You know those people who don't consume anything but Japanese media? A couple of years ago I saw a bunch of them post their 3x3s of their favorite games. To no one's surprise, it was all anime-ques Japanese media. However, for me, there was a peculiar pattern. In most of them, one game would stand out, as it fell under Western media: New Vegas. A joke began to spread that they only put it there to beat the weeb allegations, and that was the last I thought of it. Now that I've played it, I can see why even they had to bow down to this work of art.
What makes this game really stand out, and is something Fallout games do pretty well is in telling a story and its history through its environment and characters, and New Vegas is no exception. You never really learn anything directly outside of the introduction. Everything is either implied in your surroundings or discussed via characters and entries done in a way where it feels like they have first or second-hand experience, instead of lore dumps. Helps to feel immersed in this world. Also helps to make things interesting and engaging. What once started as a journey of revenge turns into a dialogue about the trials and tribulations of living after the end of the world, and all the methods and beliefs people use to survive and thrive in the wastes.
The gameplay is also pretty good. New Vegas already encourages replays via it's different factions and ending variants, but the real juice is in how varied combat is. Every type of build and sub-build is more or less viable, and each makes combat feel different. Even encountering different enemies with different builds each play-through adds to the varied experience. VATS is alright. 75% it's a fun mechanic that, again, adds variability to its combat and also helps in a pinch without been too overpowered. 25% of the time, it is kind of annoying. What should have been easy pickings turns into a struggle for survival as for some reason my game decides that, instead of my character shooting his gun, it would be better if he just stood there for an eternity as enemies close in and gang up on him. Outside of combat, everything else works fine. The crafting system kind of sucks due to its diminishing returns but it isn't completely bad. Other than that tho, the other mechanics work well in tandem with each other, inside and outside of combat.
While this game is close to a masterpiece, there are 2 glaring issues that prevent me from dickriding it like most Fallout fans. First issue is in how the Legion faction is written. In terms of writing a villain faction, it does a pretty good job. An evil group that, while has a decent aesthetic, has little redeeming qualities (for good reason) making it satisfying to destroy their asses in-game. However, that is exactly why it sucks as a faction. Every major (and even minor) faction in this game is meant to have glaring flaws. This is to both not make them the obvious choice and to better reflect their real world (old world in this case) counterpart. NCR represents our current form of big limited government, House represents capitalist-driven autocracy, and Yes Man represents a form of socialist anarchy. The Legion is supposed to represent dictatorships, specifically (and obviously) the Roman Empire. It does a good job of doing that, don't get me wrong. However, the Legion route lacks any hope or genuine nuance the other routes have. For the NCR, yes the last old world's form of government was proven to not work, and yes the ones at the top are corrupt as shit, but it has consistent results, experience and has the best hope of returning to what the world once was. House is all about innovation and moving forward. He simply wants New Vegas to be a shining beacon of human will and innovation. Even Yes Man, who's ending is honestly the most varied in terms of long term effects, guarantees true freedom and independence not just for New Vegas, but all of the Mojave. What the fuck does the Legion have? "Its regions are the most stable." And is that enough to excuse it's blatant bigotry, slavery and utter unnecessary violence? Not to mention that no matter what variant you take with the Legion route, the Legion will still be doomed to fail. Even before the events of the game, the Legion is already stretched too thin. Having them take over the Mojave would stretch them even more to the point where it is unrealistic for them to even be stagnant. Not to mention Cesar is fucking stupid. He does not even care about leading a nation. All he wants to be is make a name for himself in the history books. How can he, with his massive ego and extremely outdated philosophy (which btw, comes from a flawed interpretation of an ancient source), hold together the legion? The only other option for the Legion is to have him be killed and the Legate Lanius take over, but that's detestably worse. Not only does it not solve the issue of being stretched thin, but it would also result in a lot of infighting. The Legion is one of those dictatorships that is so dependent on that one guy in power that the moment he is dead, it is over. Lanius can only lead the legion in battle and of course people are going to want someone more like Caesar. If there was a way for the Courier to alter or reform the Legion, then it would make more sense as a joinable faction. Maybe have the Courier convince Cesar that the Legion is stretched too thin and thus need to present themselves as more appealing so that they can have more units. Maybe he is convinced that enslaving able-bodied individuals instead of recruiting them is bad for the Legion. Fuck, even just making the Courier the new Caesar could be enough. At least then there is an actual reason of "I would love to rule over all" to join them instead of the usual nerd emoji white trash band kid thinking slavery and sexism is based and sigma. When you make factions, you have to make them flawed so that there is no obvious option, but appealing enough to make people join them despite the negatives. As it stands now, Legion is all negative, no positive. There is no reason to do their route unless you just want to do every route for completion's sake.
Another glaring issue, which genuinely pissed me the fuck off during my playthrough, is how buggy this game is and how frequent the crashes are. For context: before playing this, I played another Bethesda game: Oblivion. That game is known for its numerous bugs, to the point where there is a fan made patch to fix said bugs. However, I am currently playing it without the mod. My experience has not been negative one bit. Out of all the bugs I have encountered, only two of them were inconvenient. Even then, they were solved pretty easily. The game would also crash a few times, but it was never in an inconvenient spot. I assumed New Vegas would be the same. Heck, I assumed it would be better as I've heard nothing but praises for this game. Holy fucking shit.
I have never, in my LIFE, experienced a game this fucking buggy. I've played games on launch. I've played really old games. I've played Postal 4. All of those bugs combined do not even compare of a fraction to this fucking game. Bugs are everywhere and this game crashes every five minutes. EVERY FIVE MINUTES. Something seconds too. It can't stream for shit. Tabbing out itself is too a fucking gamble as to whether the game crashes, freezes, or is fine. But the worst shits of all are the infinite loading screens. My game is fucking frozen to the point where I cannot even tab out. I can't alt-f4. I can't pull up task manager. All I can do is to manually restart my pc. Imagine, having to manually restart your pc 5 fucking times only for your only solution to be to load a previous save, resulting in you losing precious time. Utter GARBAGE. And finding a mod to fix it is already a nightmare on its own. The discussion page for this game in steam gaslights you into the believing that the solution to making this game crash free isn't to download several mods, but to fucking break the code of this game in the most convoluted way possible. Half of the links in the guide don't even fucking work. It took a 20k video on youtube for me to figure out what to do (and to risk fucking up my save files cause this shit has happened to me before and in an entire month not once was my question answered regarding the fact). I was finally able to fix the game, and my save wasn't fucked, but I still find it ridiculous I have to download THREE SEPARATE MODS to make this shit work? Why does the game just kill itself if you pass 2 gigs of ram usage????? Stupid ass design.
I know the game took 11 months to make, which is like nothing. So, of course the game would be this buggy. On launch. This game is 10 fucking years old. 4 expansive dlcs yet still no official fix? All this time Bethesda still doesn't care to have one last patch to fix it? They know people love this game. They know people still play it. Fuck, literally a few months ago they ported this game to fucking Epic. What's worse, they made it so that mods don't work with that version. So you literally have no solution to address its buggy mess. Bethesda, I KNOW you have money. FIX YOUR FUCKING GAME.
After my game finally stopped crashing and killing itself I was able to fully realize how good this game was. I look forward to my energy build House route once I finish some other games. I will also talk briefly about the four dlc expansions. They were all fun experiences (except 1) but they don't really change my opinions on this game (except 1).
Dead Money: This is the worst shit I've ever played. Genuinely. This dlc is so annoying and just not enjoyable. Even if you are new to this game, I would still advise to avoid it at all costs, unless you want the 37 gold bars. They do sell for a lot and it isn't hard to get all 37 of them. It does spit on the message of the dlc, but that's what it gets for being shit.
Honest Heart: I was looking forward to this the most because of Joshua Graham, and it did not disappoint. Ignoring the character, the dlc is still fun in an exploration sense. To get the complete experience, you do need to pass a really high speech check, but it's honestly the most realistic in the game in terms of how the success is carried out.
Old World Blues: This game is, for the most part, serious and a bit grim. So, it was a pleasant surprise and a nice change of pace to see how lighhearted and full of personality this dlc was. I was not expecting to enjoy it this much, as it is mostly for energy builds, but I had a blast. My favorite dlc overall.
Lonesome Road: This is the peak of New Vegas. The game, from the very beginning, build you up toward this dlc. Even the other dlcs tease this confrontation. While it is pretty linear, this is the best the game gets in terms of thematic storytelling. If you play New Vegas, you HAVE to play this dlc. Preferably before you have to deal with President Kimball. It's written to be done near the end of your playthrough.
What makes this game really stand out, and is something Fallout games do pretty well is in telling a story and its history through its environment and characters, and New Vegas is no exception. You never really learn anything directly outside of the introduction. Everything is either implied in your surroundings or discussed via characters and entries done in a way where it feels like they have first or second-hand experience, instead of lore dumps. Helps to feel immersed in this world. Also helps to make things interesting and engaging. What once started as a journey of revenge turns into a dialogue about the trials and tribulations of living after the end of the world, and all the methods and beliefs people use to survive and thrive in the wastes.
The gameplay is also pretty good. New Vegas already encourages replays via it's different factions and ending variants, but the real juice is in how varied combat is. Every type of build and sub-build is more or less viable, and each makes combat feel different. Even encountering different enemies with different builds each play-through adds to the varied experience. VATS is alright. 75% it's a fun mechanic that, again, adds variability to its combat and also helps in a pinch without been too overpowered. 25% of the time, it is kind of annoying. What should have been easy pickings turns into a struggle for survival as for some reason my game decides that, instead of my character shooting his gun, it would be better if he just stood there for an eternity as enemies close in and gang up on him. Outside of combat, everything else works fine. The crafting system kind of sucks due to its diminishing returns but it isn't completely bad. Other than that tho, the other mechanics work well in tandem with each other, inside and outside of combat.
While this game is close to a masterpiece, there are 2 glaring issues that prevent me from dickriding it like most Fallout fans. First issue is in how the Legion faction is written. In terms of writing a villain faction, it does a pretty good job. An evil group that, while has a decent aesthetic, has little redeeming qualities (for good reason) making it satisfying to destroy their asses in-game. However, that is exactly why it sucks as a faction. Every major (and even minor) faction in this game is meant to have glaring flaws. This is to both not make them the obvious choice and to better reflect their real world (old world in this case) counterpart. NCR represents our current form of big limited government, House represents capitalist-driven autocracy, and Yes Man represents a form of socialist anarchy. The Legion is supposed to represent dictatorships, specifically (and obviously) the Roman Empire. It does a good job of doing that, don't get me wrong. However, the Legion route lacks any hope or genuine nuance the other routes have. For the NCR, yes the last old world's form of government was proven to not work, and yes the ones at the top are corrupt as shit, but it has consistent results, experience and has the best hope of returning to what the world once was. House is all about innovation and moving forward. He simply wants New Vegas to be a shining beacon of human will and innovation. Even Yes Man, who's ending is honestly the most varied in terms of long term effects, guarantees true freedom and independence not just for New Vegas, but all of the Mojave. What the fuck does the Legion have? "Its regions are the most stable." And is that enough to excuse it's blatant bigotry, slavery and utter unnecessary violence? Not to mention that no matter what variant you take with the Legion route, the Legion will still be doomed to fail. Even before the events of the game, the Legion is already stretched too thin. Having them take over the Mojave would stretch them even more to the point where it is unrealistic for them to even be stagnant. Not to mention Cesar is fucking stupid. He does not even care about leading a nation. All he wants to be is make a name for himself in the history books. How can he, with his massive ego and extremely outdated philosophy (which btw, comes from a flawed interpretation of an ancient source), hold together the legion? The only other option for the Legion is to have him be killed and the Legate Lanius take over, but that's detestably worse. Not only does it not solve the issue of being stretched thin, but it would also result in a lot of infighting. The Legion is one of those dictatorships that is so dependent on that one guy in power that the moment he is dead, it is over. Lanius can only lead the legion in battle and of course people are going to want someone more like Caesar. If there was a way for the Courier to alter or reform the Legion, then it would make more sense as a joinable faction. Maybe have the Courier convince Cesar that the Legion is stretched too thin and thus need to present themselves as more appealing so that they can have more units. Maybe he is convinced that enslaving able-bodied individuals instead of recruiting them is bad for the Legion. Fuck, even just making the Courier the new Caesar could be enough. At least then there is an actual reason of "I would love to rule over all" to join them instead of the usual nerd emoji white trash band kid thinking slavery and sexism is based and sigma. When you make factions, you have to make them flawed so that there is no obvious option, but appealing enough to make people join them despite the negatives. As it stands now, Legion is all negative, no positive. There is no reason to do their route unless you just want to do every route for completion's sake.
Another glaring issue, which genuinely pissed me the fuck off during my playthrough, is how buggy this game is and how frequent the crashes are. For context: before playing this, I played another Bethesda game: Oblivion. That game is known for its numerous bugs, to the point where there is a fan made patch to fix said bugs. However, I am currently playing it without the mod. My experience has not been negative one bit. Out of all the bugs I have encountered, only two of them were inconvenient. Even then, they were solved pretty easily. The game would also crash a few times, but it was never in an inconvenient spot. I assumed New Vegas would be the same. Heck, I assumed it would be better as I've heard nothing but praises for this game. Holy fucking shit.
I have never, in my LIFE, experienced a game this fucking buggy. I've played games on launch. I've played really old games. I've played Postal 4. All of those bugs combined do not even compare of a fraction to this fucking game. Bugs are everywhere and this game crashes every five minutes. EVERY FIVE MINUTES. Something seconds too. It can't stream for shit. Tabbing out itself is too a fucking gamble as to whether the game crashes, freezes, or is fine. But the worst shits of all are the infinite loading screens. My game is fucking frozen to the point where I cannot even tab out. I can't alt-f4. I can't pull up task manager. All I can do is to manually restart my pc. Imagine, having to manually restart your pc 5 fucking times only for your only solution to be to load a previous save, resulting in you losing precious time. Utter GARBAGE. And finding a mod to fix it is already a nightmare on its own. The discussion page for this game in steam gaslights you into the believing that the solution to making this game crash free isn't to download several mods, but to fucking break the code of this game in the most convoluted way possible. Half of the links in the guide don't even fucking work. It took a 20k video on youtube for me to figure out what to do (and to risk fucking up my save files cause this shit has happened to me before and in an entire month not once was my question answered regarding the fact). I was finally able to fix the game, and my save wasn't fucked, but I still find it ridiculous I have to download THREE SEPARATE MODS to make this shit work? Why does the game just kill itself if you pass 2 gigs of ram usage????? Stupid ass design.
I know the game took 11 months to make, which is like nothing. So, of course the game would be this buggy. On launch. This game is 10 fucking years old. 4 expansive dlcs yet still no official fix? All this time Bethesda still doesn't care to have one last patch to fix it? They know people love this game. They know people still play it. Fuck, literally a few months ago they ported this game to fucking Epic. What's worse, they made it so that mods don't work with that version. So you literally have no solution to address its buggy mess. Bethesda, I KNOW you have money. FIX YOUR FUCKING GAME.
After my game finally stopped crashing and killing itself I was able to fully realize how good this game was. I look forward to my energy build House route once I finish some other games. I will also talk briefly about the four dlc expansions. They were all fun experiences (except 1) but they don't really change my opinions on this game (except 1).
Dead Money: This is the worst shit I've ever played. Genuinely. This dlc is so annoying and just not enjoyable. Even if you are new to this game, I would still advise to avoid it at all costs, unless you want the 37 gold bars. They do sell for a lot and it isn't hard to get all 37 of them. It does spit on the message of the dlc, but that's what it gets for being shit.
Honest Heart: I was looking forward to this the most because of Joshua Graham, and it did not disappoint. Ignoring the character, the dlc is still fun in an exploration sense. To get the complete experience, you do need to pass a really high speech check, but it's honestly the most realistic in the game in terms of how the success is carried out.
Old World Blues: This game is, for the most part, serious and a bit grim. So, it was a pleasant surprise and a nice change of pace to see how lighhearted and full of personality this dlc was. I was not expecting to enjoy it this much, as it is mostly for energy builds, but I had a blast. My favorite dlc overall.
Lonesome Road: This is the peak of New Vegas. The game, from the very beginning, build you up toward this dlc. Even the other dlcs tease this confrontation. While it is pretty linear, this is the best the game gets in terms of thematic storytelling. If you play New Vegas, you HAVE to play this dlc. Preferably before you have to deal with President Kimball. It's written to be done near the end of your playthrough.