Fallout: New Vegas review!

Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
# of Players: 1 player
Platforms: PS3 360 PC
Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG, Shooter
Release:  Oct 19, 2010
ESRB: M-Mature, (Blood, Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong language, Use of drugs) 

Mean As Hell Rating
9/10 

Have you ever had that Deja Vu feeling? Like you've been somewhere or seen something that you have before? You may feel like that upon your first few hours of playing Fallout: New Vegas. Heck you may feel like that during the entire play through. To sum it up: if you've played Fallout 3, you played Fallout: New Vegas. I mean the writing and all is slightly better, there's a lot more to do and much has been improved but the actual experience is the same, flaws included.

From where I'm standing at; Fallout: New Vegas isn't so much a new game or sequel as it is an elaborate expansion pack or DLC. It looks and plays like it's "game of the year" predecessor. There is nothing really new but there is more of the familiar adventures that the fans have been longing for. And like every good adventure, it starts with an important death... yours.

Fallout: New Vegas takes place during the year 2281, four years after the estimated end of Fallout 3, and 204 years after the Great War of 2077, making this installment chronologically the latest in the series thus far. It is set in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas, Nevada and the Mojave Desert known as the "Mojave Wasteland" which is roughly the same size as the "Capital Wasteland" in Fallout 3. Unlike other cities in the Fallout series, Las Vegas was not struck directly by a nuclear attack. Most building are intact and mutations are not as wide spread.The city is divided into various factions with New California Republic (NCR) being the most notable. There's also the slave driving Caesar's Legion, and other various factions of New Vegas itself.

The game places you as the main character in the role of a courier. In the midst of delivering a package with platinum poker chip and NCR war documents to a town called Primm, the player is found in a shallow grave, having been shot in the head and left for dead. You are then rescued by a robot named Victor who brings him or her to Doctor Mitchell. After that the player enters character creation (defining skills and attributes, name, gender, age and appearance) before investigating the assassination attempt on your life, recover the package, and explore the world. All in true Fallout fashion.

Don't get me wrong; the game starts off rather abruptly but it almost feels as if you have no real sense of purpose or connection.other than to find the man that put the bullet in your dome. Expedient as that is, some will feel very little emotional development or discovery. The moment of emergence is not there. The doc patches you up and sends you on your way. You are on your own.

New Vegas is a big game! There are lots of moral space to shape in the world. You have good and bad choices to make, but there is really no right way to play the game. By your 15th hour you should feel as if you are anchored in the universe and properly armed to handle whatever it throws at you.

One of the more noticeable features of New Vegas is the inclusion of real-world guns. Case in point: M4A1 Carbine replacing the G3 styled assault rifle of Fallout 3. The attempt to include more real weapons have made it a little difficult to find the larger, more powerful, but less common 10mm weapons that were so abundant in Fallout 1, 2, and 3. Nevertheless, weapons such as lasers and large guns like mini guns have returned to bring the pain.

 New Vegas also brings to the scene something that was missing from Fallout 3; the reputation system. It is mostly due to the quantity of factions. The degree of faction loyalty influences the player's reputation. Reputation effects the behavior of faction non-player characters (NPCs) toward the player, and it reflects the impact of selected choices in the world. The availability of dialogue options with NPCs are pretty much based on skills, reputation and karma. Skills have bigger effect on conversation choices. What I like about this is that your success or failure of speech is dependent on skill level rather than chance like it was in Fallout 3. There is a new companion wheel that controls companion behavior and task. It really offers ease of companion interaction.

Now with this being Vegas, you may ask yourself "what about the casinos?" Don't worry be happy, they're there and you can visit them to particapate in mini-games, including blackjack, slots and roulette. You can win or lose money at these mini-games. Word on street is that the mini-games were done by a programmer experianced in programming none-table gameing machines. There is also a card game called Caravan that is playable. The game explains how to play it.

I really liked Fallout: New Vegas. If I had any real complaints, it is pretty much the same as the last game; it's glitchy. Not enough to be really annoying or game breaking but don't be surprised if the game crashes after haveing a long game marathon. But it is a massive game so this was somewhat expected... besides there should be a patched released to help sort the glitches out. When it is all said and done this is a Fallout game and it has a wonderful big populated world for fans of the franchise to explore and you need not have played Fallout 3 to enjoy it. As long as you can look past the glitch issues you will have a good time in New Vegas.