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the Potomac River basin, so too has
Obsidian captured the feel of the Mojave Desert. New Vegas itself, while
definitely different than the real Las Vegas, carries the "2050's" style
from the previous game and takes it to the sort of gaudy glitzy level
that evokes the early days of Las Vegas. Character animations remain
smooth for the most part, with lip synching during spoken dialog still
well matched, but collision detection a little shaky at times. Textures
still look great, though there was a bit of cracking here and there. For
a two year old engine, New Vegas holds up beautifully from the visual
perspective.
Without question, the biggest draw in New Vegas aside from the gameplay
is the music and voice acting. While Fallout 3 had a few big names
attached to it, New Vegas goes hog wild and brings in a roster of actors
that would be completely natural for a good action flick. You've got
veteran voice actors like Michael Dorn and Rene Auberjonois, comedians
Dave Foley and Rob Corddry, television notables Zachary Levi and Matthew
Perry, geek stalwarts Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton, and old school
gravitas from Ron Perlman and Kris Kristofferson. Hell, they even
managed to work in Wayne Newton, which is not only totally appropriate,
but adds that extra little touch that helps players connect with the
setting. As for the music, Inon Zur does another excellent job with the
game's score, but he's overshadowed by radio playlists containing Frank
Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, and Nat King Cole among others. The
sound effects, while not nearly so flashy as the music and voice acting,
help deepen the experience. Weapon sounds are crisp, though occasionally
undistinguished when attempting to differentiate between certain models
of weapon. Ambient sounds not only well executed but thoughtful in their
employment. You don't hear something that you shouldn't expect to hear
unless there's a very specific reason. There's very little to complain
about in terms of the audio in New Vegas.
It's something of a shock when you dig into the gameplay on New Vegas
and discover wonderful storylines and quest arcs undone by weird bugs
and seemingly thoughtless solution failures. It boggles the mind how the
same developers who give us such wonderful, personable, engaging
characters for companions can completely bollox up the means to keep
track of those characters. At the time of this writing, a major patch is
slated to come out sometime in the next week or so. From what I can read
of the patch notes, it's still fixing DLC conflicts and autosave
corruption issues, as well as updating probably every single quest in
the game. The real kick in the teeth is that Obsidian can't seem to get
the game working from a technical standpoint, despite being part of the
original Fallout creation team so many years before. The game runs, to
be sure, but it doesn't run smoothly insofar as gameplay is concerned.
The game starts after your near-death experience at the hands of a
mobster from the New Vegas Strip named Benny. The character creation
process in the doctor's office in Goodsprings is a little bit faster
than in Fallout 3, as you're not having to grow up in stages.
One change which will certainly help players in terms of character focus
is the combination of the Big Guns and Small Guns skills into a
catch-all Guns skill, with heavy weapons either being assigned to Guns
or Energy Weapons, depending on the nature of the ammo used. You can now
purchase and even craft different types of ammo to fit circumstances,
such as armor piercing rounds or hollowpoints. Additionally, you can
also craft different types of food, medical supplies, and "performance
enhancers" provided you have a sufficiently high level in the
appropriate skills and can find the right materials
Companion characters can help keep the journey from being too lonely,
though as was mentioned, bugs in the game can make a companion
disappear, never to return again.
If you're feeling brave, or you want to prove that you really could
survive the post-apocalypse, the game features a Hardcore Mode where you
need to not only keep an eye on health and radiation exposure, but also
hunger, thirst, and sleep, as well as closer attention to encumbrance.
Throughout your travels, you'll find settlements who could use your help
and large factions that will call you friend or enemy depending on your
actions. Some are old favorites like the Brotherhood of Steel and the
New California Republic. Others are new and interesting like the
hyper-militaristic Caesar's Legion, the thuggish Powder Gang, and the
enigmatic Mr. House. Of course, not everybody is willing to sit down and
talk with you, and such situations demand hot lead and hotter plasma
bolts. This occasionally becomes more complicated when a bug arises and
certain enemies are not only rooted to the ground, but are invulnerable
to all attacks. While reloading the game can correct this problem, it's
bugs like that one which put a serious crimp on the fun. Some quests in
the game can't be completed due to bugs while others leave players
hanging without any resolution most likely because of poor design, a
lack of information to tell a player they've reached the end of the line
in the quest, even if the actual result isn't immediately obvious.
The highest compliment that I can pay this game is that it feels like a
natural sequel to the first two Fallout games released by Interplay,
which is a very good thing indeed, and which marks a very welcome change
from the somewhat grimmer tone Bethesda took with Fallout 3. At the same
time, it pains me that Obsidian Entertainment once again fails to bring
their "A" game to a title which not only means a lot to the fans, but
should mean a lot to the devs. This game got released too early. Had it
been released around the holidays, and with the collection of bugs and
broken quests eliminated, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a great
gift for gamers. As it is, I can only say that it's beautiful but
tragically flawed.
- Axel Cushing
(December 17, 2010)
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