[First Impressions] Fallout: New Vegas, Missed Connections

Walking the Mojave Wasteland seems like an entirely different experience than walking the Capitol Wasteland. The Capitol was seemed denser, with more buildings and humans around. Heck, post-apocalyptic or not, the Capitol is just more metropolitan than podunk Nevada. It's even reflected in my characters, Jayne (Capitol) and Styx (Mojave).

Jayne

Styx

Jayne was imagined as a cold scientist, willing to do anything to further her ends. Styx was imagined as (reference intended) a renegade. She runs around as a Courier, poking her nose where it doesn't belong, doing things not for science, but to keep her and hers alive.  (Oddly, this makes rough-and-tumble Styx more human than Jayne, who is something of a sociopath.) Styx is a thief, finding supplies wherever she can without alerting a soul. Jayne holds fast to the morals her father taught her-- in some respects. She won't steal from a home, but if she has to kill to get what she wants, well, at least that item isn't owned by anyone, even if they're still warm. Styx is a fiery redhead. Jayne is a bespectacled blonde.

In some ways, this reveals a flaw in New Vegas. It doesn't really pay to explore in New Vegas. There are occasionally funny sayings on the walls, but besides that, it doesn't get you anything. Finding a random body in a fridge might be odd, but it doesn't open up a quest line-- New Vegas is a game of missed opportunities this way. Similarly, finding a ritual sacrifice in Skyrim would at least lead you to the nearby necromancers or Hagravens who had done it. No such thing in New Vegas. This might make sense if your character, like mine, is only out for herself. But there is no sense in New Vegas that curiosity will bring you a reward. Curiosity will often bite you in the ass. If attacked, you might quickly run out of bullets and die. You might find yourself killing people in a faction you want to align yourself with later.

Hopefully this all only holds true until I manage to struggle my way to New Vegas or another more populated area. Primm is virtually a ghost town due to the Powder Gangers taking it over, and Goodsprings is pretty useless as a city. The only tolerable character is Sunny Smiles, and there is only one quest the town forks over to you, which it isn't even wise to complete early on because it will make either Goodsprings or the Powder Gangers angry with you. None of the shopkeepers in the game seem to have quick and easy fetch and carry quests for you, where you kill monsters for some ingredient, which may occasionally be tedious, but at least makes the world seem interactive. It isn't too far out of the question to think that someone might pay a traveler in the Wasteland to gather things for them instead of risking their own life!

I have always wondered why I found it so hard to connect with Fallout games-- in New Vegas, the reason is obvious. There are so few quests around your starting area that figuring out what to do and where to go is next to useless!

Fallout: New Vegas, 13 hrs. Fallout 3, 8 hrs.