New Vegas: Dealing with "Post Benny Syndrome"

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

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Haha, betrayed everybody after they provided the man/bot power to wipe each other out. Love it!

Last playthrough Honest Hearts was a fekking disaster that I couldn't play because of stupid game design. And I had pre-benny syndrome, didn't even persevere with the main quest that far.

What mods does everyone enjoy using?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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Haha, betrayed everybody after they provided the man/bot power to wipe each other out. Love it!

Last playthrough Honest Hearts was a fekking disaster that I couldn't play because of stupid game design. And I had pre-benny syndrome, didn't even persevere with the main quest that far.

What mods does everyone enjoy using?

PROJECT NEVADA. I can't play without it. Being able to slow down how fast I level up lets me pace the game much better.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Oh, I should have been more specific. The plot and characters I liked a lot. It was just the gameplay of that part that I hated. It seemed to want you to have melee to get started, and I just didn't have fun playing it.

I gotcha. I think I lucked out by having the first character I went through it with have energy weapons as one of his primary skills. I just destroyed everything as soon as I got the holorifle.

 

[Hagi]

I've got over 300 hours into New Vegas, did about everything there is to do in the game.

Except for the Battle of Hoover Dam. Never did that. Never really saw a reason for it. Things seemed pretty fine as they were, considering I'd wiped out every single Legion camp and killed Caesar.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

I felt that the game lost momentum when I actually reached New Vegas. I found an exciting route through Black Mountain and the REPCONN HQ, and the first part of the game felt like an epic journey to Vegas. Then when I actually got there I couldn't find a way in for ages. That said, Freeside is one of my favourite areas, and things quickly picked up.

I killed Benny as soon as I met him again, then I reloaded and did the same when he sent me to his room and then sicced some thugs on me. Then I reloaded again and let him escape to the Fort because I wanted to go there and see what happened from there.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I fill the post-Benny gap with DLC and then usually wander off myself without finishing the main quest line these days. I've lost count of what playthrough I'm on though so that's probably more the cause than anything.

 

[Brendan Stepladder]

Funny, I felt the opposite. I couldn't wait to kill Benny so I could start doing faction quests more important than picking up litter for the NCR, or spreading catty rumors about Caesar's ex-girlfriend.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Weird I wandered about aimlessly from the starting gate. I think New Vegas's problem is that because its story splits between mutually exclusive ends you can't really give one mission for them to follow. They have to choose something and that means finding the missions (or just offering one choice at the end of a mission which would piss everyone off).

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Once Benny is handled, a lot of players felt that the main story lost a lot of its drive, and fell into a bit of a rut, where your goals are rather aimless.

Then a lot of players are unimaginative and boring. The complete openness and the ability to deal with a gigantic array of well done quests with any method you choose is what makes New Vegas one of the best RPGs ever.

You meander around the Wasteland doing oddjobs for people until you pick a side and start the battle at Hoover Dam.

No, you meander the wasteland cleaning house in preparation for whichever side you wanted to take over, to do so.

I found that for me, the biggest reason for this was because once you get locked in with a faction, following the completion of a number of their quests, the other factions kick you out and limit what you can do with them after that point.

It's only main quests. I'm replaying right now with NCR and Legion both idolizing me(Pro tip, steal dog tags off of NCR soldiers and then tell the legionaries at cottonwood cove that you killed NCR soldiers and give the dog tags as proof.) That way you get easy access to the legion safehouse with the card game cheater sunglasses. And you should really only want to finish the main quests for one faction anyways, otherwise its counter productive.

When everything is set, I head to the Lucky 38, kill House, and upload Yes Man. Then comes the battle. With everything I've done to reinforce NCR, they're going to wipe the floor with the Legion. And then I proceed to tell NCR to fuck right off and kick them out of the Mojave.

You don't strengthen the NCR, you try to weaken every faction simultaneously. A strong militaristic NCR as your neighbor isn't good for business. You have to make both sides hurt each other a lot but lose their resolve for continued conflict.

You let Hanlon get away with sabotaging the NCR war effort, it weakens them for the battle and he becomes an anti war senator. Kimbal and Oliver lose popular support for their war expansionism. Also make sure to throw Oliver to his death off of hoover dam or annihilate him and the rangers with missile barrages. Be sure to help Caesars legion with intel by leaving their spies in place, teach them to disarm mines, get them the howitzer. But strengthen the NCRs position at the same time so they do the maximum damage to eachother. The NCR loses its long term war support and its military size shrinks, and you wreck the legion.

Then it's just a matter of cleaning house in regards to everything else. Clear out black mountain, turn the boomers into allies, bury the BoS in their bunker turned tomb, annihilate the fiends, convince the Khans to suicide attack during the battle for Hoover Dam, help the followers out as much as possible, cure the super mutants in Jacobstown and turn them into allies, befriend the kings and get them to be chill with the NCR, give psycho to the Misfits to get more NCR killed, annihilate all the powder gangers.

Then retire with the 500,000 or so caps you should have gotten from Dead Money. And hope that the strange attitude Yes Man holds, the strangely 'out of character' things he says at times, and the fact that he controls the armies and simply does what you ask him to do is not because Yes Man has been playing you from the beginning. Pretending to be a sycophant in order to trick you into grabbing power for him so that he can take control of the Mojave.

 

[BodomBeachChild]

I never really felt that. I did screw up by killing Benny, then killing House. I was hoping to not side with either the NCR or The legion, but aid the NCR. Little did I know trying to be neutral would kinda crash your story. Thank the gods for the ~ key. Ended up with the NCR but I really, really wanted to take everyone out and take over NV myself. Doesn't work unless....

You download mods =D Which is awesome. So, if you still want to enjoy the game and get rid of this feeling.

 

[Tanis]

KILL-EVERY-ONE!

Yep, that's how I pretty much rolled it.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Then it's just a matter of cleaning house in regards to everything else. Clear out black mountain, turn the boomers into allies, bury the BoS in their bunker turned tomb, annihilate the fiends, convince the Khans to suicide attack during the battle for Hoover Dam, help the followers out as much as possible, cure the super mutants in Jacobstown and turn them into allies, befriend the kings and get them to be chill with the NCR, give psycho to the Misfits to get more NCR killed, annihilate all the powder gangers.

Why destroy the Powder Gangers? The ones in the Vault aren't too bad, and the ones at the correctional facility give you another chance to take the NCR down a notch.

 

[scorptatious]

I don't get this "Post Benny Syndrome" that other people seem to get. For me, the game really picks up after Benny's gone. What started out as a simple tale of revenge ends up evolving into a giant turf war over Vegas. I find myself in the center of it all because I happen to be the guy who holds the Platinum Chip. Everything opens up and I can pretty much do whatever I want.

That's just me though.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Really? I had the exact opposite problem, to be honest. I didn't feel any real motivation to look for Benny in the first place, and I only discovered him through sheer accident later. Like Yahtzee said, the fact that he shot me in the head seemed a very good reason not to seek him out, and I didn't really hold grudges.

I will admit I didn't feel as much of a motivation towards the main story after that point, either, but only because I don't give a damn about the city of New Vegas itself. I'm siding with the NCR by default, really[footnote]Present tense deliberate, I haven't finished. I spent some time making alternate characters and trying new playing styles out of curiosity.[/footnote]. The Legion deserved every bullet I've given them and more, I don't want to rule over the city so I'm ignoring Yes Man, and I kinda killed House by accident but I don't regret it because he's a douche.

Luckily, I haven't seen nearly everything in the game, so I've still got plenty of motivation to play.

Did you get the "Chaos in Zion" mission? That happens if you kill the Dead Horse who approaches you after your caravan was wiped out by the White legs.

That DLC was so full of "why?" game design.

"lets make a bunch of tribals attack your caravan, then lets have a tribal from a different tribe, that looks kinda like the tribals you just killed, come up and try to talk to you, NO ONE WILL SHOOT AT HIM!!!!".

It was like...... really Obsidian? really?

Oh, good, I thought I was the only one. I was looking down and reloading my gun, so the first time I didn't see Follows-Chalk kill the White Leg who was attacking me.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

See it's funny, Dead Money was easily my favorite. OWB was a fairly close second, but the plot in Dead Money was by far the most engaging out of anyI've seen in the current gen Fallouts.

Oh, I should have been more specific. The plot and characters I liked a lot. It was just the gameplay of that part that I hated. It seemed to want you to have melee to get started, and I just didn't have fun playing it.

Am I the only one who loved Lonesome Road? Maybe it's because I was already leveled out so I wasn't too worried about XP, but I had a lot of fun blowing up nukes, rapid-firing rockets and listening to Ulysses's story. Old World Blues is a close second due to the concepts and robots, Dead Money had a great story but, like Louie said, it's a bit of a drag for a non-melee character, and Honest Hearts was fairly bland (with the exception of Joshua Graham).

OT: I left Benny until almost the end; I met him in the casino, he "escaped" to the Legion, and I didn't bother going after him until I'd sorted out Mr. House and the NCR, and I was ready to take down Caesar. I guess I just thought that was the most realistic way to do it: organize a coup in New Vegas while the two big parties were distracted, offer the NCR just enough breadcrumbs to keep them from full-out leveling the place without giving them enough to gain power by force, then destroy the Legion camp, letting me get my robot army and forcing the Legate to launch his final assault. Then, I sit back on my new throne and declare a new age of blackjack and hookers.

 

[Xdeser2]

Post Benny Syndrome, for the five of you who don't know, is the feeling that pretty much every Fallout New Vegas Player dealt with on their playthrough of the game. Once Benny is handled, a lot of players felt that the main story lost a lot of its drive, and fell into a bit of a rut, where your goals are rather aimless.

!??

Im sorry, Killing a Casino boss, Being Contacted by Mr House, The NCR, the Legion and Finding Yes Man (allowing you to shape the future of the wasteland) made the game lose its drive?

You crazy man

 

[Thanatos5150]

Did you get the "Chaos in Zion" mission? That happens if you kill the Dead Horse who approaches you after your caravan was wiped out by the White legs.

That DLC was so full of "why?" game design.

"lets make a bunch of tribals attack your caravan, then lets have a tribal from a different tribe, that looks kinda like the tribals you just killed, come up and try to talk to you, NO ONE WILL SHOOT AT HIM!!!!".

It was like...... really Obsidian? really?

My first game, I proceeded to attempt to snipe Follows-chalk. After dropping a magazine into his center-mass and seeing him somehow not take any damage, I walked closer and he triggered.

 

[Louie Clark]

Am I the only one who loved Lonesome Road?

I really liked that one, too. I need to play Honest Hearts again, and hopefully it doesn't wig out this time.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Why destroy the Powder Gangers? The ones in the Vault aren't too bad, and the ones at the correctional facility give you another chance to take the NCR down a notch.

No room for raiders in the Mojave and that's exactly what the powder Gangers are. I actually heavily considered killing all the Kings as well, but if you are nice to them they end up being a stabilizing security force for Freeside.

I don't dislike the NCR and it's not really about kicking them down. The Mojave relies on the NCR in a lot of ways, they are good trading partners and they spend a lot of money at the casinos. I just needed their military out of my land with a little chance of it coming back. The Powder Gangers at the NCRCF target NCR civilians, which would make it difficult to get tourists and traders to New Vegas. There's really two options for the vault powder gangers that make any sense. You can either kill them or you can get them arrested by the NCR and I figure if I'm cleaning people out I might as well be thorough. I don't need more bandits shooting at civilians.

It's the same reason I annihilate the Mojave Brotherhood chapter; they are just bandits with power armor and lasers. Plus they killed a bunch of Followers of the Apocalypse which is pretty much the only group in the Mojave that I actually agree with.

I never really felt that. I did screw up by killing Benny, then killing House. I was hoping to not side with either the NCR or The legion, but aid the NCR. Little did I know trying to be neutral would kinda crash your story. Thank the gods for the ~ key. Ended up with the NCR but I really, really wanted to take everyone out and take over NV myself. Doesn't work unless....

You download mods =D Which is awesome. So, if you still want to enjoy the game and get rid of this feeling.

Uhh... what? Did you not go into Benny's room and then into the sideroom off of it? 'Yes Man' is a robot who obeys your every order so that you can take over the Mojave by yourself. Or rather you show up with a bunch of robots after crushing the Legion at hoover dam, and then tell the NCR to get off your lawn.