Fallout: New Vegas Review (360)
Obsidian Entertainment makes games like a drunken sheriff with a .45. He can stumble through his days and sometimes bust the bad guy, but only when he’s not shooting himself in the foot.
“Knights of the Old Republic 2” and “Neverwinter Nights 2” aren’t terrible games but they don’t hold a candle to their predecessors, and this year’s “Alpha Protocol” was a downright abortion. So I booted up “Fallout: New Vegas” with low expectations.
Fundamentally, “New Vegas” is nothing more than a glorified retail “Fallout 3” mod. Sure, it’s an entirely new world with new quests and new characters, but also new bugs. A lot of new bugs. This game needs the Orkin man and Terminix folks to join forces with the makers of Raid bug spray. I encountered plenty of glitch game issues, some broken quests, horrendous loading times, issues where I got stuck in the terrain, and more. However, “New Vegas” is a conundrum in that it’s fun in spite of itself and at some points, even better than “Fallout 3.”
“New Vegas” sees you as a courier who’s taken a job to deliver a “platinum chip” to the city of New Vegas, but on your way, you’re ambushed in the Mojave Desert and are shot in the head. You wake up to find the chip gone and revenge the only thing on your mind. But through getting your revenge you’ll end up taking part in a grand plot that will seal the future of New Vegas and the denizens of the Mojave.
When you aren’t getting stuck in mountains or having weird dialog problems, you’ll be doing major and minor quests for any number of the hundreds of NPCs in the game. You’ll find yourself aligning yourself with one of four major factions, some of which prove mutually exclusive as the game continues. These different factions have different ideologies and affect the ending of the game. Companions you pick up and the minor factions you find will also play into the ending you get, making each decision even more meaningful.
The VATS pseudo-turn based combat system is back along with the skill and feat system of “Fallout 3.” In fact, most of the gameplay systems are relatively unchanged. The lockpicking and computer hacking minigames are back, some of the skills are tweaked ever so slightly, there are some new crafting elements that have been expanded upon and the companion system has been upgraded. The companion system probably received the most work, as your compensations can now store items, equip things you’ve given them, be healed and given rudimentary directions. Some even have their own quests.
All in all, “New Vegas” can be best described as “‘Fallout 3,’ but sometimes better and with more bugs.” If you didn’t play “Fallout 3,” start there, it’s much cheaper. If you loved “Fallout 3” and can put up with “New Vegas’” quirkiness, you’ll probably enjoy it just as much.
The Good
What happens in Vegas… : “New Vegas” has so much to explore and is filled with a lot of the quirkiness and charm of the previous games. You’ll always be finding new things as you explore the wastes and the factions provide you with a decent level of direction and purpose in the world.
Nice Touches: Obsidian was smart. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. So the majority of the game is left the same from “Fallout 3.” Minor tweaks were made, but nothing earth shattering.
The Bad
What the Frak?: I don’t know how in the h–l this game passed QA testing. I understand that it’s an open world game and they’re crazy to test, but there’s no reason it should take minutes to load regions of the world or save my game.
The Ugly
That’s it?: “Fallout 3” originally wouldn’t let you continue playing after you finished the game and the public outcry made Bethesda fix this in one of the DLCs that was released. But for some reason “New Vegas” ends in a way that also blocks off your ability to keep playing, and for seemingly no good reason. And this is on top of the ending feeling somewhat weak to begin with. I’d rather just keep exploring the wasteland.
