New Vegas Is An Outstanding Experience. Despite It's Flaws.
Let's begin this review by dimissing the myth that Fallout: New Vegas is just a huge expansion for Fallout 3. It isn't. The game in my opinion is vastly superior in terms of it's structure, map design and how immersive the game is. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy Fallout 3 but I didn't enjoy it enough to finish it or spend more than 40 hours wandering around the ruins of D.C. , after finishing New Vegas after 70 hours I can say I enjoyed it a whole lot more.
Not that New Vegas is a flawless game, the first thing you notice is it seems to have developed MORE technical problems than both Fallout 3 and Oblivion both had which in itself is quite an impressive feat. Quests can break, doors can lock themselves, the game can crash and there are several moments where game breaking instances can occour. While it may not be ideal circumstances I found rotating between 15 saves or so meant that if something did go wrong you could always correct any problems (and doing a bit of research to where game breaking problems can occour). However, giving the huge scale of everything going on in New Vegas, the massive world, the daily routines of thousands of NPC's and enemies, the factions etc going on the bugs can be forgiven. New Vegas is a truly huge and ambitious project and for this I overlooked the technical issues and just enjoyed my wasteland experience.
Fallout: New Vegas is set in the area surrounding the City of New Vegas, a strip of decadent casino's ruled over by the Big Brother like "Mr House" figure. The area surrounding the city is gripped in a conflict involving the NCR (a fictional take on a US army type faction) and Ceaser's Legion (a large horde of marauding slavers, rapists and murderers) and you can side with any of these factions to influence the region and see the game to it's end. None of them suit you, well you can be completely neutral and take over Vegas for yourself too. Four paths and many quests to reach your goal, with many outcomes. Along with the eight-ten hour main story there are literally a hundred or so sidequests to do and this makes the bulk of the game. I spent a good 50-60 hours exploring the world and doing the optional side quests and this is where the meat of the game lies. Fortunately all these quests are as well put together and as involving as the main plot and are truly a joy to immerse yourself in.
Immersion is in essence what makes New Vegas so good. The world lives and breaths, every NPC is wonderfully voice acted and you are drawn into everything you do. Whether it's exploring a dark mine, wandering past a radioactive lake or battling Ceaser's legion with powerful weapons everything is well executed. The world has so much to see, investigate and do you could easily spend 100 hours to do everything.
Combat in New Vegas has not really changed much since Fallout 3, in fact very little of the core gameplay mechanics have at all. You can still use VATS to pause the game and target indivudal body parts with your gun. There are still skills and perks to gain as you get experience from completing objectives and battling enemies. There is still the karma system. Everything does seem a bit more polished than before though. The games only real core gameplay changes come in the form of factions and the companions. The NCR, Legion, Mr House etc.. as well as some smaller factions will all intreact with you differently depending on how much you impress or harm them changing who is your enemy and who will aid you. The companion system has been improved too, there are a bunch to find all with rich stories and full realised background quests as well being easier to control via the companion wheel which makes issuing commands and manging your followers inventory a lot easier to handle. These changes may be minimal but they help the gameplay a lot, but really it's the realisation of the world, quests and characters that make this a better experience than Fallout 3.
Visually the engine is ailing a bit, but the game does have it's moments. The dreary wasteland may be a bit tedious to look upon but moments like seeing the Vegas Strip at night and visiting the snow capped mountains where the Super Mutants live are still breathtaking despite the generally aging visuals. Sound wise I was a bit dissapointed, the game has some fairly dull looping radio stations which don't seem to change much (like the original), old-school tunes and basic ambiant music. Like I said the VA'ing is good but seeing as ALL the quests are named after songs some more musical variants to have playing from your Pip-Boy would have been fantastic.
Overall, New Vegas is an experience that despite it's flaws have a lot more soul than Fallout 3. Whether your exposing cannibals, destroying the NCR, being mauled by huge Deathclaws or taking on deadly plant life the came constantly delivers gripping, absorbing plotlines.
