Fallout New Vegas Review

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(More customer reviews)War...War never changes. But Fallout has over the course of its long-winded history.
It started as a spiritual sequel to 'Wasteland', CRPG that started 'Post-Apocalyptic' gameplay back in 1988 by Interplay, whose division Black Isle is behind seminal CRPG classic such as 'Baldur's Gate' and yes, you guessed it, 'Fallout' and 'Fallout 2'.
After Interplay was disintegrated, some of the people went to Bioware, some of them went on to found Troika, talented but unfortunate developer who met its demise after three original and interesting but very buggy CRPG with dissimal sales. Some of them went on to found Obsidian, yet another talented but somewhat disappointing developer whose track record includes 'Knights of the Old Republic 2', 'Neverwinter Nights 2', 'Alpha Protocol' and upcoming 'Dungeon Siege 3'.
Why am I reciting a history lesson here? When Bethesda acquired the right for 'Fallout' IP from Interplay and released its biggest financial success yet with 'Fallout 3', fans were divided into two distinctive factions and has been feuding over which is better.
Faction Red: Bethesda ruined the memory of the greatest CRPG of all time by dumbing down everything we loved about our precious franchise. It's 'Oblivion with guns'.
Faction Blue: Bethesda successfully resuscitated the dead franchise by streamlining many archaic elements and implementing new refreshing elements. It retains all the core elements from 'Fallout'. We love it.
I personally love all of them and none of them are perfect to feud over petty differences in semantics.
After court-feuding over who's got the right to the entire 'Fallout' series, Bethesda settled with the right to all future single-player Fallout game and right to license the right to Interplay to the development of 'Fallout MMORPG'. So both 'Fallout 4' and 'Fallout Online' are coming; both will be published by Bethesda and 'Fallout 4' will be also developed by Bethesda.
So with the help of creative minds behind the original 2D isometric Fallout games using the same engine and costruction set Bethesda did for FO3, can Obsidian right the wrong by Bethesda? (Bethesda still owns the IP and publishes it.) That has been the question by Faction Red.
If you are a fan of 'Fallout 3', rest assured FONV is exactly like FO3 with nothing taken away with some newly improved elements added. You will feel right at home with the game. Control, menu, movement, combat, Pipboy and VATS are all identical. What's added are new perks system, new aiming system and new NPC companion command system.
Unlike FO3, there are tons more factions now in play and you can choose to side with certain faction with consequences. Faction dynamics play much more intimate and important role, and are tied directly to the choices you have to make (think Morrowind). You cannot possibly satisfiy everyone in FONV. You'll have to actually play multiple playthrough to experience everything. Choices you make will definitely make the differrence in character interaction and will give out whopping 27 unique important quests all littered with different endings with each ending giving you various permutations (think Gothic and The Witcher), unlike the cookie-cutter, same-difference 5 endings FO3 offered. Every time you make someone beneficiary, you will make someone else unhappy. All of your choices will resullt in some type of consequences. There is no more good and evil morality play here. This time, it is a wild wild west. Everyone is a cutthroat. In fact, style of the game is reminiscent of old western movie and FO3 rolled into one.
Dialogues are much more sarcastic and darkly humorous. Voice-works are well-done by many celebrities. Characters are wackier. General tone of the game is morally even murkier and overall darker, albeit humorous on par with the first two games (especially Fallout 2).
Soundtrack once again retains the signature feel of the series by utilizing slew of retro 40s and 50s classic pop music. Orchestral score is once again done by Inon Zur.
While level-cap has been increased to 30, leveling up needs more attention because you cannot be a jack of all trade in FONV; especially in light of new 'Hard-core' mode that is included in the game. You need to hunt and cook / harvest / steal and eat, you need to drink and you need to sleep to survive or pay the consequence. You cannot carry infinite amount of ammo either. You can freely choose whether you want to play as 'Hard-core'.
You can now mod your own weapons on the work bench with more variety and freedom than you were able to in FO3.
Graphics are still competent but are aging fast now. The general tone of the color scheme is changed from green to orange. While Obsidian claims graphic is slightly improved, I think graphically everything looks little bit uglier overall, probably stemming from mismatched color schemes throughout the environment. Sometimes, the world feels like messy crayon artwork from kindergarten wall. But the world is much livelier and you now see some level of active civilization represented by glowing neons of Vegas Strip.
So it sounds like I am trashing FO3 and praising FONV to no end. Not so fast. FO 3 is still a great game but I like FONV slightly better in terms of the improved gameplay. However, FO3 is much better in depth of contents, presentation and storytelling. Morrowind and Oblivion is still my king of CRPG with much stronger community support. So what is wrong with the game?
Welcome to the bugfest 2010. It's a grand feast of technical mess; frame rate stuttering issue, game crashing and freezing, characters stuck in the environment, disappearing act of characters and items (even save-game files make the cameos in the act) are some of the widely reported bugs across the all platforms. Yes, CRPG and nonlinear, free-formed, open-ended game in gigantic scope as big as FONV will always be buggier than linear, focused games like Halo and Modern Warfare due to virtually impossible task of QA stemming from endless in-game possibilities, and yes, nothing gamebreaking, But there are tons of minor glitches that are annoying and tiresome when you play the game that gives you anywhere from 40-200 hours and upward. This is the buggiest Fallout entry.
Here's a helpful site to alleviate your potential problems.
[...]
Another thing is everything in FONV is awfully familiar with FO3, not necessarily a bad thing in itself. Just don't expect the same kind of awe-inducing wow moment like when you came out of Vault 101 for the first time in FO3 or cinematic end-battle.
If you are not a fan of CRPG or you hated FO3, there's nothing new for you to see here. Just like FO3, this is not a FPS, even with enhanced aiming mechanics. Hit points and damage are governed by your stats. This game will be just as boring as FO3 to you.
If you are a fan of open-world game such as GTA, be warned; FONV is not a open-world action game. It is open-ended, nonlinear, free-formed CRPG that focuses on traversing and finding new places, engaging with different characters, performing quests, dungeon-crawling and "role-playing". There are tons of small, interesting and quite often excellent depiction of personal conflicts and backstories, but there's no 'save the humanity' type of grand plot and cinematic cutscenes between each level.
And if you think 'Borderlands', which is by the way solid and entertaining action game, is better than FO3, stay away from FONV. Customization of stats, leveling up, armors and weapons by themselves do not make action game like 'Borderlands' a RPG. You'll be wondering why your excellent marksmanship repeatedly proven via endless hours of online multiplayer session is not effective in Nevada / Mojave wasteland.
Last, but not least, PC version of FONV utilizes Steam, which is the most popular DRM and the least intrusive DRM currently available in the market. It offers many incentive, convenience and great pricing for older games compared to other DRM, but Steam is still DRM. Convenience of not having to worry about the actual gamedisc by using Steam is nothing compared to not having any DRM so we can install the game and put away our game for display and collection. We won't be worrying about gamedisc if DRM doesn't check the disc every five second during the gameplay if the disc is authentic in the first place. Dual release with non-Steam version after initial release or guaranteed future DRM deactivation patch will surely pacify every morally just legitimate paying customers who genuinely want to support developers but are turned off by hands-on DRM.
So why did I still choose PC version over console version?; GECK, easier patching and community support, because I expected that game like FONV would always be buggy. To Bethesda's credit, the game looks and plays exactly the same on either PC or console, barring framerate, graphics and resolution, so the experience will be identical unlike other CRPGs like 'Dragon Age: Origins', 'Two Worlds', 'Sacred 2', 'Divinity II', and 'Risen' on consoles to name a few.
But to Steam's credit, it's 'one-time only' activation through Steam and it doesn't require for you to keep the disc running in your optical drive once the game is installed. There's no constant Internet connection requirement while you play your game and there's no installation limit. And if you are into social-networking aspects of Steam, you won't have much problems. But if you are turned off by anything other than disc-based DRM, you are warned. I found myself grudgingly and reluctantly giving up to the spell of Fallout series this time but this is only...Read more›

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Welcome to Vegas. New Vegas. It's the kind of town where you dig your own grave prior to being shot in the head and left for dead...and that's before things really get ugly. It's a town of dreamers and desperados being torn apart by warring factions vying for complete control of this desert oasis. It's a place where the right kind of person with the right kind of weaponry can really make a name for themselves, and make more than an enemy or two along the way.As you battle your way across the heat-blasted Mojave Wasteland, the colossal Hoover Dam, and the neon drenched Vegas Strip, you'll be introduced to a colorful cast of characters, power-hungry factions, special weapons, mutated creatures and much more. Choose sides in the upcoming war or declare "winner takes all" and crown yourself the King of New Vegas in this follow-up to the 2008 videogame of the year, Fallout 3.Enjoy your stay.

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Fallout New Vegas Review

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(More customer reviews)A little background and disclaimer before we begin: I am a longtime fan of the Fallout series, having played the originals many times. I was one of the doubters, the nay-sayers of Fallout 3. This review is written from the perspective of a role player who places emphasis on quality world building, dialogue and voice acting. If the reader feels that other aspects of a game are more important when determining its quality, perhaps they should take the following with a grain of salt.
As always, my reviews are spoiler free.
GAMEPLAY
For players completely unfamiliar with Fallout 3 or New Vegas, the engine is very close to other games that Bethesda (its creator) has crafted. In a nutshell, this means that after the introductory sequence, the player is placed onto a large, 3D over-world map. The player immediately has the power to go wherever they please, if they can survive. Hundreds of points of interest populate the map, ranging in scope from a little hole in the wall gas station years beyond use, to the ruins of a factory, or even a populated, rebuilt remnant of the Las Vegas Strip.
Combat in this game is primarily focused on projectile weapons, though for this release Obsidian endeavored to make unarmed a viable combat option. They succeeded, by the way; it is a force to be reckoned with. However, most players will likely choose either Guns or Energy Weapons as their primary combat skill. This plays out as a typical 1st or 3rd person shooter (by preference) during combat. Players new to the FPS/RPG hybrid genre will likely complain that their shots are not aligned with the crosshairs, that they seem to fly about uncontrollably. This is intentional! In an RPG, the beginning character has a low combat skill that will improve as he or she gains experience, modeled after reality. If you don't like your weapons skill represented realistically, then use a cheat or pump up the skill as fast as possible. It doesn't need to ruin the experience.
If a player wishes to avoid combat, they can always run, or they can engage in the other primary facet of the role playing game: Talking! Speech is a powerful skill in this game, and can take the place of a primary combat skill for the advanced user. There are many ways to advance quest lines and plots sin violence in New Vegas, though if the player aims to get the most bang for their buck their first time through, they better sling a rifle over their shoulder and prepare to draw some blood.
One of the other alternatives to the standard FPS gameplay is the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS). This allows the player to pause combat and assign shots to various targets and body parts. As a side note, unfortunately the eyes and groin did not return as targets from Fallout 2. VATS shots take up action points which slowly regenerate in real time. This system allows the player to fire in VATS, where the action is in a bullet-time like state, and then return to real time. Upon which they can either choose to let their AP regenerate again before firing, or to unload a fresh clip into the raider's face. Most players will choose the latter. Because of the balance issues that such a powerful tool creates, VATS has been significantly nerfed in New Vegas. It still functions normally at ranges of less than about 30 feet, but anywhere beyond that will yield dramatic drops in the players to hit percentage.
If you're familiar with the Fallout 3 engine, you will immediately be comfortable with New Vegas. This has its ups and downs. On the plus side, Obsidian was able to address many qualms that players had with the original engine. For instance, the companion interface is no longer solely dialogue based. When interacting with your companion, you will first see the Companion Wheel. This gives many helpful and oft used options for healing your character, inventory and tactics management, and dialogue initiation. If you prefer, the old dialogue menus are still easily accessible underneath the wheel, but they seem tired and clunky in comparison.
Obsidian also made an absolutely massive improvement in the way that the armor and damage systems work. Though simple, this completely changes much of the gameplay and improves the quality ten-fold. Without going into the mechanics of it all, a character with a very high armor rating, or "Damage Threshold," will not be damaged by a weapon without enough power to punch through the armor. No longer can one attack a giant scorpion's hardened carapace with a piddley 9mm spitball shooter and expect results. This allows power armor to be the power house it was meant to be. When you're wearing it you are a walking tank, not a house of cards.
Another major change concerns ammunition. If a weapon doesn't have enough oomph to get past the target's Damage Threshold (DT), the player has the option of using armor piercing rounds instead of stock ammo. These pierce through a targets armor but do slightly less damage overall. On the other end of the spectrum, hollow point rounds bounce off of stronger armor like petite peas, but punch inch wide holes in a target that isn't properly protected.
More on the negative side, the game's crafting system allows the player to take advantage of all the junk in this post apocalyptic world. You can craft food at a campfire, ammo at a munitions bench and other items at a work bench. This sounds like a very cool idea, but its execution was clumsy and uninteresting. Occasionally I converted ammo from one type to another, or I cooked up a nice wasteland omelet at the fireside, but more often than not the items that I could craft were available for purchase. When faced with the choice of hauling around junk across the desert (which can weigh a lot if you've got enough of it!) or keeping my weightless caps at the ready to purchase what I need, it was an easy choice. The only item that I relentlessly crafted as much as possible was the weapon repair kit. While I purchased as many as I could as well, there were just not enough to go around. The major advantage of the repair kit is that with one or two of them, you can increase the worth of a higher end weapon from around 30 caps at its lowest useable durability to potentially several thousand. This is a great money maker for the frugal traveler. However, even the mighty usefulness of this item wasn't enough to interest the reviewer to spelunk further into the dark reaches of what turned out to be an annoying and fairly useless system.
Finally, in a glorious stroke of brilliance, Obsidian created Hardcore Mode. This mode is separate from the normal difficulty settings of easy, normal, hard and so forth. Instead, this option changes fundamental gameplay aspects to make the game more realistic and challenging. The changes made by activating Hardcore Mode are: Stimpaks and RadAway heal over time instead of instantly. Ammunition has weight. Companions die permanently, they are not knocked out. In order to heal a crippled limb you must use a doctor's bag instead of a stimpak. And last but certainly not least, the player must eat, drink and sleep or suffer serious penalties and death! While this certainly sounds hardcore, the mode was quite a bit easier than expected. Upon reflection, this turns out to be a blessing, as it's not fun to be constantly scrounging around for water when you could be questing. Obsidian found a pleasant balance between forcing players to survive in a realistic desert and letting the player play the game.
Overall, New Vegas was fun to play, and that's what it really comes down to. I simply ignored the aspects of the game that I didn't feel were fun, and I didn't feel any sort of crafting shaped holes in my heart from doing so. 8/10
VISUALS
The graphics for this game are in the genre of stylized realism. They are not photorealistic, nor do they try to be. They present the game world in a realistic way with a slight artistic flair. Considering this, the graphics are dated, Obsidian barely touched them. This was likely a purposeful choice intended to allow more time for world building and writing. I could bore you with technicalities, or try to describe some of the landscape, but that wouldn't really replace the effect of looking at a few screenshots now would it? 6/10
ACOUSTICS
The soundtrack to this game is very good. With a highly atmospheric and ambient feel, the musical stylings of Inon Zur compliment the mood of the game quite well. The opening theme is a little generic in my opinion. Also, many of the locations in this game have music from the original Fallout and Fallout 2! This was a welcome surprise to say the least. In several areas I was moved by memories and feelings of the older games' atmosphere in ways that made me more deeply appreciate this new venture into the franchise.
Sound effects in this game were fairly standard. There were some minute complaints that arose as I played: Shouldn't such a large sniper rifle have a heartier boom? Why don't my enemies scream in agony as I tear them in half with a chainsaw? Is that really the sound a walking tank would make running on a steel floor? However, most of the sound was well done. A player shouldn't notice good sound effects; they should take them for granted because that's how a real world would function. That's exactly how it was in New Vegas.
The voice acting here was far above the caliber traditionally seen in partnerships or ventures by Bethesda. It was not quite up to the Bioware standard, but then, what is? There were only two instances where the voice acting threw me for a loop, and both of these were instances where a character switched to a different voice actor for a line and then switched back. One of these was in the final 4 minutes of the game. While...Read more›

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Welcome to Vegas. New Vegas. It's the kind of town where you dig your own grave prior to being shot in the head and left for dead...and that's before things really get ugly. It's a town of dreamers and desperados being torn apart by warring factions vying for complete control of this desert oasis. It's a place where the right kind of person with the right kind of weaponry can really make a name for themselves, and make more than an enemy or two along the way.As you battle your way across the heat-blasted Mojave Wasteland, the colossal Hoover Dam, and the neon drenched Vegas Strip, you'll be introduced to a colorful cast of characters, power-hungry factions, special weapons, mutated creatures and much more. Choose sides in the upcoming war or declare "winner takes all" and crown yourself the King of New Vegas in this follow-up to the 2008 videogame of the year, Fallout 3.Enjoy your stay.

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