The Best 8 Games Like Fallout: New Vegas

Robots get shot by a rough-dressed player in New Vegas

(Image: Obsidian Entertainment)

Human Made

Affiliate Links

I'm a stand-up comic by night and write for HGG by day. Most of my gaming happens at an improvised desk at the Days Inn right outside whatever small town I'm in for the night.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

If you’ve finished Fallout: New Vegas and are looking for something similar to sink your teeth into, then good news – we’ve got 8 games like Fallout: New Vegas to recommend to you!

Out of the wide range of play styles presented by the series, Fallout: New Vegas is widely regarded as the best Fallout game. This is largely due to its vast number of player choices and just how much impact they have on the future of the Mojave Wasteland. All of this is enhanced by having some of the most interesting and fleshed out dialogues and engrossing quest lines.

Finding a game that lives up to the quality of Fallout: New Vegas is difficult, but we’ll do our best!

Criteria for Our List

For a game to be compared to New Vegas, we need to look for post-apocalyptic settings, an emphasis on player choice, a first-person RPG style of gameplay, and a particular sense of depth and humor in the world that you explore.

Each game on this list includes at least some of these elements if not all of them. Additionally, we’ve attempted to include a lot of older games, since fans of New Vegas won’t shy away from a dated UI as much as other gamers.

Our Top 8 Recommended Games Like Fallout: New Vegas

Without further ado, let’s dive into our list. We’ll start simple and work our way down to our number one pick.

Fallout 3

If you’re truly hooked on the Fallout series and can’t wait for Fallout 5, then Fallout 3 is a great next step for any New Vegas gamer. Set in the Capitol Wasteland surrounding Washington DC, you’ll be dealing with some of the same ghouls, super mutants, and power-armored raiders that you’re used to fighting in the Mojave.

Fallout 3 was the first of the modern Bethesda games that brought the Fallout series back to the forefront of modern gaming and set the model for New Vegas to follow. You get to explore many monuments and landmarks in Washington DC. Instead of fighting the ravenous hordes of Caesar’s Legion, you’ll be battling the remnants of the American government in the Enclave, villainous power-armor-clad agents operating from the shadows.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Widely regarded as one of the best games by Bethesda, if you’re a fan of New Vegas, you’ll have a great time in Oblivion. When it was released, Oblivion was a huge step forward for open-world gaming, letting you explore the high-fantasy setting of Tamriel and defend it from demonic invasions, but all at your own pace. It’s set in the first person with almost identical controls to New Vegas.

A zombie approaches the player with a torch in frame. - Games Like Fallout: New Vegas — (Image: Bethesda)

This follow-up to Morrowind includes a lot of the hallmarks of the open-world RPG genre, including the peculiar story-via-set-dressing methods that Bethesda continues to use. In a way, the setting of Oblivion has more in common with Fallout than the other Elder Scrolls games, portraying a world on the edge of being destroyed.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

If you love the dark, eerie feeling of living in the Fallout universe, this game will deliver that well. It’s based on a 1979 Soviet Union-made science fiction film, following a story about a second disaster that occurs outside the much-referenced nuclear plant in Ukraine.

Riffing on themes of nuclear disaster gone wrong and the warping of nature to match the unpredictability of radiation, this shooter game definitely shares a lot in tone with Fallout.

A gas mask-wearing figure crawls towards a flashlight coming from the player - Games Like Fallout: New Vegas — (Image: GSC Game World)

While not as highly developed as New Vegas, this game features seven different endings determined by the player’s actions and choices. It was renowned for having realistic ballistic models for its guns. It has a more survivalist theme than Fallout, with elements like radiation and hunger playing major roles, and outright gunfights being rare and more hazardous to engage in.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon: Zero Dawn and its sequel, Horizon: Forbidden West, are among the newest games on this list. The biggest similarities between Horizon and Fallout: New Vegas are in the strength of their open worlds and the apocalyptic setting. Horizon follows a tribal woman named Aloy as she seeks to understand the numerous robotic creatures that roam the world.

Aloy aims a bow at a robot creature - Games Like Fallout: New Vegas — (Image: Guerilla)

The new sequel follows Aloy as she journeys to the ruins of California and other western United States. Both games have a dynamic combat system, guiding you towards shooting critical points at your enemies’ bodies. You’ll fight cybernetic recreations of many types of animals, both ancient and modern. If you enjoy exploring a ruined world full of hazards and mysteries, you’ll love this series.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2

Just like Fallout: New Vegas, this is one of the best games where you can choose to be evil. Knights of the Old Republic is one of the best RPG games in all gaming history. It has a relatively open world for the RPG games of its time period, but the depth of the combat and the amount of player choice that really impacts the world is what really draws great comparisons to New Vegas.

Three star-wars characters on a desert. - Games Like Fallout: New Vegas — (Image: Obsidian Entertainment)

The biggest similarity between these games is that they were developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the same developers behind New Vegas. If you appreciate their work, they put a lot of the same care and effort into the KOTOR series. In particular, if you enjoy the sense of dark humor that the Fallout series exemplifies, you’ll love the characters of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, such as HK-47, a misanthropic robot that lovingly refers to your player character as a “Meatbag.”

Mass Effect Series

Going into deep space and using sci-fi technology to skip between stars will be the theme of the upcoming Bethesda game, Starfield, set to release this September. If you can’t wait for Starfield, fans of New Vegas will also enjoy the Mass Effect series.

Mass Effect follows a group of interstellar adventurers seeking to save the galaxy from a ravenous alien threat. You’ll choose the course of action your main character takes, resulting in multiple endings across the games.

A sunset and a ship over the player characters shoulder in Mass Effect - Games Like Fallout: New Vegas — (Image: Bioware)

You can even pick up all three Mass Effect games in a single package, complete with all of the included DLC, in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. This streamlines the way your character choices gradually bloom into results. It also gives you access to the character customization options of all three games all at once, allowing you to build a Commander Shepard who looks exactly how you want from the start.

The Witcher Series

Based on stories from one of the most famous Polish fantasy authors, Andrzej Sapkowski, this game series was big enough of a hit to inspire Netflix to make a Witcher TV show. You’ll explore a vast open world, fighting diabolical monsters with horrifying, unique themes and bizarre backstories. Players control Geralt, a monster hunter with supernatural powers and a penchant for vengeance.

A group of men fights with swords on a boat - Games Like Fallout: New Vegas — (Image: CD PROJEKT RED)

The story flows through three different games, each more technologically advanced than the last. All of them have been remastered and expanded with next-gen graphics, but The Witcher 3 is widely regarded as the best of the three. The Witcher includes a significant amount of player choice that affects the story, and the game has a massive tree of possible endings, with 36 possible conclusions.

Bioshock

Bioshock is widely regarded as a masterful example of world-building and atmospheric storytelling, both of which are elements that New Vegas also exemplifies. Bioshock is a dense meditation on the dangers of unchecked scientific advancement and the endless thirst humans have for money and power. An underwater utopian city of the rich has fallen into disarray after madness consumed the super-powered population.

Monster with a drill arm gets tommy gun shot in its face - Games Like Fallout: New Vegas — (Image: 2K)

You’ll pick up various weapons and enhance yourself with gene mods that allow you to shoot fire, ice, or bees out of your hands. This game isn’t as open-world as the others on this list, but it keeps up with Fallout: New Vegas with its political commentary, intense action, and unsettling background. If you love the first Bioshock, the sequel won’t disappoint, with Bioshock 2 being set in the same underwater city of Rapture. Another sequel, Bioshock Infinite, is more of a departure, exploring themes of alternate lives, destiny, and nationalism.

Join the High Ground

This list of games for fans of Fallout: New Vegas will be enough to tide you over, even if you wish you could be playing the casino games on the strip.

For more tips and guides for your favorite games, make sure to subscribe to the High Ground Gaming newsletter and follow us on all social media! Even without VATS on your side, now you can keep the high ground.

Happy gaming!