Review of Fallout:New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas, a first person shooter style, role playing game, developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda, is the most recent addition to the Fallout series of video games. New Vegas takes place in post nuclear war Mojave Desert, Nevada in the year 2281. You are a courier working for the Mojave Express, a postal company in the Mojave wasteland. You are sent to deliver a package to Mr. House, the elusive head of the New Vegas strip. Your package contains a chip, known as the “Platinum Chip”. During your journey to make the delivery, you are ambushed by a man in a checker suit named Benny. He takes the chip and leaves you with a bullet in your head. Victor a modified securitron owned by Mr. House takes your body to Dr. Mitchell who patches you up. This is the point where the player takes control of the courier, you set your stats and spend the first chunk of the game, piecing back what happened and finding the man who shot you, you rely on helping other people in exchange for information, as you have no recollection of the shooting or before. Once you re obtain the platinum chip you have the options to side with House, The NCR, and Ceasers Legion, all fighting to have control of New Vegas and The Hover Dam. You also have to option to go independent and take New Vegas for yourself. Regardless of whom you side with the game ends with a battle against the Legion and NCR over Hover dam and control of the strip.

The design and plot of New Vegas is quite similar to Fallout 3, and graphics have not been improved nor the physics. Throughout my play throughs I found almost no bugs or glitches, which is impressive for a game of this size and depth. The graphics in New Vegas are the same as you saw in Fallout 3, which is impressive for the expansive map that it has. Don’t be expecting Crysis graphic quality but New Vegas defiantly doesn’t disappoint. I enjoyed the setting of New Vegas more than Fallout 3; it felt more vibrant, less cluttered and easier to navigate. Physics again, as in Fallout 3, can be a little choppy but over all acceptable for a game of this scale. As far as game play features go, it’s almost identical to down to the exact same HUD and pip boy but now your reputation affects how people interact with you in certain communities and factions, making you think before making a decision or killing someone.

New Vegas is packed with content and gives you hundreds of hours of game play. The games main plot has 4 possible play throughs each with their own ending. The plots are actually interesting and connect with each other which is often the deciding factor in RPG’s. The amount of side quests and secondary missions is so large I still haven’t finished them all. At first I found the amount of content was too overwhelming and I often had problems finishing a plot to its end because you can get side tracked so easily. Downloadable content is also available if you feel you need more quests.

Overall Fallout: New Vegas is defiantly worth picking up if you liked Fallout 3. Despite its lack of new features, it has a gripping storey line and more than enough replay value to justify buying it.