Despite raving about my love for Fallout New Vegas, I haven't actually reviewed it on my blog. Like, what the fuck? How do I do that?
Here's the usual debrief:
i've played Vegas about five times through. But not many of the DLC, so I am only talking base game here, okay? This is just Fallout: New Vegas the base game.
So... Uh... Let's get to it?
Fallout: New Vegas doesn't have much to offer in terms for raw gameplay. If you've played Fallout 3, you probably know what to expect with Fallout New Vegas. You move kinda fast of not being able to sprint and you have iron sights unlike Fallout 3, but by-in-large it does move more or less like you think it well.
Gunplay is pretty okay. No one uses cover. The AI isn't that good. But that's fine as most people have at least one melee weapon and will bum rush you as soon as possible. Or at the very least has a explosive of some kind. So, most gun fights take place in a rather chaotic mess of just shooting at the closest guy or backing up while aiming at the guys shooting at you.
The biggest stand out is guns having different types of ammo. Like, FMJ rounds or army surplus rounds, all of which have different damange and different interactions with an enemie's Damage Threshold. So, it would be cheaper to shoot everyone with army surplus rounds but armoured enemies will chew through your ammo unless you use harder hitting rounds.
On the other hand. This is the best thing Fallout: New Vegas has to offer. It's role play potential. You can be damn near any type of courier. There is four major game endings, which are if you side with the NCR, Legion, Mr. House or yourself as the leader of Vegas.
You can talk with a lot of people, get a lot of quests and interact with more micro factions like The Kings, The White Glove Sociaty and the Followers of the Apocolpyse. Each of these factions (main ones included), have their own reputation system. As a result, if you were consistantly making life hard for say, the White Glove Sociaty, they'd get more hostile to you and eventually just shoot on sight.
This applies to faction gear as well. So, if you aren't hated, you can sneak into another factoins hold by wearing their faction gear. Of course this also does the opposite so if you are walking into someones faction hold, like say, NCR, while wearing Legion gear, some people might try to attack you on sight.
On top of that, most missions can be solved in quite a few ways depending on your skills and special. So, some people could be onvinced to help you because you have high sneak, or if you have high charisma or you might have to just pickpocket them to get their goodies instead or you could just defualt to gunfights.
Also, most NPCs can be killed. Including faction leaders, like Ceaser of the Legion faction or Mr.House. Meaning that at any moment, you could just walk into their faction holds, kill everyone and go about your playthrough.
I kinda love everyone in Fallout New Vegas. The characters are surpisingly well written. Especially the likes of the followers. Yeah, just go get one of them and wander around. While they dont talk all the time, they are surprizingly well written.
On top of the followers most faction leaders are pretty well written too. They do explain why you should work with the faction or why they act and behave like they do. So, even the evil factions aren't just dumb evil and it can be argued why you courier would side with them. Which is really fun to work with. It's fun to be able to listen to how these people think and what you ought to do with your run.
Fallout New Vegas has a lot of factions. And if I were to talk at length with it, we'd be here all day. So, instead let's talk about the major factions, NCR, Legion, Mr. House and You.
The NCR is a new governmental system which has spread from what was California down to the Mojave. They have a more modern sociaty, with elected presidents, more modern military functions and a focus on systems and such. Now, the NCR have actually been in Vegas for a while. Both the NCR and the Legion clashed over the Hover Dam for it's hydro-generator.
Now the NCR are still stationed at Vegas, but they have a bit of an odd issue. They haven't managed to control the Mojave yet. Both because of increasing attacks from the Legion and from Local factions pushing back or just voiding the NCR entirely.
While the NCR seems like a good faction, they are still a governmental group. They will scuttle Vegas with taxes and rules until it's no long the old Vegas. They are still a colonial power, as they are just trying to gain Vegas and the Mojave for themselves.
Not to mention that most Local Factions aren't entirely fond of the NCR. While they provide jobs, supplies and clients but they are also somewhat entitled and unaware of local situations. Leading to conflict between the two.
The Legion is similar but not exact. They are a war mongering group which has travelled East, conquering and enslaving. They are far from peaceful people. The first time you bump into the Legion is in a town burnt and brutalised by a Legion group.
The faction itself doesn't care for Hover Dam beyond using it to cross into the Mojave. They will burn down anything they can't use ot benefit from.
Although, I don't really side with the Legion, but it is somewhat interesting. As the Legion was so worried about ending up enslaved or attacked themselves that they become the attackers instead. They find might as the most powerful and important thing for them.
The faction is intelligent, but brutal. They readily use ambushes, spies, traps and brutal mind games to attack others. Such as with Camp Searchlight where they used a dirty bomb to fully destroy the town during the First Battle of Hover Dam.
Annoyingly, they have a point. In the world of Fallout, it is eat or be eaten. Either you toughen up or something stronger will kill you. If it's not raiders, it's ghouls, or super mutants, or deathclaws or some other faction.
I mean... I still shoot them on sight but... Well... I kinda hate how they aren't just stuid evil people. They are responding to the world of Fallout and decided to become this.
Mr. House on the other hand, makes use of technology and intelligence. While the Legion believes that becoming stronger than the enemy, Mr. House prefers to out smart them.
The only reason the city of Vegas stands is because Mr. House bought it, than built a system to protect it. He is the one who instates the three micro factions of The Strip, The Omertas, The White Glove Sociaty and The Chairmen. He is also the one who helped instead a form of a treaty with the NCR.
He has a very positive view on the future. He wants to drag humanity out of the irradiated wastes and endless faction fighting and starving and dying into a new golden age. Eventually a space age.
While, Mr. House is somewhat interesting he still doesn't entirely get what is going on. He has a plan of freeing Vegas from both the NCR and the Legion but he is also stuck in his ivory tower. He can't entirely control the factions under him nor manage the other local factions outside of The Stip. He will rebuilt Vegas but only with a limited level of on the ground control.
And than there's you. The Courier. A Wild Card who got shot twice and buried in a shallow grave. Dug out only by the mercy of the locals and than sent out to find the cargo you failed to deliver.
Honestly, Wild Card is my favourite ending. You can make use of the best parts of all the other factions without having to work for them. You can handpick wich micro-factions get to stay and see how your choices and plans pan out for Vegas.
Plus, it's funny that there's these three big factions, NCR, Legion and House, fighting over the Mojave and than you waltz in. You are supposed to be dead, but unluckily for everyone else, you didn't die. God, or hell istelf, gave you another roll. So, you march through the desert hell, up to the shining gem of Vegas. Kill House and build up your throne.
Although, I will argue that Wild Card is probably the least stable faction ending. I doubt that the Courier is going to live all that long with everything they've been through or at least with the consistant problems the poor sod must deal with. So, it might only be a golden age for a bit.
I love the factions in New Vegas. I adore that they are built up in a rather smart manner. Each faction is meet pretty early in the game. You meet the NCR at Primm, the Legion at Nipton and Mr. House either through Victor or at The Strip itself. And as a result, you learn about their main points up-front.
At Primm, the NCR are camped outside the town which is under attack of the Powder Gangers. They can help, they have the gear and guns and people, but it's not their orders. So, they have to wait around and try to hold the line instead of helping the residents.
At Nipton, you see smoke rising up before you even get there. As you walk in a random man stops you, excited about winning some lottery. Behind him are people on crosses. At the center of the town a small army waits, their leader, tells you that they'll let you live to tell the rest of the Mojave what you saw here.
And Mr. House treats you as a employee. He accpets the job once it's done and remains professional. He is a business man first and formost.
Each of these are really good introductions. It's a good way to see how each faction present themselves while also being pretty memorable.
Another pretty cool point is you can ask most NPCs you can talk to about their thoughts on each faction. You get to learn how the average trader, prospector, citizen or worker feels out the major factions. Some like them, some critic them, some don't care as long as it stays away from them. It's pretty cool.
Also, I am not arguing the morality of any of these factions. That'd be a very long argument. But for role play, all of them are fantastic. There is so many options and well thought out rammifactions of everything. I just love it when the game lets you have a great role play moment of having a bad faction make good points and than having to choice if your character would side with them.
Let me put it this way, I've played two Wild Card runs. Astrid, and Red. Red only choose Wild Card because she didn't trust anyone enough to side with them. While Astrid wanted to help the local factions and keep them as it is. You couldn't have that if the factions where so well written that there's in-universe reasons to side with them over just gameplay ot out-of-world morality systems.
This is pretty difficult to justifiy but I love how Fallout New Vegas feels. Like. It feels like a western. It plays like a western too.
I don't solely mean in terms of music and style but also how the game plays out. You have two encrouching armies, Legion and NCR, and the local factions. You can choose which side to side with. The NCR, who are more or less government boys, the Legion, who rely on strength and force above all, or the locals, who were here first and have their own culture the others will get rid of.
It's a fun moral issue as each faction has a bit of a point. The Legion was bron in a war torn area, where it was fight or die, so they focus on war above all. The NCR wants to bring America back to it's pre-war glory with a new governmental system. Mr. House cares about the Vegas he built above all, he wants Vegas to be the new craddle of man kind.
Or if you don't like any of those options. You could just elect yourself as new runner up for Vegas itself with the help of Yes Man. THat way you can handpick who stays and who has to leave.
Such as, it is a dated game. It has dated graphics and does tend to just... crash. I've ran into a few bugs and my brother has run into a lot more during his X-Box and PS3 runs.
One is if you save the game in a way too populated area, your save will just crash on load. So you do have to both turn of quicksave on entering new locations and to make sure that you leave a heavily populated area to save.
Also, Camp Macaren, is a hell zone for saving. It's way too big and has too many people walking around about and about fifty bent tin cans on the floor which drops fps if anyone walks through it. So, if you can work around the area.
A few other glitches is no-clipping out of in-game geomatry.
Guns not working at all. Unholstering things bug out and either won't holster or won't be visible if it does unholster.
Game freezes.
Game freezes when you use VATs.
VATs won't activate.
Some coliders will just bug out and send things, people or you flying into the moon
Dialog can be activated before an NPC reacts to other things, like bullets, explosives or injuries.
The Game will just crash if too much is on screen at any momeent.
Dialog will bug out sometimes.
Textures will either not load or would remain at low quality instead of getting better as you approach.
Some quests will break.
So, it's not the great game by all standards. But for a pretty old game by now, Fallout New Vegas is a pretty great game. It's a bit jank, but what kind of cult classic isn't jank?