Fallout New Vegas, Which Faction Should I side With?

[roadworx]

i'm gonna be one of the few that goes with yes man.

 

the legion is bad for obvious reasons: they're butchers, enslaving and massacring whoever they please, just like the romans they try so hard to emulate. even if one is to argue that they're not as bad as they may seem at first glance, they're still brutal warlords. not to mention, dictatorships tend to not last too long after the ruler dies, and caesar is very clearly not in the best shape. this would make things so, so much worse than before they took over, because at least there wasn't a civil war being fought in everyone's backyard.

 

the ncr, on the other hand, is an attempt to bring back pre-war american civilization, with all of the inequality, corruption, and governmental ineptitude that comes with it...and especially the westward eastward expansionism. those living in new vegas will have their way of life stripped away from them, as western businesses begin to come in and replace local communal production and settlers wanting new opportunities force those who've lived there for years to relocate further east. while some may say that compromises between the ncr and local populations can still occur, i'd like to point out that that exact thing doesn't usually work out very well. those who lived there originally will always end up getting subjugated - just look at the native americans to see the sorta shit that happens to people who stand in the way of expanding empires.

 

really, if you compare the two, the ncr and the legion aren't actually all that different. both are attempting to conquer new vegas, one just does it with a facade of civility.

 

11 hours ago, act said:

-snip-

i agree with all of this, other than the part of mr. house - let's be real, the guy is a businessman. he doesn't know how to run a society fairly (not that he likely even wants to), and the extreme wealth inequality present in new vegas makes that all too evident; he's turned it into a hyper-capitalist dystopia. if he really gave a shit about making new vegas a decent place to be, there wouldn't be children out in the streets eating rats while casinos full of wealth and luxury tower over them. what he wants is to turn the place into dubai.

 

anyways, yes man is really the only decent answer. you're preventing people from being subjugated, removing a wannabe andrew ryan from the equation, and if you disable the securitrons, then there won't be any dictator at all. it'll be chaotic afterwards, sure, but things will settle down eventually as people begin to govern themselves

Edited July 25, 2022 by roadworx

[rzh]

7 hours ago, Murdoch said:

 

The slaves may beg to differ with your assessment of that particular topic.

"It worked" as in, it fulfilled its purpose as a source of cheap labor. Never meant to imply it was a positive or that it's something to be glossed over or something that we should return to.

3 hours ago, roadworx said:

anyways, yes man is really the only decent answer. you're preventing people from being subjugated, removing a wannabe andrew ryan from the equation, and if you disable the securitrons, then there won't be any dictator at all. it'll be chaotic afterwards, sure, but things will settle down eventually as people begin to govern themselves 

My main issue with this is that even if you do everything right, one of those factions is going to mess it up at some point.

The Boomers are still deeply xenophobic and they have a pre-war bomber, the Brotherhood of Steel are still assholes, the Khans are still a mini-Legion.

One of these groups is inevitably going to decide that they're fit to govern others as well, not just themselves.

Edited July 25, 2022 by rzh

[Johnny Cruelty]

13 hours ago, Dub Bag said:

i killed him

i hate u

[act]

15 hours ago, roadworx said:

i agree with all of this, other than the part of mr. house - let's be real, the guy is a businessman. he doesn't know how to run a society fairly (not that he likely even wants to), and the extreme wealth inequality present in new vegas makes that all too evident; he's turned it into a hyper-capitalist dystopia. if he really gave a shit about making new vegas a decent place to be, there wouldn't be children out in the streets eating rats while casinos full of wealth and luxury tower over them. what he wants is to turn the place into dubai.

You're giving an unfair judgement of House. Freeside and North Vegas are, simply put, not House's problem. Especially when people from the West and the East are at his throat. If the NCR, or Benny, or even the Player - that means you - wanted New Vegas to be a better place to live in, why don't they just magically fix all the problems of Freeside and North Vegas?

 

[Dubbag]

after beating to Legion story im really sad that the Kings are wiped out. I like those guys.

[june gloom]

NCR are a joke. They're trying desperately to be America 2.0 but they're still trapped in the early 19th century. They have no real manufacturing base, their expansionist tendencies has made their borders more difficult to defend, and they're prone to corruption.

 

Given the opportunity I'd sooner nuke the Legion than NCR, but that don't mean the NCR are my friends.

[Devalaous]

On 7/29/2022 at 7:10 PM, june gloom said:

Given the opportunity I'd sooner nuke the Legion than NCR, but that don't mean the NCR are my friends.

 

aka nuke the Legion, then throw Oliver off the Dam as a warning :D

[Dubbag]

OK UPDATE!

So after many many playthroughs I have come to my own opinion on things finally and have found my own way of playing (or at least what suits me the most).

I play Yes man story line. I cater to the NCR until it's time to stab them in the back, I dont really like any of the factions and if i had to choose I would stay NCR if only working with Yes man didn't piss them off. I do as many quests for the NCR until I cant do anything else for them with out angering them with yes man. I work for house until the BOS bunker destruction. I use Veronica just to get into the bunker then destroy it and kill her (She annoys the fuck out of me). Eventually I work for the kings and become one. Then murder all factions and thats it.

 

I am an evil prick in this game and even kill everyone at nellis because I dont feel like running around for them just for their approval.

I seem to play as if it's me against the wasteland shaping it to my desires.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Dub Bag

[Johnny Cruelty]

2 minutes ago, Dub Bag said:

OK UPDATE!

So after many many playthroughs I have come to my own opinion on things finally and have found my own way of playing (or at least what suits me the most).

I play Yes man story line. I cater to the NCR until it's time to stab them in the back, I dont really like any of the factions and if i had to choose I would stay NCR if only working with Yes man didn't piss them off. I do as many quests for the NCR until I cant do anything else for them with out angering them with yes man. I work for house until the BOS bunker destruction. I use Veronica just to get into the bunker then destroy it and kill her (She annoys the fuck out of me). Eventually I work for the kings and become one. Then murder all factions and thats it.

 

I am an evil prick in this game and even kill everyone at nellis because I dont feel like running around for them just for their approval.

I seem to play as if it's me against the wasteland shaping it to my desires.

buddy

I think you play too much video games

[Dubbag]

8 minutes ago, Johnny Cruelty said:

buddy

I think you play too much video games

its an RPG. It's roleplaying. Also you're on a videogame forum, telling someone that they play too many games. Think about that for a second.

Not trying to be rude that comment just irked me a bit.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Dub Bag

[MemeMind]

I love New Vegas but I dont care about faction alignments. 
I choose them based on the character im playing as.

Melee only was also my legion playthrough.

Energy Weapons was my House Playthrough.

Guns and explosives was my NCR playthrough.

My first playthrough was a generalist with no roleplay and I just did Yes Man because it was fastest. 

 

I think people care too much about the factions. Just play the game and do what works for you.

[TheSlipgateStudios]

I side with Mr House usually because I feel that is the canon ending for the game, aside from NCR. Yes Man ending is a close second for me, NCR a possible third and Legion just once to see where the story ended: and it wasn't really good. So, Andrew Ryan number two it is!

[Ludi]

I think every side is interesting in it's own way except Yes Man as stated by @Mr. Freeze for being a cringe libertarian. 

 

I personally think Caesar's Legion is the best outcome. Even if it's morally reprehensible, Caesar is an incredibly strong, if cruel leader. Even if Caesar died as a result of his health problems, Lanius would likely be just as, if not even stronger. 

 

Theoretically, if society under the Legion were modeled like Rome, it could last a very long time, if not indefinitely. 

 

Caesar also pointed out that the NCR functioned in a very similar way in it's earlier years, with Tandi serving as president for around 50 years. That's not terribly democratic, is it? 

Edited August 25, 2022 by Sr_Ludicolo

[Ludi]

On 8/22/2022 at 6:29 PM, Johnny Cruelty said:

buddy

I think you play too much video games

 

... What?

 

You signed up for a Doom forum to talk about Doom. According to my sources, Doom is classified as a "video game"

[Murdoch]

52 minutes ago, Sr_Ludicolo said:

Theoretically, if society under the Legion were modeled like Rome, it could last a very long time, if not indefinitely. 

 

Sooner or later, empires fall. It can take years, decades or even centuries but it will happen.

[Ludi]

21 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

 

Sooner or later, empires fall. It can take years, decades or even centuries but it will happen.

 

Very true, but that's still at least relatively long term. That can be said about all of these options, but this one poses the most success to me.

[Lila Feuer]

The writing is so grey that I could believe in any faction if I devoted myself to their ideas. Maybe not so much Mr. House, though, if only because I have a harder time agreeing to a select few with power above all else. I went with Yes Man on my first playthrough, despite assisting NCR against Legion, because NCR's leadership pissed me off and I wanted to take over. I didn't have anything against those fighting under NCR, though. I had a hate boner for Legion the moment I saw what they did to Nipton as I suppose many players did on their first playthrough.

I also convinced Ulysses to not use the bombs, because we'd be right back at square one. Fighting off the Marked Men with him was awesome.

[ZombiemanMastermind]

I hate the NCR because they literally want taxes in a god damn wasteland

[pilottobombadier]

On 9/7/2022 at 2:11 PM, CacodemonMan said:

I hate the NCR because they literally want taxes in a god damn wasteland

Only because they're going to spend it on their politicians first, lets be honest :P 

I went with the Yes-Man ending, and I think I went there almost every time because I'd try to get into the other sides' ideologies, and it was pretty much "nope".  The NCR is a little too much like the United States under Bush Sr. 

Legion is like Rome in its infancy, when it was really, really awful place. 

House is despot.  BoS is lost (and they're much bigger assholes than in previous titles, save 3).

You can also annihilate the street gangs (which I did), although the Kings are the lesser of the evils, if I remember correctly.  The Boomers are nutjobs.  And every one of them is some kind of tribalistic shitbag.  

The Yes Man ending takes all of that away, and allows people to just continue living their lives.  Yes, some psycho might come along, but probably not while The Courier is alive (pretty sure the notion of messing with the person that single-handedly wiping the floor with The Legion will be a pretty intimidating thought), which gives The Courier time and opportunity to train new protectors for that world.