I intend to get New Vegas in about a couple months or so, and I remember it being advertised as at least somewhat more gray, more gruesome, and more in-depth. I also recall, though I may be incorrect in my memory, that Fallout 3 had advertised similar aspects for the game when it turned out to have either a lot of very, very pale and very, very dark grays or was pretty much black and white. Obviously an opinion would vary on that, but nonetheless.

So I was curious as to how accurate the claim of New Vegas having depth, a morality of "gray" instead of "black and white." I figure it is, as Obsidian has a reputation of owning notable writing skills, but I haven't actually played the game yet. And I figure it'd be an interesting topic to see everyone's personal view.

The the CL is dark gray but NCR DEFFINENTLY isn't white. House and Yes Man are about as gray as morals get.

It's Technicolor!

We've got a rainbow of grays...

You will find CL to be a very very dark gray. And the entire game is NCR biased. House and Yes man are the only true grey options.

More in terms of ideology and politics, each have their own way of handing things. Some are lighter gray and some are border line Black.

NCR is basically corrupted democracy; Caesars Legion are base from a mixture of Romans and Spartan; House is self proclaim ruler in creating his own "Utopia", and a whole bunch of smaller factions that have their own problems/dealing/interaction with everyone else.

That said, in theory, many of the faction will NOT attack ya on sight unlike the Enclave of Fallout 3.

It's totally a shades of gray. There will be points when you, like most games, have a feeling that this is the good/bad guys. Then you delve a little deeper and the plot thickens. There are times when some of the less huge stuff is pretty cut and dry, but that's pretty rare.

This is one of the most morally grey games I've played. On my first playthrough I literally had no idea who I wanted to side with. All I knew was that I was going to kill Caesar.

The Legion is black. I admired their discipline and views on punishing criminals, but honestly some of the stuff they get up to is pretty bad. You just know that they're the bad guys when you see them.

Caesar's Legion is dark gray. They have a good idea, but a bad execution.

Ummm, it's pretty black and white, really. Pretty much all the factions can be separated into clearly 'good' and 'evil' classifications. Sure they may sneak over the line occasionally, or have some questionable members... but for the most part NCR is full of honorable, democratic soldiers fighting the good fight, Caesar's Legion is full of half-insane murdering slaving bastards and everyone else pretty much hangs out around the edges of the moral compass instead of muddling up the middle.

I haven't seen any of it that is black and white, but there's a sizable portion that is sepia tone. Just head over toward Camp Forlorn Hope. *rimshot*

What is their idea?

Caesar plans to control and dominate all of the Wasteland, that way they can control what goes on in the Wasteland. Now why would a tyrant want this? For the people is Caesar's reason. His loyalty to the people is amazing. He hates NCR and Powder Gangers. Now why? They're corrupt and greedy. Caesar is evil, no doubt, but his goals are noble.

I was planning on siding with the Legion because my character was all about being evil and such. Big problem when I see the slaves and how most of them are all Women. Had I rolled as a Male this wouldn't even be an issue but I can't join sides with a bunch of sixists pigs who hate me just cause I have boobs or whatever lol.
Thats how gray this game is.. It forced my otherwise evil [censored] into a more caring person. If the game wasn't written half as good as it was I wouldn't have come up with such cool character progression.

This.

Yeah but in essence he just wants to increase the size of his Legion. There's no civilian sect in the Legion, every one of them are soldiers. And because of that the only ones that get taken in are the strongest of the men, the rest are used as slaves and/or killed.

When you talk to him in game there's no doubt that he believes he's doing the right thing, but then everybody always does. In that sense, he's not outright evil. He's misguided if anything. But still.. He's an absolute hokerr lol.

Can't speak for the legion, but from everyones else perspective and their actions towards others not much gray going on action wise.
NCR, apart from a few references and later end game quests squeky clean, again apart from a tiny amount of self interested npc's.
I know most won't agree with me but the ncr to man / woman are pretty much decent noble folks put into a bad situation, most of the grey stuff is just dialogue filler about cattle barons and politicians imo.

Outside of the main factions it's not so much grey but pure survival and seeking to find a place to claim as their own.

However the game lets your actions be as dark or light as you want, which is good, as that takes away you must be good for this quest aspect.

Severe justice lag is a good trait, Madocmayhem? Biting off more than one can chew is a good trait? Tolerating corrupt corporate executives is a good trait?

The NCR is hardly sterling.

Nope you're right but few of those are involved in the game itself, many elements are in minor factions aligned with them but the basic interactions with most NCR troopers are very pure imo.
Their treatment of powder gangers and other criminals is negliable as given that most are likely to kill, maim, destroy, burn everything and betray as well.
The merchants are corrupt yes, but this seems to be outside of the NCR purview, as they were acting against the NCR's best interests for personnal greed.
They bit off more then they can chew is a bit like saying they're grey because they wanted too much ice cream imo.
Do they serve for more power mostly for a few yes, but thats not grey thats just nature, as they know the flip side, and just about every NCR trooper seems to be serving for the good, not just the greater good.
It's going to get into a heavy spoiler topic, if I'm not carefull, but in the large part every quest involving heavy handed NCR actions seems to be due to provocation and oversight, again not grey just sloppy CoC, a few selfish persons and individual [censored] ups.
Not grey just normal practice found in everyones life.

Please note I'm talking in game cause and effect, not background the stories told a little greyer to somewhat bleak but these have little to no bearing on events in game.

What you're saying sounds more like justifying the NCR.

I disagree with the NCR is 'white', I think that Yes Man and House are both morally superior options. The NCR is full of corruption and incompetence, and there are lots of examples of both in the game (I'm not giving them, this isn't the spoiler forum).

Everyone is essentially evil, it's more like real life.

Stability at ALL COSTS.
Imagine if the philosopher Thomas Hobbes developed a severe PCP addiction and became the ruler of an empire and you'll get NV Caesar.

House is definitely not the morally superior option. He requires you to kill a certain group of people, who could be reasoned with to work with you. But House wants their absolute destruction.
The NCR also wanted that same group of people gone, but the NCR could be persuaded to work with "those people". They won't like you for your peaceful resolution, but it is preferable to genocide.

In the epilogue, House also killed another group of people because he wanted to control that region with Securitrons. Those people didn't like it, and House killed them all.

The NCR is greedy and corrupt, but they are lesser evils compared to House's genocide of people who disagree with him.

Edit: As for Yes Man, I'm not sure how his scenario plays out. I'll have to check.

They're all a goopy sort of red when you shoot them....moreso if you pick the 'bloody mess' perk.