14 DAY TRIAL // Fallout: New Vegas is a post apocalyptic role playing game from developer Obsidian and publisher Bethesda, taking the player to a relatively intact Vegas area and in the middle of a fight for power between Caesar's Legion, the New California Republic and the Brotherhood of Steel.
I am playing this game using the Hardcore mode, which adds more realism oriented features, like heavy ammunition and healing which takes place over time, alongside a need for food and water.
The natural tendency when starting Fallout: New Vegas is to be a bit helpful to those around you.
After all Doc Mitchell fixed you up after you were left for dead, with a bullet lodged in your skull.
Sunny Smiles helped with initial training and offered a few rewards for killing a few Geckos.
Goodsprings is a small nice town and when the choice comes up of whether to protect it it seems natural to help folks up, even if later on the path towards evil might seem more appealing.
But, in a clear departure from Fallout 3, which made it pretty much impossible to actually work for the goals of the main antagonist, the Enclave, New Vegas is good at making the bad guys very interesting.
I joined the Powder Gangs in their invasion of the starting town with my second character and it has so far worked out nicely for my machete wielding armor clad behemoth.
There are also missions linked to Caesar's Legion, the pseudo Roman group that threatens invasion, but Obsidian makes the choice to work with them pretty unappealing.
It's true that the NCR are not overall good guys and that Obsidian has created a world that can be both more violent than that of Fallout 3 and more humorous but the Legion seems a bit out of step, much too violent and too inclined towards social darwininsm to actually be interesting to a first time player.
I plan to go full evil on my second play though of the game but it would have been better for the overall experience of those who will only play New Vegas once to make Caesar a more balanced option, tonned down a bit in terms of slavery and a bit more noble in their Roman imitation.