Fallout NV, first impressions.

Rushing home, fast food supper in hand, I was ecstatic to see that little brown cardboard sleeve sitting (almost posed) on our front step….sitting there, beckoning “where have you been? I’ve been waiting here since 2:00” so, in we rush, gobbling down fast food as I fumbled the TV on and off a few times before I slowed myself down enough to get it set up for the xbox, off came the wrapper, in went the disk, and up came the opening cinematic….but not a normal cinematic, the kind I learned to expect having played every Fallout game ever made. This was a back-story, an overview of the gangs, and who controls what, and who wants to take it away from them….no clear line of who is good, and who is evil, just factions. 

 

Then the scene is set, you see a mob style hit, from a mob style hit man, (you are on the receiving end) while another grunt digs a shallow grave. Everything goes dark.

 

You wake up in a small Dr. office, where they mesh in the appearance and stats choosing with a physical check up and psych eval., and you are off. You are now given the choice to play Hardcore mode, tracking radiation exposure, hunger and dehydration. I chose the standard gameplay just to get a feel for the new game after all I will be playing this more than once.

 

I picked my normal “Dr. Gordon Freeman” type character, small guns, Science, and repair abilities. Yeah, I even play a geek in my RPGs. So tunnel snake pompadour and goatee ready, (After taking everything that wasn’t bolted down), I left, into the wastes….but wait; this isn’t the normal wastes…..

 

Leveling and Perks appear similar to FO3, with the revival of the traits system from Fallout 1 and 2, while I didn’t seem my favorite (bloody mess) trait, they did have a few choices forcing you to decide between speed and accuracy, damage and critical hit chance, or attack and defense related traits.   

 

The starting point is a small town, a bar, a general store, a gas station, and a few small houses. The load times are on par with Fallout 3(FO3) (despite some of the reviews I’ve read) and the environment is just as beautifully crafted as FO3 (also contrary to the reviews). The first creature I saw was a mutated big horn sheep….monstrous in size, but taking no interest in me or my actions (mainly running around picking up bottles and cans to sell for a few caps to get myself started). While I haven’t made nearly enough for it, the general store had some extended 9mm mags, a silencer, and a weapons repair kit (finally letting us repair unique and rare weapons that may not have available parts). But off I went, ignoring the initial quests in exchange for getting a little combat experience.

 

The first creatures I ran across were small(ish) Mantis, being a bit more detailed than the rad-roaches encountered in FO3. And much faster, they were a real test of my twitch shooting abilities, so out of a desire to save ammo, I turned to the VATS. VATS reacts the same in New Vegas as it did in FO3, select the target, choose a body part to shoot at and let the lead fly……speaking of lead, I did notice something new…..as I cut loose and riddled the small(ish) mantis with holes, I was rewarded (I guess) with spent brass in my inventory…while I haven’t seen it yet, I assume there will e a way of reloading these spent casings.   Fast forward a bit. After a quest or two you are introduced to the impact of your repair, science, and survival skills no more are these single use skills, now they impact your ability to construct, cook, mix, and prepare items in a new crafting system, find 2 herbs and combine them at a campsite to create healing powder, get a hide from one of the plentiful geckos? Mix it with some chems to create a tanned hide that may be sold for more caps or used later to make a set of leather armor. 

 

The map seems a bit small when viewed in your Pip-boy, but with a reasonable amount or large building to explore and lots of desert in between I don’t think this will be at all noticeable. And I’m sure it will be expanded with the announced DLC that is only a few months (possibly weeks) away.

 

Overall, I would say if you are a fan of the Fallout series go get this game, you will not be disappointed…..if you are not a fan of fallout, but like RPGs, give it a try. If you didn’t like Fallout 3, odds are you won’t like this one since it is a lot like FO3 in mechanics and overall feel. If you never played a Fallout game, go pick up FO3 GOTY edition, and give it a shot before you drop the $60 on this.   it is a great game, but if it’s not your cup of tea….well, I don’t see that changing.

 

 

As a Fallout Fanboy I give this an easy 9/10 it would be a 9.5/10 but I hate load times (even if they are only 10-15 sec) I understand why they are there, but I still don’t like them.   I may try installing the game to the HDD and see if that helps cut them down at all.

 

 

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