RETRO REVIEW: Fallout: New Vegas

In October of 2010, Bethesda Softworks, with the help of Obsidian Entertainment, released Fallout: New Vegas; a free-roam action RPG (Role-Playing Game) that can be played in either first person, or third person, depending on the preference of the player. Fallout: New Vegas succeeds 2008’s Fallout 3 but is in no way a sequel, or in any way tied to that game, given that it takes place mainly in and around the Mojave, as opposed to Fallout 3’s mainly in and around Washington D.C. setting; however, New Vegas shares the same engine as its predecessor and offers very similar gameplay. Fallout: New Vegas was released on multiple platforms including the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, but this review is gathered from my experience with it on the Xbox 360, as it is the console I played it on.

First thing, let’s talk about the world of Fallout: New Vegas. This is a HUGE world, massive. The Mojave Wasteland is absolutely teeming with all sorts of creatures, enemies, weapons, structures, towns, and factions. The world of New Vegas is completely different from Fallout 3’s in almost every way; it is vast, brighter, and completely open. Looking at the map on your in-game Pip-Boy, you will see just how wide and daunting it is. I absolutely loved the dark and destroyed aspect of D.C. in Fallout 3 but this is a very refreshing change of pace. From the beginning you are thrown into the colorful, yet dead, post-apocalyptic Mojave wasteland, and all its characters, creatures, and sights. It’s amazing to just walk around and see all the effort that was put into this game, I mean go through every house, look in every corner, I can guarantee you will find some amazing things. It is just awesome to look around from a high vantage point and just see the whole thing, it really is; and from almost wherever you are, if you look in the direction of Vegas, you will see its bright lights and the tall tower, the Lucky 38. I warn you, however, the wasteland is NOT a safe place.

Graphically, the game isn’t the best thing anyone has ever seen on the Xbox 360, but they’re still very good graphics. The landscapes have texture, the people have expression, and most of the animal life has distinctive traits that you can see. The world within the game, as a whole, is still really wonderful to look at and with a vast area, huge array of weaponry, plenty of different kinds of foes, mini-games, and visual spectacles, the Mojave is one the most interesting and fun video game worlds out there right now.

Next on the list is gameplay. Now, I realize that this game is free roam and an RPG so not everyone will have the same experience as another. For instance, I could team up with the NCR, and have a completely different gaming experience as someone who teamed up with the Legion, that goes without saying. In interest of appealing to everyone in this review, I will stick to the basics of the gameplay, the stuff that all gamers experience when playing this game. So, it’s an RPG, that means it’s a given that there will be quests, and in Fallout: New Vegas, there are a lot of them. Like a lot, a lot. Some actually don’t deserve to be called quests at all, and yet there they go, popping up on your screen as a new quest, with its not-entirely-original quest name. This is one of the things that slightly bothers me. With RPGs, usually you’ll have tabs and such that weed out the primary quests from the secondary ones, but not in New Vegas, nope. A quest that requires you to assassinate a leader of an army goes right up there next to the shopping list you just picked up from some guy. It was annoying. It seemed like every time someone asked me to do something, that thing is now its own quest. I could be making progress on one quest, go talk to a guy that I’m supposed to talk to on this quests, and instead of adding his request to my checklist of things that I have to do for this quest, it is now its own quest. It got really annoying. It didn’t detract from the actual playing of the game, it just really irked me. Now, with so much stuff going on in this world, the gameplay is surprisingly smooth.

There are some minor loading hiccups and I would highly recommend you install the game to your hard drive to ensure that you don’t have a ton frequent freezing episodes. Yes, this game will freeze on you, and it is awful when it does. Please install it, and while the game does have an auto-save, I would manual save the game a lot, it will pay off in the long run, trust me. Weapon condition plays a huge factor because the weapons can break (what? Oh no!). You’ll have to constantly be finding parts and picking up multiples of the same weapon to keep one up to par, but this adds a strategy element to the game that is very enticing. I very much enjoyed getting my repair skill up to 100+ so I can literally fix anything with anything. Also, be mindful of your medicine! Medicine and other chems play a huge factor in how you play the game too. There many enhancing drugs in this game that make you stronger and faster for a period of time but be careful, you may become addicted to these chems, and that may change your whole gaming approach until you cure yourself.

Depending on what perks you pick throughout the game, you could be silver-tonged devil, or a brute force Hulk, it’s all up to you how you reach the max level. The game has a ton of DLC. It was shipped with a max level of 30 but with all the DLC they added later on, they raised the level cap to 50. It was a very rewarding experience making up to 50, I would recommend the Ultimate Edition of Fallout: New Vegas, you get all the DLC at the start and some bonus packages at the beginning of the game, it is definitely worth it. This game has so many choices fir the player, and that gives you all the more reason to start over, and play it all again, but differently. I really respect games like this. The amount of things going on at one time does become a bit overwhelming and some gameplay bugs do tend to get really aggravating, however, the initial experience of the game is still awesome and the replay value on New Vegas is very high, in my opinion, regardless of bugs.

No Fallout game is the greatest story ever told, New Vegas is no exception. This game does try to make a more personal story but it really winds up going nowhere. You were shot by a guy, who was after something you were carrying, and now you seek vengeance. That’s essentially the initial idea of the game, but of course you run into people and things along the way and get wrapped into something much bigger than a personal grudge. Story-wise, it really isn’t anything special, like I said, but the game is still very fun, and you can’t help but get attached to some of its characters. The game does its best to keep the focus on you, as a player and character, while also giving you the opportunity to help and change others and yourself along the way. The main story line is still very fun and much of the side quests are also, very cool to check out as well. I wouldn’t overlook it.

While Fallout: New Vegas does have its drawbacks, the game is incredibly fun. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs, shooters, and/or adventure games. This game blends all aspects of those genres and achieves something great. A completely character-driven game that allows you to completely immerse yourself into its world and come out feeling like a bad ass. This game was so much fun to play and I still enjoy playing it to this day. While I still rank its predecessor, Fallout 3, above it, I thought nothing could be as great as Fallout 3, but Fallout: New Vegas proved me wrong and was definitely a game worth checking out and definitely surpassed my expectations after playing the previous.