New Vegas Review

Game: Fallout: New Vegas
Year (s):  2010
Company:  dev.  Obsidian Entertainment
            pub.  Bethesda Softworks
Engine: Gamebryo
Type:  RPG Shooter
What I Paid: about $20 (2 DLCs included)
Game Time:  40+ hours




Obligatory Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-x-1fm2cq8&feature=relmfu



Preface

This review is intended for those who have played Fallout 3, as it is comparitive.  If you have not played Fallout 3, play that instead.  Otherwise, read on. 


Obsidian Entertainment

Black Isle developed Fallout and Fallout 2.  They were working on their own Fallout 3 (no relation to the 2008 title, but similarities to New Vegas) when Interplay closed down their division.  Some of the Black Isle people started Obsidian Entertainment, who developed New Vegas.  Others founded Troika Games, which went out of business (a few members of the Troika team then joined Obsidian).   I played Fallout 2 for maybe three hours, but a ton of the things from those three hours were referenced in New Vegas: the super mutant army, broc flowers, golden geckos, the town of Arroyo... it didn't mean much to me, but for people that grew up on the original games, these connections might be a lot of fun.


Plot

Personal:  Guy shoots you and leaves you for dead.  You don't know who he is, or why he shot you.

Environment :  Nearly ever faction in the game wants to eliminate the others to control Hoover Dam. 

The end.

Actually, there is a little more to it, but not much.  It's not an engaging plot, and I didn't give a damn about who won the dam in the end.  Most everyone was a jerk.  Most quests were, "go there, get this/kill that, come back." 

After completing the main quest-line (which ends the game unless you have a pre-battle save), a montage explains how your actions throughout the game affected allies, towns, and various factions.  A good effort, but most everyone pissed me off- so I didn't much care for what happened to them afterwards.


Factions

New Vegas replaced the karma system with a faction fame system.  You're not a blanket good or evil, you're liked or hated by varying factions to varying degrees, based on your actions.  Fame in groups often incurs infamy in other groups.

Furthermore, if you murder/steak from someone silently, in their sleep, with no one to witness, their entire faction will know, and react accordingly.  Instantly.


Exploring... and Deathclaws

Unlike Fallout 3, you can't explore the whole map at any level.  New Vegas added mountains to restrain you, and the occassional invisible wall.  Also, deathclaws are at specific areas, so you can't explore there.

Deathclaws are stupid in this game.  They attack in packs, and there are various kinds.  On level 25, with power armor, I got killed in 1-3 hits (after killing 0-1 deathclaws).  I had to resort to cheap tactics like firing at them from a spot they couldn't get to.  The other enemies were a piece of cake, so this unbalanced level of stupid hard was... stupid.


Voice Acting

This game didn't skimp on hiring known voices: Wayne Newton is a radio personality, and Worf the Klingon voices a super mutant.  That being said, most of the voice acting is flat, spoken by characters that have no character.


Gamebryo PLUS

New Vegas includes all of the hair-pulling glitchiness of Gamebryo you might be used to, with the ADDITION of half-ass programming!  Here's an example of one quest that was executed poorly.  I needed to get evidence from two safes, but my lockpicking was too low (note: no quests in Fallout 3 required a particular skill level to complete).  After a few level-ups, I got the evidence.  Then I had to turn it in- but to who?  No one ever told me, it wasn't in my notes, and there was no map marker to show the way.  I had to go online to find out what to do, for this and other quests.  Way to go, Obsidian!


Skills and Perks

There are fewer skill books, no bobbleheads, and no perks that increase skill(s).  You only get a perk every other level, and your perk choices are not as abundant or powerful.  One perk I can take makes me fire 20 percent faster, but 20 percent less accurate for all guns.  That's just great.

Big Guns, as a skill, was replaced by Survival (more HP from food/drinks).  The weapons themselves were split between guns and energy weapons.


New Mechanics

Obsidian added new mechanic that revolve around creating your own goods on different types of work stations.  Repair allows you to break down guns and bullets, and to fashion new bullets (turns out you can only make say, ten shotgun shells, by breaking down ten shotgun shells).  Survival allows you to make healing potions, poison, antivenom and other goodies from various plant and animal parts (the parts are too hard to gather for this to be of great use).  Medicine allows you to fashion your own chems (if you can find a chemistry set).  Lastly, science allows you to recycle spent energy ammunition and to convert one type of energy ammo to another.  Thus, a neat idea spread over several skills, one of which is useful. 

There are more weapon types than in Fallout 3, several of which have unique variants.  There are also weapon mods.  Mods can only be used on a specific weapon, and never on unique weapons.  Only a few weapons have mods, mods are few in number, and they're hard to find.  E3 2010 interviews made a big deal about how you could modify your weapons to do neat things, but this turned out to be a very small, very limited aspect of the game.  I went the whole game without mods, as there were none for my weapons of choice. 




Hardcore mode is an optional, turn-off-at-will setting.  From Wikipedia, "Gameplay difficulty is increased in several ways ... the healing of crippled limbs requires a "doctor's bag", a chem called hydra or a visit to a doctor; ammunition has weight; and the player character must eat, drink and sleep to avoid starvation, dehydration and exhaustion, respectively."  Hardcore mode: making a dull game dull AND hard!


Expansions / DLC

Three expansions are currently available.  Each raises the level cap by five levels. I have two DLCs; I haven't played them.


Final Thoughts

Fallout 3 was awesome.  This was pretty crappy.  If it's on sale this weekend at Quakecon for ten bucks, well, it's got a lot of content.  You know, if you need something to do but want to enjoy it very much.  I stopped playing this game halfway through to play other games, and only came back to it in order to write a review before Quakecon started. 

There is a legal scuffle between Interplay and Bethesda right now about Fallout multiplayer rights, but the next Fallout game (depending on who wins the suit) might be an MMORPG.