Obsidian have a real knack for making great RPGs. With
The Outer Worlds fast appraoching, I've gone back to play this and
Elder Scrolls IV. New Vegas is set in the Mojave Wasteland, with a vast array of new interesting characters.
Combat is virtually the same as it's predecessor
Fallout 3, with VATS taking most of the threat out of the game if you know how to use it to your advantage. The main new feature, which
Bethesda decided to remove for
Fallout 4, was Hardcore mode. This is a shame as it is a lot of fun. It adds survival to the game of just "go here and kill X" or "go here and collect Y". It makes you think before you act, plan for your journey ahead and carefully place your traps or shots.
Hardcore is brilliant, it makes you watch your food consumption to avoid starvation, water consumption, RADS have a greater impact and you're more likely to be crippled, especially at a higher difficulty. It can be infuriating at times but once you get used to the level of difficulty, you can comfortably get through this mode.
Genuinely, the story is a little lacklustre in places, but not to the levels of
Fallout 3's disappointing second act. Having five endings for the game seems ambitious for the type of game it is and to be honest, two of them are sort of awful. It also has a definitive, point of no return, ending, which means you need to be sure you want to do the final mission before you do it. Although, you need to do it five times anyway, starting again each time from act 2 to get the platinum. It's not much of a chore once you fallin love with it, and only one has to be done on hardcore for the trophy.
Side quests take a back seat almost. Most of them are intertwined, a clever way of doing it. Unlike
Fallout 3 and
Fallout 4's side quests. They almost interlock to creat a wider tapestry.
The main issue is the "dumbing down" of the level system. Which gets worse with every release in the series. Gone are the different versions of weaponary skills for example, narrowed down to "Guns" and "Energy Weapons". Gun customisation does alot to repair this damage though, as you can buy and attach new mods to your favourite guns. This is the backdrop to
Fallout 4's weapon benches upgrade, from simple crafting to modding and repairing. Not only that, it seems odd that perks only become available every two levels. It does add slightly to difficulty, particularly during hardcore mode, but it feels strange as your skills get stronger in some respects but you don't end up with a perk on top on odd numbered levels. It's a weird way to do it.
It also is home to some soul destroying bugs. Clipping errors that pin you down whilst enemies come charging at you and having to fight to fast travel out of your situation. They obviously aren't as bad as when it was first released, it's been almost a decade, but still, it can be relatively annoying. Then again, what Bethesda game would be worth playing without their bugs?
It is a brilliant game despite its flaws and is arguably the best of the Bethesda era of
Fallout games. It shows that this was developed by a team that consisted of members of the fabled
Fallout 2 and
Fallout Tactics titles.
4.5