Is There Dating in Fallout: New Vegas?
No, there is no actual dating system built into Fallout: New Vegas. While you can have sexual encounters with a small number of non-player characters, these are limited, one-time only events that do not allow for ongoing relationships.
As a passionate gamer and creator who analyzes franchise features across titles, I receive many questions about romance options in New Vegas. So let‘s explore this topic in depth – when did Fallout introduce romance, what partners are available, and why isn‘t dating more integral in this installment?
The Evolution of Romance in the Fallout Series
Romantic relationships first appeared in a limited capacity in Fallout 2, released in 1998. Players could pay prostitutes or specific NPCs for sex. These encounters provided reputation titles but no lasting impact.
Full relationship systems came later in games like Fallout 4 (2015) and Fallout 76 (2018). These allow extensive dialogue trees and questlines focused on wooing companions. Partners recognize the player outside of intimacy and grant unique bonuses.
So Fallout: New Vegas fell right between those eras in 2010. It expanded on Fallout 3‘s sparse options but did not yet have the coding frameworks to enable complex virtual bonds.
Sexual Encounters in Fallout: New Vegas
While you cannot date companions, Fallout: New Vegas does enable sexual encounters with set non-player characters given certain conditions. Let‘s analyze the romantic options available.
What Romantic Partners Are Available?
| NPC | Requirements | Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Sarah Weintraub | Bring Sarah 30 Vault jumpsuits | Well Rested perk |
| Red Lucy | Complete quests, high Survival skill (as a male) | None |
| Fisto | Pay 100 caps | None |
| Dazzle | (With the Cherchez la Femme perk) | None |
As this table shows, romantic options in New Vegas are limited. Only four NPCs offer intimate encounters. Three are non-essential characters easily missed by players if side content is ignored.
Compare this table to Fallout 4, which features over a dozen romanceable companions central to main storylines.
The Nature of Sexual Encounters
These encounters in New Vegas are:
- Brief – A fade to black, or in Fisto‘s case, fade to comedy. The actual scene is left to players‘ imaginations.
- Temporary – One-night stands with no lasting impact on NPC stories or behavior.
- Optional – Side activities that can easily be skipped. Sarah and Fisto require financial transactions.
Only Red Lucy offers a conditional sexual quest reward for male characters meeting stats and completing her combat trial quests.
So while New Vegas allows some sexual freedom absent from Fallout 3, encounters still lack depth compared to later games.
Why Isn‘t Dating More Integral?
As a gamer and content analyst, I speculate New Vegas developer Obsidian focused RPG resources on the game‘s exceptionally complex factions, political narratives, and branching quests.
Romance likely got deprioritized relative to those signature reactive stories. Additionally, 2010 game engines struggled to handle multifaceted NPC behavior. It is possible coding complex dates was beyond technical scope given Obsidian‘s 18-month production deadline.
The mutants and ghouls of the Mojave make for colorful characters, but mental stimulation may take priority over emotional intimacy in this harsh wasteland.
That said, female players can utilize the Cherchez la Femme perk to unlock suggestive dialogue with most human NPCs regardless of gender. This perk hints that sexuality stays fluid even post-apocalypse.
The Bottom Line
To conclude this detailed dive – no, there is no formal dating featured in Fallout: New Vegas. Gamers seeking virtual bonds should look to later franchise titles.
However, New Vegas does allow sexual escapades for male and female player characters. These steamy side stories let players satisfy short-term urges even if long-term romance stays out of reach.
So while opportunities for love are scant, liberation through lust remains possible in the Mojave wilderness!
