Fallout: New Vegas Decisions That Feel Much Worse the Second Time You Pl

Obsidian Entertainment's take on Bethesda's Fallout franchise, Fallout: New Vegas, is an enduring fan favorite thanks to its engaging story, expansive world, and deep moral choices. This is a game that keeps players coming back time and time again, but it's also a game where your perception of what you see changes as you learn more and start to see things from new perspectives.

New Vegas is a game where lots of us like to try out new choices in the post-apocalyptic Mojave wasteland, but they're not always easy choices to make. Whether it's because there are mechanical consequences, emotional roller-coasters, or real head scratchers, New Vegas is a game more than capable of making us all stop and think before we choose... especially the second time around.

10 Evacuating Zion

Either Way, A Culture Dies

The Honest Hearts DLC is framed as a choice between innocence and cycles of violence. Whether you choose to evacuate the Sorrows or have them fight, this is a big deal, because it fundamentally changes an important part of their culture.

If you evacuate them, they have to leave behind their home and abandon their traditions and deep connection to the land in search of something entirely different. If you convince them to fight, meanwhile, you're still changing a fundamental part of their worldview. Either scenario feels sad, just in a different way.

9 Convincing Veronica to Leave the Brotherhoo

Is Leaving Really Worth It?

New Vegas's Brotherhood of Steel companion, Veronica, doesn't really like the organization — and for completely understandable reasons. So, it's tempting to convince her to leave to seek out a better life elsewhere, where she can be happier. It seems like an easy choice.

Unfortunately, the ending slides reveal several poor outcomes for Veronica if she leaves, which can be a difficult pill to swallow. In this case, during a second playthrough, you've got to weigh up whether this change was worth what it cost Veronica in the end. There are no easy decisions in this game.

8 Encouraging Boone's Vengeance

Vengeance Leads To A Dark Path

Craig Boone may not be the best New Vegas companion, but he's a solid choice and has some interesting story beats. After meting out some Wasteland justice to the woman who captured his wife, it would be easy for Boone to carry on in a more vengeful state of mind. That's exactly what he can do as an outcome of his personal quest, I Forgot to Remember to Forget.

Depending on some other in-game choices, a vengeful Boone's outcomes are extremely tragic. In one, it's implied he led a doomed last stand against the NCR officer who led the Bitter Springs attack. In another, he becomes a conscienceless mercenary; after a Legion win at Hoover Dam, he ends up killed. What seems like a simple choice to support rough Mojave justice ends with tragic consequences you'll only understand after you've played through once before.

7 Lily's Medication

Loss Of Family Versus Loss Of Control

Everyone's favorite super mutant, Lily Bowen, is a complex and tragic nightkin who offers an intriguing look into the consequences of the super mutant transformation. Her personal story centers on her muddled and fading memories of her former life, specifically her grandchildren. She discovers that when she doesn't take her medication, she can remember her family. When she takes it, though, she forgets about them. We can advise Lily on which way to go.

In-game, there's not really any consequence for the choice made; the ending slides reveal that a Lily who stopped taking her medication eventually became a raging beast. What seems like a neutral choice to help a grandmother becomes something to avoid on a second playthrough.

6 Replacing Papa Khan

Unintended Consequences

The Great Khans are an interesting faction in Fallout: New Vegas, because they're presented as victims of NCR expansion at the same time as being a genuinely problematic band of organized raiders. You can convince the Khans to work for the NCR instead of the Legion. This is generally a good move if you're siding against the Legion, but during For the Republic, Part 2, you can also decide to replace Papa Khan with his second in command, Regis.

Regis is generally more agreeable than Papa Khan, so it seems like an easy choice at first. However, after the NCR ending, the Khans are relocated to an isolated, barren area far north of the NCR's trade routes. Although this is far from their worst outcome, it's not their best, either — and that one can only happen with Papa Khan in charge.

5 Shaping Up the Misfits

The Easy Route Doesn't Pay

New Vegas's favorite band of rag-tag misfits doesn't seem all that relevant on a first playthrough. They're a less-than-stellar band of NCR soldiers that looks like a great example of the NCR's failures and overextension in the Mojave, which is good storytelling, but they don't seem consequential.

You're tasked with sorting them out, which can involve a lazy approach of cheating or plying them with drugs. Either option completes the quest, so it seems like an easy choice when you've got a PipBoy overloaded with side quests, but the true seriousness of this decision is only visible during the slideshow at the end of the game. If you choose cheating or drugs, the Misfits end up court-martialed and executed.

4 Hard Luck Blues

There's Simply No Good Choice

The decision in this quest is a tough one, since no matter what the Courier chooses, it's bad news for someone. The quest has multiple ways to start; a common one is to speak to an NCR sharecropper named Morgan Blake. You've got to figure out why crops are failing. The answer is contamination from Vault 34, home to a bunch of feral ghouls, a radiation leak, and human Vault Dwellers trapped underwater.

You've then got to decide whether to shut off the ventilation to cut off the leak and save the farms, or save the Vault Dwellers but leave the radiation leak as it is. Seeing the Vault Dwellers in-game after saving them on my second go gave this quest new weight for me and I've never chosen the sharecroppers since, but whichever one you choose, you're dooming the other group to a slow and painful death, making this one of the most difficult decisions in gaming.

3 Leaving Mobius Alive

When Mercy Goes Wrong

The New Vegas DLC took us to a collection of weird and wonderful locales within the New Vegas Wasteland, but there's none weirder than the Big MT from Old World Blues. This never-ending pulp sci-fi science experiment is filled with tragic stories, and the fate of Dr Mobius is just one of many. Mobius has been trying — without much success — to keep his co-workers in check.

It's tempting to leave him alive as a good Courier, since he seems mostly harmless after the player gets done with Old World Blues. Except if you do that, the ending slides reveal he keeps up human experimentation with absolutely zero remorse or restraint. The second time around, for me, it felt more of a mercy to everyone to end him right there.

2 Covering for Chief Hanlon

Pragmatism Versus Justice

NCR Chief Hanlon has been manipulating battlefield reports to make the Legion seem stronger than it is, with the ultimate goal of forcing the NCR to abandon the Mojave. Although this can be looked at as a betrayal of the NCR, he sees it as a defence. You need to decide whether to support his stance or not, essentially.

It's a difficult situation where you've got to balance loyalty, the safety of men on the ground, and moral principles. Arguably, covering up his actions is the best outcome, but it's a hard decision because it means justice will never be done.

1 An Independent New Vegas

The True Cost Of Unrestricted Freedom

There are few things as divisive as your choice of ending faction in New Vegas. All the options come with big trade-offs you can't understand before you've decided, but arguably the most difficult choice is the independent New Vegas offered by the helpful and ever-optimistic Yes Man.

This choice sounds like a no-brainer: no scheming House, no expansionist NCR, and New Vegas gets to make its own decisions. The thing is, according to the game's ending slides, it can end up in a lawless, anarchic Wasteland. I chose this my first time, but I haven't done it again — it just feels unsatisfying, even though I'm not a big fan of the NCR.