Fallout: New Vegas - I thought I wanted more

I did.  I really did...think...I wanted more.  I LOVED Fallout 3 when it came out and I played it on PS3.  It was the shooter version of one of my all time favorite games, TES: Oblivion.  Despite the bugs that were in Fallout 3 (like the game freezing during the cinematic critical strike scenes causing you to hard reboot the system), the story, open world, choose your own adventure style of play was fantastic.  A few months ago, I had about $50 to invest in my next gaming experience after having finished AC2: Brotherhood.  I wanted another RPG to sink some time into and keep me from spending money, so I decided to pull the trigger on New Vegas.  Review scores were high, and I pretty much knew what I was getting.



After giving Valve more of my money, I dove into New Vegas, using my Dualshock 3 controller as an emulated 360 controller to give it a more console feel with better graphics on the PC. The story started off with you, a courier, being shot, and revived in this small town of Goodsprings.  You're main objective is to track down your would-be killer, find out why you were attacked, and in the process of doing so, discover the wasteland's mysteries and politics and determine how you want to influence them.  In typical fashion of these games, you can make "good" decisions and "bad" decisions, and the world will change it's relationships with you based on those actions.  The decisions are pretty clear cut like Mass Effect (though not color coded), but not as complex as those in Dragon Age where decisions are truly "grey".

One thing this game does better than it's predecessor is introduce a much more complex and dynamic faction system.  It's not as simple as deciding which group is good or bad, because there are many different factions with their own stories and goals, and various mutually exclusive goals that force complexity in determining how you wish to shape the story.  That is the real strength of this game, and should be lauded as such.    I typically find it near impossible to make "evil" decisions, so I tend to always go heroic, but this game forced me to make choices I usually don't because of the competing goals of factions, and critical decision points.  More on this at the end of this.  But just note that if you want a really good story telling experience, this game totally delivers.

Here's where things start to break down.  First of all, the graphics.  Though a bit better on the PC because of the higher resolution textures, it's still the same engine used for Oblivion and Fallout 3.  Those games looked the best there had ever been...in their day, but that day was 3-5 years ago.  It looks dated now.  Next is the bugs.  I'll give them credit in that creating open worlds where NPC's interact with each other and make decisions in this always changing world is incredible.  So bugs or weird things can happen.  But environment clipping?  Unacceptable.  Falling through a rock in the environment is pretty lame.  And still the game could freeze during the cinematics.  It's just really sad that the same bugs that historically plagued the other two games in this engine till existed in this release.  It really took away from the gameplay.

Now a unique thing happened to me during the gameplay that does color my experience a bit.  About 40 hours into the game, which is a hefty investment, My SSD crashed.  That's my OS drive.  I had forgotten to back up in the last week and a half when it happened, and I got bit.  I lost my saves.  After going through the RMA process, and reinstalling the game, I got to start over.  I had intended on being a jerk in the game for a different experience, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  I did play through with pistol specializations instead of energy weapons like the first time, which I have to say, was dumb.  It made the game play like a bad shooter, which was boring.

I'm the kind of gamer who wants to experience it all, but in these games, I just can't bring myself to do it.  I did find all of the locations on the map, but there is still plenty to do in the game I didn't finish.  I got to a point where the game was just getting boring for me, so I rushed to finish it, and ended up going down a different path then I had started out and turning on my supposed allies, but screw it, I just wanted to finish it so I could move on.

If you haven't ever played Oblivion or Fallout 3, then I would recommend this despite it's flaws.  Let's face it, all games have flaws, but few deliver such a deep story that let's you shape it.  If you've played either of those games in the past, though, I would pass.  It just doesn't hold up.  If it wasn't for the deal I made with my wife about not buying a new game until I finish the one I have, then I might not have even tried to plow through this again after losing the 40 hours before the crash.  Out of 10, I'll give this a 7.  Obviously good enough for me to put in over 100 hours, but not the most fun 100 hours I've ever spent.