A great game still worth playing in 2024

Fallout: New Vegas has endured in the cultural zeitgeist in a way few other games have. Even within the Fallout fandom, it has earned a prized position as a true classic of the RPG genre. That love is still reflected today, in silly memes and fanart and persistent debates about which endgame is the right one. While the game has aged terribly in some respects – characters look rough, and not just from living in the apocalypse – it still remains one of the highlights of the Fallout series. With the new Fallout TV series premiering on Amazon, there's rarely been a better time to revisit New Vegas or play it for the first time.

Fallout: New Vegas opens with an exploration of the Mojave Wasteland, establishing some of the factions vying for control of this region of post-apocalyptic America. This game builds on the lore of the first two isometric RPGs and returns to the West Coast. The New California Republic, a democratic attempt to rebuild an old America, has expanded too far. Here, at Hoover Dam, they fight to hold on to territory. Caesar's Legion, an army emulating the ancient Roman Empire, has faced the NCR here in a conflict of ideologies. New Vegas, a glittering city of progress run by the mysterious Mr. House, dominates the skyline with its neon towers.

Unfortunately, the player character will have to work up to confront these forces. The game begins with the courier being tossed away by a smooth-talking group. You wake up in a friendly local nursing home, having miraculously survived being shot in the head and left in a shallow grave. You sort things out in the small town of Goodsprings and then begin your trek into the Mojave.