The story of Fallout: New Vegas falls apart near the end (help explain it please)

[Siuki]

Snippersnapper

First of all, Fallout New Vegas is really buggy, so gamebreaking happens a lot. Second, he's a dick. He's a backstabbing scumbag. Like you(assuming you're evil). Ouch. No offense(TF2 references anyone?). Third, it's mostly Yes Man who tells you to do stuff. He isn't that smart, but he's the one you're turning in the quests to.

 

[Alssadar]

Point: Benny fails at killing you with a head shot.
There has to be something wrong with a guy who can't finish the job at 2 meters away.
Maria is a very shiny pistol, though, and I love the way it shoots his corpse into a bloody mess.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Disclaimer: this post is about the New Vegas storyline and is filled with spoiler. If you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading this post.

I built myself a very social character, with high Charisma and high Speech. During the Ring-a-Ding-Ding! I talked my way to the Penthouse with Benny. I liked his idea of an independent New Vegas and agreed to help him with this. So we part our ways and he tells me to meet him at the ground floor.

Going there, I find out that he ran away with the Chip. Why the hell did he do that? We had a perfectly good conversation in which I convinced him of a couple of thing using high Speech, and then he runs of? Why? What's even worse is that he's taken capture by Legion and that whatever option I take, he ends up dead. The only way to make Benny's idea of an independent New Vegas happen is to get Benny killed. That doesn't make any sense at all!

Can someone explain me why Benny would want to "betray" me even though I'm offering to help him, and why Benny needs to be dead even if I want an independent New Vegas as well? I could understand this if it were for a lack of Speech skill that I'm missing some options, but I'm at 100% and succeeded on all checks.

This really is a game breaker for me. The story just doesn't hold up. I'm really hoping someone can explain this to me.

Did you not catch that Benny is an asshole? I mean, at the beginning on the game he shoots you and buries you in an unmarked grave simply for holding what he wants. Hell, this is the same guy who built a robot programmed to do everything he said, unquestioningly, because he didn't trust anyone to work with him. The same guy who threw his Khan bodyguards to the wolves the moment he thought he had heat. If you'd teamed up with Benny, you likely would have ended the game the same way you started it: with a bullet in the head.

Hell, you can talk to his associates at The Tops, and most of them agree that Benny is a fink. Hell, his second in command doesn't even bat an eye if you kill Benny, and even thanks you for giving him a promotion. Benny didn't want an independent New Vegas; he wanted to be Mr. House. The only way to get a "real" independent New Vegas is to do it yourself, and put Yes Man in charge.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

One thing that's unclear to me then: Where was he heading before he got captured by Legion? What was his plan? What was he himself going to do with the Chip?

He was going to use the platinum chip to destroy Mr House's army of Securitrons which can only be accessed using the platinum chip. Mr House's army is located right beneath Fortification Hill.

I know that from Yes Man. But surely Benny knew just as well that Legion built a camp right on top of it? Or wasn't he aware of that?

Yes he did know the Legion had their main camp there, he went in using a stealth boy but stille ended up being caught.

According to Caesar he also was in full Legion gear, the only thing that gave him away was his hairstyle

 

[Therumancer]

And if that's a game breaker for you, then wow. You have some stupidly high standards.

I built a character around social interaction. And because I did this I have to follow Benny all the way to Legion and do a bunch of quests to get the Chip. A combat oriented character however can just blast his way trough the casino, and pick up the Chip from Benny's body. It feels like I'm being punished for picking a social character. And for a social character to be betrayed, it just feels wrong.

It's a differant approach to the game, and honestly there are other options there as well. I believe a female character can seduce Benny with social skills and kill him in his sleep. What's more if you talk to Caesar he'll give you the chip back.

To put things into perspective, as a social character you have to work around the edges of problems rather than taking a direct approach. No matter how likable you are, you can't charm everyone, and remember some guys might have really high social skills as well which are supposed to be countering yours. Benny is like one of the pre-eminant con men in New Vegas, and a bloody Crime Boss.


SPOILERS BELOW (since you met Benny I don't consider the bit about the female character option a spoiler)


To be honest if you don't go charging after the chip immediatly, and work on some other quests, eventually Caesar will send a representitive to you, and tell you he wants an audience. This will also wipe ALL negative faction with him if you had been killing Legion or doing quests against him.

This literally means that you can waltz right up into his camp, talk to him, and get your chip back.

There are plenty of quests that can be resolved by a straight-social approach, and truthfully you should have no real difficulty getting enough stuff done to trigger his rep making an appearance.

-

Also I'll be blunt in saying that for good or ill, New Vegas doesn't entirely allow for a "one trick pony" approach to the game. A lot of situations can be resolved purely through social skills, but any type of character, whether it's social or combat, is going to need support skills like lockpicking or science to get very far, and really, despite the potential for a "only 1 radroach killed" playthrough in Fallout 3, I don't think such an option is possible in New Vegas.

Before you judge though, stop and think sometime about how many situations you can resolve purely with social skills, it's hardly useless or "punishing" you. I comparison some quests are MUCH harder to complete in any worthwhile fashion if your just a mook with a bunch of combat talents. Sure Benny might be easier (walk up and cap him), but say resolving the whole "White Glove Society" quest line becomes much simpler no matter what moral path you pick if you can pass a couple of fairly high speech tests.


SPOILER AGAIN:

What's more it's possible to talk down the game's equivilent of a final boss if you have 100 in speech skill,

 

[Ih8pkmn]

...remind me again why this story is better than Fallout 3's?

OT:
Benny doesn't care about Vegas. It can rot, just so long as he rules it. That's why he ran away.

...that and the developers were too lazy to put in a story arc where you helped the man who shot you.

...Wait. Why the FUCK would you offer to help him in the first place? HE SHOT YOU IN THE FACE!!! You do NOT help people who shoot you in the face!

 

[Misterian]

Disclaimer: this post is about the New Vegas storyline and is filled with spoiler. If you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading this post.

I built myself a very social character, with high Charisma and high Speech. During the Ring-a-Ding-Ding! I talked my way to the Penthouse with Benny. I liked his idea of an independent New Vegas and agreed to help him with this. So we part our ways and he tells me to meet him at the ground floor.

Going there, I find out that he ran away with the Chip. Why the hell did he do that? We had a perfectly good conversation in which I convinced him of a couple of thing using high Speech, and then he runs of? Why? What's even worse is that he's taken capture by Legion and that whatever option I take, he ends up dead. The only way to make Benny's idea of an independent New Vegas happen is to get Benny killed. That doesn't make any sense at all!

Can someone explain me why Benny would want to "betray" me even though I'm offering to help him, and why Benny needs to be dead even if I want an independent New Vegas as well? I could understand this if it were for a lack of Speech skill that I'm missing some options, but I'm at 100% and succeeded on all checks.

This really is a game breaker for me. The story just doesn't hold up. I'm really hoping someone can explain this to me.

I think, first off, that Benny may have thought he could handle bringing up those Securitrons in that vault at The Fort himself, he may have not figured the Courier (you) could get to the Fort (which technically you can thanks to that Mark of Caesar you get later), and thought he might be able to do so much better himself.

Second of all, if I remember right from my 2nd playthrough (Very Hard at Hardcore Mode, no joke), It's possible to let Benny live, but that's provided you're willing to stage a siege on Caesar's Fort and kill Caesar and all his men in it first, you should find the Platnium Chip in Caesar's corpse after you kill him.