"War never changes." However, adaptation is a necessity.
- Voice acting is as good as any game on the market. With minimal exceptions, this holds up from beginning to end.
- Replay value. Because of the factions included in the game, and the political and philosophical implications, your decisions are key to how you are treated in different areas, as well as the ending. The alliances offer clear differences, and will often be in direct conflict with one another. Choosing to create your own alliance is also an option (sort of) as is playing that role to the finale.
- Gameplay and world environment. Similar to previous installments, which is good, if a bit lacking in originality. The size and scope allow for great exploration.
- Hard mode offers a real challenge. Adding a more realistic manner of personal maintenance, tangent with the penalties for doing so and for not doing so is clever.
- A completionist's dream. Anyone looking to get the maximum out of a game will find that doing so in this one will require multiple play throughs and hours of investment each time.
The Bad
- Both series redundancy and some repetitiveness within the game alone. Some level design areas are near matches for others, while some characters and quests are reminiscent of previous installments.
- As has been often reported, the bugs in this game are far too common. Quests can become unfinishable or unavailable, allies can become stuck, among other smaller issues.
- While the alliances can be clear, with differences fairly obvious, your choices towards how to respond are more narrow than would be ideal.
- The 1930's - 1950's era style linings have been beaten in to the ground. In some cases, beyond any degree of sense. A group of Elvis wannabes (that don't even know his name) was a bit much. Even when a quest consists of bringing a plane from the depths of a lake, the plane is a WW2 era model. The musical soundtrack is primarily limited to songs from 1932 - 1955..
Overall
Arguably the best storyline and world based premise in video games belongs to the Fallout series. A post nuclear apocalyptic world, in which you play a key role in humanity returning from its self made ashes. Making Las Vegas the central theme adds more to the creative potential. In this area, Fallout: New Vegas does not disappoint.
The Fallout series subscribes to the notion that "war never changes", a fitting quote that is relevant in both the real world and in the series. Unfortunately, another often cited war statement is that military and political leaders tend to utilize the strategies learned from previous wars, and prove unable to adapt to new tactics and strategies in the next campaign. This would also seem to fit this series, in regards to the developers.
It is difficult not to be too critical of this game. Twenty or so hours in (give or take depending on how much you focus on the primary storyline) this game can feel like little more than a reshaped and refurbished version of Fallout 3 (not necessarily a bad thing). After that, the new features shine through, specifically the faction alliance features. The overall quality is high, but some new elements, or even a near total overhaul in some parts of the series, are becoming needed.