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(Naturally, this post contains spoilers, to the point where it will likely be incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't finished the game. You have been warned.)
There were four first-person games I played for the first time and greatly enjoyed in 2020 and 2021: The Outer Worlds, Fallout: New Vegas, BioShock, and Fallout 3. Of these four games, Fallout: New Vegas was the only one I felt didn't live up to its full potential. I don't think it's a bad game. I think it's a great game, but ultimately undeserving of the "masterpiece" label so many people have slapped on it. Here's why.
Two Small Things That Really Annoy Me
#1: When you ask Victor in Goodsprings about the people who attacked you, he says he didn't recognize them, but when you meet up with him outside Boulder City and ask him if he's seen Benny, he knows exactly who you're talking about. So either Victor was lying, or the writers forgot that Victor knows Benny.
#2: It makes no sense for Benny to own a pistol with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it, considering the actual person he's based on was Jewish.
Neither of these issues are big deals by any means, but they irritate me.
The Karma System Is Useless
You can't finish Cass's quest if you have negative Karma, but that's about the only thing it does.
Companion Quests
If it hadn't been for the wiki, I would never have known what to do to trigger ED-E's, Boone's, Veronica's, or Arcade's companion quests, or that Lily and Raul had companion quests at all, because those quests are unmarked.
It also irks me that there are no happy endings for Veronica and Lily no matter what you do. Veronica ends up isolated and lonely regardless of whether you encourage her to stay in the Brotherhood of Steel or join the Followers of the Apocalypse, or whether or not you destroy the Brotherhood bunker. Either Lily treats her schizophrenia but forgets her grandchildren, she remembers her grandchildren but her schizophrenia goes untreated, or she loses all sense of herself and becomes a psychotic monster. I might just be biased, because Veronica is my favorite character and Lily reminds me of my grandmother, but whatever.
Exploration Is For Losers
I never realized how small and cramped the map in Fallout: New Vegas felt until I played Fallout 3. In Fallout 3, you start off in the very center of the map and are free to go in whatever direction you want, with no obvious signs pointing to quest objectives. In Fallout: New Vegas, there's always a road leading to your destination or a landmark visible in the distance. Exploration in Fallout 3 made me feel like I could take my time and just relax, while exploration in Fallout: New Vegas felt more like "hurry up and get here already," which isn't really exploration if you ask me.
Mismatched Aesthetics
Fallout: New Vegas is very aesthetically incoherent. The overall aesthetic of the Fallout series is "1950s America, but it's been destroyed by nuclear war." Since this particular installment is set in the Mojave Desert, it adds an Old West flavor. The New California Republic and the Boomers draw inspiration from the Allied forces in World War Two. Caesar's Legion is an in-universe attempt to recreate the Roman Empire. The Great Khans are obviously based on the ancient Mongols. Finally, we have the Strip, which has a mob-movie feel to it; fitting, since Benny is based on an actual mobster and Mr. House is based on the guy who produced the original Scarface. Do you get what I'm saying? It's hard to become immersed in a game when the various factions and locations don't look like they all belong in the same game.
The NCR and the Great Khans have made appearances in previous Fallout games, so they can stay. The Boomers and the Strip loosely fit into the 1950s theme, so they're fine. On the other hand, Caesar's Legion sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. As for the cowboy theme, it disappears by the time you reach Novac, which is fairly early on in the game, and never really shows up again. If you're going to make a Western-themed Fallout game, why half-ass it like this?
Your Choices Matter...Or Do They?
These are the last words you hear in Fallout: New Vegas:
"And so the Courier's road came to an end...for now. In the new world of the Mojave Wasteland, fighting continued, blood was spilled, and many lived and died just as they had in the Old World. Because war...war never changes."
No wonder I'm always left with this weird feeling of "Is that it? At the end of the day, does it really matter who controls Hoover Dam?"
Caesar's Legion are very clearly set up as the bad guys, but other than that, I don't feel like the game makes a particularly strong case either for or against helping the NCR hold on to Hoover Dam, helping Mr. House kick the NCR and the Legion out of the Mojave Wasteland altogether, or finishing what Benny started and taking New Vegas for yourself. Sure, Mr. House has you murder the Brotherhood, but even if you don't want to do that, you still have the choice of siding with the NCR or Yes Man, and since both those options get you happy endings for pretty much every companion and minor faction if you completed their quests in certain ways, I'm not sure why you would side with one over the other.
I didn't touch on the DLCs in this post, but they all made me feel like I'd accomplished something meaningful when I finished them. I don't get that same feeling from the base game. It's not like I have no emotional investment in anyone—the Great Khans' and the Misfits' best endings in particular tend to make me choke up—but doing most of the side quests, and thereby getting most of the ending slides, is completely optional. The outro quoted above implies that life in the Mojave Wasteland doesn't actually change that much no matter who's in charge; therefore, your actions haven't actually had that much of an impact. A satisfactory game ending should have the reward be worth the struggle, and I don't feel like that's the case here.
No matter how many times I get the good ending in The Outer Worlds, I'm always filled with a profound sense of joy. The good endings of BioShock and Fallout 3 moved me to tears. When it comes to either of the "good" endings in Fallout: New Vegas, I feel nothing.
Conclusion
As I stated in the intro to this post, I don't hate Fallout: New Vegas. I love it. But every time I play it, I'm reminded of how I could love it even more than I already do if just a few things were different. And that, to me, is the most frustrating thing of all.
There were four first-person games I played for the first time and greatly enjoyed in 2020 and 2021: The Outer Worlds, Fallout: New Vegas, BioShock, and Fallout 3. Of these four games, Fallout: New Vegas was the only one I felt didn't live up to its full potential. I don't think it's a bad game. I think it's a great game, but ultimately undeserving of the "masterpiece" label so many people have slapped on it. Here's why.
Two Small Things That Really Annoy Me
#1: When you ask Victor in Goodsprings about the people who attacked you, he says he didn't recognize them, but when you meet up with him outside Boulder City and ask him if he's seen Benny, he knows exactly who you're talking about. So either Victor was lying, or the writers forgot that Victor knows Benny.
#2: It makes no sense for Benny to own a pistol with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it, considering the actual person he's based on was Jewish.
Neither of these issues are big deals by any means, but they irritate me.
The Karma System Is Useless
You can't finish Cass's quest if you have negative Karma, but that's about the only thing it does.
Companion Quests
If it hadn't been for the wiki, I would never have known what to do to trigger ED-E's, Boone's, Veronica's, or Arcade's companion quests, or that Lily and Raul had companion quests at all, because those quests are unmarked.
It also irks me that there are no happy endings for Veronica and Lily no matter what you do. Veronica ends up isolated and lonely regardless of whether you encourage her to stay in the Brotherhood of Steel or join the Followers of the Apocalypse, or whether or not you destroy the Brotherhood bunker. Either Lily treats her schizophrenia but forgets her grandchildren, she remembers her grandchildren but her schizophrenia goes untreated, or she loses all sense of herself and becomes a psychotic monster. I might just be biased, because Veronica is my favorite character and Lily reminds me of my grandmother, but whatever.
Exploration Is For Losers
I never realized how small and cramped the map in Fallout: New Vegas felt until I played Fallout 3. In Fallout 3, you start off in the very center of the map and are free to go in whatever direction you want, with no obvious signs pointing to quest objectives. In Fallout: New Vegas, there's always a road leading to your destination or a landmark visible in the distance. Exploration in Fallout 3 made me feel like I could take my time and just relax, while exploration in Fallout: New Vegas felt more like "hurry up and get here already," which isn't really exploration if you ask me.
Mismatched Aesthetics
Fallout: New Vegas is very aesthetically incoherent. The overall aesthetic of the Fallout series is "1950s America, but it's been destroyed by nuclear war." Since this particular installment is set in the Mojave Desert, it adds an Old West flavor. The New California Republic and the Boomers draw inspiration from the Allied forces in World War Two. Caesar's Legion is an in-universe attempt to recreate the Roman Empire. The Great Khans are obviously based on the ancient Mongols. Finally, we have the Strip, which has a mob-movie feel to it; fitting, since Benny is based on an actual mobster and Mr. House is based on the guy who produced the original Scarface. Do you get what I'm saying? It's hard to become immersed in a game when the various factions and locations don't look like they all belong in the same game.
The NCR and the Great Khans have made appearances in previous Fallout games, so they can stay. The Boomers and the Strip loosely fit into the 1950s theme, so they're fine. On the other hand, Caesar's Legion sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. As for the cowboy theme, it disappears by the time you reach Novac, which is fairly early on in the game, and never really shows up again. If you're going to make a Western-themed Fallout game, why half-ass it like this?
Your Choices Matter...Or Do They?
These are the last words you hear in Fallout: New Vegas:
"And so the Courier's road came to an end...for now. In the new world of the Mojave Wasteland, fighting continued, blood was spilled, and many lived and died just as they had in the Old World. Because war...war never changes."
No wonder I'm always left with this weird feeling of "Is that it? At the end of the day, does it really matter who controls Hoover Dam?"
Caesar's Legion are very clearly set up as the bad guys, but other than that, I don't feel like the game makes a particularly strong case either for or against helping the NCR hold on to Hoover Dam, helping Mr. House kick the NCR and the Legion out of the Mojave Wasteland altogether, or finishing what Benny started and taking New Vegas for yourself. Sure, Mr. House has you murder the Brotherhood, but even if you don't want to do that, you still have the choice of siding with the NCR or Yes Man, and since both those options get you happy endings for pretty much every companion and minor faction if you completed their quests in certain ways, I'm not sure why you would side with one over the other.
I didn't touch on the DLCs in this post, but they all made me feel like I'd accomplished something meaningful when I finished them. I don't get that same feeling from the base game. It's not like I have no emotional investment in anyone—the Great Khans' and the Misfits' best endings in particular tend to make me choke up—but doing most of the side quests, and thereby getting most of the ending slides, is completely optional. The outro quoted above implies that life in the Mojave Wasteland doesn't actually change that much no matter who's in charge; therefore, your actions haven't actually had that much of an impact. A satisfactory game ending should have the reward be worth the struggle, and I don't feel like that's the case here.
No matter how many times I get the good ending in The Outer Worlds, I'm always filled with a profound sense of joy. The good endings of BioShock and Fallout 3 moved me to tears. When it comes to either of the "good" endings in Fallout: New Vegas, I feel nothing.
Conclusion
As I stated in the intro to this post, I don't hate Fallout: New Vegas. I love it. But every time I play it, I'm reminded of how I could love it even more than I already do if just a few things were different. And that, to me, is the most frustrating thing of all.
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