Fallout: New Vegas Review by: CJOLL - 8.7/10
The Best Fallout Title YetFallout: New Vegas is a free-roaming RPG that takes place in Las Vegas and the surrounding Mojave Desert, centuries after a nuclear apocalypse. New Vegas resurrects the spirit of the classic Fallout games, complete with dark, tongue-in-cheek humor, while building upon the
updated gameplay mechanics of its more recent predecessor, Fallout 3. The result is a compelling and addictive, albeit buggy, experience with high replayability value.
Graphics: 4/10
It would be a lie to say that there is anything state-of-the-art, or even really pretty, about New Vegas' graphics. The graphic effects get the job done just fine, but that's it—don't expect to go "ooh, ah." Compared to other big-name games of the time, graphics aren't really this game's strong suit. Don't get the wrong idea—the graphics aren't bad. They're just average.
Sound: 3/10
As with the graphics, the sound effects get the job done, but that's it. Unfortunately, unlike the graphics which are merely dull, the sound is often annoying. The radio, NPC idle chatter, and even the ambient music tend to be very repetitive. After dedicating enough hours to playing this game, you would swear that if you heard one more NCR trooper say "Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter," you would chuck your computer out of a high window. The only redeeming factor is that the music on the radio—repetitive though it may be—is a fun, appealing blend of cowboy songs and show tunes from the '30's and '40's.
Addictiveness: 10/10
The true measure of a game's worth is its addictiveness, and this is where Fallout shines. Simply put, if a person wants to keep playing it all the time, then it must be a good game. Fallout is so addictive because of its depth (see below), and also because of how fascinating the setting is. The human mind loves to imagine the world as it could be, with humanity still struggling to survive centuries after being devastated by atomic war. Add in a slew of interesting characters (such as a guy who took the title of Caesar and founded a new Roman Legion), a unique sense of humor (just wait 'til you find Indiana Jones' corpse in a refrigerator in the desert), and a healthy blend of action and dialogue, and the result is a fun experience that demands to be played for hours on end.
Story: 8/10
While New Vegas may be lacking in terms of an emotionally compelling, player character-centered story, it has a very complex tale to tell nonetheless. The story of New Vegas is about the political environment of the Mojave Wasteland. The New California Republic, Caesar's Legion, and the mysterious Mr. House all struggle for control over the Las Vegas Strip and Hoover Dam, and the people of the wasteland are caught in the middle. To avoid spoilers, this section will be kept succinct. If you're interested in faction-based stories, you ought to love New Vegas; however, if you're more interested in character-based stories then you might prefer another title, such as Fallout 3.
Depth: 10/10
This game has so much to offer that it boggles the mind. Firstly, the player character is highly customizable. Player characters can be saints who clean up slums, free slaves, and peacefully convince the bad guys to go away. Alternatively, player characters can be devils who casually slaughter innocent civilians, cannibalize their corpses, and then sell the leftover human flesh to unsuspecting traders. Player characters can have a wide range of skills and statistics to specialize in several different combative and non-combative techniques. There is also a variety of gear to choose from. No two player characters are the same, and the game requires several playthroughs to gain a full appreciation of different character builds. Furthermore, there are many side quests in addition to the main storyline. Even the main storyline itself has four main branches, depending on which faction the player wishes to align themselves with. Finally, the world is very large and full of locations to be discovered. The game even offers a special "explorer" perk to high-level characters to reveal all locations on the player's map because otherwise, there would be no way to be sure all locations are found and explored. All in all, it would take many days to complete all possible side quests and explore every location. Finally, there is an extensive modding community for this game because of the easy-to-use modding tools that the game's developer provided—while this does not pertain to the base game, it is relevant because when you finally feel like you've exhausted everything the game has to offer, you can download user-created content to give the game a fresh new twist. These factors cause Fallout to have an extremely high replayability value; it is simply impossible to experience the full game in one playthrough.
Difficulty: 4/10
The combat in New Vegas is disappointingly easy. Once the player gets the hang of combat, it simply isn't a challenge anymore, even at higher difficulty settings. The redeeming factor is that New Vegas, unlike Fallout 3, features an optional "hardcore mode." When enabled, this hardcore mode requires the player character to eat,
sleep, and stay hydrated in order to survive. Even this mode doesn't provide too much of a challenge, though.
Overall: 8.7/10
The game may be lacking in sound quality and difficulty, and it may even be buggy at times, but its depth and addictiveness more than make up for its shortcomings. There is so much to do in the game, and it is the sort of game that you will never grow bored of once you get hooked.
Graphics
4 Sound
3 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Story
8 Difficulty
4
User Notice 
