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Fallout: New Vegas is the latest instalment in the Fallout franchise, which spans over 13 years in the video game industry. The Fallout series follows an alternate future to our own, where nuclear war breaks out across the planet in the year 2077, each instalment of the main series focuses on mankind’s survival in the wastelands of America, with the events of Fallout: New Vegas taking place in 2281 in the state of what is currently known as Nevada – namely Las Vegas (four years after the events of Fallout 3 in Washington D.C.). The bombs never directly hit New Vegas, but that’s not to say that mankind isn’t struggling to survive in the Mojave wastes.

The background story sounds remarkable, but does Fallout: New Vegas recreate the incredible adventure produced by Bethesda with Fallout 3? Or does the game fall victim to what so many other franchises have collapsed into – being carbon copies of their predecessors?

Unfortunately, it seems the latter is true more than the former, but that’s not such a bad thing. Fallout 3 really did nail the RPG genre, with a massive playable area, mounds of quests, collectibles and things to do, and a brilliant story to go along with it – so I guess Bethesda and Obsidian went with the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” right? Now that saying is a good law to abide by, but Obsidian really don’t seemed to have changed much at all – there are a few extra features dotted around, but the interface is the same, the graphics are the same, I could go on, sure it’s nice to have the same style of game, but there just isn’t enough here to make me feel like I’ve bought an entirely new game, it just feels too samey; like a massive expansion pack to Fallout 3.

Faction gameplay is one of the best new additions to the game - leading to several different endings.

The story, it has to be said, is clearly inferior to the emotional journey with your father in Fallout 3. The first few moments of the game result in you being shot, apparently dead, until you are dug up by a robot in the small wasteland town of Goodsprings. You wake up in the hands of Doc Mitchell, who takes you through the basics of moving around, and helps you to configure your starting stats. The old but intuitive system known as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is back, where you designate points to each of the seven main disciplines which in turn determine your effectiveness at various skills, identical to Fallout 3.

Obsidian though, have added a new feature to the mix this time, with the addition of traits. There are several different traits to choose from, each giving you a stat bonus whilst decreasing a different stat. For example, one trait makes you shoot 20% faster, but with 20% less accuracy. You can select up to two traits which stick with you for the entire game, although you don’t have to choose any if you don’t want to. One trait that you might consider using though, is the Wild Wasteland trait, which alters some of your encounters in the wastelands to make them a bit more crazy, it’s well worth having a go if you feel like having a slightly more humorous time in your travels.

Just before stepping out into the wasteland for the first time, you are given the choice to choose Hardcore mode. This mode can be enabled regardless of the difficulty you want to play at, and enables some realistic features to make your questing just that little bit more challenging. In Hardcore mode, ammunition and currency have weight, meaning you have to be much more selective about the weapons you use and the ammo you pick up; you will also need to stay refreshed, well fed and most importantly hydrated by constantly topping up your water, hunger and sleep levels – all of which are maintained in their own ways. Hardcore mode provides a much relished challenge to veterans of the series, and in many ways it differs the experience from Fallout 3 just enough, so that you feel like you’re playing a new game.

The inclusion of a down-the-sights shooting mode greatly eases the challenge of combat without the use of VATS.

Once you begin the story, you’ll find that it sets off a bit slow, within the 10 minutes of the game you are free to roam wherever, however once you make it to New Vegas, the game changes. There are now several casinos where you can gamble, you can look around the city and do a variety of side quests there, and the story really begins to open up. The story improves as you get further into it, and once you reach a certain point there are choices you will have to make which will affect the ending of the game – there are four distinct endings depending on how you play the game. Sadly, if you complete the last mission, you cannot go and roam the wastes for ever more, but Obsidian give you adequate warnings when you’re reaching ‘the point of no return’.

One of the most notable things added to the gameplay in Fallout: New Vegas is the down-the-sights mode for combat. This much needed feature makes combat a great deal easier to control with a much reduced need of resorting to VATS mode, which is as disgustingly brilliant as ever. Weapons now display their condition bar when equipped, with the threshold for breakages clearly marked on the scale – allowing you to gauge the ability and condition of your current weapon.

One of the new features to Fallout: New Vegas, the companion wheel.

Another welcome addition to the arsenal of Fallout gameplay is the gambling and other diversions. If you require a break from your avid questing throughout the wasteland then you can stop by New Vegas and play one of three mini games in any of the casinos (of which there are three on ‘The Strip’) – Slots, Roulette and Blackjack. The minigames are well implemented, and one can spend hours making hundreds of caps on any of these minigames – not to mention the fact that these are what deviate New Vegas from Fallout 3. When you’re not on the Strip or near New Vegas, a card game known as Caravan is playable with several NPCs featured in the game, and while the rules aren’t explained too clearly (see this article for more info) once you get the hang of it, it is a worthwhile diversion to get in to.

It’s not all good on the gameplay front though, with most doors, gates and cave entrances requiring a full loading screen rather than a simple quick load to the location. Loading is abundant, simply said, in fact you’ll probably spend a considerable amount of your game staring at the loading screen. I’m not saying that loading is a bad thing in games and that all games should have no loading whatsoever, what I’m saying is that New Vegas tends to greet you with 10-15 second loading screens whenever you move from one area to another – and the more you play the game, the more aggravating these loading screens become.

One of the biggest let downs in the game is the lack of any noticeable updates to graphics or the interface, with both being nearly identical to Fallout 3. It wouldn’t be as bad if the game played better, and although the framerate does run slightly smoother in general, the game freezes for up to a second every so often when roaming the wasteland, with some freezes completely crashing the game – forcing you to reset. The crashes are few and far between to begin with, my first crash was about 20 hours in, however as you do more and more tasks and collect more and more items, the game seems to crash more frequently – my game crashed about 5 times within the next 20 hours of gameplay.

Graphics aren't overly great, but they are just bearable.

Which brings me on to my next topic, the music. The songs played on the radio aren’t nearly as good as found in Fallout 3, and the radios seem to repeat the same 7 songs over and over again, even though there are a large amount available. I ended up turning the radio off and listening to the music composed for the game, bringing about a much more immersive experience, especially when crawling through the Vaults. It has to be said that the soundtrack is very well suited to the game, and I found that using the radio sparingly was the best way to get a varied soundtrack to your adventures.

All in all, Fallout: New Vegas will take maybe 15 hours to complete the main storyline, but like almost every other RPG out there, that’s not all you should do. With over a hundred side quests and even more locations to explore, this addictive game will undoubtedly keep you playing for at the very very least 30 hours, with there easily being an extra 60 hours of game to mess around with. The addition of multiple faction endings adds a sense of replayability to the game, good replayability, the type that actually makes me want to play through the game again, and that’s what I love best about Fallout: New Vegas, the addictive gameplay which never seems to end.

Fallout: New Vegas is a welcome return to the Fallout series, emulating the incredible game that was Fallout 3. The game scores most of its points for that fantastic level of freedom that is almost unparalleled by any other game; the Mojave Wasteland is packed to the brim with quests, challenges and treasures to keep you playing for an age. The graphics are slightly improved, and there are a few welcome new features, along with a few not so welcome bugs, but as immersive as the game is, it is hard to shake the feeling of déjà vu that is so prominent.

The addition of Hardcore mode, gambling and more have saved Fallout: New Vegas from what could have been a train wreck of a game, which it clearly isn’t. Newcomers will find the post-apocalyptic world fresh and veterans will relish the chance to play a game just like Fallout 3, but what will hold Fallout: New Vegas back from its true glory is that it will always be uncannily like Fallout 3.

Fallout: New Vegas provides a short and relatively sweet story line, along with some pretty awful bugs and outdated graphics, but those problems almost pale in comparison to the hours that you’ll spend roaming the wastes, making morally ambiguous choices and shaping the future of the Mojave wasteland. New Vegas provides an experience like no other found on the PS3 at the moment (except Fallout 3), and that’s what makes this game so undeniably brilliant.