Fallout: New Vegas is one of the peaks of modern RPG design from the 21st century. Along with The Witcher 3 and Baldur's Gate 3, this game is one of the best possible video game experiences you can have.
It all started from a seriously special development partnership. Obsidian Entertainment, who in 2009 were known for such titles as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and Neverwinter Nights 2, were more than just a small dev company with only a few games to their name. It was comprised of industry veterans along with new faces hungry to show their worth in the world of game development.
Figures such as Chris Avellone, Josh Sawyer, and JE Sawyer made up some of the more recognizable people in the company. These three all collectively worked on CLASSICS like Icewind Dale I and II, Planescape: Torment, and of course... Fallout 1 and 2. If you know anything about CRPGs, you'd know that these games are the CREAM of the crop when it comes to non-Bioware stuff.
Needless to say, when it came to Fallout these guys knew what they were doing. So, shortly after Fo3's release, the company approached Bethesda with a business proposition: within a short development period, Obsidian Entertainment would deliver a brand-new Fallout game that returned to the west coast original identity of the series, with little, if any, needed work from Bethesda other than greenlighting certain executive decisions. They would be using the same engine and mostly the same assets from Fo3, which would make development speedy, and considering the reputation Obsidian and its employees had, they would be sure to deliver a truly fantastic RPG experience.
Well, if by appreciation for their craft or for the undeniably massive mountain of cash that awaited Bethesda should they release a new Fallout game hot off the hype of Fallout 3, the parent company of BGS agreed. Fallout: New Vegas was given a development window of just 18 months, which was a frame of time the workers at Obsidian agreed to wholeheartedly. Being former Interplay devs, this was nothin' but another crunch to get through, something they were all well aware of and could handle.
So, at the end of 18 months without an ask for an extension on dev time, they delivered their product and promised to support it with patches and additonal downloadable content for the following couple of years. But on release, this thing was kind of polarizing.
You see, tons of people who bought this game were most likely big Fallout 3 fans, and the game they ended up experiencing was much, MUCH different in tone and atmosphere from that game. Functionally, it remained the same but with an added hardcore mode and the return of traits. The leveling system was pretty much the same, but the quest design and locational nature of New Vegas's map was new... and intimidating.
On top of this, New Vegas released with a SHIT ton of bugs. Bugs that still persist even to this day... and lots of crashes. These technical issues most likely came from the short frame of time of 18 months, but they were lessened dramatically both by official patches and fan-made content. Nowadays, with the right guide, New Vegas is practically (almost) bug-free.
Reception to the game by critics were generally positive. While some praised the game endlessly for its narrative design that heavily allowed player choice and multiple routes to completion of a given objective, others lambasted it for an admittedly poor graphical presentation and a slew of seriously game-breaking glitches. Fans were similarly split -- those who started with 3 found it way more open-ended, and for some that was a bad thing, and for others it opened up a new level of gameplay they weren't familiar with before.
But for classic fans of the franchise? This was the most fresh breath of air they've likely ever inhaled. Here was a game that paid homage to the classic era of Fallout, re-introducing such iconic factions as the NCR and fan-favorite characters like Marcus BACK to the forefront of Fallout! For almost all of them, this game was a slam-dunk.
Since then, this game has received a ridiculous amount of praise. Like, to the point where some people swear by this game and hate other people who do not like it as much as them. I am someone who loves every Fallout game, yes, even Fallout 4, so I cannot really jive with these guys at all. I think every Fallout game has its own strength, but at the end of the day it's obvious to me that this is my very favorite.
New Vegas, once you patch it up with fanmade mods, becomes one of gaming's most unforgettable experiences. Truly, I cannot name another game where the variability in the choices you can make is similar in quantity. New Vegas kills it in terms of making the player feel absolutely one with the world around them, this game's sense of immersion that's offered up through sheer quality in its writing department is second to none. To this day, New Vegas is the only game where it feels like I am being sucked into a virtual realm. From the first step you take outside of Goodsprings to the doors of the Lucky 38, you feel like you're really there.
For this reason, that it is the ultimate escapist's video game, New Vegas is to me my favorite video game. Every time I do a playthrough of this thing, I am wrapped entirely in its narrative just due to the fact that I get to choose how it progresses. In some stroke of design genius, Obsidian was able to create one of gaming's most unique open-ended main quests ever.
But that does not mean it isn't without its faults. Trust me, I love this thing to death, but some ideas do not sit with me well. I think the most glaring of issues is it's overworld design.
Do NOT get me wrong, I love the world of New Vegas and its factions, but the actual map design is very... basic. When you size it up to Fallout 3, it is obvious that certain cutbacks were made. Some locations, mostly caves and ruins, are incredibly, unbelievably basic. Which is unfortunate because they take up the most of the map, more than any other type of location. And areas like Westside or even Freeside feel so obviously unfinished that their appearance right next to the strip is a sore one.
The surrounding city of New Vegas, as in, the general outskirts, is also hilariously barren. Like, the fiends and some factories and office buildings is all you're getting. This area also features some of the most bare-bones quest in the entire series. NCR Sharecropper farms and some of the westside quests in general are just... bland. As all hell. Despite its bad main story, I cannot really think of a bland quest in fo3. By comparison, New Vegas has PLENTY.
But where the main world of this game falters, it picks up insanely strongly in its DLC offerings, of which I feel include some of the best video game experiences available. But I will talk about those once I get to each DLC individually.
Overall, New Vegas is an amazing video game despite everything. While in its vanilla state it is riddled with technical issues, looks incredibly dated, and has arguably the worst overworld in the Fallout series, New Vegas counteracts and wipes out all of these negatives entirely by having gaming's best open-ended quest system. It truly is an achievement of the ages.
It all started from a seriously special development partnership. Obsidian Entertainment, who in 2009 were known for such titles as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and Neverwinter Nights 2, were more than just a small dev company with only a few games to their name. It was comprised of industry veterans along with new faces hungry to show their worth in the world of game development.
Figures such as Chris Avellone, Josh Sawyer, and JE Sawyer made up some of the more recognizable people in the company. These three all collectively worked on CLASSICS like Icewind Dale I and II, Planescape: Torment, and of course... Fallout 1 and 2. If you know anything about CRPGs, you'd know that these games are the CREAM of the crop when it comes to non-Bioware stuff.
Needless to say, when it came to Fallout these guys knew what they were doing. So, shortly after Fo3's release, the company approached Bethesda with a business proposition: within a short development period, Obsidian Entertainment would deliver a brand-new Fallout game that returned to the west coast original identity of the series, with little, if any, needed work from Bethesda other than greenlighting certain executive decisions. They would be using the same engine and mostly the same assets from Fo3, which would make development speedy, and considering the reputation Obsidian and its employees had, they would be sure to deliver a truly fantastic RPG experience.
Well, if by appreciation for their craft or for the undeniably massive mountain of cash that awaited Bethesda should they release a new Fallout game hot off the hype of Fallout 3, the parent company of BGS agreed. Fallout: New Vegas was given a development window of just 18 months, which was a frame of time the workers at Obsidian agreed to wholeheartedly. Being former Interplay devs, this was nothin' but another crunch to get through, something they were all well aware of and could handle.
So, at the end of 18 months without an ask for an extension on dev time, they delivered their product and promised to support it with patches and additonal downloadable content for the following couple of years. But on release, this thing was kind of polarizing.
You see, tons of people who bought this game were most likely big Fallout 3 fans, and the game they ended up experiencing was much, MUCH different in tone and atmosphere from that game. Functionally, it remained the same but with an added hardcore mode and the return of traits. The leveling system was pretty much the same, but the quest design and locational nature of New Vegas's map was new... and intimidating.
On top of this, New Vegas released with a SHIT ton of bugs. Bugs that still persist even to this day... and lots of crashes. These technical issues most likely came from the short frame of time of 18 months, but they were lessened dramatically both by official patches and fan-made content. Nowadays, with the right guide, New Vegas is practically (almost) bug-free.
Reception to the game by critics were generally positive. While some praised the game endlessly for its narrative design that heavily allowed player choice and multiple routes to completion of a given objective, others lambasted it for an admittedly poor graphical presentation and a slew of seriously game-breaking glitches. Fans were similarly split -- those who started with 3 found it way more open-ended, and for some that was a bad thing, and for others it opened up a new level of gameplay they weren't familiar with before.
But for classic fans of the franchise? This was the most fresh breath of air they've likely ever inhaled. Here was a game that paid homage to the classic era of Fallout, re-introducing such iconic factions as the NCR and fan-favorite characters like Marcus BACK to the forefront of Fallout! For almost all of them, this game was a slam-dunk.
Since then, this game has received a ridiculous amount of praise. Like, to the point where some people swear by this game and hate other people who do not like it as much as them. I am someone who loves every Fallout game, yes, even Fallout 4, so I cannot really jive with these guys at all. I think every Fallout game has its own strength, but at the end of the day it's obvious to me that this is my very favorite.
New Vegas, once you patch it up with fanmade mods, becomes one of gaming's most unforgettable experiences. Truly, I cannot name another game where the variability in the choices you can make is similar in quantity. New Vegas kills it in terms of making the player feel absolutely one with the world around them, this game's sense of immersion that's offered up through sheer quality in its writing department is second to none. To this day, New Vegas is the only game where it feels like I am being sucked into a virtual realm. From the first step you take outside of Goodsprings to the doors of the Lucky 38, you feel like you're really there.
For this reason, that it is the ultimate escapist's video game, New Vegas is to me my favorite video game. Every time I do a playthrough of this thing, I am wrapped entirely in its narrative just due to the fact that I get to choose how it progresses. In some stroke of design genius, Obsidian was able to create one of gaming's most unique open-ended main quests ever.
But that does not mean it isn't without its faults. Trust me, I love this thing to death, but some ideas do not sit with me well. I think the most glaring of issues is it's overworld design.
Do NOT get me wrong, I love the world of New Vegas and its factions, but the actual map design is very... basic. When you size it up to Fallout 3, it is obvious that certain cutbacks were made. Some locations, mostly caves and ruins, are incredibly, unbelievably basic. Which is unfortunate because they take up the most of the map, more than any other type of location. And areas like Westside or even Freeside feel so obviously unfinished that their appearance right next to the strip is a sore one.
The surrounding city of New Vegas, as in, the general outskirts, is also hilariously barren. Like, the fiends and some factories and office buildings is all you're getting. This area also features some of the most bare-bones quest in the entire series. NCR Sharecropper farms and some of the westside quests in general are just... bland. As all hell. Despite its bad main story, I cannot really think of a bland quest in fo3. By comparison, New Vegas has PLENTY.
But where the main world of this game falters, it picks up insanely strongly in its DLC offerings, of which I feel include some of the best video game experiences available. But I will talk about those once I get to each DLC individually.
Overall, New Vegas is an amazing video game despite everything. While in its vanilla state it is riddled with technical issues, looks incredibly dated, and has arguably the worst overworld in the Fallout series, New Vegas counteracts and wipes out all of these negatives entirely by having gaming's best open-ended quest system. It truly is an achievement of the ages.