When Bethesda acquired the rights to the Fallout franchise from the failing Interplay company, fans of the series split into two groups: one opening champagne and celebrating, and the other heralding a disgraceful failure. I was in the first one and I was optimistic about the game. Fallout 3 is a great production, but for me, it doesn't offer enough radioactive content. In the minds of me and many other conservative fans, there was still a lack of satisfaction, and the publisher's account of millions (after all, the game took off well). Someone came up with the idea to outsource the next installment of the series to an external developer. The choice fell on Obsidian Entertainment, which boasts, among other things, that it employs several former Fallout creators. It did capture the players' imaginations but also raised legitimate concerns. Has the producer known for "lame" games dealt with such a matter?
The first contact with Fallout: New Vegas brings ambiguous feelings: the authors decided to break the structure of the introduction and offered a simple film with a shortened narrative, in which the main theme of the series is extremely pale. At the outset, we create a character as standard by playing psycho tests. We play the role of a courier who, unfortunately, was transporting an important parcel. The hero was attacked and almost sent to the other world by a gentleman in a suit. We are saved from death by Viktor, a robot with the face of Lucky Luke, and a good-natured doctor. In this way, we get to Goodsprings, an idyllic town straight from a western, where at first glance not much is happening. Half an hour later we tear our heads off and shoot our limbs off - you know, war never changes - and this is just an introduction to hell.
A stroll through Goodsprings leaves no doubt - the virtual Mojave Desert is extremely ugly. Obsidian Entertainment apparently wanted to somehow cut off the Fallout 3 color scheme (which, let's be honest, isn't easy) and treated some of the textures with green-brown paint. In this way, we get a wasteland covered with a visually not very pleasant brush and shabby buildings (on the other hand, I guess that was it?). Added to this are characters with pretty faces, but sloppy animations, and lots of physics bugs and stuttering models (at a local bar, I was greeted by a man stuck in the counter). It's not very nice, and sometimes even ugly production - who would even play it? Even so, I like to come back to this game and play it well.
The courier's adventure begins innocently but quickly turns to full speed. The creators use all available means to authenticate the post-nuclear world and involve the player for long hours. Already in the first city, the picture of this sad reality was drawn, in which honest people struggle not with difficult conditions (because you can get used to them), but with the ambitions of psychopaths fighting for power over the remnants of what has survived. Goodsprings itself becomes a symbol - the last, relatively quiet corner of the cursed desert. Even here, however, has arrived "civilization", specifically escaped prisoners who terrorize the area. As always, we can stand on both sides of the barricade - organize a fight with the farmers or help the bandits take over the town - and create our own legend.
Fallout: New Vegas follows the path of the previous installment. In the game, therefore, we focus on exploring the area, fighting radioactive representatives of fauna and flora, and conducting dialogues with the natives. As in the "three", the tasks have been divided into important and side quests. In the latter case, it is about simple and short orders (e.g. repairing a radio) that do not even go to the Pip-Boy. The first type of quests is extensive and multi-threaded scenarios in which we can almost always mix up and look for different solutions. We will not experience many technical changes here - we are still asked to investigate the situation in a nearby facility, deal with bandits, find our tormentor or convince someone to cooperate. There is a lot to choose from.
All the flavors and story tasks make up a very coherent whole, which, despite the lack of drastic novelties, guarantees a tasteful portion of content and impressions. From the perspective of a lover of the first two installments of the Fallout: New Vegas series, it delights us because it gradually draws us into an increasingly intense and ruthless mixture of paranoia, black humor, and human cruelty. Each subsequent town is a bigger nightmare: in Primm, they are mentioned former prisoners, whose psychosis pales, however, in the exploits of Caesar's fanatical minions. Virtually every thread we start is interesting enough that we want to bring it to an end, and as we progress, we discover even a few visually charming places and impressive characteristic points (Vegas neon signs!). The creators play intelligently with references to advertising (collecting special bottle caps as an urban legend), to the classics of the science fiction genre (the escape of a certain faction from repression like in The Martian Chronicles), and even to the first two installments of the game (a descendant of the owner of Deathclaw from Modoc, the pilot of the vertibird that crashed near Klamath).
The enthusiasm for the story could be continued, but there are new game elements that have been waiting for many fans. It is worth explaining immediately that a less careful player will mistake New Vegas for Fallout 3 because these works are really similar. So we are still struggling with a medium-quality shooter enriched with the V.A.T.S. system. The authors introduced a few interesting facts, such as mechanical sights for weapons. In the foreground, however, are hardcore mode, crafting, reputation system, and more interesting allies.
The first of the additions make survival difficult: our hero has to eat, drink and heal slower. The idea is quite fun and creates the right aura, although probably not everyone will like it. This element is complemented by cooking and creating items - this way we convert one type of ammunition into another or provide ourselves with meals. However, both add-ons are not an integral part of the game, so we don't really have to be a DIY or a cook. On the one hand, it's good, because not everyone wants to collect ingredients, and on the other, it's a pity that the potential of this type of solution has not been used. To sum up, during the game on a high difficulty level in hardcore mode, crossing the wasteland becomes a real challenge and requires cleverness. On the "easy" level, the game becomes too simple, and the struggle to survive is only a matter of agreement.
Obsidian would not be himself if, with all these advantages, he did not put into the game a few ill-considered solutions and a huge number of errors. Conservative fans of the series will probably be shocked by the information about combining the skills of large and small weapons into one or clearly showing what skills are needed to convince the interlocutors or perform a given activity. While playing, you don't think about this type of detail. The bane is, however, the shortcomings in the physics/animation system and the not very high stability of the game, both in the PC and console versions, which both can simply fail. In the quests themselves, bugs are not common, but sometimes they spoil the whole thing. An example of this is an unsuccessful attempt to interrogate a prisoner after the game saves is loaded when the cell door is locked completely.
Technological issues are responsible for the advantages and disadvantages of this production. With Bethesda's engine and mechanics ready, Obsidian was able to focus on creating good quests that only get low-level at times. Unfortunately, it comes at a cost of virtually identical gameplay, and this one, let's be honest, is not perfect. In New Vegas, you can sneak and combine, but in most cases, the fight is boring (especially when we play on lower difficulty levels). One would like to see Fallout in a new setting and on new rules, but it is apparently too early for that. This does not mean that it is not worth getting interested in this game, because its authors have put a lot of effort into creating a large and atmospheric world. Sometimes it offends with certain inconsistencies or the lack of additional (obvious) solutions, but it is still impressive.
Contacting New Vegas turned out to be a very pleasant experience. Huge thanks to the people from Obsidian Entertainment - some of the crew worked on the first games in the series and apparently figured out that building a post-nuclear shooter on the guts of Oblivion is not the key to success, at least to win the favor of the Fallout Orthodox. Old fans have something to look for here because New Vegas attracts with a decent story, great references to memorable predecessors, and a great atmosphere. fallout: New Vegas is undoubtedly one of the most interesting (a keyword, because it's easier to find better) cRPGs in recent years. Perhaps the lowered requirements helped me in such a great reception of the next post-apocalyptic story - Obsidian somehow never managed to give players a fancy miracle.
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