We’ve known for some time now that developer Obsidian Entertainment was forced to cut Fallout: New Vegas’ post-game content during its development. But now, thanks to the data found on a recently unearthed Xbox 360 dev kit, we can finally take a look at what some of that scrapped content would have entailed. It turns out that a more sinister conclusion to Yes Man’s story once existed after the credits rolled.
Regardless of who you side with during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, there’s no squeaky-clean, morally sound conclusion to Fallout: New Vegas. Going with Caesar’s Legion is the objectively cruel choice, yes, but the NCR aren’t exactly saints either. Another option is siding with Yes Man. It’s the closest thing Fallout: New Vegas has to a good ending. Choosing Yes Man, the overtly amenable Securitron that has been forcibly modified by antagonist Benny, is akin to siding with no one, as the peppy robot will gladly carry out whatever orders you give it.
Exactly whose side Yes Man is ultimately on has been a topic of debate for New Vegas fans since the game was released, and discussion surrounding his allegiances (or lack thereof) has once again intensified following the reappearance of Mr House’s Securitron, Victor, in the second season of the Fallout TV series.
Following the New Vegas tease at the end of the first season, fans have been theorizing about which of the game’s endings is now the “canon” ending. Comments made by project director Josh Sawyer and the aforementioned cut content have led some to believe that siding with Yes Man may indeed be Fallout: New Vegas’ true ending.
PC Gamer recently interviewed Fallout: New Vegas’ lead writer John Gonzalez, who stated that he believes offering players a “rebellious, individualistic” path with Yes Man, one in which they don’t have to pick a faction to ally with, might have actually been a misstep on Obsidian’s part. “I think that questline may have been a mistake, because it lets you get through the game without getting your hands dirty,” Gonzalez said.
Despite Gonzalez’s comments, however, the ending to Yes Man’s path does imply that you may have still gotten your hands at least a little dirty. After you dispatch Legate Lanius, who serves as the second-in-command of Caesar’s Legion and is one of two potential boss fights during your fight to retake Hoover Dam, there are implications that the robot takes quite a heel turn. Yes Man informs the player that they’ll be “going off-line” to “reprogram” their personality, and their comment about becoming more “assertive” in the process may imply that Yes Man no longer wishes to take commands from the player; a scary thought, considering they now control an army of machine gun-wielding robots. Still, considering how jovial the exchange is, you’re left with enough wiggle room in your interpretation to read the choice as fairly neutral from a moral standpoint, and there’s ultimately no way to know the true outcome, considering the end credits roll immediately after this conversation ends.
But based on recently discovered cut dialogue ripped from a Beta build of Fallout: New Vegas, it seems that Yes Man may have played a much darker role in the originally planned post-game.
On November 26th of last year, Games’ Past uploaded a video detailing the discovery of two prototype builds of Fallout: New Vegas, found on an Xbox 360 dev kit in a store in Utah. Games’ Past also uploaded the contents of the dev kits online, and modders managed to uncover and restore a wealth of previously unseen cut content from the builds.
As detailed in a separate video by Alternative Gaming Channel, dozens of post-game lines of dialogue were hidden in these prototype builds. The cut Yes Man dialogue is particularly interesting, with him outright telling the player character to “fuck off” if you choose to respond negatively to an announcement he makes about his new “assertive” personality.
Another cut Yes Man line is even more chilling, with the generally chipper robot talking about slaughtering New Vegas’ civilians and “using their blood and their skins” to “decorate the Securitrons.”. He does shout “Exterminate!” afterwards, though, so hopefully it was just a goofy little Doctor Who reference that could only be triggered with the Wild Wasteland perk. In any case, it seems that helping Yes Man might be just as morally damning as the rest of New Vegas’ endings, which may explain why the Mojave’s future isn’t looking too bright in the TV series.
