| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 3 | 9.40 |
| Overall | 9.40 |
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I was weary of Fallout New Vegas because it seemed like one of those phoned in sequels that major devs hand off to Obsidian to make. In this case Obsidian took what worked in Fallout 3 and expanded on all the RPG elements to make this game a far deeper experience. I am going to assume that most of you have played Fallout 3 or even an Elder Scrolls game so you should understand the formula. It's one of my favorites in all of gaming and this game puts that formula into a very interesting world. Combat remains a hybrid between real time FPS shooting and VATS targeting which I felt worked better in Fallout 3, maybe it was just the freshness of it all. After killing your 500th enemy the same way it does get tiresome. This may sound sacrilege to some but I this formula needs to do way with stat based combat and go all skill based. There is little to no strategy at all when it comes to combat, just have better equipment and keep your distance. Every once and a while you can actually setup a for a battle by placing mines or being stealthy but for the most part you will just shot things as they show up. My favorite parts of the game are the non combat moments, moments where you had to infiltrate a rival gang. Or convince a ruthless killer to lay down his weapons to avoid bloodshed. Using your hacking skills to take down an entire buildings defenses or better yet turn their robots against them. Moments like that are what pushes me forward to see what crazy predicament my character will end up in next. What sets New Vegas apart from Fallout 3 is the emphasis on role playing, on making your actions actually feel like they are shaping the world around you. New Vegas is full of different factions, many of which oppose one another. Start to aid one faction and you will undoubtedly start to piss of the opposing group. You have a reputation for every faction and depending on your standing you will be welcomed into their areas with open arms or killed on sight. Most of the quests are created in such a way where to complete them you will have to choose to aid one group or another creating many different ways to complete each mission. The mission structure is what really blew me away with the game, so many missions cross paths with one another and effect major relationships. It didn't feel like I was just running down a list of objectives for one quest, finishing it and them moving on to another. What I did in one quest changes what I could do on another quest. All of a sudden options either increase or decrease depending on your previous actions. I bet you didn't think that farmer you killed 30 hours ago would have been important later on now did you? Stuff like that make the world of New Vegas feel like a living world that your character is shaping. The main storyline is actually very simple and not as interesting as Fallout 3 but at least it allows for many different outcomes. This is a game with many different endings and four major paths to completion. These four paths deal with the major factions you encounter, choosing which ones to help is what ultimately controls your main quest path. I cheated a bit and used saves to quickly see all four major paths and what I saw was that most of the paths have the exact same missions repeated just told from a different point of few and they all end in the same battle. The side quests are fantastic and extremely well done, I was shocked to see the main quests feel so cheap and repetitive in comparison. The good thing is that about 80% of the games content comes from the side quests and simply exploring the world which to me is an absolute joy to do. Honestly i enjoyed playing this game more than Fallout 3 but I cant give it as good a score or better cause the game literally starts to fall apart as you keep playing. For about 50 hours everything was gravy, I maybe had one crash and almost no glitches. The following 50s hours were a mess, I probably had about 40 crashes and weird glitches all around. Its as if the game starts to collapse within itself cause it can't hold the weight of everything its trying to keep track of. The game would randomly freeze, it would slow down to about 1 frame a second, crazy weird stuff would happen with your companions and one time I the game world get ripped open into a strange triangle dimension. I was frustrated by the time I finished the game and I have a very high tolerance about things like this. Other than the unfortunate bugs, my 100 hours spent with this game were mostly gaming bliss. There are a few other additions to the formula like having companions you can recruit and hardcore mode where you have to eat, sleep and drink water to survive. All these additions to me set this game apart from Fallout 3 even though that game was more technically sound and had a better main storyline. Maybe I should be saying which one is better, they are both excellent in their own ways, much like Zelda OoT and Majora's Mask. Fans of this formula I can't recommend the game enough, if you can stomach the crashes that is. (One added note, I just started the newest DLC for this game and it is FANTASTIC and has a totally different story and theme to the game. I have heard all the DLC are very different from the main game. You may want to wait for a GOTY edition or something cause they all seem very much worth playing.) |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:36:38
I have not played Fallout 3 yet, so I don;t understand the whole VATS thing.
Now that Bethesda own id, maybe they can just make Fallout an RPG/FPS. (and hopefully keep all that away from Scrolls.