Thoughts on New Vegas

[asmithesq]

I've never played New Vegas even though I've got thousands of hours on the other Fallout's.

Quite a treat it's like a new Fallout game out. However is it me or it is very linear? And tougher for players who don't know the map? I always play dead is dead / very hard and twice now I've died many hours in and had to restart. The first was in the power station with the robots / turrets - wasn't at full health and walked over a mine. Second time round resolved to stay at full health as much as poss, in the bottom right *edit -left - corner of the map walked into a mine, got knocked over, and whilst getting back up motorbike next to me blew up Seemed a bit harsh to have that near the start. It's like you have easy areas right next to very tough areas.

I guess I'm going to have to at least one normal difficulty run through if I am going to play dead is dead....

[Mechenyi]

Turrets on VH are usually an instant death, especially if you play higher than 30fps. I will say, that part of the quest always annoyed me from a level design standpoint, because the turrets will always see the lower half of your body long before you can shoot them. As for the game being linear, I wouldn't say so. Maybe the first act is in theory, but there's multiple ways to get to Vegas, and each route provides its own side quests along the way.

[asmithesq]

When I say linear I mean it seems you have to go to very specific locations or it is much, much harder than if you don't. The turrets didn't seem to bad although I try to play boringly careful - although i seem to keep screwing up with the mines. I did get one shotted by a death claw on my very first run. I gotta say I can see I am going to love this game though - the harder the better!

[Unseen]

Its really not linear it's actually the most open ended fallout imo. But you need to know how to navigate and how to make money. The 2 sweet spots in the game early on for me is the lonesome road xp if you have it. Followed by the gun runners xp outside New Vegas. If you got those 2 XPS you can do early. Get the battle rifle from gun runners. Cheap and effective and it's basically an m1 haramd which makes it very cool. In lonesome you gotta get through one dungeon then you can leave or come back and fight respawning marvel red skulls. They got badass gear, there's even a console in that xp that sells for a good price. You can also farm cazadors and giant scorpions if you need money.

[Bluemoon_in_the_Afternoon]

Honestly, I'd suggest saving a perma death run after you've played the game several times on the harder difficulty settings. Deathclaws, casadors, heavy gunfire, and explosions will kill you fast. NV is more in line with Fallout 1 & 2, in that they're roleplaying games that really don't hold your hand. Things might seem linear, until you realize skills make certain tasks far easier: Stealth for sneaking around dangers, Explosives for disarming mines, Speech for avoiding conflict or gaining alternative methods, and so on. However, there's a skill point cap, which will force you to focus on a few instead of becoming a Bethesda-styled King of All Trades. This is good! It means you'll roleplay more and have a reason to replay. I've been a sniper with a silver tongue and also a bomb expert, a scientist specializing in medicine and energy weapons, and as a psycho thief hooked on chems and who fought with a chainsaw.

If you like a good challenge, just you wait for some of the DLCs. They're just waiting to out-murder your murder-hobo.

Avoid spoilers and people telling you how to play. Half the joy is discovering the game yourself.

[JBrown247]

You can go north on the west side of the map if you want, but you need to prep a bit.

[PichuYang]

Originally posted by asmithesq:

When I say linear I mean it seems you have to go to very specific locations or it is much, much harder than if you don't.

Depend on context. If you are referring to Helios One, there are ways to actually disable (some?) robots and turrets. But since there is so much you could do with limited budget, the path to reach final objective usually just looks like linear lol. The experience however, may be vastly different.

I believe that you are well aware that you can reach New Vegas in many different ways, seeing how Traveling Merchant going on highway, Skill Book appears on various locations to explore. You can avoid interacting with the guy who kill you, finishing as many other quests, and then come back to him lol. There isn't a right sequence to play it, just depend on your gears, skill points, and finding the old enemies/folks.

I do not recommend turning on Very Hard by default, but slowly scale it until you think it is fair. I only turned it on at around level 5, with 10 DT and a unique variant of Varmint Rifle. I am using Jswayer Ultimate which modded the stats, so the experience can feel very different.

[Vassago Rain]

You can go wherever, and the game is pretty easy. The hardest self-imposed challenge you can attempt is creating a character that's not godlike. It's practically impossible.

[asmithesq]

Started over same as before (very hard, perma-death, no fast travel). Almost at areas i've not been to before, level 8. Wish me luck.

[asmithesq]

Got killed by Giant Radscorpion shortly after posting that :-( Didn't know they caused poison damage so took my eye of the health bar once it died.

[asmithesq]

Must be really brutal, I had a full health bar, got hit once, endurance 9 (supposed to give poison resistance)

[Unseen]

There are some really powerful enemies to watch out for though. Especially the botfly in old world.

[CountSprinkleDorf]

doing a very hardcore one life run for newvegas if youve never played it before is gonna suck some serious ass. I play on hardcore and the difficulty to max and ive got like 600 hours in this game and i still die all the time. Also this game may seem very linear, but the magic of the game is just wandering wherever and just doing stuff, you can literally do anything at any time, unlike skyrim and other bethesda games where you can engage with any content and it scales down to your level, fallout NV isnt like that, you can do any content at any time but it doesnt scale it has a set difficulty, thats why alot of areas may seem difficult because the game has a set difficulty for many areas. Also if youre deadset on doing a onelife hardcore run of NV get followers, get some meatshields, very important. Also avoid dead money or like literally any dlc if youre doing a onelife run. lonesome road has like mini nuke mines all over the place that will instantly kill you regardless of gear, also if you hate looking at the floor or just randomly dying to placed explosives try getting the light footsteps perk that wont trigger landmines or explosives. Also you can farm those giant radscorpions near goodsprings for exp by sniping at a distance with a varmint rifle, just shoot their weakpoint which is the stinger since its considered their head and if you cripple the limb they cant poison you. New vegas is very knowledge based, if you know what you're doing you can take on deathclaw quarry with just a varmint rifle or a hunting rifle, or go to the northwest passage and take on the cazadores. Just gotta experience the game a bit.

[PichuYang]

Originally posted by asmithesq:

Must be really brutal, I had a full health bar, got hit once, endurance 9 (supposed to give poison resistance)

Yeah Poison damage is crazy even in Normal. Pretty much you want Antivenom ready. Giant Scorpion also pierce very hard.

I am also doing a hardcore, Very Hard, limited Fast Travel as yours, just no PermaD lol. 🤣 I reached Helios One on midnight and surprised to see how OP the Mark IV Turrets are. Luckily they are hackable, but those 2 Robo Brains are super tanky. I managed to beat them with Weathered 10mm after some door and VATS spam trick.

I only have 8 DT and 13 Crit chance. Playing dead is dead would be so hard lol. But the gane feels so different the moment you stopped going to New Vegas ans gamble asap. I was just collecting most skillbooks and wander the south.

[JediKnightSky]

I rather doubt this is even happening.

[The Bayroog]

The route to vegas you take from L1 is somewhat linear, though it becomes more forgiving on replays because you already know the map (No matter how much you try to recapture the magic, sorry -champ- but you already experienced it for the first time. Go get a lobotomy or something).

On replays, unless you rushed to the finish like a real time shooter turd, you're mostly just replaying it to see what decisions could have been made differently. If you are an RTS turd, congrats - this game was about exploration and not gunplay... also you're an idiot. In my own personal experience, you get one virgin playthrough, one playthrough where you did everything you wanted, and finally you're just playing to see one of the 2 other endings.

You can cut right to Vegas at L1, somehow my GF managed to do it by cutting through Cazador territory because she was frankly too dumb to follow the in-game clues to Primm.

So there you go, welcome to a single player RPG. I know, I know - it's not Minecraft.