Review: Fallout New Vegas hardcore my ass review

Posted by: goukijones Dec 10, 2010 | 6 comments

Tagged: blithering-blathering fallout-new-vegas review

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Gouki.com has beat the game. On hardcore. Glitches, freezes, broken quests whatever ... it's still an excellent adventure. Read about GoukiJones' personal adventure through the open world of the New Vegas GlicthLand. Achievement unlocked.

Hardcore mode: Drink, eat, and sleep. Those are the core elements in the Hardcore mode. As far as difficulty goes, I couldn't tell the difference. In a game where you can freeze and select an enemy to shoot and where to shoot, I was never worried about the difficulty. I'm not gonna lie, walking away from the first town and coming across the Powder Gangers(a small faction in Fallout New Vegas), I got destroyed. Died once, but made it pass them the second time. 3 broken limbs, no doctor bags(only way to heal limbs in hardcore mode), low health and pretty much no ammo ... I limped to the next closest town. I should have never killed that doctor in the first town. But fuck him. This new town had a doctor and for only 50 caps or so, I could get a full heal. After realizing the doctors were the cheapest and best way to stay full health, anytime I was in trouble, I could just fast travel to the nearest town and get healed. The food took me some time to figure out, but once I did, it too became pretty irrelevant. There's plenty of non-radiated fruit growing in the wasteland, just pick it all up and constantly be eating. It's less of a chore then it sounds. Why there is non-radiated fruit growing every where ... I don't know. Nubfarm?



Sound: This game sounds just like Fallout 3 did. There's no innovation here.



Graphics: No innovation here either. Where Fallout 3 looked grey and had a green hud, Fallout New Vegas has a more brown look and a goldish hud. You can change the color of the hud in the options though. Then New Vegas will really look like Fallout 3 to you. When inside buildings and vaults, you would never be able to tell if you were playing Fallout 3 or New Vegas. Cut and paste video game development gotta love it. This is an excellent example of how this game is more parallel to Fallout 3 than an advanced sequel.



Gameplay: In Fallout New Vegas there are a few different factions and all can be worked with or you can play them against each other. I was aware of this going into the game. My goal was to play each faction against each other for as long as possible. When I got to New Vegas, I exploited the robots at the front gate for being dumb robots. Also BatRastered gave me a heads up, that the robot in charge of the gate would chase you away you down, just to explain how to get into New Vegas. I led him away, killed him and got the key. When I came back the other two robot guards were on high alert and attacked me. Boone, my first companion and I raiped those robots and casually strolled through the gate into New Vegas. Once inside New Vegas I was surrounded by even more robots, who DIDN'T attack me. Reh-tard. I just broke into New Vegas, but apparently on the other side of the gate it wasn't a big deal. Since I had a key, anytime I was coming into New Vegas, I just had to run pass those robots guarding the gate. Eventually I got my computer skills high enough and I was able to just tell that robot 1001111001011010 then he and his boys guarding the gate stopped attacking me.



I got to New Vegas way earlier than I probably should have and killed the Jimmy running the show. Mr. House deada denna muthafucka. I received the penthouse key and I could drop some of this weight I was carrying, sleep and drink clean water. Now I really started to fuck with all of the factions and adventure through the wasteland as much as possible. When I would go do something for Caesar, that would piss off the NCR. So then I would go do something for the NCR and then that would piss off another group. So when I pissed off Caesar, I'd go do something nice for Caesar, blow up an NCR camp or convince another group to side with Caesar. This went on all the way through the rest of the game for me until I had no quests left. It got to the point where I really had to decide which group I wanted to do the final mission with. I sided with Yes Man, the robot who was now running the show in New Vegas after I killed MR. House. When I turned in the final quest to Yes Man and sided with him officially, I failed 6 other quests and had 3 warnings pop up from the other clans. Now I was looking forward to leaving town to see who wanted to fuck with me.



Leveling up: Correct me if I wrong, because I just can't remember. I thought in Fallout 3 you got a new perk every time you leveled up. Irrelevant. In New Vegas it is only every other level. Some perks I remember choosing: 6 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (which is 1 extra point in any of your attributes.) Adamantium Skeleton. (Your limbs take less damage.) Mysterious Stranger and the female version of that. I don't remember if they ever appeared at the same time. I don't think so. My goal was to level up my melee, so that's how I built my character up. Planning for close combat and relying on support. I also got the new perk that allows you to repair items with similar items and at this point I was rich bitch! I finished the game with over 30,000 caps. Economy railed! Pro-tip: You don't have to level any of your traits to 100 because you can use magazine to max them out from 90 if you have to. Now that I think about I never actually needed anything to be 100. I used the magazines once and that was to jack my speech up from 60 to 70 to convince this one Jimmy to join my quest and be a companion. Then I send his ass to the penthouse at the Lucky 38 and never used him. Enjoy the rest of your life Jimmy!



Companions: Using the partner was something I didn't explore too much in Fallout 3, but in New Vegas they are a bigger part of the game and more in your face. Not just some random dog you find or some slaves you can buy like in Fallout 3. Boone is the first guy you come across, depending on which direction you go I guess. He's a sniper who hates Caesar and who's wife was recently traded to the slavers. Having him on my team was great. The game would shift into kill shots and I didn't even know what was happening. Boone had seen something a mile away, pulled out his sniper rifle and railed it. I got experience for that kill too. Then I came across ED-E a robot that looks like the same robots from the commercial and the ones that would float around in Fallout 3 playing the president's addresses and music. ED-E has a serious radar and could detect enemies around you. He also plays a little song when he detected something to let you know enemies were near by, the song is cool. lol. When I decided to search for new companions I left Boone and ED-E in the penthouse. I hadn't realized at this point that you need to talk to them and tell them specifically to wait at the penthouse AKA the Lucky 38. While I was out exploring a note popped up saying that Boone has left my party and will be waiting for me at the Luck 38. Ok, that's where I left him. A few minutes later another note popped up and told me ED-E has left my party and has returned to Primm. Primm? Why? I left him in the Lucky 38.



I traveled to Primm immediately to get ED-E back. He played my favorite song. When I entered the room, ED-E immediately start to attack the other Jimmy in the room behind the counter. That Jimmy behind the counter pulls out his gun and starts shooting at ED-E. I'm thinking what the fuck is going on here, everything was cool until walked into the room. So I killed the Jimmy shooting at ED-E, then ED-E started to shoot me. I killed ED-E, sad face. The dog in New Vegas requires multiple hoops to jump through, in order to get him on your team. There is a quest to level up his brain and give him some new abilities. I guess, I never noticed much change, the dos was still reh-tard. The first vault I went into after leveling up the dog he died. In Hardcore mode, if your companions die, they are dead and you can't get them back. So I restarted my last save and made it further through the vault this time, but the dog still died. Fuck it, the dog was a reh-tard. I "talked" to the dog and told him to stay back and used ranged attacks. Whatever that means. He would still run off to the closest enemy he saw and attack. I wouldn't even know he was in a fight until the game went into a kill shot animation or he died. I left his ass in the vault, deada denna muthafucka! I can go on about the companions, but my advice to you is to keep Boone and ED-E alive as much as possible.



Overall: Regardless of all the shit I've been talking, I still played this game for over 45 hours. If I did not play it on hardcore, I probably would have not got the challenge I wanted. I still really enjoyed discovering new areas, buildings and vaults. Combing the shit out of the wasteland and developing my character was a total blast. But what I enjoyed the most was just manipulating everything in the game and fucking with it as much as possible. Yeah it froze a few times and a couple of my quests were broken, but that didn't stop me from playing. If you enjoyed Fallout 3, this is more of the same, but it's still a lot fun. Final Fantasy XIV was the adventure I wanted, but Fallout New Vegas was the adventure I fell in love with. And for that I give it ...



BUY IT!