Following my strategy of "only buying games after their sequel comes out", I just started playing New Vegas.
I'm only a little way in, but the "starter pack" DLC's (that came with the GOTY edition) are already grating on me. They feel kinda tacked-on and OP - seriously, there's about a thousand caps worth of stuff you get right off the bat, including mint-condition weapons and armor.
Vegas is still my favourite Fallout - I've played 3 and 4, not any others. For me Vegas is the ONE. I could go into great detail why, but won't right now.
The minuteman quests repeat so do thm as long as you like to level up.
Discovered a fun thing to do. Joining the Brotherhood at a higher level (over 30), getting straight to the Prydwin, getting your new set of T-60 armor from them, then taking them all out while the leader is doing his big racist speech (managed it with the Cryolator, Fat Man, Flamer, and a decently leveled assault rifle with armor piercing, oh, also with Curie as a companion in Power Armor)
Clearing the blimp is pretty straightforward, although you do have to hide in rooms a bit to heal/etc, but yeah.
The real challenge is having to jump down to the airport as you can't take the vertibirds (naturally they're already shooting at you), landing down at the Boston airport, even if you hit the water, there's no cover and like 30 odd BoS soldiers down there.
Good fun! (Y)
Oh my GOD. Jumping from the Prydwen. WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS?
Unlike the Brotherhood, who have been in every major game, and a joinable faction most of the time? There's been no indication that the Enclave operate in this area, aside from their power armors. The Institute seems to mostly fill that role in this game... But that doesn't rule them out from appearing in a DLC. It doesn't mean they will either though. Enclave bases do seem to be scattered all over the place though, so I seriously doubt the lost of a few cells is going to stop them from appearing again, eventually.
I had assumed the Institute WERE the Enclave...
So yeah I finally finished the main quest of this having bought it in January, and, well...
On some levels: I love this game.
On several other, fairly important levels:
Fuck this game up the wrong 'un.Some of the gameplay changes I am down with. I like the difficulty curve, I like the changes to VATS, I like only having one companion (because I got way too OP in the other games). I like being
able to build a settlement.
But come on. Only four speech options, which amount to 'the only one you will ever use' 'maybe' 'no' and 'sarcastic'? The same bullshit dialogue more or less regardless of what you say apart from some low key hostility?
The almost
complete lack of
any direction in so many cases, including with how the perks system works (yep, I am not alone in this, but I levelled up the entirety of my SPECIALS to 10 because of how little indication I was given that I didn't have to, by the time I had my first perk I was like Level 50 and unstoppable), how to assign a settler to do something (you have 500 corn plants, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU hungry?), the padding, padding, padding (your fucking daughter got kidnapped AGAIN?), the replacement of most of the customisation of your character with fancy weapon mods, the fact that the workshop's own interface and my Pip Boy disagree on what amounts to 'enough' for a settlement to not have an alarm on it, the fact that if a character has a quest on offer or an event you can ONLY TRIGGER THAT SHIT meaning I had to introduce myself to every single asshole on the Prydwen before I could finish a quest I started with Paladin Danse about ten gameplay hours ago, the shitty dialogue system that means your companion will keep shouting at you that they want to talk EVEN WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY TALKING TO SOMEONE ELSE...
Fuck that shit. And also, there are like no cities, anywhere? The number of settlements with more than like two people in is minute, and they have virtually no quests between them.
Okay, I am going to ask a question, and I would like a 'yes' or 'no' answer without any elaboration so that I can go sort this shit out myself. I only got two, TWO quests from Vault 81. I have been gagging for an inhabited, untainted Vault to exist in a wasteland since I first played Fallout 3, is there really only two quests in that shit?
...*Ahem*
That said.
I love Nick Valentine. I quite like Piper. I love Hancock and Goodneighbour. The Silver Shroud quest is the most fun I have had in a game since the bank robbery mission in GTA IV, with the same level of 'I thought this would be easy but it has elevated to absolute insane fuckery and I love it.'
I will leave you with an amusing anecdote.
So I leveled Piper up to the point that she and I were a 'thing,' and I had to go clear out the Forge or plant or whatever it's called with its own brand of raiders. I killed all the ones on the outside and before I used any stimpaks I realised there was a mattress outside, so I slept on it to restore my health, and then got told I had the XP bonus from Lover's Embrace. I forgot I had that.
That means that, in universe, Piper and I slaughtered a bunch of mindless killers, then I nailed her on a filthy mattress and slept for an hour before I went in to kill a load more of them, none of whom have noticed that they've not seen any of their friends for hours.
...I think I have more pros and cons. I'll come back to you.
