I decided not to continue with my journey into the land of Fallout 3. I now move further in the radioactive archives of games, to Fallout New Vegas. Unlike other titles in the Fallout universe, Obsidian entertainment worked on the game.
Upon loading the game, a brief history of the world - man invents nukes, man uses nukes, land is full of radiation (also water, air, and other things) - and several factions emerge in the Nevada desert. This of course, only happens after people leave their bunkers.
There's turf wars going on between a few factions, and your character is flung into the middle of it before they're apparently killed. You're saved by a crackpot doctor, and your journey begins - why, as a humble courier, were you targeted for death by one of the most powerful factions in the region?
New Vegas has a story. Other Fallout games also have stories, but there's everything wrong with their pacing. New Vegas urges you onward at a decent clip, being a far leaner version of the universe. There's no confusing fetch quests or cartographic escapades in search of ancient tree seeds that add no plot element thrust at you by every single npc you encounter.
To the contrary, the abandoned buildings and sites you encounter moving from town to town have no obvious secrets or tomes full of exposition written by their residents the game quite simply gets to its point, and does it well.
Having said this - it hasn't aged exceptionally well - it is painfully dreary from the perspective of a colour palette - everyting is awash in brown, yellow, and more brown. It makes it difficult to discern objects in the environment - which can drive you mad when you're looking for loot.
There's everything you'd expect from a Fallout game in New Vegas - the VATS system, where you pause real-time combat to move into an XCOM style 99% chance to hit the enemy modem which works well with the action point system. There's lots of quests, lot of cleverly written dialogue, and of course, lots of mutant enemies that try to ruin your day.
Playing this game reminded me of The Outer Worlds. I wrote about that game previously, and you can see how New Vegas laid the solid foundation for the team to make a modern-day masterpiece.
Having said that, many would argue that New Vegas is a masterpiece, and it certainly was - however, we've now progressed beyond - and moved to a place where there's much better alternatives out there in the market that dive headlong into the agenda of free-form RPG with choices that matter - from The Outer Worlds to Disco Elysium - there's better, modern(er) versions of New Vegas.
The atmosphere in New Vegas is one that is unique - but pales in comparison to those created by other titles such as Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines. This doesn't mean it is a bad game, far from it - but you can read the game's influences and direction, and see that this was an important stepping stone on the road the greatest creations of the Obsidian development team, and all of the talented individuals within it.
A step towards greatness, doused in radiation. Probably give this one a shot.
you are right about main quests in fallout series, usually that is almost ignored while you roam around doing other things :) loved the music in new Vegas.
Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines was great, with all the bugs it had :)
I'm very keen for VTMB2 :)
i had no idea that someone is making it. that could be interesting.
Hey @holoz0r I see you aren't part of a Splinterlands Guild and you were an early signup to the Crypto Class Action. Why don't you join our Guild.
We are brawling and working our way up to level 6 and JPB Liberty matches DEC contributions.
Hey mate, i'm part of the Roaring Twenties Guild :)
I was checking on people I've invited in the past in Splinterlands Guild page and some people showed at title that I though was guild membership, but it was a rank or something.
Because you didn't I thought you weren't part of a guild.