“Fallout: New Vegas” seems to be a huge hit amongst the fanboys of the “Fallout” series, as well as any newcomers just looking for a new combination of first and third person shooters. What’s really nice about the “Fallout” series is that you can actually switch back and forth between first and third person points of view at any point, letting you play however you feel most comfortable.
Another way that the game lets you customize your own experience is with all of the choices that it gives you. You get to choose how to interact with the other characters in the environment, you can now maintain and repair your own equipment in the field and customize it how you see fit.
Of course, you can upgrade your character and his/her abilities and perks just the way you want as with most any role playing game, and a new feature added to the Fallout universe is the choice of which factions or groups of people to ally yourself with and consequently make enemies out of any others.
The Mojave Desert, located in the Southwest United States, has become a breeding ground for warring factions and mutants of various shapes and sizes with other people who are simply trying to stay alive, stuck in the middle of the chaos and bloodshed. The main factions are the New California Republic (NCR), Caesar’s Legion, and a mysterious third party known at first only by a voice. The NCR are slowly expanding their borders in order to carve out a new state, and their latest addition is the mostly untouched town of Vegas.
Caesar’s Legion is a massive army of slavers pushing their way west and are either taking over and enslaving or destroying everything that they come across, and they have just set their sights on Vegas but must conquer the NCR to obtain their prize. You find out later in the game that a mysterious third party supposedly wants to hire you for its own purposes, but I’ll leave the mystery to the players to figure out for themselves.
And don’t forget, if you choose any one of those sides, they all have their own smaller gangs of killers, thieves and bandits doing some freelance dirty work for them, and by choosing a side you also begin to ally yourself with that sort of scum too. So what will you do? Join a faction? Or declare “winner takes all” and go it alone, just you against three warring armies and whoever comes out on top crowns themselves the ruler of New Vegas?
I give this game four and a half stars out of five. The choices can be slightly cumbersome but make it more realistic than many other games like it, and the walking from place to place can start to get a little boring, but the boredom doesn’t usually last long. The story is spectacular, the graphics are great, the voices and sounds are amazing, and this game has the potential to entertain players for weeks on end with plenty of side missions to play through and a great replay value, because no two stories are the same.