Fallout: New Vegas Review

Pros:

- Great new additions to the player's inventory and choices
- Tons of fun and challenging quests
- Numerous amounts of weapons
- Hardcore mode really tests your skills

Cons:

- Still contains bugs and framerate hiccups that Fallout 3 had
- Feels like one big expansion rather than a stand alone

War, war never changes. Welcome to New Vegas. The newest addition to Fallout using the same engine that brought you Fallout 3. No worries if you have not played Fallout 3, the story is completely new. Many new features have been added to the game to bring more freedom and choice into play. There are three different endings that you can receive depending on your choices throughout the game. There are many new factions that reside in New Vegas. Ranging from the politically powerful New California Republic (NCR) to the slave drivers that are Caeser's Legion.

You take on the role of a courier who has been assigned to deliver a package to the Strip in New Vegas. Along the way your travels take a turn for the worse. You meet many helpful and shady characters. Some of which attack on site while others require some help. You can gain reputation with most of the factions found in New Vegas. The choice to follow which faction is up to you. This adds a lot more variety and variation in the story compared to Fallout 3, and you will want to go back and play through with each of the campaigns to further the story.

There are many new quests in New Vegas and more often than not, the side quests can be more entertaining than the main storyline. The story takes off right from the beginning and the tutorial is much shorter than in Fallout 3. You are thrown into quests at the beginning which also in turn become the tutorial quests.

The number of weapons, perks, and skills have been increased. New weapons, weapons from Fallout 3, and a new weapon modification system have been added. There are numerous amount of new perks in order to help you on your quests and also a new Survival skill has been added. The Survival skill is especially helpful when playing hardcore mode. In hardcore mode there are many modifications to gameplay which are for the most skilled players. You need to keep track of your eating, make sure you don't dehydrate, stimpaks do not cure broken limbs, and ammo is now a burden with a weight being added.

Unfortunately, using the same engine as Fallout 3 brings back most of the bugs and technical issues that were in the previous game. Why these issues are still here? Only the developers can answer that. The new features are a great addition to Fallout New Vegas, it truly resembles one big expansion pack. The graphics are the same, the gameplay is the same, the bugs and issues are the same.

With all the new additions, features and new storyline, those who are interested in first-person shooters, third-person shooters and role playing games should definitely take a look at Fallout New Vegas.

Gameplay - 7/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 8/10
Replay - 9/10

Overall - 8/10