Honestly, nothing matters at all anyway.- The Hegemon |
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In a world of game rentals and pre-owned games played through once in a day and returned latter, game developers are left with only two options; develop a sandbox game with expansive play area, multiple outcomes and variability or pour all your efforts into a multiplayer game system that will enthrall players enough to keep them playing. The Fallout series, from Bethesda game studios, has firmly set themselves in the first category. In 2008, Fallout 3 received praise from all sides, considered one of the best (or just the best) games of the year. The open world and multiple storyline outcomes, coupled with the widely successful expansions, was spectacular. Not wanting to knock the successes of their past, Bethesda brings us Fallout: New Vegas. In many ways, New Vegas is virtually the same game as its successor, Fallout 3. New Vegas is the Fallout universe reimagined from the bleak wastes of the Capital Wasteland. Welcome to New Vegas, a land that was much less effected by the bombings that devastated much of the country. New Vegas plays very much like an enormous expansion. But Fallout: NV is much more than that. It is a new experience, with a completely different feel and atmosphere from its successor. The conflict between the Enclave and Brotherhood is long forgotten in the dessert, lines are now drawn between the vast New California Republic and the savage slavers known as Caesar's Legion. As a Courier of New Vegas, you are hired to transport an item of unknown import for the mysterious and enigmatic ruler of New Vegas, Mr. House. When things go awry and your package is stolen, you begin a quest to uncover the truth hidden in the sands of the desert.
The story of New Vegas is a complex one. The game introduces the concept of Factions, which add another layer of depth to the immersive world of Fallout. Every action you take affects something. Each quest endears you to some, and ostracizes others. The factions add to the experience, and cannot be fully played through in one go. Commit to a side and play it through its ending, then create a new character and start again; new skills, new traits, new perks, even a new face. I have sunk over a hundred hours into this game, and know that there is much I have yet to do. The deep chasm that splits the sides cannot be broached, leaving four very distinct sides you can align with. Whether you seek order or chaos, power or stability, profit or growth, all of these are in your hands. With complexity unmatched by any game, even Fallout 3, New Vegas has nearly endless playability.
Combat and equipment remain the same in Fallout: New Vegas, with little to any appreciable change from Fallout 3. The V.A.T.S. system returns, the perks and skills return (small guns and big guns were combined to form Guns, with Survival added as replacement), and all new creatures and monsters make appearances to waylay your pursuit of the truth. Among these are multiple forms of giant geckos, lakelurks, cazadores and night kin (a variation on super-mutants, but purple and occasionally invisible) will assault you throughout the New Vegas wasteland. More so than in previous games, humans will assault you as well, depending on your faction alignments. Larger cities and military bases are spread throughout the map, more buildings, more open space and more, well, everything. A noticeable increase in load times pulls away some of your immersion in the storyline, and really detract from the gameplay.
Graphics that impressed us in Fallout 3 are little changed in this newest installment. While the graphics are still good, there has been little change in appearance, modeling or texture mapping. Bugs and rendering errors crop up from time to time. On two occasions, I have seen bizarre clusters of, something, fly by quickly. Really don't know what to call them. I found one spot in an empty area of desert that completely froze the game, inexplicably. Beyond this, graphics and gameplay are clean and fluid.
So, to the review.
The real detraction from the gameplay is the load times that plague the player as you enter buildings or exit them. These seem to be worsened by the amount of weight you're lugging around. The occasional glitch or bug may bother you, but you can save anywhere, anytime, so don't forget to do so. Excellent mechanics, intuitive combat, and engaging missions, with little repetition or "go fetch this thing and bring it back" missions. Voice acting is great.
Nothing to knock here, the story is engaging and well written, the sandbox complexity doesn't ruin any of the missions and the faction system aids in increasing replayability.
No visible improvement over the 2008 graphics, rendering errors and glitches plague this one. Touch ups are needed throughout. Facial synch with the voice acting lags sometimes. Little problems all over.
I have played 115 hours in this game (on only one character). New DLC keeps coming out every time I think I've run out of things to do. Combine with this the designers quirky sense of humor that results in some hilarious writing.
