Long before COVID-19, Antifa protests, and the autonomous zone hit Portland in 2020, Fallout fans were working on bringing the popular Pacific Northwestern city into their favorite game.
Fallout: The Frontier is a gigantic mod for Fallout: New Vegas that introduces three vast new story arcs, over 50 side quests, improved graphics, full voice acting, and VEHICLES to the wasteland. Yes, the creators of this new expansion mod have done what Bethesda hasn’t been able to figure out: how to bring cars to Fallout.
Factions will include some old favorites, like the NCR and Scavengers, while we get a good look at a few new factions like the Crusaders and The Northern Legion.
The Crusaders are an interesting group that we haven’t seen before. While religion and fanaticism have both played a role in the games since the Servants of the Mushroom Cloud in Wasteland 1, The Crusaders are a bit different. They’re a new group born from the marriage of Mormonism and the tech philosophies of the Brotherhood of Steel (BoS). Their goal is to establish a new sanctuary city, eliminate the Unworthy, and clean up the wasteland trash to restore humanity.
The Northern Legion, on the other hand, is an off-shoot of the Roman-like Legion that has absorbed northern tribes like the Snowblind and the Bleeders to create an enormous force set to eliminate the exiled and rogue members of the NCR that have been holed up in the Portland area.
One interesting atmospheric point for this mod is the fact that most of the world is covered in snow. While Portland isn’t historically a snowy city, the mod creators addressed this on their website. “Right now, the reason for a lot of snow in Portland is, when the nukes hit this location, a cloud of dust and ash went up and blocked the sun. So everything under essentially froze over.”
Fallout: The Frontier boasts a 19GB download, a size they claim is larger than the original DLCs, with much more planned to grow from here. While you can use your original Fallout: New Vegas character, the team recommends starting with a fresh character to avoid conflicts. While this mod is not officially supported by Bethesda, note that in order to play, you must own the original Fallout: New Vegas and all four original DLCs.
Fallout: The Frontier is a FREE mod that drops for PC on January 15th.
