Fallout New Vegas Review
Warning: Below, you’ll find a long-winded introduction on my history of playing different Fallout games. Skip to the fourth paragraph for New Vegas content.
About a decade ago, I started playing a game called Fallout 4. Instantly, I fell in love with its post-apocalyptic Boston setting. The game’s lore coupled with the balancing act of silly and somber moments generated a severe infatuation for my first ever RPG experience, so much so that I completed the game five times (rookie numbers for some, debaucherous digits for others). I wish I could go back to my first playthrough and once again experience the horrifying feeling of discovering what a feral ghoul was the hard way.
In the late 2010s, I decided to try out a few of the other Fallout titles. I played Fallout 76 upon its release in 2018. I appreciated this entry for its supportive multiplayer community and it taking place in West Virginia with the inclusion of well-known regional cryptids like Mothman and the haunted WVU transit. However, the lackluster main questline, the absence of human NPCs, and getting locked out of quests due to insufficient player level requirements resulted in me only completing about half of the game. To their credit, Bethesda addressed most of these issues with later updates, but my second playthrough in 2024 was once again stalled by the level-gated stipulations.
During the post-Tiger King stage of the pandemic, I started to play Fallout Shelter. Despite it being a much different style of game than the others, I still had a fun time with managing and developing my own vault. Still, after a couple of weeks, I grew tired of Bethesda trying to make me buy packs for enhanced items and dwellers. Plus, the Tamgotchi-like demand of having to check on the vault multiple times per day as it ran in real time at the risk of my vault inhabitants dying irritated me.
In between those two games, I played Fallout New Vegas. After years of listening to friends lecture me on the myriad of wonderful things that New Vegas does better in comparison to my beloved Fallout 4, I finally decided to give it the old college try in 2019 when I was taking my gap year. I quit playing after four hours. In my brief time with it, I could never get used to the archaic feel of the combat and I could never get over the tragic loss of Cheyenne, a good girl, to dynamite at the beginning of the game. The hype didn’t help either as I was anticipating a top five gaming experience of all time.
Be careful with that Ol’ Prospector Spencer!
In 2025, my interest to play Fallout New Vegas returned as the second season of the Fallout show (Do we call it a television show if it’s only available on a streaming service?) would be taking place there and I desired to understand all of the Mojave-based lore before the new season started. Overall, I enjoyed the game, but certain elements, most prominently time, have hindered the potential of this game being able to age well. It’s a trite sentiment, but I’d love to play this game for a third time, if they finally remaster it. This isn’t a knock on New Vegas. I love Pokemon Red and Blue, but if I ever get the itch to play Gen 1 Pokemon, I’ll always opt for the remastered version of them, Fire Red or Leaf Green, on my totally legal emulator. Like all the other entries, Fallout New Vegas has its strengths and weaknesses.
Please find my specific Fallout New Vegas likes and dislikes of the game below.
*Note: I played the game on a streaming version through PlayStation, so that may have affected my gameplay. I did not play any of the DLCs. However, I restarted the game from saves in the later stages of the game to experience unique endings with different factions.
New Vegas Likes
I appreciated all the different dialogue options that were modified based on what perks you chose. One of the fairest criticisms about Fallout 4 is that you have no idea what your character will say or how a companion will react to it. The only thing that affects your speech in Fallout 4 outside of actions is your charisma level helping you pass speech checks.
The gameplay is enhanced by top notch voice acting. Even the big names did a spectacular job! I started saying “Ring a Ding Ding Baby” and “Sure Boss” to friends and family members for a couple of weeks as I was inspired by Matthew Perry’s and Danny Trejo’s performances. Ron Perlman also provided an immaculate effort as per usual in these games.
There are several fantastic companions to travel with across the wasteland. My favorites were Rex, a brainy good boy, Raul, my vaquero king, and Cass, my ride or die homegirl who was always down for a good time!
I greatly appreciated the gun type variety.
I’m a sucker for a side quest! This is probably the primary reason for why it takes me much longer than the average person to complete one of these games. Excluding companion quests, my favorite was probably Wang Dang Atomic Tango. Who knew recruiting prostitutes could be so fun? Finding F.I.S.T.O. as the final escort was the cherry on the top of this amazing quest.
My most memorable quest that was a fun shit show had to be Beyond the Beef. Cannibalism, rich asshole cattle ranchers, and game unintentionally breaking multiple times as I properly attempted to complete it made this quest the amazing mess it is. I actually tried to play stealthy for once but the game was not having it. I became indignant after a third person tried to kill me for no reason, but still found entertainment in the situation.
I adore the Kings. The whole concept behind them is simply marvelous. They’re kind of assholes but they’re charming assholes!
With their simple treasuring of explosive, the Boomers were another one of my favorite factions. Their plane arriving at the Battle of Hoover Dam as they rained bombs upon the Legions was one of my favorite moments of my playthrough. In an elated state, I shouted “The Boomers! Oh my god! Yessssss!” which likely woke up my neighbors as I finished the game.
My favorite character to interact with was Yes Man. I admired his optimism and ability to eloquently call me an idiot without calling me an idiot.
While I liked the first half of the story more than second, the climax of the story ended the game on a strong note.
I didn’t believe the hype for it, but the music amplified the gameplay and fit well for the setting. I’m happy they didn’t go with music that overlaps with other games. Although, an Elvis song playing as you enter the Strip for the first time would have made it flawless.
Finally, the variety of options, skills, dialogues, and other aspects significantly increase the game’s replayability.
New Vegas Dislikes – Some of these are a bit more nitpicky than others
This could have been best postgame in video game history!
The most salient issue in Fallout New Vegas for me and what I’d hope would be updated in a remastered version first is the graphics. The infamous PS3/Xbox 360-era brown filter on the screen made it extra difficult to traverse through buildings and vaults. It’s partially on my subpar eyesight as well, but there were more times than I could count that I spent ten or more minutes trying to find a door I needed to go through that was camouflaged by the walls around it. Freeside, one of my favorite areas of the game, was also challenging to navigate through. Many complain about the blandness of the desert environment, but the indistinguishable features of Freeside’s inaccessible buildings frustrated me as I had to watch YouTube videos for locating smaller tasks.
I was shocked to learn postgames didn’t exist in the old Fallout games. I looked forward to running New Vegas with my boy Yes Man while wearing my recently-acquired Legate Lanius armor.
I still desired more from the combat. If they combined the game’s narrative with Fallout 4’s combat, you could produce quite the game. Larger battles stirred up my aggravation as the 95% VATS chances missed more often than they hit targets.
One of my least favorite things about going back to the old Halo games and this game as well is the lack of sprint. Somehow enemies can leave combat they’re about to die from faster than Usain Bolt, but I can’t outrun a deathclaw with a pair of crippled legs.
Probably a skill issue here or maybe I’m a baby or didn’t properly dedicate point unevenly as I should have, but the first half of the game is brutal. I’m not asking for handholding like you get in Fallout 4, but it’s too easy to get into a war with sentry bots and scorpions when you’re underleveled and if you somehow survive, you’ll have little ammo remaining.
Cazadors! They’re just too agile for how powerful they are. Half the time I encountered one, I’d look at my health and notice it was at 10% before rapidly opening my Pipboy and finding the word stimpak and mashing it.
Speaking of the Pipboy, it added unnecessary stress to combat as just trying to open it would frequently feature a delay or glitch.
The strip was a bit underwhelming, but so was Diamond City in 4, so I understand the game designer’s limitations.
The Legion is a bit too over the top. A postapocalyptic Roman army is a cool idea. It just needed to be executed better. I can excuse the sexism, crucifixions, and slavery, but I draw the line at NPCs speaking Latin to me. In all seriousness, Fallout 4 doesn’t do the best either with making who’s right and who’s wrong ambiguous, but I think the factions in Fallout 4 leave more room for interpretation in an earnest playthrough with deciding who will be best for the future of the Commonwealth.
One other aspect that really pissed me off was the walls that blocked me from trying to cross a mountain in an efficient manner. This wasn’t just unrealistically jumping from rock to rock, but in places where there was some semblance of a path, but instead the game forces you to go in one specific route to a destination in the main story.
Now this may have been a PlayStation streaming issue, but the game crashed more often than it should have even for the less eventful moments of combat.