It's weird because on paper this game is kind of crap, but in my heart it is one of the games that I truly loved playing. The story isn't special, the combat is janky, the world is sometimes pretty bare, and there is the typical Bethesda jank sprinkled on top. Why do I like this game so much?
Simply put, It's one of the few open world games that actually earns the moniker, this is not a game where you just run from one quest marker to the next and stop every now and then to climb a radio tower to unlock a portion of the map. This is a game where you pick a direction, go exploring, and within a few minutes you will find something that pulls your attention-- An abandoned factory, a bandit camp, an NPC asking for help, or a group of Radscorpions ready to tear your face off. New Vegas also continues Bethesda's trend of masterful environmental story telling. Not every building you enter has a quest per-say, but pretty much every one has some sort of story to glean from the environment.
Fallout New Vegas is not the best open world game ever made but it does meet all the specific criteria of what I look for in an open world game. To me a large percentage of open world games don't really need to have an open world because they are mainly focused around doing story missions and the open world elements are repetitive and usually boil down to running from one mini-map icon to the next clearing objectives like some checklist. To me a good open world game rewards exploration and curiosity, be it with new gear, a cool boss fight, or an interesting piece of storytelling. Where you feel like you might be seeing something that no-one else has seen. Where you are given the agency to complete a mission in whatever way the games many systems allow for and not held to some strict sequence of actions to complete a mission successfully. New Vegas hits this nail on the head and for that I applaud it.
Simply put, It's one of the few open world games that actually earns the moniker, this is not a game where you just run from one quest marker to the next and stop every now and then to climb a radio tower to unlock a portion of the map. This is a game where you pick a direction, go exploring, and within a few minutes you will find something that pulls your attention-- An abandoned factory, a bandit camp, an NPC asking for help, or a group of Radscorpions ready to tear your face off. New Vegas also continues Bethesda's trend of masterful environmental story telling. Not every building you enter has a quest per-say, but pretty much every one has some sort of story to glean from the environment.
Fallout New Vegas is not the best open world game ever made but it does meet all the specific criteria of what I look for in an open world game. To me a large percentage of open world games don't really need to have an open world because they are mainly focused around doing story missions and the open world elements are repetitive and usually boil down to running from one mini-map icon to the next clearing objectives like some checklist. To me a good open world game rewards exploration and curiosity, be it with new gear, a cool boss fight, or an interesting piece of storytelling. Where you feel like you might be seeing something that no-one else has seen. Where you are given the agency to complete a mission in whatever way the games many systems allow for and not held to some strict sequence of actions to complete a mission successfully. New Vegas hits this nail on the head and for that I applaud it.