When I first bought Fallout 3 I did so because was intrigued to see what all the fuss had been about. I'd heard the comments and I'd seen the shock and awe at the sometimes comical plots. I'd heard of the oftentimes bizarre scenarios and of the post-apocalyptic inhabitants living within the Washington landscape. If you could call it living.
And when I heard New Vegas was to be released I was ecstatic about it, because I thoroughly enjoyed Fallout 3.
I put the disk in the PS3 console, patch 1.07 downloads and the game installs. Next thing I know the brass instruments are bellowing and the kettle drums are banging and I'm right back in Fallout mode, like I never left. On starting a new game I'm treated to an introduction scene that seems less epic than I remember in Fallout 3, though just as dark. The art and design is very similar, the old raggedy clothes and the browns, greys and rusts still dominate the landscape, swept with the orange and yellow warmth of the Mojave desert.
The first major difference I noticed a little into the game is that scale-wise, there are not the same excruciatingly long, energy-perforating journeys that we had to undertake in Fallout 3 and nor are there reams of broken brickwork and collapsed buildings that force us to do things the game's way, thought here is a strong sense that we are heading somewhere; the Vegas Strip to be precise.
The Mojave desert feels much more open and accessible than DC.. It is teeming with scorpion infested hills in some parts, and with small, raider-infected towns in others and one upside of this setting over the Capitol Wasteland is that it's a rarity to come to a place which is impassible. And if you do come across one such place it usually isn't a long walk to go around it.
There are a few 'invisible walls' in the game that make things a bit of a pain and one area in particular is so over-run with Deathclaws, a new foe, that it is daunting to think that you must go right through them as the game forces you to,and then there is another seemingly innocent and easy route to take past a camp that is actually infested with hordes of giant stinging, flying creatures.
The gameplay, the V.A.T.S system, it's all practically the same. Some new features include the ability to strip or build ammunition though I still haven't actually gotten my head round how to do it because it seems slightly pointless to learn how considering the more-than-sufficient amount of ammunition lying in practically every footlocker and ammunition box the player comes across.
Speaking of weapons, they are wide and varied, and there seemed to be far more of them than in DC; they also seemed much easier to get a hold of. Though one gripe I had was that even with the most powerful plasma and laser rifles in my inventory, some enemies feel almost impossible to kill. That could have been due to my relatively low level upon completion of the game in my first play through, or my average gun-skill, but many times I came across flying creatures or mutated 'Deathclaws' that took my health in huge chunks while I wasted mountains of ammunition on one of them only for another to finish me off. By the end of the game I had set myself to 'very easy' mode and still found some enemies difficult to get past.
There are far more perks in this game than in Fallout 3 and although it uses the same system for leveling up, the choice of skills is greater, though it is no easy feat to level up to the degree that we did in Fallout 3, and perks come every two levels now, instead of every one, which makes for much more of a challenge.One piece of advice for anyone playing, save regularly and manually. You never know what's round the corner.
The game focuses in on the same desolate world as Fallout 3, but the story doesn't feel quite as gripping, though it is very close and the decisions a player makes decide the area's fate to a similar, if not higher, degree than before, due to the complete malice and lack of morality of one faction in particular.
The notoriety feature also adds something new. Within Vegas, there are separate factions and gangs and with each gang you can either have a fame (good) rating with them or an infamy (bad) rating with them. These ratings affect interaction between factions. For instance, helping a certain gang will often give you fame with them but might give you infamy with their rivals and so, you may get discounts in stores in places where you are liked or get shot at in places where you are disliked. There are ways around this, such as wearing gang colours in areas where you are infamous, but be careful, guards and dogs see through your disguises.
The quests are varying and interesting. One of the great things that remains in the series is the freedom and choice involved in almost all tasks and the consequences of any route that the player decides to take. Skills affect speech options as they always have and sometimes you have the ability to lie about things or to use special options that you wouldn't otherwise have if your relevant skill level isn't high enough.
This makes for a player-specific type of game and for each type of character you create there are varying options in most scenarios. The moral choices also make for another dynamic often not seen in games and are something for which the Fallout series is famed.
In 'New Vegas', these type of choices seem to have weighed much more heavily on the conscience than in Fallout 3, with decisions having to be made on whether to side with certain factions or not. The path and playing style of each player will inevitably lead to a certain outcome, as you would expect. For instance, the player who decides to go the 'good guy' route will have to make the choice to side as such with the 'good' group, and even as a person who tried my best to go the good guy route, some of the things that were asked of me, I just couldn't bring myself to do. This makes the game different from any other sandbox, in that, instead of having black and white, polar opposite 'good' or 'bad', there is a sense that the player makes his own game and creates his own character. When you play this game, your views and your own sense of integrity (or lack of it) bleed into the story in a way which no other game series does as well, nor to the degree, as that of Fallout.
The variety of characters and quests make New Vegas just as playable as Fallout 3 and in many ways the game is upgraded and reinvented, though it still retains its familiar feel and dynamic. And with the patches having been released and the bugs in New Vegas seemingly having been remedied it is immersive and thoroughly enjoyable as a standalone for someone that has never played Fallout 3. In fact, I could see why some people might prefer this to it.
New Vegas takes new risks and with the technical errors remedied, those risks often pay off. But it is so closely related to Fallout 3 in terms of gameplay and 'feel' that for it to be completely taken as a title in its own right it would have had to have done something much more original and bold, but it hasn't. A few new features and a new setting do make for a freshness that gives it something different, and it is still utterly playable, but it's always going to be compared to what came before it, simply because Fallout 3 was a game so unusual, so freshly original in its delivery, and so weird, so bizarre, so explorable and intriguing that you can't help but put it up as the benchmark. And like a fine wine too long in the barrel; it is an acquired taste. The problem is that once you've tasted a story and setting as unique and gripping as in Fallout 3, nothing else is quite as superb, not even Vegas.
In saying that, it's still bloody superb.