by the movie There Will Be Blood and worked with audio director Scott Lawlor to make music for a string quartet. New Vegas has an adaptive music system, so the soundtrack changes based on what the player is doing. Music is quiet while exploring but becomes loud during combat. The game also includes licensed music from the 1950s, like country and bluegrass. Over 65,000 lines of dialogue were recorded, setting a Guinness World Record. The game has celebrity voices from actors like Rene Auberjonois, Felicia Day, and Danny Trejo.
Bethesda gave Obsidian 18 months to make Fallout: New Vegas, which some journalists said was a short time for a big game. Sawyer said, “We worked about 40 to 50 hours a week. It was a tight schedule, but I don’t think we ever thought it was impossible.” Obsidian’s lack of experience with the Gamebryo engine slowed development. Programmers had to fix the engine often and struggled with Havok software needed for consoles. Sawyer said they had to split the New Vegas Strip into smaller parts when they tested it on consoles.
Release and downloadable content
Fallout: New Vegas was announced in April 2009, and the first trailer was shown in February 2010. Players who pre-ordered the game from Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Steam, and Walmart could receive four special bonuses. Each bonus included weapons and items available at the start of the game. A collectors' edition was announced in May 2010. This edition included the game, seven poker chips, a replica of the Platinum Chip, a deck of cards with character illustrations, a prequel graphic novel, and a making-of documentary. Pre-order sales for Fallout: New Vegas were higher than those for Fallout 3 in North America and the United Kingdom.
Fallout: New Vegas was released in North America for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on October 19, 2010. It was released in Australia on October 21 and in Europe on October 22. By November 8, the game had sold five million copies worldwide and earned $300 million in revenue. A market research firm estimated that by 2015, the game had sold 11.6 million copies worldwide. The game had many glitches at launch, such as crashes, corrupted saved games, and frame rate issues. Fans and journalists criticized these problems. Months later, Bethesda released patches to fix the glitches.
Fallout: New Vegas received six downloadable content (DLC) add-ons, developed by Avellone. Avellone aimed to expand the game's story and include gameplay ideas that could not be included in the base game. For example, the DLC Dead Money added survival horror elements. In Dead Money, the player is captured and forced to stage a heist on Sierra Madre Casino, which is hidden behind a cloud of toxic vapor. The second DLC, Honest Hearts, is set in Zion National Park and involves the player in a conflict between tribes. The third DLC, Old World Blues, includes B movie humor and a story about mad scientists. The final story-driven DLC, Lonesome Road, follows the player as they track another courier named Ulysses, who refused to deliver the Platinum Chip to Mr. House. Two additional DLCs were released: Courier's Stash, which provided access to items originally included as pre-order bonuses, and Gun Runners' Arsenal, which added new weapons, firearm modifications, and ammunition types.
Initial reception
When it came out, Fallout: New Vegas received good reviews from critics. Bethesda, the company that made the game, promised Obsidian, the game's developer, extra money if any version of the game scored 85/100 or higher on Metacritic, a website that collects and averages reviews. New Vegas missed the goal by one point. Metacritic gave it an average score of 84/100 for the Windows and Xbox 360 versions and 82/100 for the PlayStation 3 version. Obsidian's CEO, Feargus Urquhart, said, "It was in the contract, and we signed it. I wasn't upset about it." Critics later said using Metacritic's score to decide the bonus payment was not fair, as the website might not accurately reflect a game's quality.
The story and writing in New Vegas were praised by reviewers. Craig Pearson of PC Gamer said the story was better than the one in Fallout 3 and noted that factions in the game change based on the player's choices. The British version of Official Xbox Magazine called the story "very large in scope and consistent in quality" and especially liked the final quest. However, some critics said the story lacked memorable moments compared to Fallout 3. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer wrote, "The writing is excellent, especially the dialogue, but the characters could have been more interesting, and none of the scripted events matched the impact of Bethesda's previous work."
Reviewers praised the side quests, saying some were more interesting than the main story. Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot liked how many choices players had in each quest, such as fighting robots in a museum or stealing a keycard to avoid conflict. Reiner added, "The missions and story give players a rare level of depth, making them feel in control of the experience and giving them many reasons to play again." Kristine Steimer of IGN highlighted the map, saying it helped players discover new side quests and unique locations.
Some reviewers said New Vegas felt more like a large expansion of Fallout 3 than a separate game because Obsidian made only small changes to the gameplay. Steimer wrote, "I often think of it as Fallout 3: New Vegas. Since Fallout 3 was so popular, that’s not a bad thing, but New Vegas feels like a big, exciting expansion." Pearson, however, noted that there were few technological improvements, saying, "New areas, characters, and factions, but the same awkward inventory system and character models. Two years to stay exactly where you were." Francesca Reyes of Official Xbox Magazine said it was hard to recommend the game to people who didn’t like Fallout 3. New features, such as faction reputation and Hardcore Mode, were well received, as they added complexity to the game. Reviewers had mixed opinions about the companions: Christopher Monfette of G4 said they created strong emotional connections, while Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer found them frustrating because they often ignored commands.
Many reviewers criticized the glitches, which disrupted gameplay. Common issues included poor movement for companions and enemies, slow frame rates, and crashes. Mike Nelson of 1Up.com said the glitches were among the most frustrating he had ever seen and that he would have given the game a higher score if not for them. A reviewer for Edge wrote, "Creatively, New Vegas gets almost everything right. Mechanically and technically, it's a tragedy." Some reviewers still enjoyed the game despite the glitches. Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb said, "When I think about the experience, I’ll probably remember the times the game crashed or broke first, before thinking about the great world and the objectives that fill it. If you could ignore the problems that Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had before, New Vegas will eventually show you a good time."
Fallout: New Vegas won the 2011 Golden Joystick Award for Role-Playing Game of the Year and the 2010 IGN award for Most Bang for Your Buck. It was also nominated for the Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year award at the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, but the award went to Mass Effect 2.
Re-evaluation and legacy
Since its release, fans and critics have reassessed Fallout: New Vegas, and its reception has become more positive over time. Cass Marshall of Polygon wrote: "Fallout: New Vegas has remained influential in popular culture in a way that few other games have." Some critics have called New Vegas the best game in the Fallout series and one of the greatest video games ever made. In a review of the Fallout series, Ian Dransfield of Retro Gamer stated: "New Vegas balanced Bethesda's new 3D style with Black Isle/Interplay's focus on traditional role-playing game features." Emma Kent of Eurogamer noted: "The game carefully crafted even small stories to keep players interested and added meaningful rewards. On a larger scale, it explored serious themes, such as complex conflicts similar to real-world issues."
Part of the game's improved reputation comes from patches that fixed many technical problems. Kat Bailey of VG247 wrote that once players stopped focusing on these issues, they began to appreciate the game's strengths. Additional downloadable content and an active modding community also helped the game stay popular over time. Dominic Tarason of PC Gamer stated: "Years of work by fans have made New Vegas better than ever." Notable mods include Tale of Two Wastelands, which combines Fallout 3 and New Vegas; Fallout: New California, which expands on the main character's story; and Fallout: The Frontier, a large mod that added new areas, items, quests, and characters. This last mod received media attention because of its size and controversial content.
Reporters have noted that New Vegas has a dedicated fanbase within the Fallout community. Since 2022, a yearly fan event themed around New Vegas has taken place in Goodsprings, Nevada, the game's starting location. Some fans criticize Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 for having less interesting stories, simpler role-playing features, and fewer choices for players. Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku wrote that fans often compare these games negatively to New Vegas.
New Vegas has inspired other games. Ben Fisher of Rebellion Developments said that New Vegas influenced Atomfall, a 2025 game set in an alternate history. Fisher explained that the story of Atomfall was structured similarly to New Vegas, with the central city driving the plot. He added, "The story of New Vegas focuses on a key location and the people connected to it, which inspired our game's design." Raphaël Colantonio of WolfEye Studios said that New Vegas's story also inspired their upcoming game. He noted, "We liked how New Vegas allowed free exploration and gave players choices that shaped the story."
When the Fallout TV series was released, one episode, "The Trap," seemed to conflict with New Vegas's story, leading some fans to think Bethesda was changing the game's story. Todd Howard, a Bethesda director, later clarified the situation. PC Gamer published an article with the headline: " 'New Vegas is a very important game to us,' says Todd Howard, who will never stop being asked about it."
The setting of New Vegas appears in the second season of the Fallout TV series, which takes place 15 years after the game's events. The season includes flashbacks of a character interacting with Mr. House before the Great War. IGN writer Jim Vejvoda noted that the trailer included references to Caesar's Legion and the Hoover Dam. Co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet said the show would not confirm which ending of the game was official.