Fallout New Vegas Review Pt. 1

Hey everyone, as promised here is the 1st part of my Fallout New Vegas game review, so without furthur ado...

 

Fallout New Vegas the 4th game in the Fallout Universe is a first/third person Shooter/Action RPG style game. theres quite a lot going on in that one sentence so let me break it down for you all. (no offence to those who have followed the series since its inception and already know what im talking about, feel free to skip this explination)

 the first part. (i.e - first/Third person) is in reference to how you see the game, it is presented in either a) over the shoulder third person view. or b) through the characters eyes 1st person view. the 2nd being the more common format in Shooter games. the shooter/ Action RPG is in reference to the fact that the game has guns making it a shooter but the action RPG element comes from the storyline, you take on a character, name him/her, Decide on how they look and how they act. so the action comes from the role playing element of the game. ok explination over..

 

The series origionated on the PC Fallout's 1 & 2 being quite popular PC games back in the Day. innovative and a lot of fun. but the company that made these games went under (im open to correction on this of course) and the game franchise went silent for many years. it was taken on by Bethesda Softworks who started on the 3D (the pc games being cartoonish really animated.. look on youtube to see what i mean, i'll link to vids at the end of this review) version of the franchise for Xbox 360 PC and PS3. The resulting Masterpiece was Fallout 3, one of my personal favourite games. Now in 2010 we have the next installment in the franchise New Vegas created by both Obsidian and Bethesda.

 

so on to the meat of the Review the game itself. i have decided to slit this into two parts because theres going to be a lot to it.  Part 1 will deal with the in game mechanics and systems, the visual and conceptual.  (i've been told to keep personal experience of the game out of my reviews so i'm going to really attempt to do so unless its critical to my pioint) so.. here we go the Game begins as they all do with the moniker "war never Changes" and your character is getting shot in the head because he has something that someone else wants. (vague i know, but its a plot point and i dont want to be giving away spoilers) you wake up in a docs office and thus begin your journey.

 

the Game mechanics work like most WRPG's do, (thats Western Role Playing Games) you give your character innital points to each of the critical Stats, in the fallout universe this is known as the SPECIAL attributes. thats S.P.E.C.I.A.L standing for Strength - Perception - Endurance - Charisma  - Intelligence - Agility - Luck. This is how you start to creat your character, i.e Dumb Muscle head whos lucky or an Intelligent Charmer who couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag etc. after that you have the Tag Skills, heres where you can furthur costumize your character, really create a persona like. is s/he good with guns or energy weapons, maybe s/he is well able to handle explosives. or maybe s/hes good at talking people into things. its totally up to you, and the possibilities are endless. and finally the Perks system. unlike its predicessor the perks are only activated every two levels, but there are some perks to really give that authtenticity to your creation, is he a lady Killer, flirting to get what he/she wants, or maybe your character should have been a marine and is really good with handguns or rifles. its a very intricate system really requiring you to think about what perks your character needs and what ones you really do need.  the onscreen display has your typical HUD. including a compas with map markers bulit into it and another display showing your health, weapon ammo and condition. the Weapon condition adn ammo usage is also another ingame mechanic worth taking note of. Weapons degrade while in use. same as in real life and they need the proper maintanance to function properly. you will need to repair them using parts from other weapons or from travelling salesmen who can repair armour clothes and guns. keeping your favourite weapon in good shape is key to surviving in the Mojave. Whats new about this game with regard to weapons and ammo is the ability to customise some of your guns, i.e adding scopes to some rifles  silencers to them etc. which can increase your weapons resale value and its usefulness. but one new aspect (one i havent used to much to be honest) is the custom ammo. you can create different types of bullets for different weapons, like hollow point anti personel rounds for the assult rigle, or explosive rounds for the sniper rifle. this is a double edged sword, custom ammo kills quicker, but your weapons degrade faster from using it. brilliant addition for stratigists who play these games. The Kharma system comes back into play here again, but its more indepth and complicated then the previous game. in Fallout 3 your overall kharma determined how people reacted to you, good kharma and all slavers EVERYWHERE would hate you and so would talon company mercs. bad Kharma and everyone but them would hate you. New vegas addresses this almost to vage system with a more realistic one. Factions. Each town has its own opinion of you.  let me give you an example, Your overall kharma could be neutral. but in lets say GoodSprings you could be idolized and at the same time the good people of Nipton could hate you. its a much better system and can really come back to haunt you later on in the game if your not careful. There is another ingame mechanic that I personally found to be both, infuriating and ingenuis allow me to explain, Quests give you EXP which allows you to level up and add more points to your tag skills. so the more quests you do the better correct? thats what I thought to and went about doing as many quests for as many factions as i could to level up quickly. HOWEVER. it seems that in the game universe as in real life, the factions have spys in them. In my own game (my personal one, im not suggesting that anyone play the game my way) i sided with the NCR mostly as I have somewhat of a soldier complex and organised military appeals to me. but i noticed that as i was doing the NCR missions my Fame (Kharma) with Caesars Legion was dropping. i couldnt figure out why. so i started doing some missions for Caesar this got me in trouble with the NCR. eventually unlocking certain mission options such as "The Wrath of Caesar" and Don't Tread on the Bear" there was also a third option which annoyed both camps but i can't go into it without giving away spoilers. i was shocked that they had worked in a system with didnt allow you to play the factions off eachother. I said it earlier, its both rage enducing and ingenius.

 

Visualy for those of you who have played Fallout 3. nothing has changed too much at all. the wastland of the Mojave Desert is the same as the Capital wasteland, theres more sand and scorpions .. Mole rats make an appearance, no more of those bear things. yui gaui. but instead you have stealth dogs called nightstalkers, as i said visually not much has changed. which in some forums ive been on has lead to a common whinge "its just like Fallout 3 DLC man this sucks". You know what, some people are just never happy, there is no major Graphics change because there is no need for it., its as good as it gets. in my humble opinion anyway, i think its visually stunning. the sand effects, the sand storm effects, the sky, the time progression switching from day to night. its brilliant.

 

Over all the game is a brilliant installment to the game series, i am really enjoying it, in the next NV review i do i'll be showing some easter eggs. the differences between platform versions and information about the factions and some tips i've learned, also im going to dedicate a section to some of the PC's console commands.

 

As always your comments and questions are invaluable to me, pointing out things i miss is always appreciated. it helps me to improve. so im looking forward to reading and answering them.

 

until next time friends

 

Pvt Caboose