Windows crashed twice on me writing this review. It would seem the ghost of New Vegas has invaded my laptop...
Miracle's Whip - Fallout: New Vegas
Miracle's Whip - Fallout: New Vegas
Imagine there's this band you really love. They make great songs but every album they produce is rushed, cheaply made and sounds like shit. Tape hiss slithers over muddy guitar riffs that crackle and distort with all kinds of ear-offending frequencies. The vocals are lost in a wall of scuzz and noise. But you can't stop listening to it. Because underneath all the muddy muddled mess are the best damn songs you've heard in years. I remember the first time I heard Nirvana's Bleach album... the production was godawful, cheap and sludgy but the melodies and lyrics shone out through all of the sub-par sonic dirt and took the listener on a wonderful journey.
This, for the information of all of the very vocal detractors, is why we keep playing games with 'Bethesda', 'Obsidian' and 'Gamebryo' on the box. Once you get past the fact that New Vegas contains more bugs than the Temple Of Doom you will find the most immersive, clever, funny and mind blowingly complex RPG ever made. 70 hours in and I'm still hooked. This is a game where every NPC you speak to has a potential and noticeable impact on the world around them and your place in it, where every action and reaction is a tiny branch on a giant oak of possibilities and outcomes. Choose to save a town from a bunch of escaped convicts, then come back in a few weeks and see it visibly prosper, new lights shining and the casinos filling with customers. 10 hours later, rescue some of the same convict gang from slavers. 50 hours later meet a third branch, and watch as they voice their concerns about you - undecided if you are friend or foe.
'Marcus, I warned you about those tanning salons in Broken Hills, didn't I?'
Unlike Fallout 3, New Vegas exists largely in shades of grey. Morality is only what you decide it is. There is no real good or bad side to choose, just numerous different factions, each with their own philosophies for you to either support, oppose or ignore completely. The old Karma system returns but is ultimately pointless, relegated in favour of the faction reputation system. This is a much better way to drive the moral dilemmas in the game, as it is not the game itself judging you, but the people in it. There are choices in this game that were so difficult I had to put down the controller, leave the game, then come back to it later when I had decided, never quite getting a feeling I had done the right thing.
Sure, there is a main antagonist in Caesar's Legion, a band of slavers who base their ideals on the Roman Empire. But should you choose to you can ally with them. They are clearly depicted as the 'bad guys' by most NPCs in the game, but should their philosophies hit home with you, or you just feel like some raping and pillaging, then you have the choice. For those who want to do right by the people of Vegas, things are more tricky. Without spoiling anything, you will be forced to choose one of four options in the game's second act, each one with its ups and downs. You will not be able to keep everyone happy. Get too cozy with one faction and you're going to piss another right off. This is reflected in the multiple endings, which cycle through all of your choices in the game and are a stroke of genius to witness.
If the Legion's raping and pillaging doesn't scare you, their gratuitous leather thong-flashing will.
Vegas is a brighter, cheerier place than post-apocalyptic DC, which is initially a breath of fresh air. This is one of the reasons New Vegas is a better sequel to Fallout 1 and 2 than Bethesda's epic was. It feels far more similar to the original games. Reaching the Strip for the first time is a sublime moment. The developers very cleverly drain the surrounding slums and urban areas of their colour. The screen becomes grey and dusty, everything seeming to lack life and vitality until you enter the strip and are assaulted by an eyegasmic rainbow of neon lights and loud, vivid Vegas culture. This colour technique is used in other areas of the world too, including a not-so nice effect around Hoover Dam and along the Colorado river, where everything turns a horrible reddish-sepia colour.
The world itself, however, is lacking compared to Fallout 3. It doesn't have the same constant sense of excitement as to what gems might lie over the next hill. Your exploration is limited at the beginning of the game by high level nasties to the North, so the initial 6-8 hours are actually quite structured and linear, relatively speaking. You are funnelled south along a clearly planned path, as opposed to Fallout 3 where you can go anywhere as soon as you leave the vault. It works as a tutorial but the problem is, once you venture off the beaten path there is not that much else to discover.
Almost every building you found in Fallout 3 had a huge, sprawling dungeon to explore with tonnes of back-story, visual gags and loot everywhere. In New Vegas most buildings are small and consist of only a few rooms. There isn't the same sense of epic exploration here, interiors are small and empty for the most part. Sure, it has more map markers than Fallout 3, but when an abandoned shack with nothing in it but an empty soda bottle counts as a map marker, that's not something to be excited about. In places it is more akin to Red Dead Redemption's big, empty desert than to the DC ruins.
If only the loading screens were this pretty...
There is nothing in New Vegas, to me, that was as achingly, hauntingly beautiful as the tragic, heartbreaking vistas in Washington DC and the Capital Wasteland. That's not to say there aren't moments where you'll climb a hill and gawp at the pretty sandstorms and mountains, it just doesn't feel as epic and emotionally affecting somehow. The lighter tone comes at the price of some of the soulful atmosphere to be found in F3.
In every other way though, New Vegas improves on the formula. Being able to aim down sights is an absolute godsend, to the point where I'm not sure if I can go back to Fallout 3 after this long with the luxury of a proper aiming system. Shooting is still pretty clunky (Call Of Duty this is not), but it is a vast improvement. VATS is the same only now you can perform special melee and unarmed moves to make these skills more attractive choices. The interface and HUD remain unchanged, as do character models and many visual assets. One thing that has been improved, however, is the lighting engine. It is rare in New Vegas to have your Pipboy light cause walls and faces to glare hot white at you as it did in F3. Guns feel much meatier, helped along by some fantastic sound design and a stunning score that, much to my utter delight, includes some of the awesome late 90s industrial synth-drones straight from Fallout 1 and 2. Inon Zur's Hoover Dam music does shamelessly rip off the Inception main theme though, as if ripping off Braveheart for Fallout 3 wasn't bad enough.
Companions are easier to use with a funky new wheel system, and they are more useful too, being immortal (unless you play on Hardcore mode- more on that later). They range from the lovely Veronica, a Brotherhood scout who likes to punch things and whose ultimate goal in life is to find a pretty dress, to Rex the cyber-dog, to Lily, a mentally ill super mutant who thinks she's your granny. They are all pretty fun and lovable (except whiny emo sniper Boone).
'Waaaa. I'm not going anywhere until you get my Fallout Boy CDs back from that Feral Ghoul'
Fallout's greatest strength is how it pokes juvenile fun at very adult themes. The story in New Vegas is absolutely amazing. It is so complex and twisted, with so many possible outcomes, that it is easy to see how some options ended up being broken, leaving some smaller quests unfinishable. It is very frustrating when it happens but the overall narrative is so strong that you will keep coming back for more. It begins with your character, a courier, being shot in the head and left for dead by Chandler Bing, dug up by a mysterious robot with possibly shady motives, patched up by a friendly doctor and cast out into the Mojave desert to search for answers. It's gripping stuff, and I have to admit I got shivers down my spine after the intro movie, when the epic music swells and the titles appear ominously onscreen. I can't say much more for fear of spoilers, but trust me - it's amazing. Unfortunately, despite everyone and their robotic dog raging over it in Fallout 3, the game ends after the end credits. This was a big mistake and you can be sure they'll make us pay for an apologetic DLC to rectify it.
Vegas is filled to the brim full of zany, hilarious lunatics that will make you laugh and pull on your heartstrings far more than anyone in DC. It's insane how much content you get for your money here. Stories veer from wacky and fun (helping some Ghoul scientologists blast off in their rocket-ships) to shocking and tragic (learning how Pretty Sarah was brutally raped and burned alive by Raiders, the same ones whose rooms you searched and found a sex-slave contract for an eleven year old girl). There are 2 or 3 moments and twists in the story that are utterly, mind-fuckingly awesome. These to me are the high points of the entire series. If you have the game and have not played through Vault 11 yet... do yourself a favour and head in there - it's currently top pick for my all time favorite Fallout moment.
The Brotherhood Elder is desperate to reclaim Helios one. Makes you wonder what he's compensating for.
Hardcore mode, a new addition, is a mixed bag. Personally, I found it only to be mildly more challenging, but a hundred times more tedious. It makes ammo have weight and requires you to eat, sleep and stay hydrated. After getting my achievement (for completing the game in Hardcore mode), I was relieved to switch it off forever and not have to trek back to my house every ten minutes to pick up more water, sleep and get some Gecko steaks. Basically, Hardcore mode involves insane amounts of micro-managing your inventory, which is a pain in the ass when the game is filled with so many horrid loading screens. Speaking of loading screens, some of them are absolutely excruciating. The Freeside area seems break the game, in that the only way to avoid 60-90 second load times after visiting it is to exit the game, go to the dashboard and restart. This becomes all the more infuriating when the area is split into 4 or 5 parts, with no fast travel points inside them, all separated by loading screens, that you have to run back and forth through doing numerous fetch-quests. This was the low point of the game for me, a pity seeing as some of the game's most fun and lovable characters exist in this area, such as the Elvis-loving Kings, a cowgirl themed ghoul hooker and Fisto the Sexbot.
Overall Opinion:
It was never going to be easy reviewing the sequel to my favorite game of all time. In so many ways, New Vegas is a far better, more playable game than Fallout 3, and it is without a doubt a far better sequel to the original games. However, the tragic beauty of the Capital Wasteland as an atmosphere and place to exist, has still yet to be bettered in my opinion. So do your best to ignore NPCs walking into walls, falling through floors someone forgot to apply physics to, radscorpions flying around upside down, getting stuck inside a Nuka Cola machine, hostile enemies suddenly standing still and staring at the ceiling and the odd side-mission being rendered unfinishable, and you have a wonderfully immersive masterpiece of interactive storytelling. Is it better than Fallout 3? Yes, and no. They are very different. If you loved Fallout 1 and 2, you will love New Vegas. And there's not really a bigger compliment than that.
Fawke's list of awesome stuff:
-Amazing story with multiple complex outcomes
-Bright blue skies
-Veronica
-Faction system is great
-Vegas is pretty
- ...and Huge
-Improved combat
-Vast amount of characters and content
-Lots of Easter eggs and little references to Fallout 1 and 2
-Excellent sound and music
Star Paladin Cross's list of shit stuff:
-Bugs
-Not as atmospheric and beautiful as Fallout 3
-Bugs
-Not much interior exploration
-Bugs
-Excruciating, obnoxious loading screens
-Cazadors (argh)
-No fast travel points at important locations
-Did I mention the bugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggsahsahksalslnkajjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk....
CRASH
REBOOT
Verdict:
Wait for the patch, then Buy
