Courier said:
AlphaPromethean said:
I don't see how this is a con.
The same way "FONV was too much RPG for my tastes" is a bad thing... Just don't think about it. =|
But back to the original topic, listing the best and worst (since I might as well DO something with this post):
The Best
-Immersive Setting
I personally hate Las Vegas, and when I heard this game would be taking place there, on top of mistakenly believing it to be another disappointment from Bethesda, I loathed the idea of its setting. But playing the game, I find it truly inspiring. Not only did I feel like I was really back in the Fallout-verse, but I loved wandering between vacant desert, try lake beds, ghost towns, places full of life and places totally barren, and amidst it all the inhabited locations came to life, as well. I never spent so much time in a single Town/City/Hub/etc in ANY great RPG as I did in New Vegas. That place could entertain for days... But perhaps most importantly about the setting was that it was believable.
-EVERY New Innovation/Improvement
From Weapon Mods to Hardcore Mode to Reputation to True Iron Sights... If it was newly implemented in FONV and wasn't present in FO3, you can bet it was a high-point for the game. Not just to knock the previous title, but when Obsidian announced all of the features they were including as selling points, they were right to do so, because they were very attractive ideas!
-Captivating Story
Simple plots like murder mysteries or revenge can age very poorly once they've been fulfilled. Even in FO1, the struggle to find the Water Chip was over forever once you finally found it just once, and the mystery was gone forever. Despite the premise that starts FONV off being a simple tracking down the men who wronged you for your revenge scenario, it turns out to be the tip of the iceberg when the player becomes caught up in the political intrigue and various power struggles within the region. Because of the myriad of possible turns the story can take, FONV's woven tale can entertain for weeks on end.
-Powerful Mood
Like FO1, which arguably had the best ambient mood, FONV evokes feelings as you trek through the Mojave Wasteland. The Lucky 38 feels spooky. Vault 34 feels unnerving. Fortification Hill feels intimidating. Whether it's from tiny details given by NPCs, or musical cues, or the presence (or lack thereof) of particular inhabitants that experience in dealing with left certain impressions of on you, transitioning into various locales would paint a sense that matched them quite appropriately. Large landscapes felt scenic, grand, and inspiring. Dangerous places would get your heart pounding. All of the details matched the setting just right to make them "feel" perfect.
-The Music
Right beside FO2, I'd say that FONV has my favorite soundtrack of the entire series. As mentioned above, key music played an important role in establishing the proper mood for much of the game, and on top of that both creative re-imaginings of the series' music theme and replays of previous tracks from older games made for an incredibly atmospheric experience.
The Worst
-The Carryovers
This is unfortunately vague because it applies to SO much of the game. Like the innovations being great pros, everything else about FONV was a terrible con. Being stuck with the same terrible game engine, the same terrible watered down character primary/derived stats, the same terrible sub-genre of "RPS that pretends to be RPG" were all detriments to this otherwise great title. It also doomed FONV to operate within poor graphics from an almost-decade-old engine, characterizing everyone portrayed within the game as disturbingly infant-like or mannequin-looking.
-Absence of Details
Largely a carryover, FONV, like its predecessor, was made as a watered-down RPG tailored to a "wider audience". Not a detail-packed open-ended RPG for true RPG fanatics, like the originals. Every item, whether they be weapons, ammo, or clothing, just appeared and was detailed simplistically. Finding important stats (like ST requirements) could prove difficult because the UI was designed with a lack of information in mind, not a wealth of details. The ability to approach a problem with any solution outside of "kill" or "talk to" would spawn a pop-up menu that simply served to- on top of break immersion -illustrate how foreign these ideas were to the game's design. For every stat and special "interact" feature expected by RPG fans, the game provided a shadow of the experience for the sake of cowing to "everyone's" tastes, instead of their own.
-Too Easy
Largely another carryover from the previous title, this issue was so systemic that the innovations made by Obsidian were largely rendered pointless as far as difficulty was concerned. Whatever it was, it was "easy". It was "easy" to amass a fortune because Random Drop Tables provided an abundance of items for players to collect, and there being no limitations to how much the player could carry while traveling meant that EVERYONE, in short order, would be the richest Wastelander in existence. It was "easy" to kill enemies because their derived stats were a shadow of the player's derived stats, and they were engineered by brain-dead AI routines that had to obey a hopelessly poorly-designed and outdated game engine, and the aforementioned "FPS that pretends to be RPG" nature of the title meant personal "skill" meant more than skill POINTS. Obsidian tried to make something of this game, despite the terrible resources they were forced to work with, and what they accomplished was remarkable. But the game was still painfully absent of any challenge.
-Repetitive Voice Talent
While some would care to argue that this was a mixed bag, there sheer VOLUME of repetitive voices and the mediocre talent of the actors in most of them drowns out the great casting choices and personifications of the main cast. True, the main characters of FONV are brilliantly acted and voiced (with the notable exception of General Lee Oliver, a character the player will ALWAYS face at the end of the game), but they make up for a tiny faction of all of the voices you listen to in the game. AND THEY'RE ALL THE SAME 5 PEOPLE!!! On top of hundreds of unnamed NPCs, the same few voice actors are credited with providing voices from 12-20 named (minor) NPCs, each! For all the virtues of the game's setting, story, mood, and music, most of that falls by the wayside as your suspension of disbelief evaporates when you feel like you've run across the 200th person who looks, sounds, and acts like a perfect clone of EVERYONE ELSE you've encountered in your travels.
