Task 2 research

Amy Brockbank

‘Fallout: New Vegas’ – Research

Game

Fallout: New Vegas is an action RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2010. The game is set in the Mojave wasteland after a nuclear apocalypse. The player plays as a courier who wakes up after being shot in the head, and attempts to go after the man who did it. For this research, I have played the PS3 version of the game, and two characters with slightly different play styles.

For my research, I will be using my own experience of the game, as well as using secondary sources.

How Did It Feel?

The game starts with a character creation section. This part of the game determines how you plan on playing the game, what your character looks like and their name and gender. Decisions made in this part of the game are final and cannot be changed after the player starts, although they can alter them just before they walk too far into the wasteland if they change their mind at the last minute.

The play style of the game is determined by the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system and the tag system. S.P.E.C.I.A.L stands for strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. The player is given 40 points to allocate to each category, which affects certain aspects of the game depending on how many points they choose to give to each category.

The tag system allows the player to pick three skills to boost at the beginning of the game which makes levelling up those skills slightly easier later on in the game.

In my opinion, the two systems work well together, and changes the way the game is played right from the very start of the game. This is also the downfall of the game, as first time players could pick skills or they don’t know how to control, or allocate S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points in the wrong places, much like I did.

There are a variety of different ways to play the game, the player could choose to play a speech or sneak based character and avoid most combat situations, or play as a combat based player and engage in fighting wherever possible.

With my first character, I chose to play as a speech based character, so I could avoid combat wherever possible, I found that this was quite an effective way to play the game, although most quests could then be solved very quickly through conversation options, which often felt so easy, it felt like I cheating my way through the game.

“I plumbed for my usual mix of lockpicking and stealth skills, eventually regretting my Thief-centric approach to character creation. My advice: New Vegas is so skewed towards dialogue that, for the first run-through at least, you should put as much as you can in Speechcraft and Barter skills. Even the final bosses can be chatted into submission if your stats are high enough. You can't lockpick a mouth.”

~PC Gamer, Craig Pearson - http://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-new-vegas-review/

1BTEC Level 3 Games Design

Amy Brockbank

With my second character, however, I chose to play as a mainly combat based character that specialised in melee weapons. This added far more challenge to the game, as most of the time I had to fight my way through battles, which requires more thought.

When using weapons or unarmed combat in the game, the player is able to use V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System), which allows the player to target enemies more effectively by calculating the probability of hitting a certain target and allowing the player to decide which parts of the enemy they wish to target without having to aim the weapon themselves. The power of each potential hit is determined by action points; each attack takes up a certain amount of action points, which then regenerate outside of V.A.T.S., meaning the player can either wait for the points to regenerate or fight manually.

I quite like this system. It makes hitting each enemy much easier, and is quite effective for taking out large amounts of enemies at once. I also like how the system isn’t mandatory to use, and is instead triggered by pressing R2, as it can occasionally make the game too easy, especially when fighting smaller enemies.

“Combat is no longer a case of simply hoping you have enough AP to finish off your assailants and running backwards if you need to recharge – VATS can be now pretty much ignored if it's not to your liking. This allows for a more visceral FPS experience for those that want it – and the option of a mix between the two styles for everyone else.”

~The Guardian, Jack Arnott - http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2010/oct/19/fallout-new-vegas-review

Combat and speech can also be enhanced with the use of alcohol and chems, which can give the player advantages such as increasing their action points and action point regeneration, increasing their resistance to damage, the ability to inflict more damage or giving the player more charisma.

Although, after each use, the chance the player’s character will become addicted to that particular type of alcohol or chem will go up, when the player becomes addicted, some of their stats will slowly decrease until they get to the nearest doctor and request to be treated.

I quite like this system, as it adds more risk to the game, and implements the use of drugs and alcohol into gameplay quite creatively. They do make the game very easy while in use, but because of the risk of addiction makes each time they are used quite tense, as addiction can make the game much harder.

Rather than using health packs or regenerative health, the game uses a system in which limbs can be crippled. The player’s character’s body is split into 6 sections, head, torso, left arm, right arm, left leg and right leg; each can be individually crippled and have their own health bar, and each have their own way of affecting the way the gameplay feels. Having the head crippled causes the player’s screen to go fuzzy every few moments; having the arms crippled reduces weapon accuracy; having the torso crippled causes the player to stumble every time they are hit; and, finally, having the legs crippled causes the player to move far more slowly.

Health and limb condition in this game can be replenished by eating food, using stimpaks or sleeping, the player may also use doctor’s bags to heal all limbs at once if they have any in their inventory. Unlike Fallout 3, food heals the player over the course of a few seconds, rather than straightaway.


Amy Brockbank

I quite like the health system in this game, as it requires the player to think about the health they have, and how best to utilise what they have in the given situation

Enemies in the game are incredibly varied, and differ in each place the player explores. In the wasteland, various creatures such as geckos and radscorpions will attempt to attack the player on sight. These creatures will generally run after the player. These creatures will eventually give up after a while if the player can outrun them, although certain creatures can be difficult to outrun as they are generally quite speedy and tend to travel in groups, although individually, they are quite easy to take down.

~ http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2010/10/fallout-nv-screen-41.jpg

~ http://images.eurogamer.net/articles//a/1/2/8/5/8/8/0/1.jpg.jpg

Also found in the wasteland are raiders, who are human enemies that are generally far harder to kill, and use tactics to dodge attacks, much like the creatures of the wasteland, they generally travel in groups, and can often be outrun, as they don’t chase after the player, and nearly always stand their ground.


Amy Brockbank

Super mutants and Nightkin are also a threat in the game, and often hide in abandoned places. They generally carry hunting rifles, assault rifles and nail boards, meaning each one requires a different tactic to take down. They generally move quite slowly, so the player can easily run away from them in wide open spaces, although, they are mainly found in tight corridors, so fighting them is often required. Nightkin are also nearly always invisible due to their frequent use of Stealth Boys, so can be far harder to detect.

~ http://images.eurogamer.net/articles//a/1/2/8/5/8/8/0/4.jpg.jpg

Overall, I think the variety of enemies in the game is quite good, considering the size of the game world; because of the large variety of enemies, the game doesn’t get boring easily, as each area the player visits requires different thought because of the variety of mechanics concerning enemies.

Levelling up in the game depends on experience points, experience points can be gained through combat or through completing quests; companions who are also travelling with the player also gain the player experience when they kill an enemy.

Every two levels gain the player a perk. Each perk gives the player an advantage with certain aspects of the game; some perks may open certain conversation options for certain characters or some may give an advantage in combat, especially when using different types of weapons.

I quite like the levelling system in this game, as the perks do make the game more interesting as it goes on. They also help to develop the player’s character and make their experience with the game much more individual, as the combination of different perks is quite vast.

“Levelling up now caps at 30 (up from 20 in the last outing) – meaning there's much more incentive to delve deeper and deeper. There's dozens of new perks to unlock, and the return of some familiar enemies and weapons from earlier in the series will do even more to delight hardcore fans.”


In this game, there is also a radiation bar in the game, which slowly goes up as the player comes into contact with irradiated sources around the wasteland. As radiation increases, the player will reach levels of radiation sickness, which affects their stats. To get rid of radiation, the player must either


Amy Brockbank

reach a doctor and pay them, or, if they have any in their inventory, use Radaway to reduce the levels of radiation.

I quite like the radiation system in this game, as it adds an extra layer of immersion into the game, and actually makes the player believe they are exploring a world that has been destroyed by nuclear weapons. It also adds extra challenge to the game, and gives the player something else to focus on while exploring.

The game also has a ‘hardcore mode’ setting, which gives the player more levels to focus on alongside their radiation level; sleep, hunger and hydration. In order to stay alive, the player must make sure that they eat and drink regularly, and sleep regularly, or else their character will start losing stats and will eventually die. The health system is also affected by hardcore mode, as crippled limbs can now no longer be healed by stimpaks, and stimpaks used to heal overall health now heal over time, rather than straight away.

“The Bear Grylls approach proves essential in Hardcore Mode, perhaps the most striking and beneficial addition to the game. Activated at the start, it plays up the survival aspect by introducing numerous realistic variables to your game. You need to eat, drink and sleep: hunger, thirst and sleep deprivation will hinder, disorient and eventually kill you if you don't keep on top of them. Ammo has weight in Hardcore Mode, so you can't merrily stuff your pockets with every shell and bullet you find. Efficient inventory planning soon becomes a pressing requirement.

Most importantly, healing items no longer instantly top up your health, but fix you over time, forcing you to be much more tactical in your confrontations. Crippled limbs must be fixed using the rare Doctor's Bag item or patched up by an actual doctor. You can't simply dash in and spam the hotkey for stimpacks during a fight, but have to really think about how you can take down, say, a cellar full of hulking Nightkin without being squished into a fine paste.”

~Eurogamer, Dan Whitehead - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-19-fallout-new-vegas-review

I quite like the hardcore mode setting; it adds a layer of realism to the game by forcing the player to take into account what humans actually have to do to stay alive. It adds to immersion, but it’s very difficult, and found myself turning it off not far into the game. I think it’s a nice idea, but it does take a lot of patience to actually get to the end of the main quest with it on.

“Oh, and you should probably avoid Hardcore mode for that first runthrough. It's the triathlon of New Vegas, a gruelling slog designed to sap your strength as you play. It's not for the ill-prepared.”

~PC Gamer, Craig Pearson - http://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-new-vegas-review/

The game also uses a companion system, where the player can take an NPC with them if they wish to help in combat situations. The player can take a total of two companions with them, one human and one non-human. There are a total of 8 companions in the game (Six human, two non-human), although in my time with the game, I have found a total of six. Each companion gives you their own individual perk, for example, the companion Arcade Gannon gives the player the ‘better healing’ perk, which increases the effectiveness of healing items used.

Although I quite like having companions around, as they make combat easier, and found that they made my XP raise higher while they were following, I found that their AI was terrible, and would consistently need talking to in order to stop attacking enemies or change their combat style. The


Amy Brockbank

added companion wheel which makes all of the options to change how companions attack accessible through one menu, rather than having to sit through piles of dialogue, makes dealing with the AI slightly easier, but it doesn’t entirely stop companions running into situations I had no intention on dealing with in the first place.

“Thankfully there are a solid number of NPC companions for you to recruit as back-up, and if you can find a buddy they'll probably look after you until you can get to grips with how everything works. Incidentally, these allies are a vast improvement on those offered by the last game: a new radial menu lets you swiftly heal them, access their inventory and adjust their tactics (although you need to be next to them to access it). Best of all you can actually talk to them this time; if you're persistent, you may even unlock a personal quest to learn a bit more about them.”

~VideoGamer.com, Neon Kelly - http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/fallout_new_vegas/review-2.html

Rather than using Fallout 3’s karma system, which defined the player as ‘good’, ‘neutral’ or ‘evil’, Fallout: New Vegas uses a reputation system, which instead tracks the player’s reputation amongst the different factions in the world. The karma system still exists in New Vegas, although it is not nearly as prominent as it was in Fallout 3.

The nature of the reputation system means that it is impossible to please all of the factions at once, siding with Caesar’s Legion will mean that the player becomes a target for the NCR and vice versa. This is a nice touch, but the difficulty in restoring reputation with a faction once it has passed a certain point means that the entire game cannot be completed with just one character, and requires multiple playthroughs to discover all of the quests.

“Fallout: New Vegas' major addition is that of faction favor. You establish a reputation with various towns and organizations by doing them favors or annoying them in some way or another. Which factions you align with has both subtle and profound consequences. If you're liked, a random somebody might run up to you bearing minor gifts, such as an iguana on a stick. (Mmm, tasty.) Or if you've gained a more violent reputation, a mugger might accost you with violent intentions, only to run off when he recognizes you…

Your faction relationships also have much more dramatic consequences on your adventure, opening up new quests while closing off others. The game is sometimes a bit opaque regarding how your actions may inadvertently affect the way a particular faction sees you, but this complexity manifests itself in awesome ways as you near the end of your travels.”

~Gamespot, Kevin VanOrd - http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/fallout-new-vegas-review/1900-6282605/

The game is set in the Mojave wasteland, which means most of the world has quite a brown and plain colour palette, which fits as it adds to the post-apocalyptic atmosphere. There are radiation risks scattered around the world which add to the feeling of being in a post-nuclear wasteland, although I think Fallout 3 captured the feeling of living in a post-apocalyptic world better than Fallout: New Vegas did, whereas Fallout: New Vegas feels much more like a western.


Amy Brockbank

~ http://static2.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/gamespot/images/2010/293/reviews/1592427-959559_20101021_001.jpg

“This isn't the barren, blasted wasteland of Washington DC from the previous game. There's plant life, some of it edible. There's a semblance of order, thanks to the soldiers of the New California Republic. Even the quaint bottle-cap currency has become slightly more official, vying for economic dominance with the banknotes of the NCR. Just as Red Dead Redemption poised its tale in the dying days of the Old West, so New Vegas sets you down in a post-apocalyptic world on the verge of forging a new society.”

~Eurogamer, Dan Whitehead - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-19-fallout-new-vegas-review

If the player heads north, however, they will eventually hit Freeside, which will then lead them to the New Vegas Strip. The New Vegas Strip has a 2000 cap requirement to enter, although it is very different to the rest of the wasteland.

The story of Fallout: New Vegas is quite simple. The player is a courier trying to find the man who shot them in the head and took the platinum chip they were meant to deliver. They then find themselves in a far bigger situation than they thought, involving many sides over power and the control of New Vegas. The good thing about New Vegas, though, is that you can complete the storyline at your own pace, in fact, it is discouraged to rush through the main storyline as fast as possible, as the wasteland is full of hazards that will kill a lower level player instantly, as well as the 2000 cap requirement to get into New Vegas the first time around. If the player wishes, they can forget the main storyline completely, and focus on side quests.

There are hundreds characters the player will encounter in the wasteland, the first character the player will encounter outside a cutscene is Doc Mitchell, who patches the player up and runs through the character creation process to create the look of the player’s character and the character’s stats, then, lets them go into the wasteland.

If the player wishes, they can then visit Sunny Smiles, who keeps Goodsprings free from threats, to run through the tutorial for the game, which teaches the player how to shoot, sneak, craft items and deal with quests. On the first playthrough, its best to listen to what she has to say, even if the player has played the previous 3D Fallout title, Fallout 3, as some aspects of the game differ.


Amy Brockbank

Overall, both these characters do a good job of easing the player into the game, although they are a little boring, and I didn’t feel compelled to visit them again after I had ventured into the wasteland, nor do they give any quests after the tutorial.

Some of the more interesting characters in the game come from the two sides of the fight, the NCR and Caesar’s Legion, as well as the different factions; The Brotherhood Of Steel, The Great Khans, The Boomers, The Followers Of The Apocalypse; and the Powder Gangers. There are also the three families on The Strip; The Omertas, The Chairmen and the White-Glove Society.

When you first enter The New Vegas Strip, the player is invited inside the Lucky 38, where Mr House, the mysterious ruler of The Strip, resides. His main goal is to take Vegas away from the NCR completely by using the platinum chip to upgrade the Securitrons and work towards re-routing the power from Hoover Dam towards The Strip. Throughout the game, he comes across as quite an untrustworthy character, although he was the one who requested that the Platinum Chip to be delivered to him.

Also in The Strip is The Tops Casino, which is owned by The Chairmen. The Chairmen are led by Benny, who the player learns in the quest ‘They Went That-a-Way’ is the man who shot them in the head at the start of the game. Benny is quite a shifty character who betrays his entire family, as well as Mr House, by attempting to take over New Vegas with the help of a re-programmed Securitron named Yes-Man. He is quite a charming, although extremely untrustworthy, character.

The re-programmed Securitron, Yes-Man, is also quite a big part of the game, because of his programmed willingness to be helpful to everyone; he will instantly start to help the player in the retrieval of the Platinum Chip. Yes-Man is quite a cheery character, who wants to do nothing but help the player try to take over New Vegas themselves.

In the Ultra-Luxe, the most expensive casino located on The Strip, is The White-Glove Society, which is run by Marjorie and Mortimer. The staff inside the casino all wear masks, and act as polite as possible. Although the interior of the casino is the nicest of the three, it comes across as creepy, like something is amiss.

The last of the three casinos run by The Three Families is Gomorrah, which is run by The Omertas. The Omertas are led by Big Sal and Nero, and also act and dress like old style gangsters. Gomorrah is the sleaziest casino of the three

Outside of the New Vegas Strip is Caesar’s Legion, a group of focussed, disciplined men who want to take the north away from the NCR and either enslave or integrate everyone into their system depending on age, gender and condition.

I found that Caesar’s Legion were portrayed as a completely evil faction, unlike the rest of the factions within the game, which I found made them quite unlikable, and made it difficult to play through their quests.

Fighting Caesar’s Legion is a group named NCR, which stands for New California Republic. NCR’s aim is to bring order to the Mojave Wasteland, and eventually rebuild it. The NCR has many members, because of this; some members use the powers of the NCR for their own gain


Amy Brockbank

I much prefer NCR to Caesar’s Legion, simply because there are far more interesting characters within NCR’s ranks, with varying devotion to the cause, and much more personality.

The soundtrack of the game is split into two sections, the music you hear in game, and the licenced music that is played through the radio stations that air across the Mojave Wasteland which can either be heard through speakers, jukeboxes, or played through the player’s Pip-Boy.

The licenced music that appears through the radio is mainly from the 40’s and 50’s, which fits the atmosphere of the game very well

The radio stations are often not just music; Radio New Vegas and Black Mountain Radio both have presenters between tracks, although this can get repetitive after a while, even though Radio New Vegas occasionally updates if certain quests are completed (Similar to Fallout 3’s Galaxy News Radio station.), Black Mountain Radio will disappear entirely after completion of the quest ‘Crazy, Crazy, Crazy’ and instead just be the sound of static.

Outside of the stations is the normal in game music. The music sounds reminiscent of what you would find in a western, which fits the style of the game very well.

Public Reception

Fallout: New Vegas received positive reviews from critics and fans of the series, who praised the game for sticking to the lore of the original isometric Fallout games, unlike Fallout 3, which portrayed certain factions of the wasteland incorrectly (Such as The Brotherhood Of Steel and Super Mutants). The game scored 84 on Metacritic, with a total user score of 8.4.

Source: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/fallout-new-vegas

The game made a total of over $300 million, and shortly after release, retailers were requesting re-orders for the game due to its popularity, despite reports of bugs, which caused corrupted save files and crashes (Most of which were quickly sorted by Bethesda shortly after release.)

Overall, the game was a success from a financial point of view.

As mentioned above, the game was subject to many bugs on release, and although Bethesda and Obsidian worked to remove most of the bugs, quite a few still remain, which angered quite a few fans. (Even I encountered quite a few graphical glitches while playing the game 4 years after release.)

“Unfortunately, Fallout: New Vegas isn't technically capable of supporting these high ambitions. Simply put, it frequently breaks in some of the most phenomenal ways. You can't mention any given aspect of its design without also mentioning a related bug--and the more you explore and the more you do, the more the game buckles under its own weight. Your companion may not initiate a conversation with her elder, forcing you to reload a saved game or ignore the quest. A mutant for hire will respond to your request to continue the quest with the same dialogue that he delivers if you tell him you need more time. Scripting errors abound in which things that are supposed to happen never do, while in many other cases, inexplicable events occur that will boggle your mind. Locals will freak out and run around as if someone is brandishing a weapon and then stop and walk back to their assigned positions. A vendor might attack you unprovoked, even if you have a golden reputation in that town and are dressed in neutral clothing. Sometimes, it's unclear if you're unaware of a contributing factor or if the game is simply going bonkers.”


Amy Brockbank

~Gamespot, Kevin VanOrd - http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/fallout-new-vegas-review/1900-6282483/

Some fans also complained about its similarity to Fallout 3, which was released two years before, as the two look very similar, and play quite similarly, too. Fallout: New Vegas did add more complex mechanics, but overall, it still felt a lot like Fallout 3.

“While we're dwelling on the negatives, critics will point out that New Vegas is far from being Fallout 4 – and it's true, the majority of tweaks and new features are unlikely to greatly affect what is a near-identical gameplay experience.”


I also conducted a survey, using Survey Monkey, into the game based on the opinions of others on the game, as well as previous instalments of the Fallout series.


Amy Brockbank

I received 5 replies for my survey, with varying replies. I first asked if the respondents had played Fallout: New Vegas, which two had.

The two people who had played the game then went on to give their opinions on the game.

Overall, I found that the story, characters and levelling system in the game were quite popular with the two people who answered the question. Interestingly, hardcore mode was the least popular with the two respondents. This may have something to do with the fact that one of the respondents had not previously played any other game in the Fallout series.

I then asked the respondents if they had previously played any other game in the Fallout series, which, again, two had.


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I then asked the two who said yes what titles they had previously played. One respondent who had played Fallout: New Vegas said that they had previously played Fallout 3, whereas the other who hadn’t said that they played the first two games in the series.

I then asked for a small written opinion on the games they had played. The respondent who had played Fallout 3 claimed that the game was ‘fantastic’, and the respondent who had played the first two in the series said that the games had a ‘nice style’.

Overall, the response towards the Fallout series, including New Vegas, has been very positive.

Evaluation


Amy Brockbank

Overall, I quite like this game, the world is full of stuff to do, and there is plenty to explore around the map, because not every location on the map is revealed straight away, exploration is encouraged, which I feel helps a game like this a lot.

I feel that the difficulty in this game is incredibly balanced, and works well with the levelling system, meaning that certain areas cannot be accessed unless the player is a higher level, meaning, even as the game goes on, there is still something to do in the game’s world, even almost 100 hours into the game, I still have many locations to explore, and quests to find.

I like the style of the game, as well as it’s sound design, although, because the game was built on an aging engine, the game hasn’t aged well visually over the years, although, given the size of the game and the amount of content, I soon forgot the aging visuals.

The gameplay is still fun, and I like the way that some quests can be completed in a variety of ways. I also like the fact that each playthrough is different, as the allocation of points after each level makes certain aspects of the game easier and more effective.


Task 2 research

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