Fallout: New Vegas is a Masterpiece

When it comes to gaming legacies, few series have the same pedigree as Fallout. The original two games are some of the most iconic RPGs ever made, standing shoulder to shoulder with other legendary games like Baldur’s Gate 1. Fallout 3 had a more mixed reception, but it introduced a large new audience to the series. Fallout 4 was… mediocre, if we’re being honest, but modders are using it as a strong platform for making their own games (such as Fallout: London and Fallout 4: New Vegas). There’s even got a TV show coming out soon, and it looks dope!

“But what about 76?” I hear you smirking snidely to yourself. Well, we’re not talking about it! I’m in no mood to complain about the downfall of yet another beloved developer and franchise. Today, we’re celebrating not a depressing valley, but an inspiring peak!

Despite fan grievances with it, Fallout 3 was still a runaway success. Naturally, Bethesda wanted to capitalize on that success. But they were a bit too busy working on the only Elder Scrolls game they’d release for the next ten years (repeatedly), so they reached out to Obsidian to develop a sequel for them.

Just two problems. One: Bethesda only gave them eighteen months to make the game. Two: if the review score was any less than 85 on Metacritic, they weren’t getting any royalties. Not an ideal start. The pressure was on even before Obsidian started development!

If you were wondering why New Vegas plays so similarly to Fallout 3, this is why. Obsidian didn’t have time to make a better engine or develop too many new assets. They had to reuse what they could wherever they could to make the deadline. This was not a work environment to be envious of.

*If you want to know more about the development of New Vegas, I’d highly recommend checking out this documentary that came packaged with the Collector’s Edition of the game, the Making of Fallout: New Vegas. The devs go into great detail of the writing, art style, voice acting, and development process, as well as their base goals for the game. Check it out, it’s super interesting!

Safe to say, all that hard work paid off in dividends! New Vegas is more popular now than ever! It’s widely recognized as one of the greatest video games ever made, and for good reason!

Normally, this is the point where I’d start talking about the actual game. Unfortunately, we’ve got a problem before even booting it up. See, this game is incredible. But it’s also made in Bethesda’s infamous Creation Engine. And as we just established, the developers were on a deadline tighter than a nun’s naughty bits.

This is one of the most poorly optimized games I’ve ever played. It crashes frequently, it’s riddled with graphical issues, and the framerate is constantly struggling. Without mods, this game is damn near unplayable! I had to spend over an hour getting mods set up just to get it working on my PC! Not a strong foot to start on!

*By the by, shoutout to ESO on YouTube. His modding guide for New Vegas made this entire review possible. I’ll leave a link for that video right here.

With that out of the way, we can finally talk about the game itself. Strap on your Pip Boy, grab your pack, and pop open a Sunset Sarsaparilla. We’re headin’ out into the Mojave.

The opening cutscene of New Vegas is one of the most effective hooks in gaming history. It gives you a little taste of everything there is to come in your adventure. The Vegas Strip, drunken NCR soldiers, House’s Securitrons, the Legion slinking in the shadows, it’s got it all! It shows off all the most interesting aspects of the setting right out the gate!

Zooming way out from Vegas, we come to a sandy hill overlooking the Wasteland. A man in a checkered suit stands over your tied-up character, the Courier, while a handful of Khans dig you a grave. You were on a delivery, and they’re here to take your package and make sure you never finish the job.

Acting legend Ron Perlman returns once again as the narrator. After dropping the signature line of the Fallout series (you know the one), he gives you the rundown of what’s going on. The NCR want Hoover Dam, and the Legion are gunning for it too. Caught in the middle of the conflict is New Vegas itself. War is once again on the horizon of the Mojave.

And then you get shot in the face!

Talk about a hook! This opens up so many mysteries, urging the player to keep going and find answers. Who was this man and his accomplices? Why did they try to kill you? What were you delivering, to whom, and why is it so important? This is how you start a story!

As this is the start, it’s safe to say your character does not, in fact, die from the bullet lodged in their brain. Instead, they wake up in the little town of Goodsprings, put together again by the good Doc Mitchell. Now it’s time to create your character!

This is where your experience with New Vegas is going to be shaped. You’ll set your starting stats, skills, and your first few perks. Where you put your points is so much more than just allocating numbers. It’s gonna dictate how you play and, more importantly: how you speak.

See, New Vegas doesn’t just have one skill for dialogue checks. Every single skill unlocks different dialogue options throughout the game! Need help from an explosives expert? Better have a high enough Explosives skill. Have high Medical? Congratulations, you are now a doctor, which turns out to be pretty damn valuable in a post-apocalypse. Even some perks even give you new dialogue options, like Lady Killer and Eligible Bachelor, which let you flirt! You can even intentionally fail dialogue checks if you don’t have high enough numbers just for funsies! New Vegas is one of the few RPGs where talking to someone is often the most fun solution to a problem!

Once you’ve made your character, you’re set free in the Wasteland. At which point you have complete freedom in where you go or what you do. Wanna follow the tutorial in Goodsprings? Go ahead! Wanna head straight off in pursuit of your would-be killer? Get after him! Wanna go straight to the Strip and skip half the game?! Do it!

You might get your spine ripped out by a Deathclaw, but the option is still there!

New Vegas doesn’t hold your hand. You can go wherever you want, but the Wasteland won’t accommodate. If you wander somewhere you’re not ready to be, you’re gonna die. Plain and simple. Do you brave the danger, or wait until you’re stronger? As with everything, the choice is yours.

This being my first proper playthrough of the game, I decided it would be best to go through the tutorial and get my bearings. After learning the basics of survival from Sunny, my Courier (Long Jern Silver, in case you’re curious) is presented with his first moral dilemma. A group of thugs called the Powder Gangers are harassing the townsfolk of Goodsprings. Will he help the townsfolk or side with the gang?

Which is the exact same setup as the final quest. And a good majority of other quests. You’re put into a position where you’ve got to make a choice. There’s never a clear right or wrong answer. You’ve just gotta pick what you feel is best.

This is where I’d normally talk about the different factions. The big four, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Boomers, and so many more. These are the guys you’ll either befriend, ignore, slaughter, or betray depending on what you want.

But I already wrote an article on the main four. If you want to know my in-depth thoughts on each faction, check out yesterday’s article on the subject. Link here. TL;DR: they’re incredibly well-written, presenting a truly ambiguous and interesting series of choices to the player.

I can’t think of a single uninteresting quest in this game. One moment, I was helping a cult of ghouls take off into space! The next, I was helping solve a power struggle within the Brotherhood of Steel! This game is crazy!

What’s especially impressive is how the quests often loop in on each other. This game has tons of great content, and it helps you find it with every trick it can. For example: I got a quest leading me to Vault 22, where I’d find some valuable data for cash. Putting that on my to-do list, I focused on the aforementioned Brotherhood quest. Traveling with Veronica, she asked me to help her help the Brotherhood; to do so, we needed to find technology that proved the Brotherhood was falling behind. One of the options? The data I needed to find in Vault 22.

By the by: you can kill anyone you want in this game. None of that Bethesda bullshit, where any NPC too important to the main quest is just invincible. Wanna kill Caesar right away? Gut the fucker! You’ll even get unique dialogue depending on who you kill and when!

*Except kids. You can’t kill those. Not even when they really, really deserve it.

Fallout: New Vegas is one of the rare games where you truly can play your way. Where you go, what you do, who you kill, it’s all up to you. No two playthroughs will ever look the same.

Small wonder, then, that people are still talking about this game even ten+ years later. It’s every bit as enjoyable now as it was back then, maybe even more so! It’s a genuine masterpiece that will stand the test of time forever!

Although maybe not visually. Some of those graphics are rough to say the least. But hey. You already need to mod the game to make the damn thing work. If you wanna go a bit further and install some graphics mods, who can blame you?

It’s sad that we’ll probably never get a new Fallout game even close to the quality of New Vegas. The aforementioned fan projects are certainly steps in the right direction, but I doubt Bethesda themselves will ever put together a game this good. Not if their recent track record is anything to go by. And I’d be stunned if Obsidian would tackle the series again, given how they got screwed the first time. This game really is lightning in a bottle.

Still. Never say never.