Why I Can’t Be a Bastard in Fallout: New Vegas

This article contains potential spoilers for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. You have been warned!

To aid those not familiar with Fallout or the next-gen games in the series, I’ve linked to related wiki articles where possible. That said, I’m not promising that this will make this any easier to read!

When Fallout 3 came out I was really excited to get stuck in and enjoy it. The prospect of strolling around a post-nuclear apocalyptic wasteland Mad Max style is just one of those old sci-fi clichés that’s just perfect for indulging in.

In preparation, I’d put a few hours into my girlfriend’s copy of Oblivion IV, the medieval game with the same engine as Fallout by Bethesda. Creating a Blackadder-esque dashing brigand called “Silas Ravenclaw”, I gave up on the game in frustration and boredom after about ten hours. The problem was that the thing I really wanted all the time I was playing it was a nice hefty gun; all of this nonsense about bashing each other over the head with swords totally wasn’t my style. My other half suggested using magic, but there’s something about the whimsy of the arcane arts that’s never sat well with me either¹. Add to the fact that the sneaking didn’t work and the clumsy nature of combat and bartering in general, I left Oblivion as a lost cause.

So Fallout 3 eventually arrived one Christmas morning, and I got stuck in. There were a few problems and hangovers from Oblivion – I couldn’t help but notice that shooting enemies in the face didn’t mean an instant kill, and there was still the awkwardness of the running animation when running at angles (more of a 45 degree glide). However, I enjoyed it up until I ran out of ammo and kept getting killed, and then BioShock was inserted into the PS3 and Fallout 3 didn’t get much of a look in after that.

There were about four other false starts with Fallout 3. I really did want to enjoy it, but for various reasons each new beginning had its own faults. Two of the false starts were down to the difficulty curve (I’d keep running out of meds and ammo) and another was probably when I realised that trophies weren’t retroactive (my PS3 wasn’t online for the first year I had it due to a lack of wireless in my home). It was, after reading around online through various Fallout 3-based blogs, that I restarted Fallout 3 for the decisive time.

Apparently I’d been going about it all wrong; I’d been trying to play as myself. The problem with that was that I didn’t particularly have any goals or attitude towards any of the characters or factions, which was a problem because the game’s mechanics are based around making decisions and pursuing a “right” or “wrong” outcome. Like in Oblivion, I needed an avatar to embody and manipulate. So Max Valerion was born.

Kleptomaniacal, sociopathic and narcissistic with the occasional psychopathic tendencies, Max was the complete bastard I could never be. Having sat through the opening scene four times already, this time I found new enjoyment to be had in being a nuisance. Max received a BB gun for his birthday and thanked his father by assaulting his father’s friend with pellets. A bully wanted Max’s sweetroll? Max gave him a five-knuckle sandwich. Max’s test scores were of a violent nature. When the vault went to hell, he ignored cries for help from the bully that used to pick on him, and brutally assaulted the corrupt (and generally condescending) Overseer. Once out of the Vault, the world would be his oyster.

The first goal was to find some nice digs and employ a lackey to watch Max’s back (or do all the dirty work, in other words). The nearby town of Megaton was easy pickings. Max strolled into town and, after placing a live mine into the town Sheriff’s underwear, proceeded on a one-man killing spree. Ten fatalities and a quick retreat later, Max came back at night to systematically burgle every house in Megaton, selling the stolen wares to the unsuspecting local shopkeeper. With his first 1000 caps, Max enticed the ex-raider Jericho into his employment. Max then had the town incinerated in a nuclear blast, courtesy of Allistair Tenpenny and his right-hand Mr. Burke²

For his work, Tenpenny awarded Max with a cosy penthouse suite. Max now had a base of operations, a plush suit and a henchman to call his own. From here things only got better as Max burgled, shot and talked his way through the rest of the game. He wasn’t intrinsically evil; I figured he was trying to model himself on the dapper and mysterious Mr. Burke, and that meant being a mercenary rather than just a bastard. Money was usually the leading motivation of most of Max’s dialogues, and since I’d given him fairly high intelligence and science ability (the only thing he inherited from his father) he tended to leave most of the riff-raff of the wastes dazed and confused when he talked them out of killing him and handing over all of their caps. Max didn’t poison the water supply like the President wanted, that would have been stupid; after all, Max needed to drink that water as well. Max took pity on an old lady (the mother he possibly never had) and found her a working violin, although he came damn close to selling it to a museum. The slavers liked Max and he had a mutual respect for them, because they did good business and knew how to keep their enterprise going.

The trouble with Fallout 3’s ethical system was that it assumed that the player either wanted to be a white knight or an utterly malevolent psychopath. It wasn’t really constructed for anti-heroes (or villain protagonists) like Max, but I managed to find a comfy seam within the game to occupy my character with.

The main payoff of Fallout 3 was fighting the Enclave with the Brotherhood of Steel. This was particularly delicious for me, because I despised how the game presumed that I wanted to help the proud, pious, self-affirming gits of the Brotherhood and there was a moment at the end that made all the effort of working for them worthwhile. Through the entire plot thread I kept telling myself that Max was in it for the cool guns and was just biding his time, so by the point where Max was sneaking through Deathclaw inhabited sewers for them I was just slightly bitter. Imagine my surprise when, having fought through the heavily armed mobile Enclave headquarters to the control room, I discovered that I could turn the Enclave’s giant laser satellite of death on to the Brotherhood’s HQ in the DC wasteland (built inside what used to be the Pentagon). The smile on my face when the Brotherhood aircraft that had come to collect me landed and the Brotherhood Paladins in my company saw the smoking crater that had been their home was so big that I laughed. It was Max’s final triumph, and he celebrated by heading out to the swamps for an extended holiday shooting inbred yokels.

Max finished the game sat on the penthouse balcony of Tenpenny tower, in the company of Alastair Tenpenny, his cynical assistant Mr. Jericho and his loyal dog Dogmeat. I like to think that shortly after I turned off the game he shoved Tenpenny off of the top of his tower and became the new management. So that was that³.

Fallout: New Vegas was announced about two months after I’d shelved Fallout 3 for good, and it was to my delight that I read about the new setting and story. It wasn’t grey and brown! There would be gambling! Nice suits! New guns! Even better, the game would be set three years after the events of Fallout 3, which meant only one thing…

Max Valerion was going to Vegas.

I justified it in my head, based on plot synopses I’d read. The main character would start off shot in the head and left to die in the desert, and filling in the gaps was fairly easy. Given his behaviour in DC, it would be inevitable that Max would eventually be chased out of the DC wastelands (probably by bounty hunters and I suspect that a betrayal by Jericho was involved). Max would eventually find himself in New Vegas, taking the job as a courier to make ends meet and generally being bitter about his fall from power. Getting shot in the head didn’t help his mood. At some point between fleeing DC and the beginning of New Vegas, Max had let his considerable talents become rusty. The bullet in the head had finished off what little was left of his mental skills (considering that he’d already lost a sizeable chunk of brain to a demented boat captain when visiting the swamps of Mississippi). As for the sudden disappearance of his android bionics, there was probably some hilarious explanation⁴.

New Vegas really wasn’t designed with the intention of carrying on an existing character. Bringing Max back meant reinstalling Fallout 3 and loading up the old save. You see, what Max actually did after I originally finished his game was suddenly leap from his seat, travel at top speed to the game’s only plastic surgeon and then he spent half an hour jotting down his head and facial measurements. It would have been nice if New Vegas could detect old Fallout 3 saves and build a profile based on it, like Mass Effect 2, a game I’ve never played but it’s apparently fantastic.

With Max rebuilt with his initial stats (not bigger! Not faster! Definitely not stronger!) he ventured out from the doctor’s house into the New Vegas sun. Within two hours I’d already helped a band of escaped convicts kill all the inhabitants and move into the starting tutorial town. This would ironically be the undoing of my first playthrough, and was my first introduction to the problem with playing New Vegas as a straight up bastard.

Although I’d satisfied my evil streak, moving the convicts into town had the unforeseen consequences that I’d shot myself in the foot. The convicts were talentless cretins, meaning that useful traits like being the kind doctor who was happy to patch me up anytime had been stomped out under the heels of the convicts. Add this to the fact that I was playing on hardcore mode, where combat is more likely to leave you crippled and near-death, and I was stumped. The nearest town where I could get heals was miles down the road, past a town full of trigger-happy raiders and several of the Vegas wastelands critters. Sure I could buy meds, but this was all I was spending caps on and, much like my first Fallout 3 playthrough, I eventually ran out of ammo. No ammo, no meds, low on life, nobody to help. Start again.

Take two: Max this time aids the townsfolk against the riff-raff that is the gang of convicts looking to move in and take over. It’s justified, the convicts have no class and Max would feel a begrudging obligation to return the favour to the doctor and the folks who took him in. After the fight, Max tools up and heads down the road, now with somewhere to fall back to should things get rough. At this point the starter town Goodsprings, unfortunately, has become Megaton. I’d spend the next ten or so hours of game play falling back to this overly too nice area every time I needed cheap aid. There would be a nasty taste in my mouth every time Max hobbled back to Doc Mitchell looking for cheap heals or radiation removal. To add insult to injury, I’d made early enemies in the Powder Gangers, the group of convicts armed with dynamite operating out of the nearby prison – usually a gang of armed villains would be the kind of company Max would like to keep.

The plot of New Vegas dictates that you’re chasing the bastard that put a bullet in your skull at the beginning of the game, a smooth talker called Benny. Naturally you’d think that this would mean heading towards the New Vegas strip to the North, but the road leads to a town that, through sheer convenience from a game design perspective, has been overwhelmed with Deathclaws – creatures in the Fallout universe that you don’t want to tangle with at low levels without a big fat gun that will absolutely positively kill every motherf*cker in the room. The chase instead means that you have to head South away from the Vegas strip on a road that loops back around to the North eventually leading to the Strip – a nice touch is that the most prominent landmark in New Vegas, the Lucky 38 Casino tower, gets closer and closer as you progress on the chase. It’s particularly nice if you’re a fan of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series (“and so Roland pursued the Man in Black”, “the tower is closer”, etc.), which I’m not⁵.

Like any good chase narrative, every town you arrive at along the way is one step behind Benny, often full of people saying “Oh that guy? you just missed him!”, or lines to that effect. More notably, each town has a quest associated with it that scuppered Max’s chances of retaining status as top bastard:

• The first town has a quest where convicts have taken over, and you’re required to clear most of them out. Unfortunately you can’t appeal to the convicts as an ally and shooting your way through only grants you good karma.
• The second town has been ransacked by a regiment of Caesar’s Legion, an organised group of slavers wearing Roman armour. The residents have been crucified, which was a blessing because it meant it was too late to accidentally help them.
• The third is a town built around a hotel and features a quest to help a dishonored crackshot war vet who, if you really want to recruit as a companion, you’ll be truthful with and gain good karma (I miss Jericho).
• The fourth town is in the middle of a siege/hostage situation between the army and Benny’s abandoned crew, a bunch of leather clad bikers sans bikes. I’m not on the side of the army, and it appears that Benny double-crossed his own crew, so I opt to help the guys out and negotiate a truce between them and the army. Good karma rolls my way. God dammit!

Long story short, you finally reach the Strip and catch up with Benny who, at the point of confronting you, flees like a little bitch and sends his dudes to kill you. Abandoning the Strip for fear of his life, you’re left with the open world at your feet and some big decisions to make. A word on those in a bit.

Max’s status as big bastard of the wastes was mostly ruined by all the side quests. A lot of the time the diametric opposite responses you can give are bordering on the pointless in terms of what they achieve. I’ve already mentioned that Fallout 3 wavered between white knight and psychopath, but in New Vegas it’s toned down to being between naive optimist and sneering delinquent. I often found that I couldn’t bring myself to choose the “evil” response because it would have often been inflammatory for the sake of being inflammatory, and there’s no point in making fights with people in this game – factions remember your face this time around. Instead, I’d often have to plump for the mercenary option – Max had a lot of charisma points early on, meaning that his gift of the silver tongue could often nickel and dime more cash (or caps) out of mission-givers. Unfortunately the mercenary attitude isn’t viewed as a negative in Fallout New Vegas, in fact conning extra cash out of people still means that you’ve done what they’ve asked and subsequently that bonus often comes with a package of good karma.

I’d like to touch on the factions for a moment, since it’s a dynamic that New Vegas introduces that’s both clever and an embuggerance⁶ if you like to keep up your reputation as a badass. There are loads of minor factions – towns are often amongst these, as well as lesser gangs. Factions each have their own opinion of you, so if you waltz into town and start massacring the population, don’t expect to come back later to a warm welcome – I did the same trick in Fallout 3 in order to earn enough caps to recruit Jericho, but the difference was that in that game I could run away, come back later and the locals wouldn’t be hostile. You can imagine my reluctance to pick as many fights in New Vegas as I did in Fallout 3. It’s hard to play a game when half the NPCs also want your arse leaded to the wall with bullets.

The biggest three factions actually resemble the good, the bad and the ugly. You’re expected to ally yourself with one of them depending on which way you swing.

The good is represented by the NCR (New California Republic), who are basically an extension of the government and military from before the bombs fell. Their government officials all wear suits and push paper, and their army all wear green military gear and helmets that might have been atypical of the American forces circa 1950. Given how Max (and, by extension, myself) is opposed to overt military force, jackbooted jarheads and small-minded desk jockeys, there was no way in hell that he was going to ally with them. This was made difficult by the fact that the majority of quests in the Mojave come from the twenty or so NCR bases and outposts that are scattered across the Mojave and the Strip like spots on a teenager’s face. You can’t walk twenty metres without tripping over some desk sergeant who needs you to deliver a message, or a captain who requires an outsider to go check on their missing supplies. I’d usually compensate by having Max con extra cash out of any NCR trooper throwing a quest his way.

The bad is represented by Caesar’s Legion, the aforementioned throwbacks to the Roman era. Much like the Romans they absorb other cultures (or tribes) into their ranks while proceeding ever-forwards across the land. It’s a male-dominated culture where women are playthings. Those who are captured are either crucified or put to work as slaves. Now, back in DC Max was all too happy to sideline as a slaver – the pay was good and the regular full-time slavers had a mutual admiration for Valerion’s work. Difference was, that was all business; Caesar’s Legion captures slaves not for profit but as part of the culture. Besides, they’re very highfalutin and take themselves very seriously. Max can’t work in that environment, there’s no fun and no profit (especially since the Legion pays in their own worthless currency – at least the NCR pays in caps!).

To make matters worse it’s heavily implied that, should it come down to fighting, the Legion could easily overpower the already strained forces of the NCR. It’s a looming threat that’s always in the background of events. I had been sceptical on first encounters with pompous legionaries, for some reason I had the impression in my head that the infamous Caesar himself would turn out to be a simpering, pampered moron in a toga, much in the vein of Malcolm McDowell in Caligula. Meeting the man himself turns out that he actually looks more like an aged, surly Kevin Spacey. Calm, confident and intelligent, Casear is more than happy to explain to you how he single-handedly created one of the most formidable fighting forces in the lands. That was a slap to the face in terms of my expectations, certainly. I was glad to get away from the Legion encampment, leaving Caesar to think I was helping him (after dispatching Benny in his arena with Max’s bare hands) and back to scheming out of range of where Caesar could reach me.

What I expected – What I got – What it was actually like in my head.

The NCR and Caesar’s Legion sit camped on opposite ends of New Vegas’ other major landmark, the Hoover Dam. The Dam is pivotal to these two parties because it’s the main source of hydroelectric power – control the dam and you control the Strip and the surrounding desert. The third party, which I referred to as being the Ugly, comes in the form of the Strip’s mysterious and reclusive head honcho, Mr. House. He’s actually not that ugly and his interests lie in rebuilding civilisation through capitalism, except my analogy wouldn’t have fit so well if I’d have said it was the good, the bad and the capitalist. I could get behind Mr. House – he reminded me very much of BioShock’s Andrew Ryan, in that he had grand economic schemes for everything that never quite panned out. House retains control of the Strip through big, armed robots called Securitrons, and he’s interested in obtaining the Dam in order to make the Strip independent of any government or culture. He genuinely wants to further humanity’s development and, as a by-product, make a shitload of cash. I could really get behind Mr. House…except that he’s a condescending prick who talks down to you like you’re five, and Max can’t have that. Max Valerion is no one’s dumb sidekick.

New Vegas’ Mr. Robert House and BioShock’s Andrew Ryan. Rich men with awesome moustaches.

As you’ve probably ascertained, Max didn’t really fit into any of the lifestyles offered by the big three parties. Jarheads, Romans and a reclusive capitalist all have their good points and bad points but it’s not the Valerion way of things. Luckily, there was a fourth way. It turns out that there’s a robot hiding in Benny’s room called Yes Man, a chipper personality who’s all too happy to tell you all about Benny’s plans for screwing over the big three parties in favour of an independent New Vegas. Of course, that’s not the way I (or Max) heard it: what I heard was “Here’s a plan to let you take over control of the Strip”. That’s more like it.

It turns out that independence for New Vegas is probably one of the more difficult quest lines in the game, mainly because it requires you to preferably gain the trust of all the minor groups out in the Mojave (or in the very least make sure they don’t cause trouble when the brown stuff splatters the fan). These parties include:

• The local families that help run the New Vegas Strip.
• The Great Khans – the bikers without the bikes.
• The Boomers – vault dwellers who took over an air base and have heavy artillery.
• The Brotherhood of Steel.

The local families were easy enough to deal with – there were some confrontations supplanting figureheads with lackeys loyal to Max’s cause, and a bit of espionage involving disguising Max in a tuxedo with mask, good times. The Boomers were also fairly easy to placate – the most difficult part for them was a) getting to their base in one piece without being shelled into oblivion and b) ranking up certain character skills to the point of being able to complete their quest⁷. The big payoff comes when you help to fish a B-32 Bomber out of a lake for them, and they promise to come to your aid when most needed.

This left the other two. The Brotherhood of Steel were already looking for a kicking after Max’s experiences in DC, and they didn’t help their case when, after navigating a sandstorm and evading patrols to break into their compound, the Brotherhood slapped an explosive collar on Max’s neck and stripped him down to his pants. It was like they couldn’t wait to die fast enough. It didn’t matter that they held a beef with the NCR or that they could be valuable allies, Max + the Brotherhood = bad blood.  After gaining enough trust to get them to remove the collar and getting his gear back, Max spent the next half an hour pickpocketing the three head honchos for their keycards for the computer that activates the bunker’s self-destruct system (lucky they had one, eh?).

There were complications. One of the companions Max picked up shortly before he could blow the bunker sky-high was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. Out of all the recruitable NPCs, Veronica the Brotherhood lesbian is the only tank, being able to wear power armour and proficient in the heavier melee combat weapons. She compliments Max’s run-and-gun style nicely because she’s the muscle he requires  in order to be able to keep distance between himself and whatever he’s shooting at. So blowing up her family’s home was out of the question then. Dammit, I want to be a bastard!

Things came to a crawl when it came time to convince the Great Khans not to sign up with Caesar’s Legion, and I’m not just talking about the frame rate (although that did die on its arse a couple of times). It was all smooth sailing for most of the quest chain, even outing Caesar’s visiting diplomat as a lying twat was pleasurable. The point the quest line hit the proverbial brick wall was when I was required to talk to a certain character stationed in a quarry. A quarry full of Deathclaws. The quarry that had blocked me earlier, in fact. For f*ck’s sake.

For a while I had to piddle about with lesser quests, and I had to leave the game alone for several months. If I’m honest, I’ve only just returned to it, and most of this article was written six months ago when I was getting stuck. I’ve made some progress, not just in the game, but on Max’s gleaming reputation too. Let me explain how I managed to start sullying it.

Veronica, bless her little cotton socks, wants to impress her allies at the Brotherhood and get them to cooperate with some of the other factions. Needless to say, after finding and presenting evidence, the elder basically chews her out and, with a little bit of eager provoking from Max, she decides that maybe it’s time to shack up with a new faction. Just to hammer the point home before she can start anew with her chosen faction, some of her old comrades turn up and butcher the lot of them. After an incredibly enjoyable fire-fight Veronica decides that the Brotherhood isn’t for her and decides to go it alone. Thanks guys! That was all the help she needed in making the decision.

Free of his obligation to not touch the Brotherhood of Steel, Max sent Veronica back to base, cracked his knuckles and headed straight to their bunker for some well-deserved revenge. Not just for himself, but for poor naive Veronica too. On went the self-destruct system, Max turned on his Stealth Boy (a.k.a. Cloak of Invisibility) and snuck out just in time to feel the shock wave of the explosion⁸. Evil laughter and taunting abounded, I’m sure. The Brotherhood were officially out of the bigger picture.

As for the quarry, surfing on the new wave of malevolence in Max, I struck upon the idea of Deathclaw safari. This meant buying the biggest rifle the local gun shop had available, which happened to be a .50 cal anti-tank rifle loaded with armour-piercing and incendiary rounds. Let’s see the hulking beasts rip Max to shreds when they can’t even get near him! I thought. It worked beautifully, nothing like the smell of burning Deathclaw in the morning! Max met up with the contact, and shortly afterwards Max talked the leader of the Khans into moving away. Cross the last faction off the list!

At the time of writing, Max has not yet enacted his grand scheme of taking over the New Vegas Strip. Events are in motion, and things are all set to start the end game, but the trigger will be killing Mr. House and once that happens the NCR and the Legion will be baying for blood. Right now Max is still on good terms with everyone, because little do they know what he’s got up his sleeve⁹. I’ve even had Max run some errands for the NCR, just to keep up appearances and earn a little cash. Despite this causing the deaths of several legion commanders, the Legion still consider me an ally due, albeit as a “sneering punk” or “merciful thug”. I’m not quite sure why they’re not happy to write me off as a complete bastard not worth their time, because I haven’t particularly helped them or followed any of their quest lines. Perhaps it’s because I’ve got one of Caesar’s markers, which he donated to me at some point (legit too, Max didn’t even have to steal it!). There was even some NCR collateral damage that caused his pristine record to be bumped down to “dark hero”.

Maybe I’ve been overly critical on the level of bastardry in this game. For a start, Max has done a lot of wheeling and dealing, making people feel like they’re getting the good deal when they’re actually getting screwed over. Max is currently at 19000 caps because of his mercantile nature and kleptomaniacal tendencies. Sure, he’s not outright threatening people any more and scaring the locals, but maybe that bullet to the brain did something. Who knows, maybe Max has grown up a little? Or maybe he just wanted to turn over a new leaf? After all, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I’m just along for the ride.

It will all be mine, MINE! Er, I mean Max’s. Yeah.

Much like the payoff at the end of Fallout 3, where Max turned on the unsuspecting Brotherhood, maybe turning up at the dam with a whole bunch of dudes and saying to the NCR and the Legion “Surpise!” We’re here to make you our bitches!” just as the B-32 comes into view over the horizon might just be the level of bastardry I’ve been waiting for. I certainly hope so.

For now I’m playing the downloadable missions, which ominously imply that the original courier six wants to meet Max, i.e. the guy who passed up the job that led to Max getting shot in the temple. Mr. Valerion’s going to have to have some serious words with that guy when they meet.

War. War never changes. But Max Valerion does.

Postscript (16/03/15)

It turns out that Max managed to be a complete bastard after all.

Post by Sean Patrick Payne+ | April 26, 2012 at 11:27 pm | Articles, Video Games, Villains | 2 comments

Tags: Bethesda, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Max Valerion, RPG