Fallout : New Vegas

"Viva New Vegas!"

Welcome to my review of Fallout: New Vegas (from this point on referred to as F:NV), the spin-off of Fallout 3. This game was developed by Obsidian, under supervision of Bethesda.

I really loved Fallout 3 (also the first Fallout-game I played; I bought the other Fallout-games later on PC) and like Obsidian's recent games, so I decided to get this on release date despite several other games (and DLC) being released around the same time.

I started writing this review when I was about 20 hours in. I'm playing on the Normal-setting with Hardcore-mode on. My goal is to more or less focus on the main story-line and do side-quests whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Story and setting

The game puts you in the role of The Courier who, after a deal went terribly wrong, ended up with two bullets in her (his) skull and was left for dead. The main quest of the game starts with you trying to find out what exactly went wrong and why, and getting bloody revenge of course. Pretty soon you'll find out that you were nothing more but a pawn between several factions, all fighting for the control of the Mojave Wasteland...

The game is set in the Las Vegas-area (dubbed New Vegas after the nuclear war). This place was more or less spared during the war so it has a totally different vibe than F3. Instead of walking around the desolate Capital Wasteland with its caves, subway-tunnels, industrial complexes and the ruins of Washington, you're walking around the Mojave-desert, which houses several intact small settlements, rest stops and the city of New Vegas.

Several areas are under the supervision of factions. Unlike F3 where you only had “The Brotherhood of Steel” and “The Enclave” (and the main story always had you siding with the Brotherhood), there are a whole lot more. Depending on choices you make during quests your fame or infamy with those factions will decrease or increase and you can side with any number of them. Even wearing faction-armour can have a significant outcome on the way people perceive you.

The faction-system more or less replaces the entire Karma-setting from F3, making it more dynamic and realistic as you “shape” the game-world, something that was non-existent in F3 (attempts were made with some of the DLC-packs, namely the Pitt and Broken Steel, but certainly not on this scale).

A nice example of the faction-system is when I first arrived in the Crimson Caravan compound. The first time I entered wearing a Great Kahn-outfit. Within seconds people were screaming “murderer” at me, and I was assaulted by at least a dozen armed CC-guards and some NCR-troopers which just happened to be there. The second time I switched to some random-, non-faction related armour before I entered, and people simply welcomed me, but in a really indifferent way.

It doesn't always work as intended though. Early on, I angered a certain faction (the Great Kahns) so occasionally they would send hit-squads after me. So far, so good. After progressing through the main story, I had formed an alliance with Caesar's Legion (well, not really, I'm just playing all sides). When I was exploring I just walked right into the Kahn's camp (honest mistake) and no-one was shooting at me. Strange, although a possible explanation could be that the Kahns were working for the Legion themselves and therefore didn't dare harm anyone who had Caesar's favour. I then started working my magic to break the alliance between the Kahns and the Legion, something the Legion didn't quite appreciate. For another quest much later, I went back to the Legion's camp, and I was greeted with the utmost respect. Weird.

Gameplay

Not many surprises here, this game plays exactly like F3... with some new features. I'll assume that if you're playing F:NV, you're already familiar with F3, so here's a quick rundown on these new features:
- Introduction of Hardcore-mode, which is supposed to add difficulty to the game (stimpaks healing over time; you need to eat, drink and sleep at regular intervals; you can't heal crippled limbs with stimpaks anymore; bullets and caps add weight to the inventory...). But for a F3-veteran it doesn't really add that much difficulty.
- Lots and lots of crafting-possibilities, as opposed to the six or seven unique weapons you could create in F3.
- A better way to command your squad-mates (2 max) by means of a command-wheel. But I played through F3 without the need for companions, and that's not about to change. I did have two companions at one time (for the achievement), but they died within seconds after attacking a nest of Giant Rad-Scorpions. Weaklings!
- Gambling to make more caps. The moment I arrived in Vegas, I immediately went to the tables and racked up over 35000 caps within half an hour (an insane amount compared to the 1500 max I had in F3). What am I going to be spending it on? More guns? More ammo? I already have more than enough of these.
- Some new perks (which are basically variations of other existing perks, and aren't that useful).
- Fixed difficulty for speech-checks, and if your skill is too low, it shows how much you should have to pass the check. A superb improvement over F3 in my opinion.
- The faction-system (as discussed in earlier paragraphs), which doesn't always work as intended.
- The ability to add scopes and different ammunition for your weapons.
- Magazines (which temporarily add 10 points to a related skill) and skill-books (which permanently add 3 points to a related skill). The skill-books were around in F3, but in this game there are fewer of them.
- Raised level-cap. Right now, you can level up to level 30, as opposed to level 20 in F3. Yes I know the level-cap was raised to 30 eventually, but only if you had the Broken Steel-DLC.

Despite the game being so similar, I find that skills such as barter and speech are a lot more important than they were in F3, because they often give you the opportunity to resolve matters without conflict. I spent over 4 hours in New Vegas itself and managed to get by on speech-checks alone, gaining three levels in the process. Beat that, Fallout 3...

Enemy-scaling is more or less dealt with, because early on there areas that are already populated with high-level critters. Try going north, right after the tutorial. You'll soon be running south again because you ran into a nest of Giant Rad-Scorpions or Cazadors at level 2. That doesn't mean enemy-scaling is completely out of the picture, but entering certain areas at a low level is basically suicide.

Glitches

This game has several issues. Luckily, most of it is negligible (people posing as ventriloquists, people gliding through the desert instead of walking...). Keep in mind this game was made by Obsidian (a firm that doesn't have the best reputation for delivering technically perfect games) and that it runs on the same code / engine Bethesda used for Oblivion and F3 (games that had their fare share of glitches as well).

And there were some major issues as well. On the day of the European release a patch was released, said to fix up to 200 issues within the game. People that were close to Nipton and then installed the patch (I was one of them) were having consistent freezing issues when going into VATS-mode and fast-travelling. And then there were a lot of random crashes as well. Deleting the patch, moving to another area far away from Nipton and then re-installing the patch, seemed to fix these problems though. And I haven't encountered any problems since.

To summarize, most issues were already present in both Oblivion and F3. Sad really that after all those years they still hasn't been able to fix them.

Graphics / sound

Recycled and outdated graphics...

Well, let's be honest. Compared to many other games released two years ago, F3 will certainly not be remembered for its stunning visuals. The graphics of F:NV are only a small step up. The graphics aren't that bad, but they certainly aren't up to today's standard.

If I have to make an analogy with another game-series, the games in the GTAIII-verse come to mind. GTAIII spawned two spin-offs (or four, if you insist), both using the same graphics as III. The first spin-off, Vice City, already had outdated graphics compared to III and San Andreas was really outdated when it came out. That didn't stop me from having more fun with the spin-offs than I had with the original though.

Several times though you'll notice things like rock-formations or run-down houses that were recycled from F3.

Voice-acting and recycled music...

Unlike Bethesda's previous games (F3 and Oblivion) this game stars several (emphasis on several) well known film- and TV-actors for the voice-cast (Matthew Perry, Ron Perlman, Danny Trejo...). Yes, I know all about Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson, but they were the only well-known voice-actors in Bethesda's games and Patrick's character is killed 5 minutes into the story and Liam's character disappears for twenty hours and is killed 5 minutes after he reappears again.

While the voices of important characters are done well, the voices of most NPC's aren't. There is just too much repetition: in Novac at least 7 characters, all speaking with the same voice, insisted on telling me that Primm had a new sheriff. And several hours later when I walked into the Crimson Caravan-complex everyone insisted on telling me exactly the same thing. Good to know, I made it happen after all. A little more variation in NPC-dialogue couldn't have hurt anyone.

And then there's the issue of the in-game music. You can once again listen to 50's music on the radio but the amount of songs is really limited (expect no more than 10 different songs). Near the compound of the Kings (a small faction that worships Elvis Presley!) I've only heard one song being repeated endlessly. And while I was running around the Mojave-desert I could swear I heard that background music before... in Oblivion. Hey, recycling is good and all, but this is just cheap.

Replayability

Replayability is pretty high.

There is a large world to explore. It may be of a smaller scale than F3, but it's still pretty big and there's definitely more variation in the landscape.

Choosing which faction to side with will result in a different experience since several quests may or may not be available to you. Want a new experience? Side with someone else... or with everyone... or choose to be standing alone on a large smoking pile of all the major factions you eliminated and rule the Wasteland as Queen Courier... Alright, I may be exaggerating on the last bit, but there is a lot more room for variation.

Or build a different character. Be a genius with zero strength... or a mentally challenged brute with a maxed-out luck stat.

And DLC is coming. Whether or not you will be able to continue after the end-game or not is not yet known at this time. And more Fallout is always a good thing... unless it's Mothership Zeta Strikes Back of course.
Summary

+ More Fallout!
+ Story is a strong-point and a major step up from Fallout 3
+ The faction-system
+ More variation in quests, which adds to replayability
+ New features...

- ... which don't add much to the game
- More of the same
- Graphics aren't spectacular
- Game does have some issues here and there

In short (because the differences between Fallout3 and Fallout: New Vegas aren't that great) chances are that if you liked (hated) Fallout3, you'll like (hate) this game.

It may seem outdated on a technical level, but don't let that hold you back. So far, there haven't been any EPIC moments like walking out of Vault 101 and seeing the Capital Wasteland for the first time or seeing Fawkes wreaking havoc on the Enclave when you escape the Enclave's base. It's still a good game and overall I enjoy it more than its predecessor.

This game once again proves that Obsidian is one of the better developers out there and close to the level of Bioware (my favourite RPG-firm, despite drivel like ME2). If only they would pull their act together and start making games that not only look as good but also play as good as they should be, because only glitches and mediocre graphics are holding Obsidian back from being the absolute top. Until they do, we're stuck with a game that has a ton of unfulfilled potential.