Fallout New Vegas

It took me three years but I finally beat Fallout New Vegas.  Notice how I said beat and not completed.  I took a long break somewhere in the 2012 era to explore other video game venues but I always came back to good old New Vegas.  In case you have not played the game I will fill you in on some of the broader details because this game has just so much in it that I could not possibly fill you in on all the hidden treasures in New Vegas.  Warning for a three year old game spoilers abound.

Every Fallout game takes place in a post-nuclear "fallout" world where the human race has survived by staying inside massive bunkers called vaults.  Inside the vaults you have no access to the outside world so the society does not know whether it is safe or not to exit the vault.  If you were not lucky enough to make it into a vault then you are either dead or mutated beyond recognition.  Despite the gruesome appearance of most mutations some of these mutants are perfectly well adjusted people.  So now that you have a decent handle on the Fallout universe, our story begins.

The game opens up with you being shot in the head; but don't worry you get better.  Apparently, although the Earth literally exploded we've made marvelous medical advances since the nuclear holocaust.  The doctor who heals you asks you some questions about yourself which is a clever way to implement the character customization screen.  I made my character look like Samuel L Jackson and I think I named him Coffin because that's what I normally do but for the life of me I can't remember.  The doctor mentions that that's a strange name and the rest of the game you're referred to as the courier.  Well why the fuck did you let me name my character in the first place?  Anyway, since your shooter thinks your dead you need to track him down, find out why he did it and see that justice is done.  As you may have already gleamed from the game's title you need to make your way to the big city New Vegas but it's never about the end point is it?  It's about the journey; and boy is this a journey!  Along the way you meet a colorful cast of companion characters who will assist you on your quest as long as you remember to never break the cardinal rule of only one humanoid companion and one "other."  Though I worked with as many of the companions I could find in order to gain experience the team I used the most was a woman named Veronica and a floating eye robot named Ed-e.  I liked Veronica because she worked for the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization that was set on collecting all dangerous technology in the world and making sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands.  I remembered the Brotherhood from previous games and always thought they were an interesting group.  Also Veronica had a great ass and I was hoping there would be a sex scene with her but alas my hopes were dashed.  The reason I picked Ed-e was because... Well he's a fucking flying robot that shoots lasers.  Later in the game I got a cyborg-dog named Rex that I used to replace Ed-e but I got him so late in the game that I may have well have just stuck with Ed-e and skipped Rex's quest entirely.  Aside from the Brotherhood of Steel you also come across two other factions, The New California Republic (NCR) and Caesar's Legion.  The NCR represents the good side of the game by representing the last hope of an army in the wasteland that has become America and most likely the rest of the world.  Caesar's Legion represents the evil side by literally crucifying people, keeping slaves and doing things like holding lotteries in random towns to see who gets to live.  This is one of my biggest problems with the game.  There is absolutely no gray area in New Vegas between good and evil.  You either join the army like you ma and pa or fuckin' crucify people.  What if I just kind of want to be a dick to people?  Or what if I want to be a conscientious objector (you know a coward)?  Well unfortunately I would die pretty quick if that were the case because you stumble upon either an NCR camp or a Caesar's Legion hideout pretty often and if you don't pick a side fast you're going to die fast.  So I chose NCR, I'll be evil next time I play in two years, but at the end of the game it doesn't even matter.  You essentially get to choose which groups of people you want to destroy and which groups you want to live but you can NOT choose the NCR!  They die no matter what.  I also noticed that I could NOT choose Caesar's Legion which means that my next play through will have only a slightly different ending.  But like I said before it's not about the ending it's about the journey.

It may not sound like it but whatever I had to complain about I had to really dig to find.  New Vegas is a great game.  It's published by Bethesda the same company that brought us Skyrim and in all honestly I liked it a bit more than Skyrim.  I do plan on playing through it again someday and seeing what other options open up to me depending on the different paths I take so stay tuned for that post some time in 2016.