Fallout: New Vegas lead writer says "you can't just make your tyrants cardboard villains," but wonders if Obsidian "done a little too well" there

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"[I had] to write a character who had tried to present a robust argument for authoritarianism"

Fallout: New Vegas
(Image credit: Obsidian)

Fallout: New Vegas' lead writer, John Gonzalez, worries that he did too good a job when writing the fascist Caesar's Legion.

Part of what made Fallout: New Vegas so engaging – and ultimately the best Fallout game – was the sheer number of factions and powers vying for the attention of your courier, and as a result, you can have a ton of different variants on the game's ending depending on who you sided with throughout the story. And while a lot of these options feature a ton of shades of gray when it comes to morality, it's pretty clear Caesar's Legion – a group of slavedriving authoritarians with whom your first interaction is walking into the aftermath of a massacre they performed in the town of Nipton – is supposed to be evil.

Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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