Fallout: New Vegas is a post apocalyptic roleplaying game developed by Obsidian Entertainment as a spin-off for the Fallout series. While Bethesda was creating Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, they negotiated with Obsidian to develop a sort of “expansion” to Fallout 3, which later turned into this game. What followed was a 10-18 month dev period at Obsidian that took ideas from previous canceled titles in the series, like Van Buren (the old CRPG version of Fallout 3). I’m surprised that the game is as great as it is considering the low dev time with crunch, Bethesda’s buggy Creation Engine, and cut content ranging from post-game to playable ghouls and super mutants. While I’m never okay with crunch in game development, what came about is not only a much better game then most Bethesda titles, but one of the best RPGs of all time. I don’t remember how I got into this game, but I remember playing this all through my Xbox 360 days and having a blast as one of the games I would come back to often just to chill out. Unlike Fallout 3, I didn’t complete every achievement but I came damn close and I’ve always marveled at the improvements made between 3 and New Vegas. For PC, I bought this game long ago but I never really sat down to play it until my boy BFD Survivor went out of his way to mod the entire game because I suck at that, so without him this playthrough wouldn’t be possible.

The plot is going to be small because it’s intricate and based on player choices: You play as Courier Six, a courier who was ambushed and shot by a guy in a checkered suit (with a checkered past) along with a couple of Great Khans. However, you’re not dead and you’re saved by Goodsprings doctor Doc Mitchell, who heals you and sends you out on your way. The whole goal from here is to find Benny, and on the way you’ll run into various factions and quests, ranging from the New California Republic (from Fallout 1 and 2) who run a tight military with its own U.S. style political system to the barbaric slaver group Caesar’s Legion. You’ll find more groups, but those two and a mysterious billionaire named Mr. House are all fighting over New Vegas, a conflict which you’ll get wrapped up into fairly quickly. You can also choose a fourth route for Independence, and to do that you’ll need to look into Benny and his motivations. That’s about it for the explicit plot, but I just want to say that the writing here is fantastic in every way, cohesive and philosophical in its design as well as reactive depending on your choices.

The reactivity of these choices are amazing in how far they span, based on what skills/perks you have in what conversations as well. I don’t know how to explain it because of scale, but I’ll include a link here below as an example. Keep in mind the route that most take, you end up in Nipton first and you’ll witness Vulpes crucify the entire town in a lottery. If you skip this and confront Benny, then go back to Nipton you’ll get an acknowledgement from Vulpes that this is your second encounter. Otherwise, gameplay is solid and casual; combat is pretty simple and improved as well, with an aim down sights added as well as the ability to add weapon mods. Everything is a breeze with VATS, a lock on system and aim at certain spots on a character and for the most part it's overpowered as hell. Only thing I can really bring up as a criticism is you can recruit companions, which are awesome for the most part. However, I feel like in the quest to be casual, the game sacrifices actual faction balance to prefer an NCR playthrough. I hate the Legion, but I would’ve preferred at least one more pro-Legion guy to make it well rounded. The ideal playthrough pivots towards NCR to me, mainly because Boone is former NCR and Arcade hates the Legion, and while the others are kind of hit or miss there’s nobody really on the Legion’s side. There was Ulysses, a cut companion retrofitted into the DLCs but story wise sometimes it feels like there are certain sides you’re encouraged to join more than others. That’s my hot take though, and it doesn’t stop you from joining Mr. House or Yes Man and backstabbing the NCR later like I did. I hope I explained that well enough.

The graphics for New Vegas are the same as Fallout 3, maybe touched up a bit but for the most part it’s the same. What made me is atmosphere: whether you’re out in the desert dodging radscorpions, or murdering squads of Legion, one thing that you’ll have to get used to is the color brown. It’ll never NOT feel comfortable to me because of the warm vibe, and this mixed in with the ease of the combat I’ve never felt stressed or tense other than bugs. I’m okay with this, though I miss the gray and oppressive feeling I got from Fallout 3. The environments are for the most part mixed up enough to make it unique but cohesively blended. The factions are unique and interesting, with Caesar’s Legion sticking out like a sore thumb due to their Roman-like attire. Everything else in the game feels appropriate with a fifties/Mad Max aesthetic. One of the most unique and endearing factions for me have to be The Kings, which basically impersonate Elvis after a gang raided a school for Elvis Impersonators and I adore them heavily with their slickback hair.

The voice acting for the most part is probably voiced by the same couple of actors though there’ll be a couple of familiar faces: Ron Perlman is back as the narrator, Matthew Perry does pretty well with the obnoxious mafioso Benny, and I recognized Danny Trejo as companion Raul. There are others as well, Zachary Levi of Shazam plays Arcade Gannon and Kris Kristofferson plays Chief Hanlon but if I didn’t look that up on IMDB then I wouldn’t have noticed. Overall, the voice acting is solid, I didn’t really notice anything bad though I question if my standards are low because I hear people rip into Matthew Perry even though I didn’t think he did bad at all. Now the SOUNDTRACK! The main menu theme will always be recognizable but the credits that plays during the finale is just sad, the epitome of “You won, but at what cost?” and I wouldn’t be surprised if people have cried over this at some point. Most of it is new stuff by a guy named Inon Zur, but you’ll hear old tracks from Fallout 1 & 2 by Mark Morgan played as well. The licensed tracks are memorable with tracks like Johnny Guitar by Peggy Lee, Big Iron by Marty Robbins, and Ain’t That a Kick in the Head by Dean Martin. It all fits the atmosphere as a dangerous yet comfortable joyride into the apocalypse.

To wrap up the plainly obvious: buy/play New Vegas and DLC. Play it on Vanilla first then delve into modding. I won’t play this often due to my backlog, but if there's an endgame for me on gaming, modding New Vegas is it. I had forgotten my love for Fallout, and had chalked up its personality to “Post Apocalyptic Family Guy” with the constant references. I was dumb, and this game helped me rediscover my love again. For those who wonder if it’s accessible for casuals? Yes, even as a child while I didn’t understand all the nuance, I understood the content/subject matter while also feeling effective with combat. The only thing I can say is with modding New Vegas: prepare to have a lot of time on your hands as the Engine isn’t exactly stable. I used Nexus Mod Manager and had help from my buddy and I still had issues. What happened to everyone right after the release? Bethesda released Skyrim (another personal classic) and Fallout 4, Obsidian would go on to create Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds before both were bought by Microsoft later.

Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVoSHcscGo8&t=404s&ab_channel=Mr.RichieRich
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_soundtrack
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706601/
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas

From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/