I declare here and now, that this is one of the best games released in 2010. I didn't expect it to be any better than Fallout 3, so I was really surprised. To me the original Fallout 3 was boring, I only finished the very short main quest in it, and then quit playing, after reaching like level twelve or so.

But New Vegas is completely different right from the start. The atmosphere is much better, the scenery and terrain is more interesting. There is much less recycling apparent in the map design. I hated this in Fallout 3, that there were dozens of areas that looked and felt almost exactly the same. I have to admit that at first New Vegas gave me quite a scare, because I managed to stumble upon some areas very soon after starting the game that were very similar to areas from Fallout 3. But that's not the case at all. Even the vaults that you find in this game have something unique that completely separate them from each other, and the vaults in Fallout 3.

The game is very strong on side quests, you're not condemned to menial errand boy stuff. Which is quite the irony, since your character is a courier according to the story. Almost every quest I acquired was interesting, and I was genuinely motivated to finish them. It never felt like chores that you only do in order to get them out of the way. Most of the time the main story is also advanced trough side quests. Every open world RPG should be made like this. Since many feels like that the talented writers and designers do the main story, and the less talented and newbie designers get the menial task of doing side quests. Which always leaves a huge contrast in the quality of the quests. Instead they should make interesting and equally good side quests. And after they have enough side quests, then start making the main quest. And this way the game world wouldn't feel like it's revolving around you or your goal. And also the side quests should be equally good only much shorter than the main quest. In my opinion a side quest should be at least 1-2 hours long, and not 10 minute distractions, like "go here and kill 3 ghouls".

Another good thing is, that your actions have some weight. What you do during the game decide what endings will be available to you. No matter how I tried to please every faction in the game, it's impossible. Eventually you'll end up on the bad side of someone. It's not like in Deus Ex IW, where you can do no matter what, and still be able to finish the game on any side. There is nothing like that here, if you do enough things against a faction they'll eventually shoot at you on sight.

This means that the game has a lot of replay value, if you switch up whose side you play on, you can play a very different strain of missions. And also if you decide to advance other skills you'll have to use different methods to complete missions.

There is only one thing that's still a gaping hole in the game. The lack of vehicles. It's almost impossible for me to imagine a post apocalyptic world without Mad Max style cars and trucks. Not to mention that it would spare you a lot of walking over empty wastes. The map is slightly smaller than in Fallout 3, but it's still big enough to cry for a faster means of transportation. Yes there is fast travel, but you can't use that to go through hostile territory, because it will put you near the enemies. And you can only use it to go to areas you already visited. And I'm continuing to wait for this as F4 still didn't have any other means of travel than by foot.

One of the best new features in the game is the hardcore mode. It's basically a realistic mode, where you need to eat, and drink, and sleep (not just for levelup). This might not sound much, but it improves the game experience tenfold. Finding clean water, and radiation free food becomes a priority. Which is an essential part of any post apocalyptic experience. It's balanced well, you don't have to eat and drink every 10 seconds, so it becomes a distraction. And the adverse effects are very slight at first, so it's not like instant death if you can't find food in a few seconds after getting hungry. Will you eat the slightly irradiated food, or hold out until you find clean food? It's always a dilemma. But a welcome and very appropriate one. Actually there is one more difference in hardcore mode, that ammo has weight too. So you can't carry an endless supply of ammunition for all weapons constantly. Everything that makes a game more realistic without becoming a nuisance is welcome by me. I don't even know why didn't they include this mode in F4, it was so much better.

This hc mode gives purpose to foodstuffs in the game, without this there is not much point to having them in there, they don't give much of a health boost. I'd welcome a hardcore mode in the next Elder Scrolls as well. Actually they should have included it in Skyrim already.

+

  • Varied environments and terrain  
  • Interesting and enjoyable side quests  
  • Despite being an expansion and not a completely new game, it's longer than most games nowadays. I finished the main story in 24 hours without touching many of the side quests, and discovering only about two thirds of the map.  
  • Many items and objects that are actually useful.  
  • The world doesn't revolve around you.  
  • Lots of choices to make, almost every situation has multiple solutions, depending on what skills you have. But it can also happen that you can't solve something lacking the skill and/or equipment  
  • Sandstorm (too bad it's fixed to one specific area on the map)  
  • Hardcore mode  
  • After finishing the game, the narration tells you how you affected the life of almost everyone you came in contact with.  
  • You can use a companion as a mule, to carry supplies you want to sell.  


-

  • The Graphics is not the best, especially the characters are too rough. The thing I hate the most is that all NPCs have the exact same body as the player. Everyone is the same height and weight with average build. But amongst the NPCs there are a lot of repeating faces as well.  
  • There are no means of faster travel, you have to walk everywhere. Especially at the start of the game, when you haven't discovered any fast travel locations yet. Later you can jump to the closest discovered location to your target (if it's not hostile).  
  • Balance problems, the start of the game was too easy, the middle too hard, and the end too easy again. Towards the middle of the game I was travelling through a valley that was full of Cazadors, it was almost impossible to cross, despite having a companion with me.  
  • Your companions fall very quickly in fights, and many times they want to melee the enemies for no apparent reason. And if you try to give them a new weapon they use up all the ammo in the world in a few seconds. (At least the ammo for their base weapon is unlimited)  
  • You can create useful items and potions in the game, but they need so many different components, that I never bothered to collect them all, to craft something. If the carrying capacity would be unlimited then it would make sense, because then I'd have collected everything and eventually come up with enough stuff to build something. But with the limited capacity, I only picked up high-value and already useful things.  
  • Automatic guns use a lot of ammo, there is just not enough to make them useful, and you can't buy larger amounts from merchants either.  
  • Heavy weapons are very rare, and even if you find one, you can't use it because you'd need others to maintain it. And weapons in poor condition brake and do very little damage, even heavy ones. And asking NPCs to repair them often costs north of 10.000 caps. Which makes them totally useless.  
  • The damage you make with weapons depends on your skill, which is stupid with firearms. Why would my skill with the weapon alter how much damage the bullet coming out from it does? The same goes for explosives. Aiming can be skill dependant, movement, and reload speeds, or even equip time, but damage? That's stupid.  
  • You can only have one companion at a time.  
  • At some locations the enemies respawn, while at other locations where it would actually make sense for new enemies to appear you can only find emptiness after going back a few days later.  


9/10