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This game is rated M for MMMMMMom shouldn’t let you play this without their permission.

Following the release of the critically acclaimed Fallout 3, Bethesda: The owners of the Fallout title wanted to make a Fallout game, but were too focused on other projects. So Bethesda hired a somewhat new company, Obsidian, to make a Fallout game in eighteen months. Now instead of playing safe and making a somewhat bland game, Obsidian saw an opportunity to make a name for themselves. 

Eighteen months is not a long time for a game to be made, so they used a lot of assets from Fallout 3, which isn’t a bad thing. But with the little amount of time and resources they had, this game is impressive. Gun play is silky smooth for the time, sound design is super slick, and the story telling is the best of the series. Fallout 3, being the first step into 3D, had this new system called V.A.T.S or Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System. What V.A.T.S does is that it stops the game and gives you a percentage chance of whether you hit the target or not. Not only is this revolutionary for first person shooters, but you can even get a slow motion camera zoom of the bullet or melee weapons hitting someone. It is one of the most satisfying things that you can do.

The attention to detail and writing in this game is not even matched by other corporate giants, like Electronic Arts. You can pick the lowest intelligence (a stat in the game) and you can get special dialogue options for being the dumbest person in the wasteland. I could go so in depth with the pure writing excellence, but this article would be longer than a congress bill and would be 24 hours of me quoting this game.

One of my complaints with this game is the setting. It’s the desert Mojave, but with it being a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, I can forgive looking at sand for 12 hours. But at the same time, the setting is one of the strongest points, is that an oxymoron, maybe. The design of the setting is integral to the feeling that you are alone in this wasteland, with mutated roaches, mantis, cows, bulls, chameleons. Also, the beauty of the New Vegas Strip in this lonely desert; it stands out from the rest of the game. But a big complaint, that I cannot stress this enough; there are way too many “bugs” and “glitches.” In simple terms, I could fall through the floor and go “Well, this is the most normal thing to happen.” The game constantly freezes, enemies get stuck in the ground, and overall just dampens the whole experience. 

Now for the rating. This game, with the writing and the gameplay and the setting, I would give it a 10 out of 10. But with all of the bugs and glitches, it gets a 9.5 out of 10. “But Jordan, why only take off .5 off the rating when you bashed the game for all of the bugs.” I hear what you’re saying. My response: They’re funny. If they make me laugh, I don’t mind, and guess what, half the bugs do, they make me laugh. Overall, for a decade old game, it is an enthralling experience and I would entirely recommend to anyone. 

Also, Obsidian’s next game, Outer Worlds, came out and I will probably be playing that for a week.