Fallout New Vegas: The Proof that Videogames can be Art and Fun at the Same Time.

For decades, there has been incessant discussions about videogames and if they can be considered art, and while there are convincing points for both sides of the argument, there’s something you can’t deny: Some videogames have proved themselves as more than a simple piece of entertainment, without losing the quality of being extremely fun and enjoyable to play. One of the best examples being Fallout New Vegas.

Fallout New Vegas, developed in 2010 by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks, is the fourth game of Fallout (not counting spin-offs), and the second game that followed the “modern” gameplay of the franchise, with a much greater emphasis on the gunplay than the roleplaying aspect. However, you don’t really need to play the previous games to understand or enjoy this one, although you will miss lots of references and lore elements that are able to make the world a lot more charming and fascinating than it already is. Then, why is it that this game is so popular and hold in high regard among the gaming community? Well, lots of reasons, actually, although the main ones can be summarized in these motives:

1) It has one of the best worldbuilding you can ever experience on a game: As previously mentioned, the whole world can be appreciated even more if you played the other games, but that can be a hard task, as the first two are from a time where roleplaying videogames were all about complex menus, multiple mechanics than you won’t find unless you read a guide or try everything at your disposal, and a combat system dependent entirely on probabilities and stats. So, if you can’t endure that kind of game, there’s nothing wrong with getting familiarized with the story of the franchise through other means, like reading the wikia or watching videos about the lore. The important thing is discovering how complex, well-thought and interesting is the entire setting!

For some context, the basic plot of the franchise is that in USA, year 2077, there was a nuclear war that destroyed most of the civilization, and the few survivors were the lucky folks that got a place in some of the underground Vaults that the government created in order to protect the population. Of course, there weren’t enough vaults for the millions of citizens that lived in the country, thus civilization was reduced substantially, and communication between states became almost impossible, requiring many days of travelling and fighting against savage inhabitants and mutated animals. For this reason, every game happens in a different place, with its own complications, factions and characters (although a number of them appears in more than one game, with some explanation that they tell you, obviously).

In the case of New Vegas, you are a courier in the post-apocalyptic version of Las Vegas (called New Vegas), in 2281. Happening more than 200 years after the nuclear war, you can see that humanity, being the persistent bunch they always are, have made considerable progress recreating civilization, and there are already well established cities, a kind of government in the form of the New California Republic (which creation and rise in power happens since the events of the first game, making its presence more special), and even a rebellious group named Caesar’s Legion, strange men that act like ancient Roman soldiers following the orders of an enigmatic man with the name of Caesar. 

Sure enough, they aren’t the only factions, as there are smaller ones scattered all other the map with their own goals, quests and influence, which is what makes the whole game so exciting to explore: Even if you drift away from the main places, you will get to know communities that, like in real life, evolved their own culture and traditions with the aim of surviving. One of them make a living selling drugs, other helping people in need, and there is even a group that created their own religion based on Elvis Presley! You are able to learn about them talking with the members or looking their journals, assisting them in their current mission (and, naturally, getting some benefit for doing so) or destroying everybody just for fun, the options are limitless! And they even react to your actions, therefore, if you attack them, or do something that affects their way of life negatively, they will turn hostile, meaning that they don’t feel like mindless NPCs with predetermined actions. You make your own allies and enemies, so choose very carefully.

Nevertheless, the characters aren’t the only remarkable part of the universe, after all, the effects of the nuclear fallout affected all the landscape, fauna and flora, as you are able to see while swimming on the toxic water, walking over the mountains infested of mutated ants, or trying to stay alive while passing through a Quarry full of genetically-engineered creatures known as deathclaws. There aren’t dull moments in the Mojave Desert, and exploring everything can take you multiples days, complemented with quests and lore scattered through computers and notes to give you all the context and content you could ever want.

Now, it may see that with so much to do, the experience could be overwhelming, but that isn’t really the case, thanks to another great characteristic of the game:

2) The player has absolute freedom: As formerly said, you choose your own allies, enemies and path to follow, but the choices don’t stop here! There are multiple endings to choose depending of your taste. Maybe you prefer the ideology of a specific faction, or you hate a group so much that you decided to side with their main enemy. Don’t like any of them? Then you can eliminate everybody! And the way to do it is entirely up to you. You are able to solve all the problems with violence, or use the multiple skills that the game provides to you to accomplish everything you want with diplomacy, sneaking undetected through the enemies or convincing them to give up their plans with the power bartering. You can even finish the game without killing a single creature!

In spite of this, the lack of restrictions doesn’t stop there! The progression doesn’t have any kind of limitation, and if you already know where to go, you are able to go straight to the final areas as soon as you start your adventure. Obviously, doing that it isn’t as easy as it sounds, as the shortest way it’s full of the toughest enemies you can find, and you will need to prove your skill in order to survive. Because of that, there are countless paths to take, and you will never have the same journey twice.

That being said, while the worldbuilding and the freedom make for an amazing videogame, what makes New Vegas worthy of being considered art is also the most special quality of it:

3) It tackles serious themes in the best possible manner:  All Fallout games shares the same themes: War never changes; society will always try to survive, and history repeats itself. New Vegas is not exception, and you can see examples of this everywhere: Innocents lives are lost and ruined in the war between the New California Republic and Caesar’s Legion, there are people living even in the cities full of debris and radiation, and the factions resemble and idolize long-lost civilizations, even when they disappeared after failing in achieving their goals. It’s a grim scenario that even the player can’t change, as there isn’t a single solution to all these troubles that have plagued humanity since their beginnings.

Nonetheless, you as a protagonist are able to bring hope in small doses and, hopefully, fix things in the future. Despite how hopeless it may seem the situation, there are persons willing to do what they can to make it better, and you can contribute. Doctors that are too busy to attend all their patients, soldiers that don’t have anybody to train and inspire them, families without access to clean water, and even survivors of war in need of psychiatric help, are some of the predicaments you can find, and all of them are handled in a pretty careful and respectful way, something that media often mess up pretty badly. You can really sense the writers cared about their own setting, and wanted the spectator to feel part of it.

And the best part? It feels totally natural when you solve their dilemmas! Most of the time you will need to pass a skill check to be of assistance, but if, for example, you need to cure somebody from an infection and your medicine skill is too low, you will fail and worsen their sickness. That way, you aren’t some kind of perfect being with the answer to everything, and the skills that you choose become important in all sorts of circumstances aside from combat.

In conclusion, Fallout New Vegas is a pleasant experience not only as a videogame, but as a piece of media that can make you think of all kinds of issues that you weren’t even aware of. In my personal experience, it made me appreciate how little details such as brief explanations of the mechanics of the world (why does the economy uses that currency? Why is there so much stuff thrown everybody? How do humans get water here? Etc.) are so satisfactory and give a lot of personality to even the most trivial aspects. But, more than that, it showed me that videogames are the perfect product to teach you all types of lessons and themes in the most effective way: Experiencing them at first hand.