As I once more chase Benny through the wastes of Fallout: New Vegas, it occurs to me that Big Iron – Marty Robbins' outlaw ballad made infamous by Radio New Vegas – is a chilling microcosm of life in Obsidian's RPG. When the Arizona Ranger with a big iron on his hip rolls into Agua Fria, its townsfolk clock him not as a hero, but as an unknown entity. A dangerous one.
"No one dared to ask his business / No one dared to make a slip," croons Robbins, before drawing our attention back to the big iron on his hip. Because that's what it all comes down to: this enigmatic blank has a gun, and he might just use it.
Perhaps the citizens of Goodsprings can relate to Agua Fria's knee-jerk terror when the Courier survives being shot in the head in their graveyard; rising near-unscathed and unproven only to wade straight into a dispute involving a stranded caravaneer and bandits. Will the Courier risk it all to play hero or side with the Powder Gangers, who seem moments away from turning Goodsprings into easy pickings?
Does one individual truly have the power to save an entire town, or kill outlaw Texas Red when 20 men before them have failed? It's main character syndrome – in itself a preposterous notion of power – and there's something a little alien, almost scary, about RPG protagonists (and Arizona rangers) being able to accomplish the impossible. This carries even more weight in narrative-heavy RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas, where the player's character is shaped by the characterization of those around them and your own intent. Who are you?
Speech check
These games like Fallout will keep you busy until Fallout 5
I don't come back to Fallout: New Vegas often. I've rinsed the game so heavily that attempts to replay it often burn out in the first few hours – I've only reached its expansions a handful of times, but can run from Goodsprings to New Vegas with my eyes closed. But something I'm less proud of tempts me away, too. Fallout 4 is far shallower than Fallout: New Vegas, but vastly easier to jump in and have a brilliant firefight – with shinier visuals, too. And while I inevitably end up sinking tens of hours into Fallout 4 every time, it always feels unfulfilling. It's more of a straightforward shooter than a RPG, so it's like eating a sandwich when you really want pizza.
I think everyone has accepted Fallout 4 isn't very good at being a RPG, so I won't get too far into specifics. But limited dialogue and decision-making options box the protagonist into being a predestined goodie-two-shoes. There's no moment where the Arizona Ranger might just shoot you for the hell of it, which robs players of the fun of shaping, or even discovering, who their character is. I still adore Fallout 4 – it's one of my all-time favorite shooters! – but it's a balm for a different itch.
For a long time, I've worried that this is just the path Bethesda is going down: better moment-to-moment action, at the cost of that personal investment, gradual smoothing until there's no purchase for my grubby RPG-loving mitts to grab onto. Starfield had flashes of brilliance with its traits, but ultimately continued to chase style over substance. Usually, coming back to Fallout: New Vegas is a bittersweet reminder of what we're moving away from – but this time, 25 hours in and already picking my way through the perennially underrated Dead Money, the best parts of the Mojave don't feel as detached from today's industry as they once did.
Call it recency bias, but the last few years' best open world games and best RPGs have felt like the tide coming back to shore. Studios have seemed to find new confidence in meeting players further out of their comfort zone, from the cut-loose wonders of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring, to mechanical depth of Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Even The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered's relatively minor touch-ups show the longevity of being weird, while Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 proves you can try new things and push the boat out without compromising on the genre's core values around storytelling.
For Fallout 5, I'm hoping that Bethesda reconnects with its role-playing side. I know it can! Fallout 76 is quietly one of the best live service games knocking around right now – all without compromising on that sprawling single-player RPG feel – while Starfield Shattered Space was a step in the right direction for prioritizing depth over width. Modern Fallout's crowning achievement, to my mind, are the character studies making up Fallout: New Vegas' legendary four-DLC run. Will we get stories to rival Dead Money's old-world obsessions, or Randall Clark's terminal entries on Honest Hearts? How about brilliantly fleshed-out characters like Father Elijah or Ulysses?
Once, I thought no. But with years of RPG success stories proving I'm not just the odd sicko out, that people really do crave less streamlined adventures – I'd like to think Bethesda sees the same opportunity to bring Fallout's role-playing roots to the fore once more. Give me the stranger with a big iron on his hip, Bethesda, and let me decide who he is.
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