Fallout: New Vegas Reviews

A few more reviews of Fallout: New Vegas are online and ready for your scrutiny, starting with this moderately favorable critique on EL33TONLINE (3/5):

Fallout: New Vegas gives the player tons to do, lots to see and hours and hours of gameplay, which is ultimately its saving grace. This game can provide 50+ hours for the RPG fan and after a few hours one could most likely get used to the graphical glitches thrown at the player, diminishing its occurrences to but a minor distraction. I’m all about value as well as replay value when investing in a game, and Fallout: New Vegas does not disappoint in that regard and is worthy of its R600 price tag. Let us just hope that more patches are released for this deserving game to enhance the player experience to one of complete enjoyment.

And then RPGFan treats us to both a second opinion (80%):

I can’t classify my experience with Fallout: New Vegas as “fun.” The greater emphasis on traditional RPG mechanics tore me out of what was an otherwise immersive experience. The excellent writing and role-playing was tempered by the poor voice acting and lack of high-end production values. And the ambitious quest design and layered decision making proves too much for a failing engine. Fallout: New Vegas is more Fallout, and will probably make fans happy in the long run. For me, Fallout 3 was a five star dining experience. I paid sixty dollars for a steak roughly the size of a fist, but the taste and memory of that experience will last forever. Fallout: New Vegas is like ordering sixty dollars worth of food from McDonald’s. You certainly get more bang for your buck, but the meal is simply hollow and unsatisfying. Fallout: New Vegas will have to satiate me for a while, but I will be remembering that juicy steak long after I’ve forgotten my experiences in the Mojave Desert.

And a third opinion (81%):

I have focused on the negative aspects of New Vegas because they weigh most heavily on my mind after playing the game. New Vegas is not bereft of entertainment and memorable experiences, however. I generally enjoyed exploring the wasteland, even if what I found there did little to excite my brain or stir me emotionally. A few scenarios truly stand out. Indeed, New Vegas is a better game than many. But Obsidian owes every bit of New Vegas’ success to the creators of Fallout 3, and none of its failures. New Vegas is packed full of heartless content and sloppy design. The magic, personality and profundity found in Fallout 3 are all gone, blown away on desert winds, and with them, my respect for the game. Excusable in an otherwise mindlessly fun game, perhaps, but not in a boring one.

I guess one review just isn’t enough these days.