Hope you have some free time...
The announcement and hype leading up to its release made Fallout: New Vegas kind of a strange beast. Despite being one of Fall's biggest games, there was one thing that people couldn't get past: Obsidian's the developer. So far, they're known primarily for being almost like a hired gun, the team somebody hires to get things done when somebody else can't do it and the results have been rather mixed. Their sequel to Knights of the Old Republic was made incredibly quickly after the success of the first and wasn't even finished with many things completely taken out and I'm sure Sega was constantly on them about Alpha Protocol. Is Obsidian just a bad developer or are they always short changed, the underdog who never catches a break to make the game they set out to do? Well their next major release is a sequel to Bethesda's 2008 masterpiece "Fallout 3" and uses the same awkward engine as well. Cause for concern? Not really.
The story takes place in Nevada as you, a courier, are shot and left for dead in the Mojave Wasteland. Nursed back to health and awakening in the town of Goodsprings, you set out on a journey to recover the package that was stolen from you and to get revenge on the man that tried to kill you. One thing I always felt was Obsidian's strongest attribute was their storytelling as KOTOR 2 had a great story, Neverwinter Nights 2 had an even better story to me than the first and Alpha Protocol's use of choice was quite novel and New Vegas does have its share of quirky characters, odd quests and some memorable dialogue. My one downside is that despite the fact the sidequests can be pretty oddball such as finding a new canine brain for a robotic companion, doing quests for a group of Elvis impersonators or sending ghouls off in rockets, the quests themselves are kind of short. One quest literally became talk to guy, talk to person to let him into their group, fast travel back and talk to him, and boom. Quest over. So whereas some quests are somewhat short (and strangely hard to find), there's 75 of the things so you're going to be very busy.
When people criticize Fallout: New Vegas for basically being more Fallout, I don't really get why it's a negative really. I mean, isn't that the reason why you're playing? Is because you enjoy what they do? But that is a true statement because outside of a couple things, this game is very Fallout 3-esque from the Pip-Boy menus, the VATS targeting system where you can slow down time and zero in on specific enemy limbs - usually their head - is here, as well as the more unfortunate carry over which is the technical problems. Now whether I'm just lucky or it's just a really random engine but New Vegas hasn't surprised me with random crashes (once so far after 23.5 hours of playing), corrupt saves but I have ran into spazzing NPC's, a companion that disappeared for 2 hours in real-time before randomly appearing in battle later to some notable hiccups in the framerate. While you could blame it on Obsidian's track record since they haven't released a flawless game, well neither has Bethesda and the Gamebryo engine is in dire need of an upgrade. So those of you who think New Vegas will be one entire glitchfest can either wait till patches come out or just dive in and hope you'll be like the few of us who haven't had many issues.
Not so much has changed but couple of cool additions. Talking to companions will bring up a wheel where you can either tell them to wait, stick closer to you or just engage in dialogue which can open up further sidequests. Also, companions don't die this time so anyone worried about repeating another "Dogmeat has died" tragedy will be happy to know Rex springs to life when all nearby enemies are downed. There's some mini-games you can take part in such as Blackjack, slots, new card game Caravan and you can gain some reputation with various factions where helping them in quests lets you pass by without being shot at yet wearing opposing faction's armor has them shoot you on site. Another minor change is the speech options as in Fallout 3 it was more random so you'd hard save before a decision, click it and if it failed, you just reloaded and tried again. Now, characters will have specific requirements such as "40/50 Barter" and should you not be high enough, you can read magazines which will temporarily give you upgrades in that area or read books that'll do it permanently and try again.
Fallout games can somewhat feel like an acquired taste. You don't shoot as much stuff, it's built on exploration and discovering new things and might be even depressing but there's some oddly addicting about this style of game. Looking on the horizon and noticing a small house prompts a long trek through the Wasteland in search of....whatever it is only to find it's a quest giver which'll send you to even more new and intriguing places. But a traditional shooter this is not as the combat is kind of clunky, the glitches can annoy and there's a whoooole lot of walking but if you loved Oblivion and Fallout 3 then this one's right up your alley. It's not quite the high mark I felt Bethesda did but Obsidian made me eat my words on this one because I'm really loving this one.
