7 Fallout: New Vegas Quests That Feel More Morally Questionable Than Players Remember

Fallout: New Vegas is widely regarded as the Dark Horse of the Fallout series. For some, it's a cult classic and represents the very best the series has to offer, while for others it's a bit of an ugly duckling which didn't quite fit in with the other mainline games. Regardless of how you feel about the setting and story, the game presents us with some of the most uniquely cruel and questionable decisions in the series.

Fallout games are known for often giving players multiple ways to complete a quest, and the Karma system also encourages players to experiment with their decisions to achieve different outcomes. With that said, these are some of the most morally questionable quests in the already dark and disturbing New Vegas.

7 I Forgot To Remember To Forget

PTSD on The NCR Frontier

Named after the Elvis Presley song which was sadly cut from the game during pre-production, this companion quest for the Novak sniper, Boone, will have you confronting one of the darker events in New Vegas' regional history: The Bitter Springs massacre. The event, while taking place before the events of the game, involved NCR troops slaughtering a large number of innocent Great Khans, including many women and children.

Since Boone was an NCR ranger during the massacre and contributed his share to the killing, he is left with an overwhelming sense of guilt. You can persuade him to return to the site of the incident, at which point the local community will come under attack from Legion soldiers. What makes the quest morally questionable for the player is the fact that you can use the opportunity to psychologically manipulate Boone and make him an even more bloodthirsty and combat-effective companion.

6 Hard Luck Blues

There Really Is No Good Option

Hard Luck Blues is one of those classic morally grey Fallout quests where you're forced to choose between a bad option and an even worse one. If you head to Vault 34 to the south of Nellis Airforce Base on the outskirts of New Vegas, you will find its residents in a bit of a predicament.

A group of Sharecropper refugees from the local farms have ended up trapped inside and are slowly being killed by excessive radiation poisoning, and it's your task to either divert the radiation elsewhere and poison huge numbers of Sharecropper farmers, along with innumerable others, or seal the Vault entirely and abandon the refugees to a slow and gruesome death.

5 For Auld Lang Syne

At Least They're on Our Side, Right?

This companion quest for Arcade Gannon, the doctor in the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside, will be unlocked after a certain time of having him as a follower and performing actions he likes, such as killing Legion soldiers and visiting old locations he has talked about. Gannon asks The Courier to assemble a group of his old comrades from The Enclave to help fight in the final battle.

In addition to The Enclave being a notoriously evil faction in the Fallout universe, this particular group called the Remnants, aren't exactly a pleasant bunch. While their firepower and even a support Vertibird will come in very handy during the final battle at Hoover Dam, it certainly doesn't seem like a positive karma choice to align yourself with these war criminals.

4 Heartache By The Number

Either Way, Someone's Got to Pay

Another pretty brutal companion quest which leaves the player with little good choice is Cass's quest, Heartaches By The Number. Again, after winning her trust by performing approved actions while having her as a follower, you can trigger this quest in which she will ask you to help uncover the truth behind the destruction of her caravan.

This will lead to an investigation into two of the Mojave's lead trading companies, the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs. After uncovering the holotape, which proves that the two companies conspired to destroy Cassidy Caravans, you will be left with the choice whether you want to ruthlessly murder those responsible at Cass's request, or the uniquely evil option of turning her over to the Van Graffs and watching her be executed in exchange for 350 caps.

3 For The Republic, Part 2

Time to Consolidate Power

As part of the NCR questline, if that's your chosen faction, you will need to 'deal with' the various minor factions throughout the Mojave. These include the Boomers, the Kings, the Great Khans and the Omertas. This mission acts as an overarching objective while you deal with the Khans, Omertas and even the small Brotherhood of Steel chapter in the Hidden Valley Bunker.

What makes this quest a morally grey area is the fact that ultimately, you will either kill the Khans or drive them out of their lands altogether. Following that, you then have to decide how many of the Omertas will get to live. The quest also includes the option to brutally assassinate a defenseless Mr House, and to exterminate the entire New Vegas chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel.

2 That Lucky Old Sun

What if I Just Took It All for Myself?

Just north of Novak, on the way to New Vegas, you'll likely happen upon the HELIOS Power Plant. This menacing structure is guarded by the NCR and in order to get inside, you'll either have to lie, kill or break your way in. Once inside, you'll be confronted with two whacky scientists, one who has no idea what he is doing and is clearly a fraud, while the other sees himself as a moral arbiter.

Ultimately, it will be left up to you, The Courier, where you want to divert the power of the plant to once you have it up and running again. You can use it to help your chosen factions, such as the NCR or Legion, for your own personal use to create a massive orbital strike super-weapon, or you can actually use it for the common good and distribute it across the whole Mojave.

1 Beyond The Beef

This Will Turn Your Stomach

One of Fallout: New Vegas's strangest and most memorable side quests, Beyond The Beef, has you infiltrating the notorious White Glove Society at the Ultra-Luxe resort on the New Vegas Strip. This mission, arguably one of the most disturbing in the entire Fallout franchise, has you roaming around the kitchens of this cannibal cult and essentially making the decision as to who is going to be served up for dinner.

Of course, there is a way to get through the quest by tampering with the meat and creating an imitation pie, but it's really much easier to either serve the feast or exterminate the cannibals by poisoning their banquet wine. Either way, you will be forced to lie, cheat and murder your way through this brutal ordeal — it's simply a case of whether you choose the lesser of the available evils.