Fallout: New Vegas – First hours

24 Oct, 2010

They say war never changes, and it seems that Fallout: New Vegas is going for a similar theme. The follow-up the hugely successful Fallout 3, winner of IGN’s Game of the Year award 2008, New Vegas is playing very much according to the ‘If it ain’t broke’ ideology which pretty much guarentees that there is a lot here to love for fans of Fallout 3. As a big fan of the previous installments of the post-apocolyptic wasteland chronicals, I like many others out there picked this up on release day and was quick to the tuck into the trials and tribulations of ‘The Courier’ in the deliciously seedy backdrop of ‘New Vegas’. For reasons which I will cover I have yet to finish the game, but never the less saddle up with me- the gun-toting; blackjack addicted Black Widow of the Wastes for my initial impressions of Fallout: New Vegas on Xbox 360!

Right off the bat, the first thing that struck me about New Vegas first and foremost was just how funny it is! Having members of the original team on board in the production really shines through in the character dialogue and some of the situations you might find yourself in. The game has returned to the tradition of the original Fallout titles, presenting a vision of the future that is dirty, corrupt, perverse and violent without conscience. While many complained that Fallout 3 had to a large extent toned down on these elements, New Vegas brings it back with a vengeance, making for one the grittiest and funniest gaming experiences of the year. I am struggling to think of the last time that I laughed so hard at a game as I did when encountering ‘Fisto’ the sexbot, whom I was dispatched to aquire on behalf a casino-come-brothel that I was doing some paid favours for. Out of sheer unforgivable morbid curiousity, when first meeting ‘Fisto’ the dialogue option to take the new equipment for a test drive appeared, and I initially thought ‘No way, they can’t! Can they…?’. The screen fades to black and I was greeted with sounds reminiscent of someone preparing to journey to the centre of the earth with a pneumatic drill, followed with the dialogue option ‘I can’t feel my legs!’, by which time I felt as though my sides were going to split.

My initial impression of New Vegas, I imagine like many others was that this was simply an expansion pack for Fallout 3 sporting a hefty £40 price tag, and that impression did stay with me for a good way into my playtime, but Fallout: New Vegas certainly does stand on it’s own two feet as a great title in it’s own merit. After you awaken under the care of the humble folk of Goodsprings and begin your quest for revenge against those who betrayed you when a courier contract goes awry, there are already some small yet significant changes to the Fallout dynamic that make a big difference. Combat has been greatly improved with ability to aim down the barrel of your weapon allowing for effective shooting as you wait for action points to recharge. The karma system is still in place but tweaked to incorporate the inclusion of reputation amongst the various factions populating the wasteland. Depending on how you treat certain groups, and behave in the Wastelands vast settlements depends how people react you- acceptance with one gang may earn you the scorn of another, making for a much more interesting gameplay experience. Who you decide to make your bones with is also suggested to effect the outcome the story, though naturally I have yet to see the stories conclusion.

New Vegas itself and it’s surrounding area ‘Freeside’ bring out the real flare of the game, harping back to the look and feel it’s PC predecessor Fallout 2. Vegas, the geographical personification of vice, sleaze and mindless indulgence is the perfect backdrop for New Vegas’s showcase of colourful characters. Players have the opportunity to gamble, drink, solicit hookers, shop for a sugar daddy and make their allegences with rival gangs, while making your own mark in the power struggle for control of The Strip. Each gang has their own unique traits, from the pseudo-mafioso ‘Omerta Gang’ who control the appropriately named ‘Gomorrah’ Casino, to ‘The Kings’ sporting their southern drawl and Elvis replica dress code.

Exploring the Wasteland is vast and epic as ever, litered with the menacing mutated creepy crawlies you have come to expect on your travels. Players of Fallout 3 will recognise some of the enemies and be unpleasantly surprised by many, while I for one remain eternally greatful that the developers have yet to make the inclusion of giant spiders. Rival factions occupy territories across the map and you will be feel eagar not to tread on their toes to avoid a swarm of bullets. The Legion gang, who pose the greatest threat to ‘civilisation’ as we know it in New Vegas invade and massacre certain settlements, leaving behind smouldering ash piles and half-dead crucified civilians, making for some of the games most chilling and macarbre moments.

For all this praise, sadly Fallout: New Vegas is not without it’s faults, and big game breaking ones they are. Upon hearing about the large amount of technical problems suffered by the game in other reviews, I thought that I was having a lucky run of the game in my first few hours. I encountered none of the lagging or bugs that I had seen reported by the other players, that was until I explored more areas on the map and suddenly I was avalanched with problems. Whilst carrying out missions in the New Vegas area particularly the game would frequently lag as though struggling to load (I installed the game, and this didn’t help matters), and characters would disappear from where they should be, making it impossible to complete certain quests. The biggest problem of all was when the game began to crash and freeze, to which I counted a total of 4 during my playthrough, the final being fatal. The game crashed during one of the loading screens (which themselves got longer and longer) and I was careful to allow a generous amount of time in order to see if it would recover and carry on to no avail, so I was forced to restart my console. You can imagine my absolute dismay when I tried to reload my save file to find that it had corrupted during the crash, and all my progress had been totally lost (coming to around 20+ hours of gameplay aka. my entire weekend), and between kicking myself for relying on auto save exclusively I couldn’t help but feel bitterly disappointed by just how broken this game seems to be. What could easily follow in the footsteps of it’s big brother in being one of the best games of the year, as it stands New Vegas is in desperate need of some TLC from the developers and despite the patch I installed on launch day to combat a lot of the games initial issues, there still remains a lot of fixing to be done. As Dean Martin so fittingly sang across the waves in the moments initial: ‘Ain’t that a kick in the head?’ Why yes Dean, it certainly was.

To conclude, I have so far absolutely loved every second of the New Vegas experience, and despite the whopping techinical issues blighting the game it still impossible to dismiss it. This chapter in Fallout’s Post Apocolyptic saga has to the potential to surpass it’s successor if a lot the technical problems can be ironed out quickly and efficiently. I have yet to gather the sheer amount of will power that it is going to take me to work my way back through the game to reach where I was, but the seductive den of sin that is New Vegas will soon have me crawling back for more. There are few games that allow me such opportunities to play as a morally grey, bisexual black widow who so freely indulges in chems, booze, gambling and unsavoury work habits (that is until such a time as they make a videogame out of The Anna Nicole Show). So an open note to Bethesda and Obsidian- Please fix your game!

Depravity is the religion of New Vegas, so let us pray!