Highlights

  • Fallout: New Vegas has invisible walls that limit exploration, a common critique among fans.
  • Despite restrictions, the game offers hours of content, multiple endings, and a dynamic storyline.
  • The restrictions likely exist to mask the game's less-detailed areas.

Fallout: New Vegas is one of the most beloved RPGs of all time, but even it isn't free of critiques from even the most devout fans, who take issue with the game's abundance of invisible walls that hinder exploration in certain areas. Fallout's open worlds are known for being highly detailed and expansive, and while New Vegas is no exception, it does come with more restrictions than other games in the series.

Originally released in 2010, many consider Fallout: New Vegas the best entry in Bethesda's post-apocalyptic RPG franchise, and even one of the best games ever made, which is especially impressive considering the developer, Obsidian Entertainment, had mere months to create the entire game. Despite the time constraints, Obsidian, known for its work RPGs like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, managed to include hundreds of hours of content and multiple endings.

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Still, as Reddit user Initial-Leader-90 points out in the r/Fallout community, the game's restrictions on exploration can be somewhat jarring, as they often prevent players from going to certain places with "invisible walls" that hinder progress. While these exist in nearly every RPG from Bethesda, who published New Vegas, other players chimed in to agree that the game seems to have much more of them than others in the series.

New Vegas is Great, but the Rough Edges Still Show

The restrictions do not come without valid reasons, however, as some players pointed out that the invisible walls likely exist to mask the fact that some of the more distant locations are not as detailed as others. In other words, if players were to visit these out-of-bounds regions of the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas, they'd likely be met with 3D models or environments that are not rendered in full detail, making certain areas look unpolished.

While some of Bethesda's in-house RPGs like The Elder Scrolls and other Fallout titles are known for their expansive open worlds, New Vegas is particularly restrictive compared to others, making it much less focused on exploration than other titles in the series. While games like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim have similar restrictions on exploration, they mostly serve as map boundaries to prevent the player from leaving the game's main setting.

Despite this drawback, however, New Vegas continues to be one of the franchise's most beloved entries, likely thanks to its numerous side quests, NPCs, and a dynamic storyline that is impacted by the player's choices. In fact, the game is so popular that Amazon Prime's Fallout television series drew some controversy from fans for seemingly retconning some aspects of New Vegas from the series' lore, though Bethesda later stated this was not the intention.