Fallout: New Vegas 2has been rumored ever since the first game released, but events this past year have caused a whirlwind of extra speculation amongFalloutfans. There’s been industry insiders claiming a sequel is in the works, Bethesda’s acquisition by Microsoft, claims that a surprising new studio has been tapped to develop the game, and more.
There’s never actually been confirmation, however, thatFallout: New Vegas 2is in development at all. Some fans have been hoping to get their fix playing other RPGs with similar themes. The problem is that none of those games are truly able to capture what madeNew Vegasspecial. Here are some of the alternatives, and why fans are unlikely to be satisfied until aNew Vegassequel is released.
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The Outer Worlds
If there was ever game more poised to spiritually succeed theFalloutfranchise, it wasThe Outer Worlds. JustlikeFallout,The Outer Worldsis a first-person RPG set in the future of a timeline that diverged from real-world history in the 20th century. InThe Outer Worlds’ case, President McKinley was never assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. This allowed him to finish his term and prevented Theodore Roosevelt becoming president and pushing through anti-trust laws, leading to the hyper-capitalist space-bound society seen inThe Outer Worlds.
Just as the post-apocalypticFalloutworld maintains the ‘50s aesthetic from the rough time the timeline diverged,The Outer Worlds’ advertising and architecture resembles concepts from the Pan-American Exposition. The similarities between the series are no surprise. Not only wasThe Outer Worldscreated by Obsidian, but it was directed by the creators of theFalloutseries, Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.
In theory,The Outer Worldsshould have been the perfectFalloutsubstitute, especially for players who preferred Obsidian’sNew Vegasto Bethesda’sFallout 4. Like the World’s Fair exhibitions that inspired its aesthetic, however,The Outer Worldsis packed full of interesting concepts that never quite got off the ground.
Instead of a crafting system,The Outer Worldsonly allows the player to make a few weapon modifications. Enemies, weapons, and armor lack variety, encounters outside of towns are almost always unavoidably hostile, and the towns themselves are surprisingly small. Not only that, but withoutBethesda’s engineto work in, the world lacks interactivity.
As small as it may sound,The Outer Worldsdoesn’t allow the player to zoom out and see their character, sit in chairs, or do many of the other little things that make the up-close and personal perspective of afirst-person RPGmore immersive. Not allFalloutfans will be looking for a first-person RPG at all, however.
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The Wasteland Series
The Outer Worldsmight have hoped to be a spiritual successor, but theWastelandseries isFallout’s own spiritual predecessor. Not only were the originalFalloutRPGs based on the firstWasteland, butWasteland 2and3were successfully crowd-funded, reviving the series over the past decade. TheseCRPGstake place in a world with many similarities toFallout’s. In the world ofWasteland, a nuclear war took place in 1998. The games take place decades later as a fractured America attempts to rebuild.
TheWastelandgames have a lot going for them, and the successful funding and positive reception ofWasteland 2helped revive the CRPG genre in the last decade. However,Falloutfanswho are hoping to placate their desire forNew Vegas 2withWastelandare likely to be disappointed.
The world of Wasteland is a lot more dour than the first-personFalloutgames.New Vegasin particular managed to have so many elements that felt stylized and colorful without feeling silly, especially in the case ofCaesar’s Legion, a faction that could seem ridiculous but instead ends up genuinely disturbing.
Fallouthad also moved a long way from its routes by the timeNew Vegascame around.New Vegaswas built on the back ofFallout 3.While manyFalloutfans have criticized Bethesda’s storytelling, Bethesda’s first-person format did makeFallout: New Vegasmore accessible and, at times, more immersive than the CRPGs. Regardless of the player’s personal taste, theWastelandseries is better suited to fans ofFallout 1and2than fans looking to find a way to find a way to replaceFallout: New Vegas.
Why Fans Need New Vegas 2
There are a few reasons that only aNew Vegassequelwill ever be able to recapture the magic of the original game.Fallout: New Vegasgave Obsidian the opportunity to tell a great RPG story using the engine already developed forFallout 3. Character creation, animation, huge amounts of art assets, the dialogue system and many other RPG must-haves were already in place. This let Obsidian focus on the story, creating far more quests and dialogue options than the studio would have been able to if making the game from scratch. Even with the game’s development cut short, this ability to focus on the world and story over mechanics did wonders forNew Vegas.
The only trueFallout: New Vegassuccessor will be a game where a third-party studio with a reputation for great storytelling got the opportunity to create aFallouttitle with access to Bethesda’s resources. That studio could beinXile Entertainment, the developer behind theWastelandrevival. It could be Obsidian again, though the strained relationship between Bethesda and Obsidian as a result ofNew Vegasmakes that seem unlikely.
If a studio does get to developNew Vegas 2– in whatever form it ends up taking – it is unlikely that studio would be able to create a game to rivalNew Vegaswithout building off the lastFalloutgame. Whether or not Bethesda will ever allow a third-party developer to take on theFalloutfranchise again, remains to be seen, but with BGS working on bothStarfieldandThe Elder Scrolls 6, the chances of another outsourcedFalloutcould be better than ever.
Fallout: New Vegas 2has not been officially announced.
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