After the financial failure of Interplay, Feargus Urquhart left with several co-workers to form Obsidian Entertainment in 2003. Bethesda, having acquired the Fallout license, approached Obsidian with the proposition of a fourth, spin-off Fallout game.

After about a year, Obsidian released Fallout: New Vegas to positive reviews. However, a buggy release caused New Vegas to receive an 84 on Metacritic, which is not a bad score, but considering Obsidian was paid upfront by Bethesda and got only a bonus for getting an 85 or over, their effort was for naught. Today after many fixes, the game is recognized as one of the best RPGs of all time, and my personal favorite game of all time.

New Vegas uses the same engine as Fallout 3 (explaining the bugs) so most of the game mechanics were similar to its predecessor. However, almost every aspect was improved upon, such as gun sights, perk selection, difficulty and weapon degradation. The only thing it didn’t improve on was Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) from Fallout 3, which was perfect the way it was before. The textures were given new life with brighter sand colors, and the world was full and lively. The quest errors were the only negatives I found, but most of the issues stemmed from Bethesda’s engine.

The story takes place in the Mojave desert, after the events of Fallout 1, 2, and timeline-wise, 3. The player is a courier, assigned to deliver a platinum poker chip to the protected Las Vegas strip, who is robbed and left for dead. It’s up to the player to track down the attacker, and uncover a plot to control Vegas and the Hoover Dam.

I found the story to be the best in the entire Fallout series, as well as a deeper return to its roots. It’s only a shame that the team behind it didn’t receive the credit they deserve.

Ratings (Out of 10)

Graphics: 9

Music: 10

Cinematics: 10

Story: 10

Content: 10

Controls: 10

Gameplay: 10

Final Rating: 9.8 + Clark Seal of Masterpiece

Fallout: New Vegas is, and always will be my favorite game, and I hope you’ll give it a shot. The replayability, direction, and effort truly show, and should be rewarded. Hopefully more game developers will follow in Obsidians footsteps.

-Ethan Clark