The game that I am going to be reviewing today is one that is very close to my own heart, one that I have played probably more than any other game out there, it's called Fallout: New Vegas. Fallout: New Vegas is an action roleplaying game which was released for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 back in October of 2010. It was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and then published by Bethesda Softworks. This game marks the fourth major entry into the Fallout series, and is set in a post apocalyptic wasteland in the distant future much like the other games were. While not being a direct sequel to Fallout 3, the game takes place 4 years after Fallout 3 and shares a fair amount of elements with it.
Now, I was a huge fan of Fallout 3. The world building and lore that the game presented along with all of the insane sci-fi and monsters scattered around it just drew me directly in, and I fell in love with the franchise slowly but surely. Now, take everything that Fallout 3 did amazingly well and put it on a larger scale with more depth, and you get one hell of an amazing game. That's not even mentioning all of the hilariously bizarre bits of comedy that are scattered throughout the game which just works perfectly with the rest of the crazy world that you're playing in. I obviously can't be the only one who felt this way about the game, as it has sold over 12 million copies and won a game of the year award after it was released. But, lets talk about it a bit more, shall we?
The game doesn't hold back very long before thrusting you right into the midst of the gritty story. It starts off with you taking on the role of a nameless courier while at the mercy of thug named Benny, who has unfortunately shot you in the head and stolen the package that you were scheduled to deliver. Leaving the courier for dead in a shallow grave, he takes off with the package and your fate looks fairly grim until you wake up inside of a medical clinic, somehow surviving.
From here, you'll be out on a quest to find Benny and get your revenge. Along the way, you'll also decide the ultimate fate of New Vegas and what happens for the rest of the game. The storylines present within New Vegas are far better written than what we got in Fallout 3, as well as being paced just about perfectly. There's also a wonderfully strange and somewhat dark sense of humor thrown into the mix as well, which just makes a lot of the game really amusing, all the while keeping you heavily engaged with the story and what is going on while you play. Whether it be from an insane cult of ghouls hell bent of launching themselves into space with a rocket with the help of a human who believes himself to be a ghoul because he's so ugly, or an insane supermutant who has schizophrenia and worships a brahmin skull.
Besides finding your path down the main story line, there's also a surplus of side quests available for the player to go through. Even in comparison to Fallout 3, this game seems to have a fair amount more side quests available to play, and most of them seem to be far more interesting/engaging than what we were provided with in Fallout 3. The amount of content that is available in this game is honestly staggering, and that's not even including the DLC's you can pick up for it. While this might be not something for everyone, I honestly have to say this is one of the greatest things of this game. Otherwise, how could I have sunk over 1300 hours into this game over the years?
The gameplay of New Vegas is very similar to what we got to experience in Fallout 3, just with some tune ups and small changes to improve things here and there. The game uses the same engine that Fallout 3 used, and still uses the same system of combat called V.A.T.S. which was present in Fallout 3. The perk system is very much the same as well as it was in Fallout 3, though there are new ones to be found within this game that sometimes will push you to enhancing certain Skills to help boost them up more.
The skills in this game are a much more vital part of the gameplay than what you saw in Fallout 3 as well. Depending on how you set your character up with the skills, you'll often find special conversation options becoming unlocked allowing you to do certain things that you normally wouldn't be able to do. For example, early on if you have your explosives skill level high enough then when you're trying to help defend the town you can acquire some dynamite from one of the locals for free. Your medicine skill being high enough might help you to cure someone who is ill who otherwise you'd have to go do a fetch quest for. They really come in handy this time around in more ways than one. There's also skillbooks which give you a short temporary boost to certain skills which can help a lot for missions where your skill levels aren't adequate for the special tasks. Thanks to the skills being so essential to the game, it really allows for character customization and a different play style for each character you make.
And, there are plenty of different play styles there for you to choose from thanks to all of the skills and perks in the game. One playthrough I wanted a more charisma based character with high speech skills, so I could talk myself out of most situations without having to shoot everyone down. On another playthrough, I used a low intelligence melee fighter who occasionally would have some goofy ass dialogue options in between pounding people into the ground with a power fist. While none of the play styles will allow you to get away without any combat since it is a big role in the game, it does allow you to try and stick with a non violent path for most of the game if that is what you wish.
That's one thing that I really enjoy about this game, the quests have many different variables and options for you to have a few different paths to go through depending on your play style, and if you choose the more violent ones then there's also a big assortment of new firearms and melee weapons to match along with all of the paths and options in the game. Of course, there's still the classic guns as well like the Fat Man which is a personal favorite. Then again, who doesn't love shooting out nukes and decimating everything within hundreds of feet of you.
One more new change to the game in comparison to the previous game is that there is now a hardcore mode you can try to take on if playing on normal/hard is too easy for you. This mode really will make you feel like you're trying to survive in a nuclear wasteland, as you have to maintain your food and water consumption, as well as your sleep. Obviously this can be an issue while you trek across the desert for hours with no readily available water or food source for you to find right away if you start to die from thirst or hunger. Some people enjoy this mode, while others don't. I, however, am just happy it is there if I feel like making things more challenging for myself.
The voice acting in the game is absolutely superb, with some very talented voice actors coming into the game, a lot of which actually being full time actors. You'll find such people as Ron Perlman, Matthew Perry, Kris Kristofferson, William Sader, Danny Trejo and many other talented people as characters within the game. Combine all of the talented actors with awesome writing and dialogue and you get some truly re-memorable characters and events within this game. This is yet another way that the game really immerses you and keeps you engaged, especially when you don't even realize who the talented actor is behind the character.
The soundtrack and sound design of the game is yet another great piece of the game that really helps drive it forward. The songs used match the setting and tone of the game quite well, and give you a real feeling of adventuring in that style of era. There's also a lot of nods to the older games soundtracks, as you'll hear them playing in certain cities/areas in the background. Besides the musical section of the soundtrack, there's also some great ambiance sound design going on which came from the same guy who did the sound design for the first two Fallout games. Overall, the sound design and soundtrack and great for the game and are very welcomed.
In addition to all of that, there are some excellent companion characters for you to find who all have their own unique personalities and stories behind them, most of which will have you playing through a special event to unlock their full abilities. There is also some awesome easter eggs and references for you to find throughout the game, some of which actually gave me a chuckle. Of course there's also some absolutely creative quests for you to play through. I could say so much good stuff about this game and talk about it all day, it's truly something special to me personally that I cannot recommend enough.
I'm sad to say, however, that it isn't a perfect game. This isn't due to anything involving the writing, actors, storyline or anything like that though. It all basically comes down to the game engine just not being the best engine to work with. Upon the initial release of the game, it had some severe game crashing issues and bugs that were receiving criticism as it should have. I myself remember when I first bought the game for the Xbox 360 that I was having the game crash several times a week where I would lose hours of progress, and it was so damn frustrating.
After awhile, they did put out patches to try and fix some of the bugs and glitches and it did help a fair amount, though there are still some bugs and glitches present in the game that have yet to be fixed to this day. I've also ran into an issue with the game crashing while playing on the PC over the recent years, though it was nothing like when the first game came out. But, even with those remaining bugs and glitches in there, the game is just so damn fun and they don't detract away from the experience all that much. Especially once you pick up all of the DLC and add that extra content into the game. The experiences this game provides more than makes up for any bug or problem you might run into, at least in my opinion.
Overall, Fallout New Vegas provides such an enthralling experience that keeps you immersed, entertained and satisfied that you can overlook the technical issues that are still present in the game. There is so much content to play through within this game, that you'll get far more than your moneys worth out of this. The world building, references and lore in the game builds such a special, interesting world that you cannot help but get sucked into it. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who hasn't played it, and honestly, if you haven't done a playthrough of it in a few years I can say you should boot this old beast up and do it another time, as you'll still find enjoyment out of this game no matter how many times you run through it. At least that's how it is for me!
If the game engine didn't have such issues with bugs/glitches and the occasional crashing, then I'd certainly rate this game a 10/10. Even with those those in there, I'll still give it a 9.5 out of 10. All I can say is that you're really missing out if you haven't touched this game yet. So, yeah, thanks for checking out my review! I hope you guys have enjoyed it and maybe it has gotten you interested in this awesome game if by some weird miracle you haven't touched it yet.
I bought New Vegas the day it came out (it released right around my birthday, so I had money), brought it home, installed it, played for about three hours, and shut it off in anger when it deliberately stuck me in a no-win situation, something Fallout 3 had never done.
I bought it expecting a sequel to a game I had dumped hundreds of hours into, and instead I got a spin-off not even programmed by the game's original developers. I was pissed: everyone sang this game's praises, and I just did not get it at all.
Fast forward a few years, and a co-worker and I got to talking about the Fallout series, of which she was a huge fan, and she let slip that New Vegas was her absolute favorite. I was floored, and asked her why.
She rattled off a litany of reasons similar to those you enumerated in your review, and by the time she was done, I realized I had made a terrible mistake: I went into New Vegas expecting Fallout 3, Part II. When New Vegas failed to live up to that hype (which, let's face it, would be impossible for it to have done), I thought the fault was with the game.
The fault was not with the game. The fault was my own blinders.
I went home that night, booted New Vegas up with the intention of playing it as the game it was, not the game I wanted it to be, and everything changed.
New Vegas is, hands down, one of the best Fallout experiences you can get, and certainly the best of the most recent crop. Obsidian crafted a world that is deadly, that demands you take it seriously, with characters and factions and enemies and obstacles that absolutely will not hesitate to cut you in half if you step out of line. Think I'm wrong? Just ignore the advice of literally everyone in town, and head north up the ruined highway after you deal with the Powder Gangers at the start of the game.
Sure, Fallout 3 had Old Olney which would do a similar thing to you if you ran across it when you were a weak little nothing, but Olney is on the other side of the map from where you begin the game, and the chance of you wandering in there unprepared after stumbling across it is quite low. New Vegas, on the other hand, will throw Deathclaws at you when you're level one, but only after telling you about a dozen times that it's really not kidding.
It may not be perfect, but it's a masterpiece nonetheless, and the day I earned the trophy for beating it in Hardcore mode made me feel like I'd truly survived the apocalypse. Your review nailed it, man.
Hi mate!
Honestly such a brilliant game.
I have no idea how many hours I sank into this when it first came out but I think I'd be embarrassed of the answer!
9.5 out of 10 is justified I think. You're right it has technical issues, but I just didn't even care when I was playing it. It's so good I happily forgave all of the little niggles I had with it.
Yeah, I didn't even include the hours I sank into it on the console in my estimate of how much I've played it. I'd probably be at insane amount of hours if I did, lol.
I'm honestly ashamed by how long I've played some games :P
The quests were awesome too, like the one when discovering the cause why cattle disappear at night. And the gibs flying everywhere when the bloody mess perk is chosen never gets old 🤣.
Oh, yeah. The bloody mess perk is something that is a must have for, like, every play through, lol.
I remember playing that level and thinking it was so cool that you had to wait until midnight and everything.
Good times!
Great job. I loved New Vegas, and I still play it some times to this day. Fallout 4 is great and I enjoy it but there is something about the Mojave Wasteland that always seems to call me back. For all of us that loved New Vegas the modding community has announced a new project called Fallout 4 New Vegas, which is obviously a mod aimed to move New Vegas in to the newer engine. I am also excited about Fallout Cascadia.
Fall out is pretty amazing in general
Forgot to add something:
That dialogue options actually matter, yes, I'm looking at you Fallout 4.
Yeah, I kinda think of Fallout 4 as a spin off game set within the same universe of the Fallout series. Kind of hard to really consider it a true sequel when its core mechanics have basically abandoned everything that makes a Fallout game, well, a Fallout game.
Still enjoyed the game for what it was (A FPS/Action game), but it's just not a good Fallout game.
i actually never got around to playing New Vegas. I only fully played Fallout 3 and all of its DLC a few years ago too. I own New Vegas just need the time to play it.
I suppose I should get around to that before I buy the Fallout 4 game of the year edition too!
Ah a true classic, I still have to beat this one, I get myself into these types of issues where I buy to many games when they are on sale and forget about them :P lol
Great review. I love the fallout series
great
these games are very different I love science fiction games @deadspace