Fallout New Vegas Game Review

For those who have played both fallout two and fallout three I don't need to describe how different the games are; not only did the later title change genres from a simple top down RPG to a first-person shooter RPG mix but also issued a substantial upgrade in graphics. Of course there is about a decade between the release of fallout two and fallout three. There was no where near that time difference between fallout three and the release of fallout new Vegas so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise than that the difference between fallout three and fallout new Vegas is nowhere near the difference between fallout two and fallout three. In fact, if it weren't for a few small elements fallout new Vegas could have simply been an expansion pack for fallout three.

That's not to say that fallout new Vegas isn't a good game, it simply shares many elements with its previous incarnation. That can actually be a pretty good thing assuming you liked the first game (which I did). So while I'll do a more in-depth review in the following paragraphs I feel it is most useful to stop right here and spell out fact: if you played and liked fallout three and want more of the same with some new plot and a few tweaks then fallout new Vegas is for you. If you played fallout three but did not like it then I would not suspect that any of the minor changes would be enough to make you enjoy fallout new Vegas.

And now back to our review already in progress...

For those of you who haven't played any of the fallout games before all of the games basically take place in the same future Earth. This future Earth history is not exactly as it is in regular Earth, with the biggest difference being a nuclear world war in the early 21st century. The series actually takes a fairly unique and artistic twist on the basic concept of post apocalyptic world with a shift in 20th century history. You see, the idea that the world may end in nuclear war was a much more prevalent fear in the 50s and 60s than it was in the 90s or really even now. For proof of this go back and watch television shows or movies or news films from that era. Science fiction stories and plots often included in this era end of the world scenarios.

There's something else to be noted if you review films or other media from this timeframe, specifically when taking into account technology. You see, the future is not an easy thing to predict especially when it comes to technology of the future. How could anyone possibly predict future breakthroughs? A perfect example of this would be the Star Trek episode entitled "space seed." For those of you who aren't Star Trek fans, in this episode the crew of the enterprise encounter a sleeper ship, a vessel in which all the occupants are hibernating. When they look back through the records they find that this ship was created, launched, and lost track of somewhere in the late 20th or early 21st century.

Keep in mind this television show was produced in the late 60s. Despite the fact that this show was filmed and aired prior to anyone actually successfully landing on the moon this show was predicting that by the late 90s humans would have spaceships capable of long-term hibernation. At the time that I'm writing this review we are currently living in the timeframe that the show suggests this technology should exist and in reality we are far from that. That's not the only technological details from that show though, or even that episode, that deals with predicting future technology. In the same episode when the crew examines the inside of this 20th century spaceship the engineers report astonishment that the ships transistors were still working.

Transistors? That's right, the show suggests that we'll have super advanced spaceships but fails to predict the development of the integrated circuit (the basis for the modern computer age). I'm not faulting them for failing to predict the modern computer age so much as pointing out that not only do these predicts show progress that is radically fast but also sometimes show progress that is ridiculously slow.

So what's my point? The entire fallout series, fallout new Vegas included, uses an artistic style I like to call retro future. You see, even though the game is set in the future is not our future but rather a future envisioned from the 50s. Extremely advanced black and white computer terminals that are all textbased rather than fancy graphics, burned-out cars that would only have been cool back in the 50s, clothing that looks like it belongs in Leave It to Beaver or the Lone Ranger, and yet super advanced robots and laser guns.

In fallout new Vegas you play the part of a character who is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant. Surviving the event, you take it as your mission to hunt down this person and get your revenge. This ultimately ends up taking you to Las Vegas, still somewhat up and running despite nuclear war due to power supplied by the nearby Hoover damn.

The character you create is highly customizable, not only with unique appearance but with the ability to set certain traits as well. In fact, new Vegas goes further than previous installments in the fallout series by allowing you to pick certain traits at character creation. A good example of this would be the need for glasses, a trait that if selected would provide your character with a bonus while wearing glasses while supplying you with a penalty when not.

The environment is highly exploreable so once you have your character created there will be lots of people and places to move around in and interact with. You can do pretty much whatever you want to do; If you want to focus on the main story involving hunting down the unknown assailant you can. On the other hand if you don't really want to focus on that there are many other side missions and story lines you could follow/

The graphics are fairly intense, presenting a fairly realistic appearance for the world although the people in the game still suffer from living in "The Uncanny Valley." The graphics are not a substantial improvement over the previous version although they do stack up well against Fallout Three.

Ultimately I would recommend this game to anyone who wishes to purchase it. Assuming the consumer enjoys role-playing games in general I would consider this to be one of the best examples of the genre.