A grey, hulking supermutant holding a club in Fallout: New Vegas.

Is Shady Sands in Fallout: New Vegas?

Fallout 1 and 2 featured the settlement of Shady Sands, but Fallout 3 took you to Washington DC, far from California. But what about New Vegas, which took place a little closer to the West Coast. If you’re wondering if Shady Sands appears in Fallout: New Vegas, here’s the answer. 

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Is Shady Sands in Fallout: New Vegas?

Shady Sands is not in Fallout: New Vegas even though, according to the original Fallout game, you might just be able to reach it on foot. The difference is that Fallout 1 and 2 had you crossing big blank chunks of wilderness off-screen, while Fallout 3 and subsequent games let you walk from one end of the map to another, seeing everything along the way.

So, the area featured in Fallout: New Vegas is big, encompassing a huge chunk of the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas, but it’s not big enough that it could reach where the settlement is supposed to be. Things are also complicated by the fact that, there are several potential locations for Shady Sands.

What about visiting Shady Sands in a future game? Well, *spoilers* that’s probably not going to happen since the location was revealed in Amazon’s series to have been destroyed. And, speaking to IGN, Todd Howard confirmed that happened after the end of Fallout: New Vegas.

So, if we do get to visit Shady Sands again, it’ll probably be a massive crater, just as it was in the show. Though the show did seem to relocate the settlement closer to LA, which raises some other questions. But, hey, it’s a pretty awesome show, discrepancies or not.

You can actually visit the real-life location of Goodsprings, the location where Fallout: New Vegas starts, and it’s played host to two Fallout-themed events. But as to whether Shady Sands is in Fallout: New Vegas, no it’s not.


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Chris McMullen
Chris McMullen is a freelance contributor at The Escapist and has been with the site since 2020. He returned to writing about games following several career changes, with his most recent stint lasting five-plus years. He hopes that, through his writing work, he settles the karmic debt he incurred by persuading his parents to buy a Mega CD. Outside of The Escapist, Chris covers news and more for GameSpew. He's also been published at such sites as VG247, Space, and more. His tastes run to horror, the post-apocalyptic, and beyond, though he'll tackle most things that aren't exclusively sports-based. At Escapist, he's covered such games as Infinite Craft, Lies of P, Starfield, and numerous other major titles.