A DLC-sized mod is posed to take Fallout: New Vegas fans outside the United States, taking the bits and pieces of lore about the greater world in the franchise and showcasing for the first time in the American Southwest and Mexico. That mod is Fallout: Nuevo Mexico, which interestingly uses New Vegas as the basis of the mod despite a few drawbacks. It's more common for mod projects like Fallout: London to use Fallout 4, but Nuevo Mexico didn't just choose this F:NV because of the setting's adjacency.

Bethesda games have long life cycles, as plenty of people still play Morrowind over two decades after its release. In that respect, a large mod project being developed for a 14-year-old title isn’t a shock, but it is also far from the norm, at least for Fallout: New Vegas. Game ZXC recently spoke to key members of the Nuevo Mexico team, including project lead Zapshock, about this choice.

Fallout Nuevo Mexico wasteland player
Related
Fallout: Nuevo Mexico Mod Developer Talks Unique Factions, Hub Worlds, Biomes, and More

Game ZXC speaks with a developer on the Fallout: Nuevo Mexico mod team regarding the factions and biomes fans will find in this new area.

Why Build a Mod in New Vegas

With its more advanced graphics, larger modding community, and continued support from Bethesda, Fallout 4 might seem like a natural canvas for modders. In fact, Nuevo Mexico project lead Zapshock doesn't rule out using it someday on another project, but he also explained why that wasn’t the right canvas for the project. Interestingly, the age that makes New Vegas a surprising choice is also its strength.

I think one of the main things New Vegas gave us was scripting capabilities. The New Vegas Script Extender has got other extensions, like JIP LN, Lutana, and all these different sorts of Script Extender downloadable content that people can get, and that all expands the code so we can work with more and do more scripting magic.

That’s important for Nuevo Mexico, which is attempting to do some genuinely different and interesting things with the franchise. A notable example of something their team is trying that’s a fresh take on Fallout is the inclusion of Dragon Age-style origins: stories that will be unique to different player backgrounds woven through the entirety of the mod. If players choose to play a Ghoul, which the team calls The Dreamer, they will have a completely different opening and gameplay experience than the standard human.

The idea of playing as a Ghoul dramatically changes the formula for Fallout and allows Nuevo Mexico to explore the idea of prejudice through the game's len, as Ghouls are regularly ostracized, excluded, or even feared in the wasteland. That’s notably shown in the Underworld in Fallout 3 and the quest You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head, which explores the treatment of the zombie-like subspecies.

Simply put, Zapshock said the tools available for Fallout 4 modding aren’t as robust as those for New Vegas, limiting some of the things they wanted to do. Fallout 4 does have a lot to offer, to be clear, but the types of offerings are what made New Vegas a better pick for this specific project.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Fallout 4 ’s dialogue trees. I tried using the creation kit and I think it's really good if you want to make a linear type of story, but I tried it and yeah, no. We felt like we weren't going to be able to do what we could with the Ghoul origin and all that RPG stuff that we have in this project.

Fallout 4 and New Vegas Are Both Good for Different Kinds of Mods

It's worth noting that Fallout 4's dialogue system has received a lot of criticism since its launch. In fact, there are Fallout 4 mods that overhaul the dialogue completely, but that's just one more thing that would have impacted this project to some degree. Fallout 4, at its core, is great for a linear experience, but it takes a lot more work for something more. What Zapshock envisions for Nuevo Mexico is a deeply realistic, immersive, and complex RPG experience, and at the end of the day, both Fallout 4 and Fallout: New Vegas have drawbacks for the modding experience. New Vegas doesn't have as many available assets, after all, but New Vegas simply made more sense for this project.

Though the modding community for New Vegas may be less active–which, he admits, has been a constraint on the modding team Zapshock leads–the player base is definitely there. New Vegas is considered one of the best entries, and there’s constant fan demand for a Fallout: New Vegas remake, remaster, or sequel. With no clear news of such a game in the works, however, it's things like Nuevo Mexico that are keeping the game alive as it sets its sights on the impressive longevity of games like Morrowind.

New story details and trailers will be released from the Nuevo Mexico team throughout 2024.