Review

Fallout: New Vegas Review

  • First Released Oct 19, 2010
    released
  • PS3

Major technical problems blemish this enjoyable and sophisticated adventure through the western wastes.

Fallout: New Vegas is all about more. There's more to do in New Vegas than in Fallout 3, its superb predecessor; there's more complexity to its gameplay mechanics; and sadly, there are far more bugs than you should expect from a modern role-playing game. Fallout: New Vegas' familiar rhythm will delight fans of the series, and the huge world, expansive quests, and hidden pleasures will have you itching to see what other joys you might uncover. However, as time wears on, the constant glitches invade almost every element of the game and eventually grow wearisome. This role-playing adventure is both more impressively intricate and more damaged than any major RPG in recent memory. Don't let the bugs frighten you away, however: New Vegas' nooks and crannies are bursting with postapocalyptic treasures waiting to be dusted off and admired by intrepid explorers as long as they are willing to stand firm in the face of technical frustrations.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.
This video has an invalid file format.
00:00:00
Sorry, but you can't access this content!
Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Now Playing: Fallout: New Vegas Video Review

This latest trip into the desolate American landscape possesses many of the same elements that made Fallout 3 such a successful role-playing game, but its story doesn't boast as many memorable moments. The large-scale combat scenarios are less epic, and the surprises are less dramatic than Fallout 3's mid-game reverie. Nevertheless, the main tale provides a solid skeleton from which to hang a dumbfounding number of tasks and stand-alone parables. Many of these quests are lengthy, and great dialogue and good voice acting will invite you to learn more about the characters, as well as keep you wondering about what will happen next. A society of ghouls with pie-in-the-sky aspirations is creepy enough to make you squirm, yet blind devotion to their dreams still inspires empathy. Socialites in formal attire run a casino known for its creative menu choices, and if you play your cards right, you might get to make a menu alteration of your own. You investigate the disappearance of a sharp-tongued wife in one town and bring star-crossed lovers together in another. Some of the most fascinating occurrences are the wittier ones. During one quest, a robot with a specialized skill and a gut-busting name might offer a service that surely no game character has ever offered before. A poet in an unlikely place mumbles aloud his difficulties in finding the right rhymes. Like with Fallout 3, the greatest delights aren't in the central storyline but on its periphery.

While the tale isn't as evocative as it might have been, the way it blossoms as you advance, giving you any number of ways to proceed, is extraordinary. The choices you make might lead to a dramatically different experience from another player's experience. The same is true of many supplementary quests. There's a ton of flexibility in how you might approach certain tasks. Maybe you'll fend off the robots defending a long-forgotten museum, but you might also steal an identification card that allows you to walk around (mostly) unharmed. You might provide a drug addict his fix, but if your speech skill is high enough, you can convince him to get on the straight and narrow. One lovelorn fellow will try to send you on a scavenger hunt for spare parts, but a high science skill means you can recommend another schematic and avoid the job altogether. However, there are certain cases in which the game funnels you down a specific path that might come as a shock if you prefer peaceful ends but are forced into a combat scenario with a single viable solution. And in certain cases, the quests just aren't designed particularly well. Searching for a key in a vault overrun with vegetation can turn into a major hassle. Avoiding an artillery bombardment isn't fun in the least and feels out of place given the measured pace at which you move. And an optional quest in which you hop from one computer terminal to another to isolate a virus leads to frustrating trial-and-error guesswork.

Rust is the only thing holding this structure up.
Rust is the only thing holding this structure up.

Large personalities give an edge to your undertakings. A mysterious man known as Mr. House presides over both the Strip, as well as your own adventures, and his singular focus on fulfilling his needs looms dramatically over the later hours of your escapades. The leader of a Roman-inspired legion is also an ominous presence and a violent counterpoint to the upright and learned leader of the Brotherhood of Steel's local contingent. A ghoulish prostitute, a potty-mouthed head waiter, and a wealthy-but-desperate father all make an impression in spite of their very minor roles. You might even find an interesting kindred spirit to accompany you. As with Fallout 3, you can bring a companion along with you; this is handy not only in combat, but it also gives you an extra inventory for dumping detritus. Interacting with your companion is simple, thanks to a wheel that lets you choose behaviors for your fellow traveler. You can only have one at a time, but you'll encounter multiple individuals willing to join you, and they all make interesting and funny quips when you interact with them. They also open up different quest opportunities, giving you a chance to learn more about what makes them tick.

Fallout: New Vegas' major addition is that of faction favor. You establish a reputation with various towns and organizations by doing them favors or annoying them in some way or another. Which factions you align with has both subtle and profound consequences. If you're liked, a random somebody might run up to you bearing minor gifts, such as an iguana on a stick. (Mmm, tasty.) Or if you've gained a more violent reputation, a mugger might accost you with violent intentions, only to run off when he recognizes you. It's a pleasure to hear random citizens remark on how they feel about you as you pass by, even if the canned comments repeat a bit too often. (It's sometimes bizarre to hear two characters standing side by side deliver the same line, spoken by the same voice actor.)

Beatrix proves that everyone has a place on the Strip.
Beatrix proves that everyone has a place on the Strip.

Your faction relationships also have much more dramatic consequences on your adventure, opening up new quests while closing off others. The game is sometimes a bit opaque regarding how your actions may inadvertently affect the way a particular faction sees you, but this complexity manifests itself in awesome ways as you near the end of your travels. One great twist to this system is that by dressing up in faction-specific clothing or armor, you can disguise yourself and avoid a confrontation. Though, conversely, you might get dragged into battles against allies if you forget to change gear, which might damage a relationship you're trying to cultivate. This reputation system is a bit abstract, but it's a great addition to the Fallout formula, adding even more layers to a template already lauded for its flexibility.

Unfortunately, Fallout: New Vegas isn't technically capable of supporting these high ambitions. Simply put, it frequently breaks in some of the most phenomenal ways. You can't mention any given aspect of its design without also mentioning a related bug--and the more you explore and the more you do, the more the game buckles under its own weight. Your companion may not initiate a conversation with her elder, forcing you to reload a saved game or ignore the quest. A mutant for hire will respond to your request to continue the quest with the same dialogue that he delivers if you tell him you need more time. Scripting errors abound in which things that are supposed to happen never do, while in many other cases, inexplicable events occur that will boggle your mind. Locals will freak out and run around as if someone is brandishing a weapon and then stop and walk back to their assigned positions. A vendor might attack you unprovoked, even if you have a golden reputation in that town and are dressed in neutral clothing. Sometimes, it's unclear if you're unaware of a contributing factor or if the game is simply going bonkers. Not to mention frequent crashes on both consoles and corrupted game saves, which might cause you to lose progress. In addition, the longer you play, the slower the frame rate gets (on the Xbox 360), or the more noticeable the screen tearing and frequent pauses become (on the PlayStation 3). These are but a small number of the major bugs we encountered. Fallout: New Vegas is a technical mess.

If the constant bugs start getting to you, take out your frustrations on random dogs.
If the constant bugs start getting to you, take out your frustrations on random dogs.

If you played Fallout 3 or The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which used the same game engine as Fallout: New Vegas, then you won't be surprised by some of the more minor foibles, although many of them seem exacerbated here. Characters get easily stuck on the environment and run in place, for example, while the environmental segmentation surrounding the Vegas Strip leads to more loading times than you encountered in those previous games. These quirks notwithstanding, Fallout: New Vegas evokes a great sense of place in which the postapocalyptic future meets the recent past. Your first glimpse of the neon-lit Strip at night will have you pausing to take it all in, after all those hours of traversing the bleak wastelands. This isn't a pretty game, exactly, but it delivers a world you can believe in and is consistent with Fallout lore. Swirling dust storms cloud your view, crumbling edifices demand to be scavenged for simple treasures, and spore-spewing monsters hide in tufts of green overgrowth. When you see an interesting building or installation in the distance, you're always inspired to check it out, and more often than not, there's something interesting awaiting you.

The audio also contributes to the grimness of your travels, though it shares some idiosyncrasies with Fallout 3. There are radio stations to listen to, and while the toe-tapping tunes evoke Vegas through and through, hearing the same small selection of songs gets old fast. The main soundtrack is improved over Fallout 3's, using twisted twangs to summon images of cowboys roaming the blighted wilderness, driving two-headed Brahman instead of traditional cattle. Many of the symphonic swells, on the other hand, would have been more appropriate in a fantasy game. But the sound effects usually scratch the proper itch, especially where combat is concerned. A sawed-off shotgun produces a lot of oomph, and the satisfying thwacks of a rebar club make it a satisfying go-to weapon. But while the guns and sledgehammers make a big impression, subtler effects, such as the deep rumbles that indicate a quest completed, are just as satisfying.

Slot machines have never been this foreboding.
Slot machines have never been this foreboding.

The muffled splats you hear when you activate the Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System (aka VATS) also make an impression. Though you can aim down your iron sights, slow controls and stiff animations still make for slightly awkward real-time gunplay. Luckily, entering VATS and targeting your enemy's limbs leads to all the same rewarding, slow-motion splatters of blood and irradiated goo that made Fallout 3 such a brutal blast. The returning "bloody mess" perk may not have much gameplay significance, but it does result in limbs, heads, and other viscera flying through the air, which is often both gratifying and hysterical. Many of your creepy returning opponents are the usual suspects: supermutants, radscorpions, and the like. Others are new but equally enjoyable to fight, such as the nightkins, which are hideous mutants that cloak themselves using stealth-boy devices. You fight a lot of human enemies as well. Those battles might affect your standing with one faction or another and often pit you against named characters that might have had quests to offer or dialogue to deliver had you aligned yourself differently. As a result, some skirmishes have more impact than Fallout 3's less meaningful encounters versus nameless brigands.

When you aren't out fighting foes or questing for the greater good (or to the detriment of all humanity), you might want to try your hand at a bit of gambling. Outside of the casinos, you can play a fun little card game called Caravan with various individuals, which takes a bit of time to learn but might get you addicted to purchasing cards to add to your deck. Once you make it to Vegas proper, you can cash in bottle caps or faction-specific currency for chips and play some blackjack or roulette or maybe plunk a few coins into the slot machines. These games are much as you'd expect, but the slick presentation makes them enjoyable and addictive all the same. If you'd rather stay focused on more traditional role-playing tasks, you could always head to a work bench to create some ammo from raw materials or apply a weapon upgrade. Or perhaps you'd rather use a campfire to cook up some healthful items from the monster bits you've gathered. It's nice that the game gives recipe enthusiasts something to do, though the prevalence of weapons, armor, and aid items mean you can safely ignore these elements if you prefer.

This guy's got the right idea.
This guy's got the right idea.

Fallout: New Vegas is an expansive and complicated RPG that encourages you to see and do as much as you can. This is an explorer's game, always lavishing new and interesting quests on you and giving you a lot of flexibility in how you approach many of them. It builds upon Fallout 3's mechanics in interesting and esoteric ways, making it a comfortable evolution to one of 2008's best games. It's unfortunate that it suffers from so many bugs and other inconsistencies. Role-playing veterans expect glitches in games this complex, but this one far exceeds tolerable limits for these kinds of issues. And yet as busted as it is, Fallout: New Vegas is periodically awesome and consistently compelling. If you've got the stomach for some technological lunacy, this is one gamble that will pay off.

Back To Top

The Good

  • Incredibly huge and detailed world, loaded with stuff to do
  • Side quests are mostly terrific and brimming with personality
  • Faction reputation system leads to incredible flexibility
  • Great atmosphere, in and out of the Vegas Strip
  • Your choices have palpable consequences

The Bad

  • Absolutely swarming with disastrous bugs
  • Some quests are not enjoyable
  • Main story isn't compelling

About the Author

Kevin VanOrd has a cat named Ollie who refuses to play bass in Rock Band.