The most immersive game I have ever played.

"Player immersion" is a concept often at the forefront of AAA game development, whether that be creating extremely realistic graphics, telling a cinematic story or even the idea of using AI dialogue in NPCs to simulate a real life conversation- all of these ideas have one thing in common. They strive to create a truly immersive experience for the player. Fallout: New Vegas does not have any of these traits and yet is the most immersive experience I have ever had in any videogame.

For example, Red Dead Redemption II, another AAA open world game, boasts a beautiful world with compelling stories and character animations that resemble real life and yet, I never feel truly immersed in this world. Sure horse balls shrink in cold weather and Arthur Morgan will physically load a weapon with different ammo each and every time you want to switch ammo types and while yes this is realistic, the game as a whole is not immersive. You can shoot up entire towns and the story will still play out the same and NPCs outside of the story don’t really matter at all or have anything interesting to say outside of mentioning a small quest. This isn't to say that RDR2 is a bad game, far from it! But rather, that Fallout: New Vegas is able to build a truly immersive world solely with stellar writing and player choice.

Right from the get-go you’re given the main quest. You were shot in the head, go find who did it. Of course, the logical next step is to ask around town about the man who shot you but what if you just wanted to shoot up the whole town? Well you can! And if you do, the main quest marker is just GONE. You’ve killed the person who had information on the guy who shot you, so of course you’re gonna have no idea where else to go. Any other game would have had an NPC who cannot be killed forcibly tell you where to go to complete the main quest, but it doesn’t! And the game is FILLED with moments like these. NPCs will offhandedly mention places of interest and mark it on your map only if you choose the correct dialogue that would get them to do so. Or, you could find these places organically on your own and bring up to them that you’ve already been there before! Nothing is locked behind a quest or NPC. If you do decide to shoot up a town you are realistically vilified or idolized by different factions in the world. The NCR may be happy you took out a portion of Caesar’s Legion and organically bring that up during conversations, or you may not even be allowed near NCR outposts as you’ve killed too many of their members. The world feels like one cohesive experience where every decision and quest weaves perfectly into each other. Combined with the brilliant setting of the post-post apocalypse where as a player you believe anything can happen. Robots and giant hulking mutants coexist in a world where there’s a realistic power struggle for control of the Mojave wasteland. It’s so believable and immersive to the point that when I get tired of the 40’s and 50’s music present in the game I turn off the radio and listen to other 40’s and 50’s songs through Spotify just to keep myself in this world. I cannot stress enough how much I love Fallout: New Vegas, and I implore anyone to get immersed in this world as well.

An incredible story that made me wish I was doing anything but playing it.

The Last of Us is often heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, so needless to say my expectations were quite high upon starting the game. And in some aspects, these expectations were met! The story in The Last of Us is brilliantly written with incredible themes not explored enough in AAA games. However, as beautiful and deep as the story and its underlying themes are everything else surrounding the game is about as shallow as a puddle.

For a game with such a mature and thought-provoking story the puzzles and stealth in The Last of Us boil down to "find a ladder that's five feet in front of you" or "you COULD sneak past these guys it's just incredibly annoying and way less fun plus we'll still shower you with enough ammo anyway". Moments like these frankly felt insulting considering how deep the characters of Joel and Ellie are written and yet I'm never challenged to think when playing as them. It got to the point where the actual game felt like a mindless chore just to get to the cutscenes that would actively challenge my perception, and when these cutscenes ended I would always end at the same conclusion- why am I wasting my time with this game when I could just be watching the TV show?

This game feels as if it's embarrassed to be a videogame with its puzzles that never actively challenge the player or combat that plays out more like a movie. This is such a shame considering it houses such an engrossing story, I just wish everything else surrounding it was treated with that same level of thought.