And depending on who you decide to join forces with, some missions will close off and others will open up. In one playthrough you might side with the NCR to protect the Hoover Dam in the next you'll buddy up with Caesar's Legion and help them capture it.
And the faction system makes it enormously replayable. There are more ways to talk and think your way out of trouble. Many of the companions are rich, interesting characters with distinctive personalities, and not just dumb automatons following you around. Allied assaultīut in pretty much every other respect, Fallout: New Vegas is the better game. That was almost certainly Obsidian's intention, to show us another side of the Fallout setting, but there’s something more compelling about the hopelessness of the Capital Wasteland on that level. It has a bleakness that you never really get a sense of in the Mojave. Civilisation's post-nuclear collapse is felt more vividly in Washington DC. Arguably, though, the Mojave isn’t as evocative a setting as the Capital Wasteland. New Vegas doesn’t have the moral ambiguity of some of Obsidian’s other games, particularly the magnificent Pillars of Eternity, but it’s one of the things that sets this Fallout apart from the Bethesda entries in the series. "A player should feel like there’s something good and bad about what they pick." "The agony of a choice should fall somewhere between these two spectrums," he says in the talk. In a GDC talk about designing its branching narrative, Sawyer said he wanted to avoid 'Jesus/Hitler' moments: those blunt choices where one option is selfless and noble, and the other is comically evil. Quests are more interesting, with a moral greyness that Fallout 3 sorely lacked. Obsidian has a solid background in storytelling, and it shows in New Vegas. Upset them and they’ll send a hit squad in your direction.īut the game’s greatest strength, and the reason many consider it the best of the 3D Fallout games, is the writing. Pal up with the New California Republic and you’ll get a radio that lets you call for backup and supply drops. But anger them and Veronica-one of the better companions-will refuse to join you. Get cosy with the Brotherhood of Steel and they’ll give you access to their safehouse and occasionally fill a crate with energy weapons and ammo. How the factions perceive you is a lot more important, and it’s worth making a few friends. Karma is still there, but it has much less bearing on the game. One of New Vegas’ best tricks is sidelining the binary karma system for reputation. So when you go in you’re immediately struck by the fact that this is one of the last places that still feels like the old world." And although the reveal of the Strip isn’t as impressive as it could have been-a result of the slightly creaky, ugly engine the game was built in-it’s still interesting to explore an area of Fallout’s wasteland that isn’t totally ruined. "Everything has been blown up, but the New Vegas Strip is unique in that no nuclear weapons hit it. "So much of Fallout is bleak," says writer and designer Eric Fenstermaker in a 'making of' film included in the Collector's Edition. You begin the game on the edge of the desert among isolated towns and rolling tumbleweed, then move closer to New Vegas itself, where civilisation has a stronger foothold. It’s a more vibrant post-apocalyptic wasteland, but still tinged with the melancholy, desolate tone that defines the Fallout series. Fallout 3 was a sea of blues and greys, but New Vegas sizzles with oranges and reds. This part of the United States wasn’t bombed quite so heavily, and has retained some colour and life over the centuries. The Mojave is a far cry from the grim, shattered ruins of the Capital Wasteland.