A decent game dragged down by bugs, performance issues, and a underdeveloped reputation system.
Fallout New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda. In fact, Obsidian's mention is what made me wary of this sequel in the first place. Obsidian has always had a history of buggy games, and occasionally bad design decisions. While the bugs are here, they stayed very close to the formula set by Fallout 3 which makes it feel like a glorified expansion pack rather than a full fledged sequel.
Fallout New Vegas start with you, a courier on his way to the Strip to deliver a Platinum Chip to a certain Mr. House. Just outside Goodsprings you are jumped by a group of criminals headed by a strange well-dressed man who takes the chip from you before executing you. A robot that witnessed that attack waited for them to leave before digging you up and taking you to a local doctor. Soon you're on your feet and are trying to figure who "killed" you, and why.
The story is pretty strong here but it's slow to pick up. It's takes about half the game to get interesting, but once you learn the importance of the platinum chip, everything falls into place. The politics between the families in Vegas is particularly intense, and it's a real joy being a pawn or a player. There are numerous endings and each is very interesting. That being said, while you have more control over the Story's path, it isn't nearly as interesting as FO3's.
The game's main story is longer than Fallout 3's. It took me about 25 hours to get through it, and as usual you could get more depending on much exploring and questing you do. The multiple endings are all strong, and you'll probably start a second game as soon as the first one ends, just to see the different outcomes. At launch I played through this about 4 times. Needless to say, at the 29.99 price tag it hovers around now it's a steal.
I'll spend most of my time discussing the new elements and what I think of them. See other reviews or my Fallout 3 review for a complete detailing of the gameplay's base mechanics.
Firstly combat has been improved across the board. In VATS, there are more weapon specific animations. This keeps combat from looking repetitive and it's more enjoyable to watch. That aside, almost all weapons feel smoother and more natural to fire. They all have iron sights which adds to the immersion. You can also modify your weapons now. While the weapon mod system isn't drastic, it does allow you to add longer barrels (damage), scopes, silencers, and more.
There are also two new crafting features. There is a quasi-alchemy system which allows you to collect various plants and minerals, etc and to create poisons, medicines, and even meals. It's the more useful of the two new crafting additions, but is still rather limited. The second crafting system is ammo creation. Unfortunately it's not nearly as simple as The Pitt's ammo press. Now you have to find casings, powder, practically everything that goes into a FMJ. The system, while theoretically useful, is to difficult and late game your so wealthy you can easily circumvent it.
The new reputation system is a bit overblown, but a decent addition nevertheless. Various not-to-nice actions (stealing, killing, blowing up) committed against a faction will cause there reputation to drop. You'd think that this would cause some interesting choices where you could side with a faction and destroy their enemies, but that's not the case. In fact besides the NCR and Legion, there's no reason to support the other factions. Even then it's rather easy to stay neutral using disguises. On disguises now wearing various faction armor will disguise you as one of that faction's members. The disguises are definitely over done as it's possible to dress up as NCR kill bucket loads of Legion, take the disguise of and bam no reputation drop. Another problem with the reputation system is sometimes your rep will go down for various actions (stealing specifically) even though no one saw you commit the crime. That immersion-breaking.
The companion wheel is actually the best addition Obsidian added. Unfortunately it's of limited use. While it's nice to switch equipment, tactics, and more without navigating through a myriad of dialogue choices, it's still impossible to do any of this at a distance. You still have to run up to your companion and press "E" top trigger it. A more intuitive system (I thinking of Mass effects system. Hold down shift, and you can select your henchman's weapon and powers. Then throw in Q and E to tell them where to go like ME2 PC) would've been appreciated.
The new casino mini games are rather cool. I don't use them all that much as gambling is gambling. Yes you could Save and Reload if you ever lose, but that's cheating and the game has an anti cheat measure which forces you to wait a full minute before replaying. More specifically, you have blackjack, roulette, and slots. Caravan, a game created for the game, is rather difficult and not worth it to me.
Lastly we have the Hardcore mode. According to wikipedia Hardcore mode "stimpaks and other healing items including food do not heal the player instantly, but work over a period of time; the healing of crippled limbs requires a "doctor's bag", a chem called hydra or a visit to a doctor; ammunition has weight; and the player character must eat, drink and sleep to avoid starvation, dehydration and exhaustion, respectively" These are all nice features but perhaps a bit to hardcore for me. Eating I understand, but drinking? Still for the ultimate survival experience, New Vegas kicks I tup a notch.
Graphically, this the same game as Fallout 3. Obsidian did do just enough with it to feel different. The atmosphere is definitely different. Rather than the lonely, survival feel of FO3, FONV has a larger than life, epic, western feel. Whether you like the change is a matter of personal preference. The engine still suffers from static lighting, and muddy textures. There appear to be some animation tweaks, but otherwise it's the art direction that is radically different. The game world seems more interesting and dense. Buildings are much more elaborate than the one's in FO3. Overall it appears that FONV has more variety.
Sound-wise the series still has some standouts. Voice-acting has more celebrities involved in it, and the basic voice work is still strong. There are as expected, repeats and some annoying voices. The music despite being composed by the same person isn't nearly as good.
In Conclusion, all the things that made Fallout 3 so great are here with improvements. Unfortunately the addition of Steam DRM, the bugs, the slight performance issues, and some poor design choices drag the game down. The new additions are a mixed bag. Crafting and combat refinement is welcome. The hardcore mode is decent, but things like the companion wheel and reputation system were underdeveloped. All in all it's not as good as Fallout 3, but if you want some more of the same in a different setting, New Vegas has enough here to be worth the price of admission.