Am I missing something? Didn't like New Vegas - Long read ahead

[♫Doctor Diddlerino♫]

Now before you read, granted, I haven't done any of the DLC yet.

I just completed one campaign of New Vegas (Mr. House's story), yet I didn't feel satisfied at all. In fact, if anything, I feel like I've been cheated. I'm not sure if It's fair to compare NV to Skyrim, but since that's what I played as my first Bethesda game, It's probably going to happen anyways.

First and foremost, the combat was rather annoying at times. The combat variety can be placed in two groups - fast and powerful, and fast and weak. There aren't really any many differences besides how the enemies look, from my experience. Nothing moves slowly in the wasteland, so most of your attacks consist of either lobbing grenades (my choice) or aiming for the legs. Personally, I didn't find that overly fun. The only change in enemies was that they gained more weapons or armor. Granted, Skyrim did that as well, but it had varying types of enemies to go with it (Such as summoners and warriors). Furthermore, cover in this game is obnoxious to use. I'm not asking for some Batman-esque wall positions, but hiding behind a rock because my health is getting cut to ribbons and still dying got old.

Moving on, the menus were annoying. I couldn't always tell what markers led to what and sometimes ended up walking into areas I didn't mean to and going down the wrong quest path than I desired (such as confronting Benny in the TOPS casino).

I've got some more things I'd like to say that don't necessarily deserve their own paragraph but might end up with one because I'm too lazy to edit.

-The side stories. I've no doubt that New Vegas has plenty of side missions, much like Skyrim, but I felt zero desire to do them. Everything felt like a chore, and half the time they were. Skyrim made things interesting and didn't blatantly tell you to do the same thing a couple of times, even if they were essentially the same (IE "There's a dragon! Go fight it!" and "This cave's got mysterious noises coming from it, check it out" as opposed to "Go get me some scrap metal." and "Find my missing hat!") Many of the side missions felt like I was essentially doing the same thing with little effort made to hide it.

-The Tier system. Another thing I can't wrap my head around. There's no clear tiers in NV. I'm never fully sure what's better to use unless I look strictly for DPS. Enemies also suffer from this, and I finished the campaign on my 17th hour, and though I probably wasn't supposed to, there'd be no way for me to know since all the enemies look pretty much the same until they start adding on new armor. However, since they don't have any level or anything associated with them, It's not very clear if they're just juggernauts or above your head in terms of difficulty.

-Walking. The speed in this game is annoyingly slow. Having to stroll through the wasteland because I'm not allowed to go anywhere faster is awful.

-Nobody has any money. I can't sell anything worth over 300 caps because nobody has enough money to buy anything. The one exception I've found was the general store salesman in Goodsprings.

-The save system. I really hate the idea that autosave saves every time I change stages. ♥♥♥♥ed up less than 30 seconds ago but walked into a new room? Tough luck, better reset an hour of progress and load your old save, because you're not getting any sympathy from NV.


TL;DR I really wanted to like New Vegas but didn't. Is Fallout 3 any better?

[Ladez]

Just picking a few things to respond to here.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

I'm not sure if It's fair to compare NV to Skyrim, but since that's what I played as my first Bethesda game, It's probably going to happen anyways.

No, it's not really fair. While on the surface they may seem like they largely offer the same gameplay experience, one is a story-focused RPG inspired by the classics while the other is a dungeon crawler/sandbox. What's wrong with the former is that it really doesn't go well inside an engine designed for the latter. That's the problem with New Vegas.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

Moving on, the menus were annoying.

Absolutely. The UI design in this game is shameful.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-The side stories. I've no doubt that New Vegas has plenty of side missions, much like Skyrim, but I felt zero desire to do them.

I felt that the side quests in New Vegas adequately complemented the overall plot and theme of the game, unlike Bethesda games where they're mostly comprised of crazy stuff put there to distract you from the main plot.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

Skyrim made things interesting and didn't blatantly tell you to do the same thing a couple of times

Skyrim made things interesting? Skyrims whole design philosophy is to spend as much time as possible distracting you from how lame the main quest is by offering you tons of equally lame things to do. It did blatantly tell you to do the same thing multiple times. Bounties? Slaying dragons? Exploring generic Dwemer ruin #17 that you explored two hours ago, because now the radiant system decided to put a quest item in there? Sorry for the bluntness, but what you said is outrageous.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-Walking.

Don't tell me you walked everywhere? :) Running is enabled by default. There's no sprint feature without mods, but the gameworld is not that large. Some places could have used a few more fast travel markers though.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-Nobody has any money.

Way more of an issue in Skyrim.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-The save system.

Disable auto saves.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

Is Fallout 3 any better?

Fallout 3 is a worse RPG and a worse Fallout game. It's also far less polished and stable than New Vegas. But honestly it will probably appeal more to you, since it's more of a Bethesda experience like Skyrim.

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the game. It certainly has its flaws, but there is a good roleplaying experience hidden underneath if you're able to overcome them.

[♫Doctor Diddlerino♫]

Originally posted by Ladez:

Just picking a few things to respond to here.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

I'm not sure if It's fair to compare NV to Skyrim, but since that's what I played as my first Bethesda game, It's probably going to happen anyways.

No, it's not really fair. While on the surface they may seem like they largely offer the same gameplay experience, one is a story-focused RPG inspired by the classics while the other is a dungeon crawler/sandbox. What's wrong with the former is that it really doesn't go well inside an engine designed for the latter. That's the problem with New Vegas.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

Moving on, the menus were annoying.

Absolutely. The UI design in this game is shameful.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-The side stories. I've no doubt that New Vegas has plenty of side missions, much like Skyrim, but I felt zero desire to do them.

I felt that the side quests in New Vegas adequately complemented the overall plot and theme of the game, unlike Bethesda games where they're mostly comprised of crazy stuff put there to distract you from the main plot.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

Skyrim made things interesting and didn't blatantly tell you to do the same thing a couple of times

Skyrim made things interesting? Skyrims whole design philosophy is to spend as much time as possible distracting you from how lame the main quest is by offering you tons of equally lame things to do. It did blatantly tell you to do the same thing multiple times. Bounties? Slaying dragons? Exploring generic Dwemer ruin #17 that you explored two hours ago, because now the radiant system decided to put a quest item in there? Sorry for the bluntness, but what you said is outrageous.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-Walking.

Don't tell me you walked everywhere? :) Running is enabled by default. There's no sprint feature without mods, but the gameworld is not that large. Some places could have used a few more fast travel markers though.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-Nobody has any money.

Way more of an issue in Skyrim.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

-The save system.

Disable auto saves.

Originally posted by ☣Fear☣:

Is Fallout 3 any better?

Fallout 3 is a worse RPG and a worse Fallout game. It's also far less polished and stable than New Vegas. But honestly it will probably appeal more to you, since it's more of a Bethesda experience like Skyrim.

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the game. It certainly has its flaws, but there is a good roleplaying experience hidden underneath if you're able to overcome them.

I don't feel like formatting, so I'll reply in order.

1.) I had no issue with the story, so there's that.

2.) I suppose some detract, some add. It boiled down to the fact that I didn't feel any pleasure in doing the side missions for whatever reason.

3.)I explained that even though many of the things were the same, they were at least given a new spin. I also feel like Skyrim had more puzzles and less awful gauntlets you're forced to fight through.

4.) No, I had run enabled the entire time. However, it may as well have been walking as that's what it felt like. I felt like the only use for the walk feature was to keep me from getting ahead of slow-moving NPCs so it wouldn't detract from the story.

5.) It probably was, but I don't recall having this much of an issue with it in Skyrim.

6.) That would make it worse. Then I'd have no save period and dying would send me way too far back.

7. Perhaps I'll give Fallout 3 a whirl.

[Glimmer]

Were you only using the auto-save? The game has quick saves and standard save system with no limitation on how frequently you use either of them. Skyrim may have had a better auto-save (I don't recall) but you really shouldn't be relying on it as your primary save method for either game.

[♫Doctor Diddlerino♫]

Originally posted by Glimmer:

Were you only using the auto-save? The game has quick saves and standard save system with no limitation on how frequently you use either of them. Skyrim may have had a better auto-save (I don't recall) but you really shouldn't be relying on it as your primary save method for either game.

No, I had real saves. I just didn't think I'd need to save every 10 minutes as opposed to just saving at the end of every session.

[Discreet_Pigeon]

I think if you possibly had all of the dlc and added a few mods you might of had a more enjoyable time.

[Vassago Rain]

New Vegas isn't a Bethesda game.

So there you go, problem solved.

[talgaby]

It seems to me that you are constantly looking for Skyrim elements in New Vegas just because they use the same graphical engine and share publisher. This way it's little wonder you cannot enjoy it. This game is meant to play slowly, exploring the story and talking with people, whereas Skyrim is a dungeon crawler, hoarding simulator, and simplified Sims-type sandbox. Not even the same genres.

[toroid]

If you think you would like Oblivion with guns then you will love Fallout 3.
Because that's what it is.