Fallout: New Vegas, is a sequel to the 2008 RPG hit Fallout 3. Bethesda Softworks tapped Obsidian, the developers of Knights of the Old Republic 2 to develop the game while Bethesda developers are busy at work on Fallout 4. The game was hyped up heavily and there were a lot of expectations going in, did the game live up to the hype? Let’s find out.
The game takes place a few years after the events of the previous game but on the other side of the country so is no story overlap and you do not see a continuation of the Lone Wanderer’s story. Instead you play a courier who is ambushed by some thugs, shot in the head, and left for dead in a shallow grave. A robot named Victor pulls you out and brings you to the local town of Goodsprings where the local doctor patches you up. From there the game begins in earnest and the entirety of the Mojave wasteland is open for exploration.
The Mojave wasteland is about the same size as the Capital wasteland and there are just as many, if not more, things to see and do. Numerous side quests are available as you venture into the wasteland but if you want to find out who tried to kill you, the main quest is the way to go.
A key difference from Fallout 3 is the reputation system. In New Vegas there are numerous groups vying for control and you will earn a reputation with each group as a loved figure, a villain, or something in between. This is not in place of the karma system which is still in place but is not as prominent as it was in Fallout 3.
The controls have remained mostly the same so players should have no trouble slipping into the shoes of the courier and going for an adventure. The VATS combat system has remained unchanged and a new “iron sights” mode allows you to look down the sights of a weapon, which makes it feel more like a shooter.
The level of detail in the game is amazing; there are so many quests, items, upgrades, ammo types, and other things that you could spend an eternity trying to figure it all out. The Fallout mythos from the first two games is brought back to life as the New California Republic makes an appearance along with the Brotherhood of Steel. The super mutants are not the same yellow monsters from Fallout 3’s vault 87, they are much more like the ones in the original two Fallout games.
One main attraction of the game is the New Vegas strip, which is still receiving power from the Hoover Dam and several casinos are up and running. When the bombs fell in 2077 none hit Vegas directly so many of the buildings and infrastructure remained intact. Once the player gains admittance to the Strip all kinds of things can be enjoyed like shows, card games, slots, and more. Although the Vegas casinos still run the developers did an excellent job of showing the decay that would occur from almost 200 years of non-use. The buildings are not clean, the streets are cracked, and it still looks like Fallout. There is definitely a 50’s vibe to the city with one group being a bunch of Elvis impersonators.
While there are many things to see and do the game does suffer from flaws that hold it back from being a great game. Several of the side quests are glitched and one cannot be successfully completed as of right now. There were several instances of unusually long load screens, freezing, clipping, and other technical problems that should have been polished out.
Along with these problems are followers who don’t follow you, or appear randomly in a fight. Also whenever the last enemy of a group is killed there is a slow motion kill cam but this can be triggered by your companion and when this does happen your character turns around. It may be a small thing but it is annoying to be pointed in the opposite direction of where you want to go just because your companion decided to not bypass the radscorpion 200 feet away from where you were walking.
In terms of the ending, without spoiling anything, I will say that is suffers the same problem that the pre-Broken Steel Fallout 3 had. They develop this massive world but don’t let you explore in it after you have completed the main quest. Hopefully this will be fixed with DLC like Fallout 3 was but for the mean time it is a big annoyance.
I could go into detail about a lot of the other aspects of the game but that would drag on. The game is fun for sure but it doesn’t meet the high bar that was set by Fallout 3. The technical issues are annoying and the whole world just doesn’t seem to have the same charm as the Capital wasteland, even the disc jockey isn’t as charismatic or as fun to listen to as Three Dog. Overall the game is a fun romp through Vegas but not on par with its predecessor.
Pros
-Massive open world with incredible detail and tons to do
-Imaginative storyline and well developed characters
Cons
-Significant technical bugs
-No exploring after main quest
8/10
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