Fallout: New Vegas
Review
Fallout 3 - with culture
by Davneet Minhas
reviewed on PC
Here’s Johnny (cntd)
I thought seeing the Strip and the Lucky 38 tower for the first time would be such a moment, but it wasn’t – maybe because New Vegas feels so familiar after Fallout 3 or maybe because the Strip was a strong focus of the game’s advertising. Either way, familiarity hurts.
I also never really felt connected to Vegas. Every inhabitant, from the high rollers to the prostitutes to the junkies, felt like they belonged, like they were products and constituents of all the glitz and glamour and sin. I was always an outsider, just passing through. But I think that was a result of the decisions I made. I could’ve ruled the casinos had I chosen a different path.
Regardless, there are more interesting places, like Jacobstown. Were it not for its super mutant inhabitants, the ski resort nestled between snow-capped mountains would look like it came right out of The Shining. But it’s not a scary place, unless you want it to be.
I Don’t Know Who That Is
Unfortunately, the PC version of New Vegas I played wasn’t as stable as Fallout 3. It inexplicably crashed a few times, which I thought would prove annoying at first, but it never really bothered me. Frequent quick saves and auto saves ensured I always got back in with minimal repetition.
More problematic were some issues with how the game perceived my progress. I didn’t come across a broken quest, but I did run into some dialogue options referencing people and plot points that I hadn’t yet encountered. It’s a little bizarre, being able to ask someone about a person I haven’t met or even heard of.
Such dialogue options didn’t really spoil the experience though – they were very minor to the overall story and only appeared early in the game. They were more comical than anything else, small lapses in the inconceivable effort it takes to quality control such a massive nonlinear, open-world game. Still, Fallout 3 deserves credit for being more polished in this regard.
You Already Know
I think the best way to describe Fallout: New Vegas is to say it’s Fallout 3 with a bit of Alpha Protocol, which makes sense. But even with that extra little bit, New Vegas is most definitely a Fallout game. More specifically, it’s a Fallout 3 game. So regardless of what I or anyone else says, you should already know if you’d enjoy it. If you don’t, then you haven’t played Fallout 3, in which case, shame on you. I enjoyed Fallout 3 and I certainly enjoyed New Vegas.
And with that, I’m going to start working on the treatment for my character’s Travel Channel show.
9.0
fun score
Pros
It’s Fallout 3 – with culture.
Cons
Too familiar, it lacks the “wow” factor of its predecessor.
