Introduction

The Fallout franchise is the sci-fi shooter cousin of Bethesda’s high fantasy The Elder Scrolls series. Once referred to as ‘(The Elder Scrolls) Oblivion with guns’ (who actually coined the term, I have no idea and couldn’t find a specific name, sadly), it’s a bit of an odd one. Although the Fallout games were started by Interplay Productions, Bethesda later acquired the rights to the franchise and their first foray into the post-apocalyptic wasteland was Fallout 3, the predecessor to Fallout: New Vegas.

It’s undeniable that there are many similarities between the two games, Fallout 3 and TES: Oblivion, from the quest system to the dialogue trees. You could even argue that the maps and more intricate gameplay systems like the skill trees are pretty close to each other. Yet at the same time, the Fallout franchise feels distinctly different from The Elder Scrolls games. It has its own atmosphere, its own lore and unique world, its own gameplay mechanics and its own, much darker feel than Oblivion.

The Fallout Universe

The basic premise of the Fallout game universe relies on three main themes.

Retrofuturism

Before the bombs fell, despite the year being 2077, America was a picturesque society seemingly frozen in time since the 1950s. Visually, at least. Retrofuturism is the concept of thinking back to the past and imaging how they would have imagined the future. We see it clearly in Fallout’s world: from the old-style TVs to the oddly old-fashioned cars, even in the fashion pre-war Americans wore. In the fictional universe, a divergence from our current timeline occurred after the world wars, resulting in a separate timeline. This explains why, even though the year is 2077 when the bombs fall, everything seems frozen in time.

The game utilises this retrofuturistic feel to cause unease. There’s something oddly sinister when you look back at how those people imagined the future would be. Even in literature, novels like HG Wells’ The Time Machine (1895) describe a beautiful future where everything is perfect until you look a little closer and realise it’s actually a living nightmare. And similar to the theme expressed in HG Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898) where the author comments on how men lived their lives with complacent comfort, a similar theme is clear in Fallout. Those perfect people with their postcard lives had no idea of the looming horrors that lay just beyond the horizon: the reality of nuclear annihilation.

Nuclear Terror

We’ve all felt it. That overwhelming sense of deep-rooted dread when we watch the news and see the latest developments as the world grows tense. The Fallout franchise puts these fears into action.

It’s been a looming threat hanging over our heads since the splitting of the atom in 1932, it’s been that dark shadow in the corner of our minds. It’s a ghastly phantom haunting us, a spectre of impending death that will never be exorcised.

One day it will consume us.

In the Fallout universe, it did just that. In 2077, a series of atomic bombs swept across America. We’re never outright told who pressed the button but fans have plenty of theories from Vault-Tec themselves to the Zetan aliens (yes, there are aliens in this game!) or even the US government. Most people sway to the Vault-Tec theory.

A quick introduction to Vault-Tec is in order as it’s ironically through them that humanity survived the nukes. Vault-Tec is a fictional company that built the bomb shelters, called ‘vaults’, all across the country. Most of these vaults were covers for horrific experiments on the human condition. An example from Fallout 4 is the horrific Vault 95, set up as a rehabilitation centre for addicts. After a five-year rehabilitation program, a storage room full of drugs (called ‘chems’ in the game) opened. Vault-Tec simply wanted to see what these people would do.

Other experiments included locking affluent and elite citizens in with the working class to see what would happen, and another experiment where a vault was split into ‘teams’ to see if they would turn on each other out of sheer tribalism. It echoes George Orwell’s 1984 in some ways: you think you’re safe from the radiation but you’re always being watched and observed like a lab rat.

Rebuilding Civilisation and The Intricacies of Human Nature

The final key theme of these games comes from the very nature of humanity itself. As your character explores the desolate wasteland of post-war America, you’ll come across survivors. Some will attack you on sight. Others are desperate for aid. Some will double-cross and backstab you and others are genuinely working for the good of humanity, trying to rebuild what once was.

You’ll see the full tapestry of humanity on display — the good, the bad and the in-between. It’s the very essence of human nature and our inherent need to stick to establish social groups and hierarchies that lead us to the topic of discussion today: the game’s factions.

Tribalism

Tribalism. We see it everywhere in our daily lives. From the console wars of Sony VS Microsoft or pop fans arguing on Twitter over YG Entertainment VS SM Entertainment or even fighting over the latest Netflix show. It’s everywhere and it’s exhausting. But we’re all guilty of it.

For example, my favourite iteration of the Tomb Raider series is the original Playstation games and I will die on that hill (Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation is my absolute favourite). That doesn’t mean I won’t hear others out on their opinions or that I didn’t enjoy any of the game post-Core Design but it’s one of those opinions I won’t be moved on.

In my eyes, fandoms demonstrate the essence of tribalism perfectly. But it goes much deeper than just our preferences for entertainment. Tribalism is also found in the foundation of our society, in our moral values and political alignments.

Let’s take a look at the four main factions in Fallout: New Vegas.

The New California Republic

The most popular faction in Fallout: New Vegas is the New California Republic or NCR as they’re known. Considered by many fans to be the canonical choice, the NCR are a faction who believe in freedom, peace and morality.

Their members are incredibly diverse in their beliefs and political alignments — some are centre-left, others centre-right — but it’s safe to say they have the common goal of maintaining a democracy that keeps the NCR united.

The NCR aren’t perfect though — no faction in Fallout: New Vegas is. They’re often muddied by corruption and bureaucracy, leading to accusations of elitism and inefficiency in what they claim to do. On paper, the NCR sounds great: their focus is on maintaining a democratic republic upholding their laws and keeping their citizens safe. They try their best to divide power between the territories they occupy.

Their outposts are often struggling with resources and supplies and fans have criticised them for their imperialistic nature, expanding their territory and assimilating other tribes and factions into their midst. It’s important to note that the NCR are generally respectful of the beliefs and cultures of the people they assimilate and they genuinely believe they are helping these people survive.

Unfortunately, in their quest for expansion, they often overlook the needs of these people, failing to see how their military occupation of settlements and lands can be intimidating to the people they’re trying to aid. They also don’t seem particularly organised in the long term. Sure, they have their vision but we see first-hand in New Vegas how the NCR are all over the place. Often the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing and vice versa.

While they do believe in fair resources, their over-stretching means their resources are often rationed off to their camps of soldiers, rather than those who need it most. The faction has a good heart but their execution often leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a classic case of trying to do too much at one time.

Caesar’s Legion

The canonical ‘bad guys’ of the game who seem entirely out of place at a first glance. The Legion models itself on old colonial Roman ideals. Although it’s never explicitly stated in the game, it’s almost as though the Legion worship Mars, the Roman god of War. They pride themselves on strength, domination and order.

Yet, there’s something surprisingly creative about the Legion and its design. While undeniably wicked, the Legion makes sense in the post-nuclear wasteland. It’s a return to humanity’s ancient past when nations were built on sheer strength and brutality. Surprisingly, despite their dark, twisted methods, many people claim the Legion are actually the best faction in the game.

As horrific as they are, the Legion being a part of the wasteland makes sense. They found old history books and saw the Roman Empire as their goal. It’s hard to believe that survivors would not be amazed by the feats of old civilisations and begin to model themselves after said civilisations.

Unlike the NCR, the Legion gains territory through pure colonialism, conquering settlements and forcing the people to either become slaves or be slaughtered.

They’re incredibly misogynistic, treating their slave women like breeding cattle. Any children born aren’t free from the tyrannical gaze of Caesar (the faction’s leader) either. Boys are immediately taken to be trained as soldiers from a young age, facing brutal punishments and regimes to harden them. They’re brainwashed into the Legion’s way of thinking: that people outside the Legion are mere cattle and deserve death if they live ‘sinful’ lives. They’re taught that women are beneath them and are only useful for one thing: sex.

The Legion’s message is clear: if you cross us, we will hunt you down and we will find you.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to call the Legion a fascist faction. They embody every value in the fascist playbook: totalitarianism, authoritarianism, militarisation, extreme nationalism, eugenics (anyone not embodying their values is inferior) and so on.

They are a terrifying reminder that, no matter what happens in life, people will still form warped ideals in the name of the ‘greater good’. In the Legion’s eyes, they are instilling discipline and superiority back into the wasteland, forging the people into a sharper, stronger nation.

Like the NCR, the Legion are incredibly diverse, with people of all creeds and backgrounds — if the men aren’t born into the Legion through cruelty, they’re survivors of subjugated tribes who have grown to enjoy their new-found power.

Since it’s important to balance these factions, there is some good that could come from the Legion’s rule over the wasteland if they changed their fascist ideals. They would provide structure and stability to the people. The Legion work on a strict social hierarchy that everyone in their camps adheres to.

They would also unify the wasteland. This is a tricky one though. As mentioned previously, the Legion are entirely colonial in their expansion techniques — they conquer and assimilate and once those conquered tribes are part of the Legion, the Legion treats them fully as their own. Unlike the NCR who struggle to provide, the Legion shares all resources with its people and vehemently protects them.

Let’s be very clear though: this practice of colonialism has never and will never be a good thing. Yet, in this fictional world, it’s important to see how the Legion could have some appeal to the struggling and desperate survivors of the wasteland.

The Legion are on the extreme upper far-right. They are ultra-nationalistic and strongly authoritarian.

Mr House

Robert House is an enigmatic figure in the game. While not a faction in the typical sense (a group of characters fighting for the same belief), he does represent another option the players can choose to side with to influence the game’s story and ending.

Mr House is actually a prewar citizen born in 2020, making him 57 at the time of the war. It’s not really a spoiler as the player discovers this pretty quickly. He was an affluent and genius man who, although from a wealthy family, was robbed of his inheritance and had to earn his fortune through hard work via his company RobCo.

More importantly, he’s also the man who used his technology to prevent the New Vegas Strip from being completely annihilated during the war.

Mr House wants to keep the New Vegas strip completely independent from the influence of both the NCR and the Legion. As the man who saved the strip, he feels like it’s his duty to defend it. It’s a well-meaning sense of entitlement and with an incredible knowledge of robotics and AI, he’s well-equipped to defend his people.

He’s a big player on the Fallout: New Vegas stage with an army of robots at his command, ready to wipe out both the NCR and the Legion the moment they set foot on his turf.

Mr House represents an authoritarian side of capitalism. He believes fully in self-preservation and the independence of the New Vegas strip under his command. He’s not entirely unapproachable though — in fact, he often mediates and bases his decisions based on what he feels is the best outcome for the Strip in the long term. He will always put his Strip’s interests above the interests of any other faction.

However, like the NCR and Legion, Mr House also has his flaws. Under his rule, the citizens of the Strip often get little to no say as he operates under an ‘I know what’s best’ mindset. And with over two-hundred years of knowledge under his best, it is hard to argue against him.

The main problem with Mr House is that, as mentioned, his interest is only in the New Vegas Strip. He’s not interested in helping the other settlements or survivors and he doesn’t give a damn about the petty politics of the NCR or the brutality of the Legion, as long as they leave him and his Strip alone.

It’s hard to define him politically but if we consider his strong beliefs in his own business and how he values wealth and a strong economy, it wouldn’t be unfair to place him on the right-leaning side of the political compass. He also fully believes in his own ability to be the sole ruler of New Vegas, making him authoritarian. He’s also reasonable, fully believes everything he does is for the good of his citizens and strongly believes in their independence.

Yes Man

Yes Man is a bit of a strange one. He’s one of Mr House’s robots that has been programmed to be self-aware and he sees the flaws in Mr House’s system. He also sees the dangers of both the NCR and the Legion. This single-character faction allows the players to follow a truly independent path for New Vegas.

The issue with Yes Man is that he can’t be placed anywhere concrete on the political compass. His actions depend on how the player wants their New Vegas to look. It’s a safe bet to place him directly in the centre though, as a result of this. His alignment will change as the player makes decisions throughout the game.

Politically, Yes Man offers the best chance of self-determination for the people of New Vegas. Through him, the player themselves becomes the governing power of the Strip so it would ultimately be up to the player character how they would rule. You can follow Yes Man while roleplaying as a good-hearted character or a vicious raider and without the shackles of a pre-determined political alignment.

Although Yes Man can lead you to ending the other main factions, you can still forge alliances with factions if you so desire. If you choose to go fully independent, all other factions must be destroyed to ensure a fully independent and secure New Vegas. Following him will result in the deaths of countless people — NCR soldiers, Legionnaires and even Mr House himself.

Yes Man may sound like the best option on paper, he also brings a blanket of uncertainty over the wasteland because he’s always going to go with whatever you say, regardless of any consequences. With the removal of the big factions and the structure they’ve brought to the wasteland, it’s very likely that chaos would unfold. Anarchy and riots may break out as people, without the watchful eye of the NCR or the iron fist of the Legion to keep them in-check, may lash out and turn on each other.

While Yes Man offers the chance of a united wasteland, it’s also possible that, long-term, this could lead to even more discord and horror for the wasteland settlers. There’s a lot of unknowns with him but that’s the risk you have to take to walk this path.

Conclusion

The most important thing to take away from this article, I feel, is that Fallout: New Vegas is a video game. The politics of the game don’t apply to the real world. You can fully enjoy roleplaying as a good-hearted ranger working for the NCR for the good of the people or you can be a cruel Legionnaire with misguided notions of unity. It’s all fiction.

It’s actually quite beautiful how the developing studio, Obsidian Entertainment, managed to create such deep, nuanced factions. There are arguably no single ‘good’ or ‘bad’ options (with the exception of the Legion and their cruel practices) and all choices offer a valid outcome for the wasteland.

Depending on which faction you side with, the ending cutscenes of the game will showcase how your choice impacted and shaped the future of the wasteland, showing the good and the bad.

Obsidian Entertainment has expertly shown how, no matter how good someone’s intentions are, people will often be hurt or impacted in unexpected negative ways. It adds a touch of realism to a fictional game that reflects our real lives.

No matter what we do, how hard we try to be well-intentioned, sometimes things just don’t work out the way we intended them to. Someone is sidelined, someone else is overlooked.

It’s the sad but brutal reality of the world we live in.

References

Depositphotos Blog. “Retro-Futurism: Art, Design, and Photography that Revives the Past Future.” [Online]. Available: https://blog.depositphotos.com/retro-futurism-art-design.html.

u/Calm_Moose. “Retro Futurism Features Heavily in My Game.” r/RetroFuturism. [Online]. Available: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/comments/hsgidl/retro_futurism_features_heavily_in_my_game_retro/.

The Organization for World Peace (The OWP). “The Possibility of Nuclear War in Europe.” [Online]. Available: https://theowp.org/the-possibility-of-nuclear-war-in-europe/.

WallpaperSafari. [Vault-Tec]. [Online Image]. Available: https://wallpapersafari.com/w/skH0pW.

NPR (National Public Radio). “As Fissures Between Political Camps Grow, ‘Tribalism’ Emerges As The Word Of 2017.” [Online]. Available: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/06/568583263/as-fissures-between-political-camps-grow-tribalism-emerges-as-the-word-of-2017.

Nukapedia — The Fallout Wiki. “New California Republic.” [Online]. Available: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/New_California_Republic.

Quora. “What are the strengths of NCR Rangers in Fallout: New Vegas?” [Online]. Available: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-strengths-of-NCR-Rangers-in-Fallout-New-Vegas.

Game Rant. “Caesar’s Legion: The Best Fallout Faction & Why.” [Online]. Available: https://gamerant.com/caesars-legion-best-fallout-faction-why/.

Fallout Wiki. “Nipton.” [Online]. Available: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Nipton.

Fallout Wiki. “Robert House.” [Online]. Available: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_House.

ModDB. [Securitron]. [Online Image]. Available: https://www.moddb.com/mods/a-very-uncreative-collection-of-fpge-mods/images/ncr-uses-securitron-army-2.

AmbianceMagic. [Fallout: New Vegas — Yes Man/Mr. House Ambiance (monitors, robots, wind)]. [Online video]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nAfxQFBqAk&ab_channel=AmbianceMagic.

TechRepublic. “Leadership: How to avoid creating a team of yes-men.” [Online]. Available: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/leadership-how-to-avoid-creating-a-team-of-yes-men/

ProWritingAid. “Cause and Effect: Understanding the Relationship Between Actions and Consequences.” [Online]. Available: https://prowritingaid.com/cause-and-effect.