Back in January video game leaker Tyler McVicker claimed that a sequel to Fallout: New Vegas was in the works, and was set for release at some point in the second half of the decade. While this has yet to be confirmed, it has generated a lot of fan interest, as well as raised some huge questions.
A sequel to Fallout: New Vegas would need to deal with some huge unresolved story threads if it was going to continue the tale of the Mojave Wasteland or any of the surrounding areas. Here are just some of the stones from the original Fallout: New Vegas canon left unturned, and the key questions the next game should answer.
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One of the most pressing questions for Fallout: New Vegas 2 is simple, but it could also be one of the hardest to answer. The question of who won the Second Battle of Hoover Dam hangs over any potential New Vegas sequel. In the first game players could choose between aiding the armies of Caesar's Legion or the New California Republic. They could also help Mr. House upgrade his Securitrons to maintain New Vegas' independence, or they could usurp Mr. House and take over New Vegas for themselves.
Fallout fans can only assume that each of these options would have had a radically different impact on New Vegas and the Mojave Wasteland as a whole. New Vegas was the meeting point of the NCR's eastward expansion and the Legion's march west. No matter who won the battle, it's likely that both the Legion and NCR would continue to exist in Fallout: New Vegas 2. However, any sequel set after the events of the first game would likely have to make a canonical decision regarding New Vegas' leadership. This would also include answering pressing questions about which important characters survived, particularly whether or not Caesar himself survived his tumor.
The fate of New Vegas is crucial to the political landscape of the American Southwest as it exists in the Fallout universe. Any upcoming Fallout game will likely need to establish what took place at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam if it's going to take place in that part of the country. This question is so vital to any New Vegas sequel that it might even be a good reason for New Vegas 2 to be a prequel to avoid alienating fans who made other choices.
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The Mojave Wasteland is the furthest westward reach of Caesar's Legion, but little is actually known of life in the areas safely within the Legion's borders. It is known that the Legion controls many of the areas which composed pre-war Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. The original New Vegas would suggest that the Legion simply forces weaker tribes into its growing empire. However there is very little information about what life is like in the places that the Legion conquers and then leaves behind as its frontier moves westwards.
Furthermore, the possibility that Caesar himself died during the events of Fallout: New Vegas raises huge questions about what would happen next in the Legion's holdings east of the Colorado River. The Legion's army takes many slaves as it moves, which raises the possibility of massive slave revolts taking place in the wake of Caesar's demise. However, it seems unlikely that all those who live under Ceasar's Legion east of New Vegas are totally divided into slaves or the kinds of zealous centurions found in the Legion's camps across the Mojave.
There's likely more to the Legion's massive success than meets the eye, and information about its post-war settlements and society could be an interesting area to explore in a Fallout: New Vegas sequel. The Legion is clearly willing to deal with some tribes more diplomatically than others, as demonstrated if the Courier decides to recruit the tribes of the Mojave into the Legion. The true complexity of the Legion's society and its fate after the events of New Vegas remain to be revealed.
The NCR that appears in Fallout: New Vegas is a far cry from the one Fallout fans first encountered in Fallout 1. The NCR was originally founded by a man named Aradesh, who helped found the town of Shady Sands using a G.E.C.K. He would later be elected the first president of the NCR. Following his disappearance, his daughter Tandi was elected president. Tandi would remain president for 52 years, and the NCR citizenship test in New Vegas describes her as the young nation's most popular president to date.
In 2273 Aaron Kimball became president of the NCR and began "the Mojave Campaign." This seven-year campaign aimed to annex the Mojave Wasteland and make it a part of the NCR, marking a turn to a more expansionist and imperialist phase in the nation's history. The NCR had always been part of a balancing act. As Mr. House points out in New Vegas, its foundation aimed to emulate the very pre-war American democracy which ended with the Great War of 2077.
Kimball's presidency and its aftermath could see the NCR stray even further from its optimistic and idealistic routes. Mr. House even raises the possibility that the NCR will put New Vegas under an aggressive trade embargo, or may simply declare war on the Mojave and attempt to take it by force. It is for this reason that he suggests keeping Kimball alive, so that he becomes a scapegoat for the failure of the Mojave Campaign, rather than a martyr.
Whatever the player chooses, it's clear that the NCR is drifting away from its first incarnation in Fallout 1. Fallout: New Vegas 2 could even present a later, more villainous version of the nation. Whether or not Kimball's Mojave Campaign succeeded during the events of the first game, however, will likely have a major impact on the nation's success as well as its future goals.
Fallout: New Vegas is available now on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.