How does New Vegas "Railroad" You?

[Soviet Heavy]

One of the biggest criticisms of New Vegas is how you are set on a path around the south of the map for the start of the game, with every other direction being a deathtrap. I disagree with this. Yes, the surrounding areas are extremely dangerous, but they aren't impossible.

If you want to dry and break through Quarry Junction, you can do it. You just have to be careful. It isn't cut off to you, and if you are smart, you can get through without much trouble. It isn't like there is a barrier going "no you must be level X to pass!" If you go that way at a low level, it will be punishing, but it will be a nice challenge too.

Same with the likes of Dead Money. It is recommended that you be a certain level, but if you go before that or after, you will either get an easier or harder experience. You set the difficulty you want to play at.

Unless you want to take the North West route. Because Cazadors make Deathclaws look tame.

 

[Supernova1138]

I believe people will consider it railroading when you set the game up so it is extremely difficult to go any other path. What New Vegas has is a bunch of enemies that would be considered Beef Gates [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeefGate] set up on all routes aside from the story route out of Goodsprings. You have to be above a certain level to be able to defeat the enemies on all routes except the story route.

As you said, it is possible to slip by the enemies if you are careful, but you stand little chance of survival if you have to fight. This is a form of soft railroading, the area isn't sealed off or completely inaccessible until you hit Level X, it just means that you are unlikely to survive a trip into the area until you hit Level X.

 

[The Scythian]

Even if you go the "story" path, you don't have to do it. Nothing is really forcing you to do anything.

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

I think it is more about playing it smart instead of running around the wastelands with a BB Gun trying to take out a gang with it.

Not that there's anything wrong completely humiliating a gang with said BB Gun.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It doesn't.

I can get to New Vegas as soon as I leave the Doctor's house.

You just have to be smart and not derp it across the wasteland.

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

Indeed. i like high luck characters, so i do the goodsprings missions to give me a decent amount of equipment, then bugger off to new vegas to break all the cansinos. Loads of money at the start, as well as good equipment. Then, you buy a hunting rifle from the gun runners (if you do not already have one), plenty of rounds, and you're set for the next 10 levels.

 

[Euryalus]

It doesn't.

I can get to New Vegas as soon as I leave the Doctor's house.

You just have to be smart and not derp it across the wasteland.

I left immediately for New vegas after goodsprings. It took me forever but I was able to "sneak" around the deathclaws and get there pretty early on... Then I got there and couldn't figure out how in the fuck to get inside the damn place. I eventually got killed by all those damn raider junkies lol. I was like level 4? I can't remember. I re-spawned way too far back for me to wanna try it again. After all that I just went the way the game told me to go.

 

[DustyDrB]

People were used to worlds that scale with you. I actually made a thread [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.240690-New-Vegas-to-Player-Dont-Wander-in-Here-Until-We-F-ing-Tell-You-To?page=1] about this when the game came out (though people seemed to want to interpret it as me complaining about it, I was actually glad that the game world was actually threatening).

To me, Bethesda's system of the world scaling with you makes for an extremely boring experience. You get a feeling of progression with the New Vegas way of things. And it can make for some really fun challenges. I remember sneaking through the area north of Goodsprings and heading straight for the city of New Vegas. I was like...level 3. I used two Stealth Boys, but that only helped me in the beginning.
On the way there I ran into these:
-A valley full of Giant Radscorpions
-Several Cazador swarms
-Cook-Cook and his Fiend friends
-A molerat

That molerat even was a threat, because I had an extremely low health at that point and no stimpacks left. Then I finally made it into Freeside. At the entrance, I noticed the armed escorts. After what I had just experienced, I felt vulnerable and actually hired one of them. I picked the toughest one I saw, and he led me through a few ambushes safely. But then later, I found out he was a con-artist and staged the fights for business. It made for an interesting story within the story (in subsequent playthroughs, I just discovered that quests as most people probably do: Simply following the Kings quest line).

 

[piinyouri]

It never really bothered me, and I never felt like I had one way to go only.
In fact I have several characters that have went every which way but New Vegas.

 

[Nomanslander]

It's not really an issue; you can still sneak by. But the thing is players felt it was underhanded of Obsidian to make every path besides the main story path gravely much more harder. When a game sells for an open world with a none linear experience, and then the player has to deal with this... well... I can see why it pissed a lot of people off.

 

[nexus]

It's not really an issue; you can still sneak by. But the thing is players felt it was underhanded of Obsidian to make every path besides the main story path gravely much more harder. When a game sells for an open world with a none linear experience, and then the player has to deal with this... well... I can see why it pissed a lot of people off.

I've honestly never heard of this complaint.

I also don't see how it could be "underhanded" or "undermining the sandbox". What good would it do to open up everything as soon as you left the Vault. You would essentially have to make everything simple so the player could contend with any area they choose. Eventually, you'd have to run into leveled content anyway, unless you want to go back to Oblivion's atrocious leveled-lists and scaling.

No matter what they do, I think people would complain. Like the OP said, you were not prevented from doing anything, you could go anywhere if you felt so inclined, and if you walked with a big enough stick (or balls).

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

All you need to do to get by is sneak through the area between Quarry Junction and Black Mountain. There's a notable gap between them that neither the Deatclaws nor the Mutants will be able to detect you in (unless maybe you have a Sneak below 10 and didn't bother with the Goodsprings questline or school).

I'm actually happy that New Vegas did this. It's far better than Oblivion's broken system and gives you something to compare yourself to as you level. The first time you wander through the Quarry is frightening, but it only serves to make you smile when you come back later on and are actually able to take on the Deathclaws that troubled you before. It's also a fun challenge for future playthroughs to see if you can make it through alive, after you've gotten better at the game. It's not required to go the long way, it's just the easy way.

 

[Goofguy]

It didn't bother me because I didn't want to go to New Vegas right away. I was content with attacking the Powder Gangers at the prison, helping out the NCR, discovering new locations in the south and just generally faffing about.

When I got to that one outpost where a miner tells you to avoid the Deathclaw matriarch and alpha, I couldn't have agreed faster and just turned around and went back. Eventually, I made my way back to that quarry and took them down with the FIDO and it didn't bother me that it look me that long to do it.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

I believe people will consider it railroading when you set the game up so it is extremely difficult to go any other path. What New Vegas has is a bunch of enemies that would be considered Beef Gates [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeefGate] set up on all routes aside from the story route out of Goodsprings. You have to be above a certain level to be able to defeat the enemies on all routes except the story route.

As you said, it is possible to slip by the enemies if you are careful, but you stand little chance of survival if you have to fight. This is a form of soft railroading, the area isn't sealed off or completely inaccessible until you hit Level X, it just means that you are unlikely to survive a trip into the area until you hit Level X.

It's always so easy to slip past the deathclaws. I did it the first time I played, just head to Neil's Shack and walk on the mountain all the way to with in a ten minute walk to Vegas. Only thing to really worry about was if a deathclaw you aggro-ed followed you to the end of the ridge. That happens you're stuck.

TLDR: Silly mortals, no one railroads the mighty Bundy.

 

[cswurt]

Wow. It's like looking into the past.

I was thinking the exact same thing as the OP, only two years ago.