Warning this will be an length review post. Please take as many breaks as possible.
I previously had three of these Fallout games on Xbox consoles. Up till recently I only fully played Fallout 3 with all it's dlcs. Around 2AM today in fact, I finished up Fallout: New Vegas' dlcs. I put a lot of hours into this since I considered finishing the game as a gaming bucket list I always wanted to do. Keep in mind, I'm not a huge fan of RPGs.
Then again Fallout series has a rather unique take being several game genres rolled into one. The closest thing I played to this series is BioShock series. Very likely something always on my mind when playing either franchise. They got plenty of major differences but the striking similarities are very difficult to ignore.
I know the introduction is a little longer than planned. Fallout: New Vegas is a game more recently gotten much higher among my absolute favorite games I ever played. For so many great reasons, this was a true classic everyone needs to play at least once. Maybe I'll eventually return with reviewing Fallout 3 while giving a new perceptive on things.
In all honestly, this quickly felt like something I waited too long to do. Something this great yet I didn't play it all these years is kinda mind blowing. I know I'm already hyping the hell out of the game. Fallout: New Vegas set a new standard for a few genres. Which I will explain in greater details shortly. You simply aren't alive if you haven't play a game this good!!!
Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
In a few ways it's actual development was surprisingly interesting. Bethesda previously developed Fallout 3 that came out two years prior. Back when Interplay owned the franchise, Black Isle Studios developed the first two Fallout games. They attempted to make their Fallout 3 game that ultimately got canceled. Then Bethesda bought the franchise not long afterwards.
There's a few reasons why this matters. For starters, Fallout: New Vegas was essentially developed by members of the original team now working at Obsidian Entertainment. They got to finish their Fallout 3 game while reusing several things from Fallout 3. They also weren't a fan of Fallout 3 in a few major areas.
Bethesda gave them permission to make Fallout: New Vegas. This is technically treated as a canon spin off game with more direct ties to the first two games. You also could say it's virtually Fallout 3.5 since it happened a few years after Fallout 3. But a few years before Fallout 4 being sandwiched by two great games.
It's very important to note for whatever reason gave Obsidian a strict amount of time for the game's development. More recently considered one of the absolute greatest rushed games in history. Yes it does suffer from technical issues more of a problem on consoles though. At least on PC, there's updates as well as mods that helps with several issues.
If you played Fallout 3, a large amount of stuff also presented in this. I actually felt there's a lot of major improvements making that the better Fallout game. I am dead serious, Fallout: New Vegas is a fantastic game. Both of them is a clever lineup of several game genres that works incredibly well. It's widely stated to be an FPS RPG Survival game.
It also covers Open World, Sandbox and Action as well. Most of those I felt from start to finish. The actual RPG elements being leveled up or presently involves dialogue. Maybe I never was crazy for an traditional RPG game. At the same time, being such an unique combination of genres really spices things up.
I don't have many favorites that's labeled or considered in some way as RPG. My favorite classic style RPG game is Phantasy Star IV, truly amazing stuff. If Dead Rising series counts in this discussion. I always been a huge fan of them. Fallout: New Vegas very likely my favorite multi genre RPG game I ever played!!!
I also should point out Fallout 3 is more Eastern section of the United States. Fallout: New Vegas is virtually it's Western counterpart. The actual story can change depending on your decisions. Like a lot of Telltale games especially The Walking Dead series being the perfect example. Now that franchise is owned by Skybound Games that holds every The Walking Dead game in existence damn.
Both heavily tells the story while given the actual direction where it's going in the hands of the player. There's a lot of good and bad decisions allowing a lot of replay value in the long run. Yes these Walking Dead games are somewhat linear for the most part. But both do embodied survival horror to a degree. Also some rather impressive voice acting in both as well.
The short version of the story without spoilers is you play as The Courier. You were tasked delivering a particular package. Unfortunately you get ambushed then left for dead afterwards. This is more than an revenge story. Especially when the main story of Fallout 3 was more of your Vault Dweller's dad than your actual character kinda takes you out of it.
So I do highly respect this actually The Courier's story we're playing. No disrespect towards Fallout 3 by the way. Late into the main campaign you quickly realize your decisions will lead up to either side winning. Yes your character suddenly in between this conflict with your decisions leading to one of several endings.
This was a major factor Fallout 3 lacked. No matter what it would end the same way. Although that also had Broken Steel campaign that starts right after the main campaign ends. The point is choice ends up being incredibly important. Yes you can do some truly stupid things. Some of which requires having enough of a particular skill to pull off.
From start to finish every major decision greatly impacts the entire experience. This game really felt like they covered virtually every possible angle imaginable. Fallout: New Vegas at it's core truly felt like the true definitive Fallout experience. Nearly every character you meet ends up being really interesting.
A great variety of enemies you could face. You also could eventually get companions to help you except dlc campaigns. A lot of items including weapons you can find. Plenty of outfits while exploring the wasteland. It's actually fun to go around exploring even when the odds are against you. There's always a chance you may find something that could help you out unexpectedly.
The main map is massive taking a lot of hours to fully explore. I will explain all the major factions this game centers on. I will save my favorite for last just don't be that surprise what it turns out to be. Mr. House was a business man that put his legacy keeping the Silver Strip going. He is more like if Andrew Ryan from BioShock was more of a dictator in a nut shell.
Basically he wants the Silver Strip to keep on going while everything outside of it simply isn't his problem. Yeah what a leader right? Caesar's Legion led by a man named Caesar. A nasty group of raiders that's inspired by Ancient Rome. The most evil faction among them hands down. NCR is virtually the closest thing to military.
Although the Brotherhood of Steel is somewhat presented. Just not nearly as much as in Fallout 3 or 4 respectively. NCR is collapsing making it the most neutral faction. Now my favorite is essentially Independence with Yes Man. Yes Man was created by the same guy that nearly killed you at the beginning of the game.
Yes Man is an AI program with some ambitious plans to change how Negas Vegas should go. This ended up being the most chaotic out of the four factions. I'll break it down why I'm ultimately Independence over the other three factions. Two of them is treating you like a dog. You do these things that's it kinda disrespectful.
You quickly felt like you're being used rather than assisting them to achieve their goals. NCR isn't constant with desperation playing a major role in that. I actually felt in different ways these three factions would quickly die out rather than lasting as long as they imagined things would go. At least with Yes Man, he promises a more possible future.
Not only that, fully assisting him makes you the new leader of New Vegas. How much of an actual leader depending on the player than anything else. This also successfully bridges everything to together perfectly. Unlike Caesar's vision that would be too much for a lot of people to handle. Which also could lead to a war in due time if left unchecked.
Maybe I'm really over thinking things here who really knows. What I do know is there's plenty of things to do in this game. For me, it's rare when such long games ends up being constantly fun. Fallout 3 had a karma system while it's more evolved into how things going to go here. This game does take it's sweet time delivering stories.
A large amount of them are very interesting stuff. To me, this felt ways Fallout 3 could've been better in. Fallout: New Vegas nailed em right on the money. It's kinda how I felt about a similar topic with Resident Evil 4 Remake, another fantastic game. You really are getting the full package here. Despite some technical problems including game crashing.
Dead Money (2010)
Honest Hearts (2011)
Old World Blues (2011)
Lonesome Road (2011)
Of course I can't review the actual game without discussing it's major dlcs. Yes there's a few smaller dlc packs that helps getting you started. New Vegas has four huge dlcs minus one from Fallout 3. Although I actually could say these are technically better in comparison. You can do any of them after you leave the house you started in.
Although it's highly recommended to be leveled enough to do em. They all have their main dlc campaigns meaning you got five main campaigns to complete in the game. Dead Money is virtually a more intense BioShock style experience. It's very easy to say a more survival horror experience at that. You go inside an abandoned Brotherhood of Steel location to get kidnapped.
Everything you had going in removed. You got an explosive collar that's linked to three other people. Concept wise this is like Suicide Squad meets Army of the Dead. Suicide Squad because it's a small group of unlikely people working together while wearing explosive collars. Army of the Dead since both plots involves breaking into the vault of an abandoned casino.
What's more interesting is this predates Army of the Dead by couple of years. There's a few endings with one being tricky to get. There's a trick before you talk to the man forcing you to do all of this. One option on a particular terminal do not access it or you automatically get the bad ending. One of it's last surprises you likely won't see coming.
Basically shortly reading that, you get locked in to die. Then the system recreates you as an hologram. I do like they went for this concept. Unless you know how to avoid it don't use that terminal yet. Thankfully you can save right before using it. So you aren't forced to use an older save or worst start all over again.
I know I'm talking about the ending portion more than what's left of it. Majority of it involves dealing with these ghost characters. There's two major variations of the concept you got to deal with. You got these DC's Scarecrow like creatures. Unless you do one of the following methods to put em down. They will quickly get right back up.
It turns out either you dismembered or vaporized em to kill em. There's also one of your allies Dogs that eats em. I know kinda mess up that's an actual method in the game. You even could get a perk from this to help you take em faster too. The other ghost type of enemies is holograms. Yes you can get killed by holograms.
I would even dare to say the most accurate enemies I ever faced. It's better to quickly run past em or sneak your way through. In one particular location, you can destroy these hologram devices that removes some of them out the area. We still haven't talked about the more annoying aspects yet. Relating to your collar are these annoying speakers that attempts to limit your options.
You have two options how to deal with them. Either quickly move into a spot the beeping stops or take em out. However the later has some weird placements of speakers. I couldn't find a few that kept beeping late into the dlc campaign. There's a few traps you can easily avoid or skilled enough disarmed. Some traps you can use an thrown melee weapon or any firearm to trigger em.
The worst traps is the explosive one wrong move could either take a good chunk of your health or flat out kill you. Some angles is a little tricky to shoot em from a distance. They explode too quickly to safely disarm. I did like how trapped played into this. Not only you had tricky enemies to kill off. But traps as well as poisonous gas.
Oh right I haven't brought up the poisonous gas yet. These reddish poisonous gases is another annoying obstacle. Sometimes you got to find another route around them. Other times you got no choice but head straight into it. Unlike most of the game, this new map location uses it's own currency. No bottle taps, it's more casino chips to better fit the theme.
This is important because you got these venting machines you use em to get stuff. I mostly bought ammo for my more powerful guns. There's a lot of these chips around the map itself. Now I talked about all that back to the ending. You get to face Father Elijah over what he's done. You do have a tricky option to trap him inside the vault.
You are more likely going to face him as a boss that's not too hard. The turrets ends up being a bigger threat. You simply escape the casino to leave this abandoned location altogether. I actually felt this was a great start to what's to come. I actually played these out of order truthfully. Dead Money was surprisingly decent but a little unforgiving at times.
Honest Hearts sends you to a new map. But they threw a monkey wrench before you go there. You get told by the man in charge of this caravan group. To drop your total weight you're carrying down to 75 pounds. This alone can be rather annoying what not to take with you. It actually doesn't seem to matter if this caravan survives or not, you still continue playing.
You quickly ally yourself to a few tribes to stop another tribe joining forces with Caesar's Legion. Joshua ends up being the most interesting character. Sadly the actual stuff we really wanna hear about isn't presented here. When you previously heard stuff about the Burned Man that's him!!! The actual main campaign for this was alright at best.
I kept having enemies coming after me. A large amount of this I had assigned companions to help. I do actually like this new map but parts of it are somewhat confusing to navigate. Your decisions ultimately decides several character's futures was a nice touch. Honest Hearts is very true to it's name. You either allow Joshua kill an tribe leader or having enough skills convince him not.
To me it felt they easily could've done more with this if the team had more time. I'm not trying to say it sucks, it doesn't. This simply felt lacking compared to the rest of them. I do like I can return to any of these added dlc locations after I played em. There isn't much more I could say about it. Then give it a try to see if you like it or not.
Old World Blues ended up being my favorite. This was truly an unique experience I won't forget. You get teleported to a new location that's heavily technology theme. This quickly grabs your attention to never ever let it go. I am very serious they reveal so much stuff that's really interesting. I do actually like this new map as well.
In every possible way this nearly felt like it's own game. Easily the most complete dlc experience this game has to offer. It really set the bar incredibly high for me. You got these scientists that willingly became AIs to keep on their never ending quest of bettering humanity. Surprisingly the most clean water you can drink.
Which also a notable factor in Honest Hearts. A rather interesting variety of enemies with people that had organs replaced with technology. Also I hope you like scorpions because there's a lot of robot scorpions. Personally I rather have Mortal Kombat's Scorpion!!! There's even a giant robot scorpion boss too.
Which oddly reminds me of facing Dr. Proton in Duke Nukem Forever's The Doctor Who Cloned Me dlc campaign. Both of these dlc campaigns came out in 2011. Although Old World Blues came out a couple months prior. I was mind blown by a lot of stuff including bottle caps I kept finding. Hey sometimes you gotta enjoy the small things.
This dlc is incredibly amazing stuff at it's core. I can't really criticize it much. If I die a lot it's my own damn fault. Some enemies can be more frustrating to avoid than actually fighting. For me this was one epic of a fun time. I just wanna see more of the location as well as learn more of the back stories. You also got to talk to the scientists.
What I really love is how you can go from and to this location after you beaten the main campaign. You are given a particular weapon. It's more of getting beamed up that only works when you're outside. Which also more directly ties in with the theme. Old World Blues really nails exactly what it sent out to do.
Obviously I'm a huge fan of Resident Evil series. A large amount of this reminded me of that. This would be it's answer to Fallout 3's Mothership Zeta. Both heavily represents science fiction. Although this is easily the superior of the two. I know it might come off rather ballsy to say it's the best New Vegas dlc.
Lonesome Road is essentially the conclusion to New Vegas. It turns out an man named Ulysses secretly involved with everything. He nearly delivered the same package you previously nearly got killed for. Essentially acting has the Courier's true enemy. He was allied with Caesar with several marked men being former members of his legion.
Surprisingly some marked men also turned out to be former NCR members too. Which further supports the current collapsing state of NCR itself. I do like you're giving a Laser Pointer. No not that one you used to play with your cats lol. We are talking this laser weapon that causing warheads to explode. This does take a little bit but still kinda awesome that's an option.
Especially if you never gotten your hands on an Fatman. As in the nuclear launcher weapon that fires mini nukes. This difficult is more meant for the more hardcore Fallout players. They do have Death Claws here making it an challenge. Prior to this in my recent time playing the game. I surprisingly never ran into any Death Claws.
There's a couple of them at this location. The new map itself is very Fallout in every sense of the word. You get an Eye Bot companion for majority of the main campaign. I do like he can be upgraded with stuff you find. The actual campaign itself is surprisingly straight forward. You are on your way to meet Ulysses to confront him about many things.
I will confess lacking two particular skills being maxed, lacked armor and not many damaging weapons. We are talking little to no actual explosives, I had a rather difficult time killing him. I couldn't even convince him to back down either. Maybe someone can explain to me what happened? I had to adapt to a rather unforgiving boss fight.
I actually looked some stuff up, it turns out Ulysses one of a very few maxed Fallout characters. He also has the most health in the entire game too. He also has different Eye Bots that helps prolong things. One Eye Bot can repair other Eye Bots. The other main Eye Bot he has is Medical that heals him. Now throw in a lot of marked men trying to kill you.
When enemies come at you in this, be thankful for a brief break. Some sections there isn't much breaks at all like going down this elevator while enemies comes after you. After all the final enemies are downed go to a particular terminal. You are given a few choices with some upsetting other factions. Including an option to send nukes at two of them.
Ultimately I went with stopping the launch at the cost of my Eye Bot's companion. A large amount of it was very decent. It was a fitting conclusion to such a great story. What a solid way to end a great game on dlc wise. Lonesome Road can be unforgiving but somewhat rewarding at times. You are force to take such risks if you really wanna survive.
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