An impressive re-envisioning of Bethesda's game of the year, this game is no copy... It's better.
Enter New Vegas. The Fallout 1 & 2 team returns to deliver a game more like the originals, while staying true to the groundbreaking methods of Bethesda's masterpiece. I'm going to say this now so I don't have to say it again. If you love Fallout 3, you will love this game. It is honestly that simple. The game is by no means perfect, but it does manage to address the few issues that Fallout 3 had. Even so, it has its rough patches and anomalies. More on that later.
This game is no expansion, nor is it a full-fledged sequel. It's a different story that transpires in a different place a few short years after the completion of its predecessor. We all know the premise: the game takes place in the Mojave desert surrounding the city of Las Vegas, which was inexplicably spared from the nuclear onslaught that ruined much of the rest of the country. The area is still irradiated, though, and various factions are warring for survival and control throughout the wastes. Your character, a courier, is captured by somebody who wants what you're carrying, and you are shot and left for dead in a shallow grave. You are awakened by a doctor who nurses you back to health (this segment acts as the character creation part of the game), and then you're off! I stuck around in the town for a bit, doing some tutorial stuff, and I was awestruck at how intricate the town was, and how well-written the characters were. Before I knew it, I helped rally the town against a bandit gang that was essentially holding it hostage. Based on my stats, I was able to get some free stuff to equip the townspeople from the general store owner, but my explosives skill wasn't high enough to persuade an old man in the town to let me have some dynamite. The sheer number of ways to complete a quest has increased.
The game's graphics (regardless of what you perfection douches say) are impressive. The same hallmarks of Bethesda's Oblivion engine are still present. The draw distance is very impressive, and the textures are believable. The character models are still a bit stiff, but that's no surprise. The weapon models are believable and well designed, and the overall look of the game is very well done. I'm playing on a 42" 1080p LCD, so obviously I experience some motion blurring, but that's my TV, not the game. The framerate holds up rather well, and the loading times have been greatly diminished. Overall, the game seems to run at a faster clip with virtually no graphical hangup.
The gameplay is as much a star of the show as the graphics. Yes, it's an RPG, so no FPS fanboys saying "what, there's no sprint? No dedicated grenade button?" The pacing of the gameplay is obviously slower than a dedicated FPS, but the combat is still a blast. Yes, the weapons have been retooled so that you can aim down the sights, and it's certainly a big help to the running and gunning style of gameplay, but you need to keep in mind that your stats still have an effect on your combat. You can be spot on with your aiming, but if your gun skill is low, you'll have a propensity to miss longer shots. This is undoubtedly lead to some frustration in people that don't understand the game's role-playing mechanics. Those that liked Fallout 3 will totally understand. VATS is also back and is more or less exactly the same as in the previous game. Very effective, very cool.
The sound design is top notch. The environment affects how audio reverberates. In wide open plains, a gunshot won't echo, the sound just disappears. In a canyon, the sound will echo around you. If you have your back to a wall, my 5.1 surround actually gives me audio reference of where the wall is in relation to me. It's quite impressive. The gun sounds are crisp and believable and the dialog is much better than in the last game. The best thing I can say about the dialog this time around, though... there are more than five voice actors!
The game itself isn't perfect though. There are some graphical hitches every now and then. Sometimes, a texture will twitch or turn inside out, but that's only happened about twice, and it usuallyhappens where two nurbed textured polygons meet. The other thing I have noticed is that, sometimes when you kill a creature or NPC, they might simply fall through the ground and disappear. This has happened twice to me so far, and it does rob you of all the items you were going to loot from their corpse, but I'm willing to bet a patch will be released soon to fix these problems.
The final verdict is a simple one. This game is great. Without a doubt, I have fallen in love with Fallout all over again, with new weapons, characters, quests, and environments. I really dig this game so far. If you liked Fallout 3, there's a good chance you'll love this one too. If Fallout wasn't your thing last time around, I doubt this will convert you. All in all, I already know I'm going to spend a lot of time in the Mojave wasteland, and it's going to take a few playthroughs before I'm satisfied. Grab your cowboy hat and your silenced .22 pistol, and hit the wastes, my friends.