PS3 Review: Fallout New Vegas

Story: You are a messenger who rose back from the grave and determined to find out who tried to assassinate you. The world is post-apocalyptic after nuclear war has taken place. The Platinum Chip is what the assasin stole from you and you must uncover his identity and purpose behind this act. You search throughout the areas around Las Vegas.
(8/10)

Gameplay: Your character has stats called SPECIAL attributes that determine your effectiveness in specific abilities and dialogue options. (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck) The game plays in either first or third-person view, with the option to use iron sights on your guns. On the other hand, you can also use the trusty VATS system to pause the game and plan out your next moves depending on action points. There is a companion system where you can bring two followers on your journey as well as a faction reputation system.
(9/10)

Graphics: Visuals are decent but not cutting edge. Character models and buildings are dull blurs at times but considering the vastness of exploration this is acceptable quality. Facial features are quite well-designed and look pretty realistic.
(7/10)

Sound: The firing of guns is not authentic enough and mostly sounds like a generic recording of gunshots. When a gun opens fire, it is hard to distinguish it's sound apart from other guns in the middle of a battle, which means that it is not very distinct/clear. Music is basically retro-style jazz from the 1960s. After a while the radio tunes get annoying.
(7/10)

Replayability: After a single run of this game, you have pretty much seen it all. However, if you like you may choose to replay it taking an evil side if you were playing good the first time. You may also choose different perks when you level up, focusing on melee instead of guns for example. Finally, there is an option to play through with the "Wild Wasteland" trait, which turns normal encounters into silly situations.
(6/10)

Conclusion: Fallout New Vegas is a fun sequel to Fallout 3 if you enjoyed playing the previous game. However, it is not as fun due to the shorter main quests. The faction feature is nice but it does not affect gameplay much besides giving you a few free items or allowing you to travel unhindered in certain areas. This is basically more of the same game. As for bugs, since the release there have been major updates so this should be a minor problem now. It was enjoyable while it lasted, but I would not want to level to 30 just to do things a slightly different way. The game is dragged out with its superficial quests to sidetrack you from the main story. I would say this game is decent, but not great. Perfect if you are looking for a relatively fun game that won't disappoint.
Overall = 7.4 rating (Decent)


To view trailer (click here)

~ Ivan