I’ve tried it. Really. Several times. Again and again. Finally, I gave it up; this game is a no-go. It has a number of problems in its own, not to mention a comparison to the great predecessor. Mainly that it completely smells like a franchise.
I bought it without a thought, because Fallout 3 (FO3) made the bed for it very nicely. What’s more, the setting reaches back to a much older time; the first two episodes were released sometimes in ’97-98, and CRPG fans lost their heart to them immediately. Anyone says anything, in my opinion, FO3 (released in 2008) deserved the Game of the Year title. Besides the complex system of interaction and free roam setting, the consequences of your character’s deeds made it an excellent computer role-playing game.
Then they released… this thing known as Fallout: New Vegas (FO:NV). I deliberately waited for it. As I wrote above, I bought it without a thought. Then it was sitting in the computer for a long time, because I simply couldn’t play with it.
The Western impact didn’t help the usual Fallout-atmosphere at all. It didn’t became both of them – instead it became something in-between without any clear outline. It isn’t Western enough, not even with all the gamble and the environment, and this unpleasant impression certainly lessens the original post-apocalyptic Fallout-atmosphere too.
Characters are raw, or maybe they are just not unique enough. In this moment I can’t remember any figure more illustrious than the others. Another boring element was the radio, and a third was the row of events.
The music and the DJs got entrapped in the snare of self-repetition in no time. Just imagine how exciting it is to listen boringly well-known and average hits while you are walking on the bleak plains and hillsides.
Yes, I have a problem with the hills too. I understand why I can’t climb a high-pitched mountainside. However, plant life clearly marks if you can pass on a terrain, and it is very annoying to barge into an invisible wall on the middle of a grassy and easily walkable hillside. I felt limited in my freedom of exploration, in a game expected to have a free roam map.
The quests themselves are not too interesting. Generally speaking, in most of them you have to shoot someone, and the main story engaged me not, it gave me no motivation, so I didn’t feel the need to move a finger toward any progression. Ok, it’s a revenge story, but it wouldn’t hurt to make the player feel at least some vindictiveness. During my playtime it was about a headshot and following tracks (of course, you cannot catch the bad guy soon), because they said I want to catch him. But I didn’t feel like that. This quasi-main villain have no personality, and without distinct characteristics I couldn’t even hate him – I never met him, because he played his role only for a few seconds in the intro.
Then the Legion came… That was crappy too. I can accept the principle that in a post-apocalyptic world some organization adopts an ancient military system in a neobarbaric way, but self-repetition was such a big part of this all that it only made me bored more than before.
I killed some legionaries because I felt it morally right to do it after they murdered and brutally tortured a whole town. After this, assassins of the Legion became a regular sight around me, which made adventuring boring, and the whole situation reminded me to the Claw Mercenaries from FO3, or the Dark Brotherhood from Morrowind: Tribunal. These opponents just came from nowhere to annoy me hour by hour.
I need to add: The whole power structure is very inconsequential. There is a constant war between the Legion and the local forces, and I saw some legionaries grinding down the whole staff of an outpost in minutes – just because the assassins respawned in the vicinity, of course they followed me, and the scouts were shooting at them. With this speed they (the Legion) would conquer the area long ago.
FO:NV is a vastly boring franchise that is bleeding from many wounds. It is the greatest disappointment of the whole Fallout-series. Maybe I fight off my antipathy again and I try to play it, but I’ve tried four times till now, and I didn’t enjoy it significantly.
Update: Since the publication of this article I succeeded in playing FO:NV through. I do not change my opinion about the above mentioned problems, because the first 20-30 hours are like that. Then the scale topples somewhere, but I have not the faintest idea where, so let’s say the game is above average, but not exceptional.
I liked the adventuring around New Vegas, but the main story was simply not motivating enough to make the choices touch any pin in my heart. Although I intend to give it a good Droidscore, FO:NV is simply not so good as the other games of the Fallout franchise.
—Garcius—
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks, Namco Bandai Games
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment, Bethesda Game Studios
Homepage: http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/home/home.php
Style: post-apocalyptic CRPG
What I liked:
Fallout settings
What I didn’t like:
story
non-player characters
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