This review contains spoilers
"War. War never changes." But the game industry does, it evolves every moment to hopefully create brand new classics. In modern years the quantity of masterpiece games has diminished, and the amount of duds (New Call of Duty games, Redfall, etc.), has vastly increased. So, I have been playing through many older games, specifically many published by Bethesda. I've played Dishonored and Prey, but both of those can't hold a candle to this masterpiece.
As an open-world RPG, one would expect it, based off modern standards, to be long and grindy, with predatory systems to "speed up the leveling process" (I'm looking at you Ubisoft). However, New Vegas has none of these things, instead focusing on the way an open-world game should be, expansive and open. While the map I would say is actually one of its very few weak points, the scale of destruction clearly lacking because of its short development cycle, the map facilitates the rest of the game's open-endedness well enough. The quests are fantastic, especially in the early game. I did not progress in the early game similar to most other players, by skipping Novac and Primm, coming back to them later into my playthrough, but the opening was still the time of best discovery. To try and slow down the player and force them to go to the towns in the lower half of the map first, the developers placed almost a wall of deathclaws roaming. With a little bit of patience, though, I was able to sneak past them incredibly early and head along the outskirts of the strip. I'm not going to go into detail about my whole journey, but when I eventually got into the strip, the interactions with Benny at the Tops was great.
A staple of the Fallout series at this point is the many factions and characters that populate them. New Vegas has no shortage of factions and characters. My personal favorite factions were Mr. House, the Boomers, and the very small Enclave remnants. Mr. House in particular was very well-developed, being the character that the most NPCs had an opinion about. It was very interesting to ask people around the map of their opinion of all the faction leaders. In the end, I did the House ending, and using my speech stat to convince the NCR to leave. Sadly, in this first playthrough, I became an enemy of Caesar very early on, so I was not able to talk with him much, but from what I've heard he is a surprisingly profound character. Being able to connect with characters by doing quests for them felt natural (such as with Sarah).
Do you ever feel lonely in the wastes? Need a friend to help you survive? That's where the companion system comes into play. Boone, Arcade Gannon, Rex, there is so just so many characters to join you in your adventure. While many of the companions are great, I found myself essentially collecting them, by making them my companion and immediately sending them back to the Lucky 38. Still, Arcade Gannon's companion quest was my favorite quest in the game, because it resulted in me getting my two favorite armors in the game, the Remnant Power armor and Gannon Family Tesla Armor.
Speaking of my favorite equipment, there are many memorable unique armor sets and weapons that I found myself collecting from time to time. Explosive weapons like Annabelle and Thump-Thump were deadly in the early game, probably one of the only reasons I could complete many quests. I've talked about this more in my DLC reviews, but the DLC unique weapons are just the cherry on top. I just wish I got the jury rigging perk earlier than like 5 hours before I beat the game, because it is just so useful in repairing all the cool unique armor sets. It's just so expensive to pay people to repair it, considering I was always a little low on caps. I very rarely sold weapons, because I dropped them to make space for unique weapons.
I have to admit, many systems of New Vegas are outdated, such as the combat, but one that has held up extraordinarily well is the dialogue and writing. I've seen many comparisons to Fallout 4's new, and much weaker, dialogue wheel. Having a silent protagonist allows the player to imagine the way their character would respond only adds to the role-playing elements. I very much enjoy how each dialogue option is varied, with different tones being present with each option. You can act passive aggressive towards someone you don't see eye-to-eye with, while still not hurting your reputation with them or their faction.
"Have you seen that tower on the strip all lit up. You can see it for miles!" The Strip is all that remains of an old world gone by. Mr. House deems it to be the last place in the Mojave that retains its old world glory, even if it is only a dot in the grand scheme of things. Still, it is a bright, glowing dot surrounded by the dull, radiated wasteland of the Mojave. New Vegas is, in my current opinion, my favorite game of all time. The developers at Obsidian were brilliant, creating what can be simply described as a masterpiece. "Truth is, game was rigged from the start." - Benny
As an open-world RPG, one would expect it, based off modern standards, to be long and grindy, with predatory systems to "speed up the leveling process" (I'm looking at you Ubisoft). However, New Vegas has none of these things, instead focusing on the way an open-world game should be, expansive and open. While the map I would say is actually one of its very few weak points, the scale of destruction clearly lacking because of its short development cycle, the map facilitates the rest of the game's open-endedness well enough. The quests are fantastic, especially in the early game. I did not progress in the early game similar to most other players, by skipping Novac and Primm, coming back to them later into my playthrough, but the opening was still the time of best discovery. To try and slow down the player and force them to go to the towns in the lower half of the map first, the developers placed almost a wall of deathclaws roaming. With a little bit of patience, though, I was able to sneak past them incredibly early and head along the outskirts of the strip. I'm not going to go into detail about my whole journey, but when I eventually got into the strip, the interactions with Benny at the Tops was great.
A staple of the Fallout series at this point is the many factions and characters that populate them. New Vegas has no shortage of factions and characters. My personal favorite factions were Mr. House, the Boomers, and the very small Enclave remnants. Mr. House in particular was very well-developed, being the character that the most NPCs had an opinion about. It was very interesting to ask people around the map of their opinion of all the faction leaders. In the end, I did the House ending, and using my speech stat to convince the NCR to leave. Sadly, in this first playthrough, I became an enemy of Caesar very early on, so I was not able to talk with him much, but from what I've heard he is a surprisingly profound character. Being able to connect with characters by doing quests for them felt natural (such as with Sarah).
Do you ever feel lonely in the wastes? Need a friend to help you survive? That's where the companion system comes into play. Boone, Arcade Gannon, Rex, there is so just so many characters to join you in your adventure. While many of the companions are great, I found myself essentially collecting them, by making them my companion and immediately sending them back to the Lucky 38. Still, Arcade Gannon's companion quest was my favorite quest in the game, because it resulted in me getting my two favorite armors in the game, the Remnant Power armor and Gannon Family Tesla Armor.
Speaking of my favorite equipment, there are many memorable unique armor sets and weapons that I found myself collecting from time to time. Explosive weapons like Annabelle and Thump-Thump were deadly in the early game, probably one of the only reasons I could complete many quests. I've talked about this more in my DLC reviews, but the DLC unique weapons are just the cherry on top. I just wish I got the jury rigging perk earlier than like 5 hours before I beat the game, because it is just so useful in repairing all the cool unique armor sets. It's just so expensive to pay people to repair it, considering I was always a little low on caps. I very rarely sold weapons, because I dropped them to make space for unique weapons.
I have to admit, many systems of New Vegas are outdated, such as the combat, but one that has held up extraordinarily well is the dialogue and writing. I've seen many comparisons to Fallout 4's new, and much weaker, dialogue wheel. Having a silent protagonist allows the player to imagine the way their character would respond only adds to the role-playing elements. I very much enjoy how each dialogue option is varied, with different tones being present with each option. You can act passive aggressive towards someone you don't see eye-to-eye with, while still not hurting your reputation with them or their faction.
"Have you seen that tower on the strip all lit up. You can see it for miles!" The Strip is all that remains of an old world gone by. Mr. House deems it to be the last place in the Mojave that retains its old world glory, even if it is only a dot in the grand scheme of things. Still, it is a bright, glowing dot surrounded by the dull, radiated wasteland of the Mojave. New Vegas is, in my current opinion, my favorite game of all time. The developers at Obsidian were brilliant, creating what can be simply described as a masterpiece. "Truth is, game was rigged from the start." - Benny