Xbox 360 Review: "Fallout: New Vegas"

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Release Date: October 19, 2010 (USA)

Premise:
Fallout: New Vegas is a 2010 First/Third-Person Open-World Action-Adventure game. The player takes control of an unnamed person known as "The Courier" who had the job of delivering items from one place to another. At the beginning of the game, the player is shot by an unknown man in a white suit and buried, presumably dead. A robot digs The Courier up and after getting aid from a doctor at a local town, The Courier heads out into the Wasteland to find out what happened.


Gameplay: 

Gameplay in Fallout: New Vegas is completely identical to Fallout 3, as it uses the exact same engine. The setting this time, though, is in the West, in Nevada. The player runs around the Mojave Wasteland in search of answers to why he/she was shot and along the way can perform a vast amount of Side Quests in addition to the Multiple-Path Main Quests.

There is an extensive loot system in the game that allows the player to collect thousands of different objects, weapons, armors, plants, and much more. As the player levels up through earning Experience Points (XP) by completing Quests or killing enemies, they can allot Skill Points into a number of different Skills to improve their character's shooting, health, sneaking, etc.

When the game first came out and for the first few months, there were several hundred bugs in the game that could be minor or even game-breaking. While there are still a host of bugs in the game, a vast majority of them have been cleaned up to improve the experience of the player.


Graphics:

There isn't anything super special about the graphics in Fallout: New Vegas. The textures are relatively low-quality, including the terrain and all of the different buildings that you can enter and explore. Weapons look pretty well done and the character models and creatures are above average. All told, the graphics don't seem to be anywhere near a deal-breaker, even though they do leave something to be desired.


Sound:
There are many different sounds in the game and the weapons you use have pretty authentic sounds, though a majority of them are reused on multiple weapons. There are radio stations that you can listen to in the game but each one of them replays the same songs over and over, and the one radio station where you have a person DJing (known as "Mr. New Vegas" who is voiced by Wayne Newton) will say the same things over and over for the majority of the game, though as you progress through the game he will mention things that you've done and speak of new topics.


Length:
Since the game is an Open-World, you can explore hundreds of different areas and there are many buildings to enter and explore. It's not uncommon for players to rack up well over 100 hours of gameplay time, even 150+ hours if you decide to go out and collect all of the hundreds of different collectibles in the game ranging from magazines and books to unique armor and weapons.


Value:
Fallout: New Vegas can easily satisfy the gamer who loves Post-Apocalyptic worlds. There is so much to do in the game that you will be playing the game for months on end to completely see everything there is to see. There are multiple endings to the game and many different factions to align yourself with, so there is a necessity in replaying the game on multiple playthroughs to experience everything in the game.


Though the game has reached the bargain bin only a few months after release due to the bugs, I would still feel comfortable saying this game is worth full retail price and is a must-play for any Wasteland lovers.