Review: Fallout New Vegas

There’s lots of walking around a desolate landscape … check.

There’s a whole passel of chatting up strangers … check.

There’s detailed inventory management … check.

It must be a new Fallout game.

Yep, it’s Fallout New Vegas, a trip into the bleak future of Sin City and the irradiated surrounding Mojave Desert.

You play as a courier who is robbed while on a delivery. A mysterious dapper-dressed man, in cahoots with a local gang, takes the platinum chip you are carrying. Oh, and he also kills you. Well, he tries to kill you, but a nearby robot digs up your grave and finds help.

Your quest is then to find the man, find out why he wanted your cargo and then kill him.

Anyone who played 2008′s Fallout 3 will be instantly at home with Fallout New Vegas. In fact, at times it just seems to be an add-on pack for the earlier game.

In both, you survive on your wits and your trusty Pip-Boy 3000 wrist-mounted management system. The Pip-Boy tracks just about everything about you, your environment and your goals. You control your weapons, your clothing, your medical supplies and your food. You track your travels by map, your health and your skills.

One big difference from Fallout 3 is lack of a permanent canine companion. Fallout 3 had Dogmeat the dog, who faithfully followed you and helped protect you. In New Vegas, you can have human and animal companions, but no fido who is always there. The companions can be directed by a Companion Control wheel.

Weapons again use the V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), which sets it apart from other first-person shooters.

When confronted with a foe, the V.A.T.S. can be activated. It displays individual body parts and strengths and weaknesses for each. Players can then specifically target areas, with the number of attacks limited by the specific weapons and the number of Attack Points (AP) the player currently has. The player can also target more than one attacker using the V.A.T.S.

Players can also play in a more traditional FPS Mode, firing weapons without assisted targeting, but it’s noticeably less effective. The preferred method is almost always V.A.T.S.

The game can also be played in third-person mode, which doesn’t add a whole lot to the experience.

Interaction with locals again plays a significant part of the game. Traveling from town to town and across the desert landscape leads to run-ins with various warring factions, with actions on your part leading to alliances or conflicts. Most towns and outposts have places to trade for weapons, medical aid and ammo.

Performing missions can earn you good karma, but can also lead to negative reactions by opposing forces.

Completing missions and accruing Experience Points lead to the ability to level up, with the path you choose highly customizable. You can favor improved gunplay over increase scientific knowledge or hone your barter skills at the expense of lockpick skills.

The path you choose determines the ease or difficulty of future tasks. Leveling up also allows choices in Perks – specific new abilities.

With Vegas as the focus of this game, gambling is prevalent. Blackjack, slot machines and others can be played when you arrive in the re imagined New Vegas. A card game called Caravan can be played with many of the denizens of the barren outworld.

The action takes place about 50 years further into the future than Fallout 3, so things haven’t changed much in game. Therein lies the biggest problem with New Vegas.

While the gameplay is solid, we’ve seen it before. It feels like a bit of a retread.

Don’t get me wrong – the gameplay is deep and full, just a little too familiar. The missions and sub-missions available can keep you busy for hours.

Reports have circulated that the game has been buggy, with reported freezes and other problems. I’ve seen very little of that, with only a couple of glitches that didn’t break the experience.

It’s good to be back in the apocalyptic dystopia of the Fallout world, although a little fresher take would have been nice.

Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 Rating: Mature Manufacturer: Bethesda Softworks Score: 8 wasteland chilies