Fallout: New Vegas Analysis : House Ending

In Fallout: New Vegas, the player can choose to ally himself from among three different factions: New California Republic, Caesar's Legion or House. Allying with different factions will lead to different endings.

A lot of people end up choosing to side with House. It's a reasonable choice. House was the man who saved Las Vegas. He's intelligent and charismatic. He seems to have things figured out, which is more than you can say for the corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats of the NCR. House is strict but he's not outright cruel like the Legion. He has a plan to restore New Vegas and maybe even colonize space. What a visionary! He may be a ruthless and unfeeling dictator but hey, nobody is perfect.

The Question

Humanity rising from the ashes of the old world to create new societies is a constant storytelling element of Fallout. These new societies run the gamut from backwards, spear-throwing tribes to Mad Max style raiders with spikes and leather to cultures revolving around some misunderstood relic of the past. It's all good fun.

However, there is a underlying thread running through these new societies, a dreaded question haunts each and every one of them: Will they repeat the same mistakes? War never changes, after all.

That the NCR and the Legion represent certain bad things from the past is obvious but they deserve their own separate posts. With House, it's not immediately clear what he represents. He is not manifest destiny America like the NCR nor is he an old school conquering civilization like the Legion. To best understand House, one must stop trying to tie him to a historical analog and simply look at the way he operates, the way he treats those around him and the way he deals with those who stand in his way.

Don't Mess With the House

House serves no god and answers to no man. He rules New Vegas alone and rules as he sees fit. He is a force unto himself. He operates through cold logic, always calculating the odds. He's ruthless when dealing with obstacles and threats.

The Brotherhood of Steel, for example, is a serious threat to House. The BoS is dangerous to him for a couple of reasons: they have the knowledge to figure technology out quickly, they have impressive weapons technology of their own, and their philosophy is to keep dangerous technology out of people's hands. Since House's regime practically runs on robots, he'd want them nipped in the bud before they become a complication. To remove the BoS, the player must find the BoS bunker and either turn the bunker into a slaughterhouse by gunning down every last one of them or turn the bunker into a tomb by initiating the self-destruct sequence. Either way, a lot of people are going to die but at least with the second option, you can't hear the screaming.

This is the part when some players break with House. This is curious since the player has probably been doing some killing up to this point. But bandits and raiders are a different story, eh? If killing the BoS isn't genocide, it sure does seem close to it.

I mention this particular episode since we're trying to figure out House. If it isn't immediately obvious to the player now, House doesn't really much care for people.

More Machine than Man

The common argument to justify siding with House is that he's the best hope for humanity. However, House doesn't care about humanity at all but only cares about New Vegas. Consider this: sweeping aside the romantic image of Las Vegas, how does it operate?

Historically, Las Vegas is widely known for one thing. Its image isn't exactly squeaky clean and it's called "sin city" for a reason. Las Vegas is a gambler's mecca - it runs on vice. There's something both wonderful and terrible about Las Vegas. I've been to Las Vegas and I was amazed at how in the middle of this harsh and barren desert, a great gleaming city stood defiant.

New Vegas, as it is portrayed in-game, is a place where people go to get money sucked from their wallets. New Vegas has no industry to speak of and exists by profiting off of people's vices. While the Strip is a dazzling place full of entertainment and luxury the likes of which are unheard off in the wasteland, it is surrounded on all sides by slums. The dregs of humanity are kept at bay by a wall patrolled by securitrons armed with machine guns. Only those with enough caps are allowed in. New Vegas is kept in order by police bots while anarchy reigns just outside its gates.

House's lack of humanity is also well portrayed in-game through your dealings with him. He's just a face on a screen. He interacts with the outside world rarely and only through robot agents. His own casino, the Lucky 38, is empty and accepts no guests. Even before the war he was an eccentric genius who was a recluse. Hell, his girlfriend is just an A.I. personality hooked to a securitron. His dealings with the courier is purely on a professional level.

But so what? What does all of this mean? Well, it loops back to the question. Is House repeating the same mistakes of the past? One of the main themes of FONV is the problem of technology in the wrong hands. Its retro-futuristic designs are more than just aesthetics. The atom was supposed to usher in a new age of progress but only brought death and destruction instead. Science without morals was extensively covered in the DLC Old World Blues. We see humanity grow in leaps and bounds in terms of scientific discovery but fail because human morality and ethics couldn't catch up.

With house we have the promise of order and progress but lack the increase in human welfare that ought to go with it. Order and progress come only on House's terms and his terms are only for the good of New Vegas. It is tragic that New Vegas is a supposed to be this center of prosperity while just outside people live absolute squalor. If you don't have the caps, House doesn't care. If you're no use to House, he doesn't care. If you get in his way, well too bad.

Greed is Good?

I've read that House is supposed to be a critique of anarcho-capitalism or capitalism in general. While I don't wholly agree, I believe there is some merit to this. When House brought the tribes of Vegas to heel, he turned them to his "employees" to operate his casinos. House is basically a promoter of a one-of-a-kind experience. He offers services in exchange for your cold hard caps. No money? Then get your poor ass out the door.

How one views this operation is the crucial point separating players who support house and players who don't.

Supporters of House will point out that when House isn't applying violence, as he sometimes does, his interactions with the tourists of New Vegas is entirely consensual. House isn't putting a gun to people's heads and ordering them to gamble their money away. It's all "legal" in a sense. However, what is legal is not necessarily moral and it's not good to confuse the two. If a man wants to buy heroine to get high or kill himself, is it moral to sell it to him?

Look, whether or not people were going to prosper with nuclear power isn't an issue in the Fallout series. The promise was there. The issue is whether or not people could deal with the enormous responsibility. I believe House failed and that his vision is flawed in a sense that it will not bring humanity to an enlightened and prosperous age. House's modus operandi is exploitative in nature and any "prosperity" he brings about will only go to the rich few who can afford the high price tag. It's sad that House boasts that he could eventually colonize space (not for free, of course) while so many people are still suffering right outside his lawn right now. Hubris, much? The only time House cares about the slums is if it causes too much trouble for the tourists, in which case, he won't hesitate to bust some heads

So the past repeats itself in a way. Humans exploiting other humans, people eating each other. Wealth is everything and greed is good. It's a world without compassion ruled with an absolute dictator's iron fist. This time it's all coated in a veneer of  being civilized, consenting adults in a free market. FONV wouldn't be considered deep if it didn't challenge our beliefs. A lot of people support a free market economy but what if raising the standards of living was no longer the goal of the free market? What if it became soulless and oppressive? What if charity was no longer a consideration?

House could easily help mankind with the tools at his disposal but altruism isn't in his blood. Altruism has it's own problems and isn't exempt from criticism in the game. It isn't profitable, for starters - just look at the Followers. Charity is often abused and at worst, only enables bad behavior.  House, however, takes the opposite to the very extreme. 

In Conclusion

There's perfectly good reasons to support House, he's not all bad. House will bring progress if it would mean him profiting from it. His regime is peaceful and stable at least. House will ensure humanity will survive enough to be useful, like cattle.

It's really up to the player. In terms of mankind's continuation, House is a good bet. In terms of mankind living in a golden age, it's unclear. At least the wealthiest will. Nothing is free when it comes to House.

Humanity will benefit if only incidentally. It's only rational, at least, that's how House would see it.

Bill Barwick - Big Iron

Jazz Blues - Gerhard Trede

Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues Analysis Pt.2

A Bright New Future

One last thing I will say about OWB is that it touches on a major theme in the Fallout universe which is that technology lead to the downfall of man.

Fallout is an alternate history that doesn't just present the scenario of nuclear war. The universe is completely different with respect to the level of technology of the world. Despite the 50's aesthetic, the Fallout universe has futuristic stuff like robots, laser weapons, fusion-reactor cars and so on. You can call it "atompunk" if you like. The thing that strikes me most though is that it has a certain vibe to it that brings to mind the optimism people had about technology, specifically, nuclear technology.

Once upon a time there was optimism. People had high hopes for the bright future nuclear technology could bring. Of course, Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened. There was that business of the Cold War too. But for a moment, there was the happy thought of a future powered by the atom and not scoured by it. This is present in Fallout too. It wasn't as pronounced in Fallout 1 and 2 and was merely design. It was excessively cranked up in 3 as was all things "ironic". In FONV, it was left on the wayside since the whole NCR and Legion conflict was more important. But OWB allows us to dwell on the subject for a bit.

The world of Big Mountain is the most futuristic place in the game or even perhaps, the series. Big Mountain is at the very cutting edge of technology. It had the best minds on the planet working inside its labs and money was hardly an issue with so many clients, public and private. Yet, look at all the bullshit that's happened. The Think Tank being composed of disembodied brains in jars made sense. Not only was it meant to show their complete and utter lack of humanity but also that they were nothing but the raw power of intellect. They had no heart nor soul. It's a story of science gone wrong and goes to show that whatever new thing people can come up with, it can be ruined and used to create invisible rattlesnake coyote hybrids that stalk the desert and kill lots of people. It's the same story we've seen before with nuclear energy. Nothing has changed. Nothing ever changes.

But it's not all bad. In the ending of OWB, the Courier can choose to use the Think Tank for his own ends either for good or evil. Again, just like religion in Honest Hearts, science isn't evil per se. 

It all depends on the person and how he uses it.

Fallout New Vegas - Old World Blues Analysis Pt.1

Behind Big Mountain

Big Mountain was a private defense contractor before the War. It was a facility within a literal big mountain until an "accident" reduced Big Mountain into a big crater in the ground. Big Mountain was built with the intention to develop and invent the technology of tomorrow without any restraints. It employed the most brilliant minds of the day from all fields of study.

Even when the world was scoured by atomic fire, research in Big Mountain continued unabated without much care. At some point, the six chief scientists shed their bodies and became the Think Tank so that research can go on indefinitely. They shed more than their physical bodies as they took on new names and "reprogrammed" themselves as well. The Think Tank's research became more depraved as the years went on and eventually, all the other human researchers either escaped or were killed by rogue experiments.

At some point, Dr.Mobius realized that the experiments of the Think Tank had gone too far. He erected a radar fence around the crater to prevent the Think Tank from escaping and "experimenting" with the world beyond. Furthermore, Mobius hacked into his colleagues and reprogrammed them to lose all sense of time and history and trapped them in a loop. Mobius also waged a campaign of fear and terror to deter the Think Tank from escaping. It was so successful in fact,  that the Think Tank  believed that the world outside didn't exist at all. Mobius regularly played a broadcast to threaten the Think Tank and used his robo-scorpions, which could allegedly "steal a person's intelligence", to keep the Think Tank penned in. Ever since then, Big Mountain descended to a state of chaos and insanity as the power struggle between the Think Tank and Mobius raged on while the various experiments, lobotomites and haywire robots ran rampant around the facility.

Outsiders avoided Big Mountain for the most part since the large crater made it appear like the site of a nuclear bomb explosion. Ironically, many thought that Big Mountain, a facility dedicated to future technologies and wonders, had nothing of value in it hence they named it the "Big Empty". Those few foolish enough to wander close were either captured by robots and experimented on or killed outright by the various experiments if they were lucky.

When the courier was captured, his head wound activated a different protocol for the auto-doc which revealed to the Think Tank a way to escape. They would transplant their brains into bodies and walk out of Big Mountain. Dr.Mobius saw this and raided the Think Tank to take the Courier's brain before they could work on it.

A Little Twist

The story had a nice little twist. When you first meet the Think Tank, Mobius was doing his little broadcast of terror on them and it seemed like he was a mad scientist who needed to be stopped. As it turns out, Mobius kind of has a point. Even if the Think Tank are "funny" and have "wacky" personalities, they're pretty dangerous if you look at all the stuff they've been up to. In fact, Mobius had a pretty well thought out plan to keep them in check had it not been for several visitors from the outside world. 

 

After you beat his giant robot scorpion and meet Mobius, he doesn't even appear threatening. He seems more like a senile old man happily offering a child some candy (mentats) and constantly misuses words and phrases. Mobius seems the nonviolent type too since he needs a dose of "psycho" to get him worked up to sound only mildly threatening. The tables turn and it is the Think Tank and their ambition that is arguably the greater villain in the story. This is true since the Think Tank do attempt to betray you in the end, as futile as the attempt was.

What Has Science Done!?

One thing I like about OWB is that it's far from the "hilarious", oh-so-random humor that you might have expected. The dialogue and situations are indeed funny and entertaining but if you take that all away and look at everything seriously, OWB is pretty messed up. Many of the goings on are not just little experiments gone wrong but could qualify as full blown human atrocities. Let's go over them shall we?

1. The cazadors, the worst enemies in the game, were created in Big Mountain.
2. The nightstalkers were created in Big Mountain as well.
3. The toxic "cloud" surrounding the Sierra Madre was an experiment made by Big Mountain.
4. The experimental hazmat suits that produced the "ghost people" was also a follow-up experiment to the cloud.
4. Big Mountain operated and maintained a concentration camp full of Chinese POWs complete with slave collars that exploded if any prisoner escaped.
5. The Think Tank captures and lobotomizes people like it's nothing.
6. The spore carriers in the facility imply the toxins from Vault 22 came from Big Mountain.
7. Probably developed countless weapons and robots for war.
8. Vaporized the entire mountain and killed off much of the original staff.

I could go on but my point here is that Big Mountain produced more harm than good. Sure, they created useful stuff like the replicators and auto-docs but if only that was all they did.

The humor in OWB is certainly dark. It fits the universe of Fallout very well. Next time, I'll go over a major recurring theme in Fallout that is cranked up in OWB.

Fallout: New Vegas Analysis: Old World Blues Intro

Alright. So the previous DLCs of Fallout:New Vegas dealt with some pretty heavy stuff. In Dead Money, we learned about the dangers of greed and obsession. In Honest Hearts, we learned about human nature and the positive or negative influences of religion. In the third DLC, Old World Blues, the courier is teleported to the wonderful world of the "Big MT" where we have lighthearted adventures in wacky, funny SCIENCE! It's gonna be fun right?

Make no mistake though, OWB is a lot deeper than it looks and a whole lot more depressing than the wacky SCIENCE! would have you think.

The Main Plot

The story begins when the Courier, drawn by a mysterious and jazzy broadcast, happens upon an old drive-in theater with what looks like a satellite or at least, a highly complex machine of some sort. Upon touching the thing, he was transported instantly to the Big Mountain Research and Development Center (erroneously called the Big Empty or Big MT)  where he was experimented on while unconscious from the trip. The Courier awoke feeling a bit light-headed which was no surprise given his brain, as well as his spine and heart, were removed and replaced with implants. Stranded, the Courier stumbles on in search for his missing organs and a way out.

The Courier meets The Think Tank, a group of genius scientists who aren't exactly human anymore. He meets five brains-in-jars basically. The members of the Think Tank are: Dr.0 who is an alleged expert in robotics, Dr.Borous who has a thing for DNA-scrambling technology, Dr.Klein the head researcher of the bunch, Dr.Dala an expert in "Humanology" with a degree in Curiosity and Advanced Curiosity and finally, Dr.8 an Acoustics Expert who ironically has no voice.

The Think Tank were responsible for The Courier's organ removal but now seek the Courier's help. It turns out that the Think Tank are being terrorized by a former colleague gone mad scientist named Dr.Mobius who keeps the Think Tank trapped in their research center.

Big Mountain, as it turns out, isn't a mountain at all but a huge crater. A small laboratory accident blew the mountain up but no worries, an advanced shield system surrounding the crater prevents anything from escaping. This is good seeing how all sorts of dangerous monsters and "experiment" stalk the facility grounds and abandoned laboratories. Will the Courier survive? Of course he will. He's the mythical badass.

Next time, let's talk about the sinister undercurrents of this bright and cheerful place.

Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts Analysis (Pt.2)

The God Father

"I tell them to read and to learn and to make the most of their new home. I tell them I'm giving them Zion as a gift to make up for all the sorrows of their lives so far and all the sorrows man has visited on man. I tell them to be kind to each other and modest. I tell them never to hurt each other but that if someone else comes along and tries to hurt them to strike back with righteous anger."

 

"The Father in the Caves" who the Sorrows worship isn't a make-believe being; he is very much real but not what you'd expect.

 

The Father was a man named Randall Dean Clark who was a former soldier from the Great War who inhabited Zion Park. He was an American soldier stationed in the annexed land of Canada. When the bombs dropped, he was in the wilderness on a hiking trip. His family no doubt perished and he was left alone. He hiked back to Zion and hid out in a cave. Fortunately, the caves were abandoned by the United States Geological Survey and the leftover supplies helped him greatly. He hid out in the cave systems of Zion Canyon, hiding supplies and booby trapping most of them. The computer terminals in the caves provide the player with information about his life and the troubles in Zion.

 

Randall was a tortured individual. He found his time as a soldier in Canada sickening and was appalled at the "criminality of it." He deeply regrets not being with his family when the bombs hit and suffered guilt until the end of his life. He was also forced to do some ugly things in his life even after his service. After the bombs fell, he was forced to mercy kill an old couple blinded by the flash of the bombs. It didn't stop there. Some time after the bombs, a group of refugees made camp in Zion. He grew to care for them and even secretly left medicine for one of them who broke his leg. Unfortunately, a group of vault dwellers from Vault 22 came in to establish camp too and ended up slaughtering the refugees. Randall then waged a covert war against the vault dwellers and drove them out using explosives and his service rifle. So successful was he, that the vault dwellers ran in terror from the "vengeful spirit that stalked the canyons".

 

Randall developed a relationship with a vault dweller named Sylvie who was caught in one of his bear traps. However, she died in childbirth, pregnant with his unborn son. The death of his second family got him thinking of suicide though he never went through with it.

 

A group of children wandered into Zion Canyon a long time after the Vault 22 incident. Randall decided to help them by leaving them food, medicine, supplies, messages and, as they got older, medical books and weapons manuals. He preached to them the importance of kindness and respect but he did all this in secret. He didn't want to shatter the illusion and for them to see he was just a battered old man who was dying from some kind of lung disease at this point. Near the end, he left each and every child a personal message and tells them though he will be silent, he will still watch over them. When he knew his time was up, he climbed onto the highest peak where none of the children could find him and there he died, overlooking Zion Canyon.

 

These children were the ancestors of the Sorrows and Randall unintentionally became their deity. The religious symbolism is obvious. We find his remains with a crown of leaves on his head producing a kind of halo. When Daniel preaches to the Sorrows, they immediately associate the "God, the Father" of the Christian trinity with the Father in the Caves.

 

Honest Hearts has a pretty strong pro-religion message though not necessarily Christian. The Sorrows were enlightened so to speak. However, it is important to note that the Father was just a man. Maybe this plays into the notion that there is a "necessity to create God" or that our understanding  is limited no matter what because we are, after all, human. But perhaps, whether God exists or the Father is real is ultimately irrelevant. What remains is the message. You decide.

 

Speaking of religion...

Holy Warrior

Joshua Graham has a very simple way of approaching the problem of the White Legs; kill em' all and let God sort them out. This puts him at odds with Daniel, who just wants to leave while it's still possible. Joshua attempts to convince the player many times about how important it is to keep Zion and his charismatic nature does shine through.

 

However, the most interesting part of Joshua is it doesn't seem to be just a war for him. Listening him babble on about doing "God's work", "Yea, we remembered Zion...", dashing babies on rocks and so forth, makes him sound like some kind of crusader from the middle ages. Oh it's not just a war all right. It's a holy war. He's on a mission from God and you're gonna be part of His army!

 

It's easy to dismiss Joshua as some guy who's there to show you how religion can be wrong or bad. What, with gems like: "I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other". But there's more to this character than being a self-righteous zealot.

 

If you take Joshua's path in the story, you, Joshua the Dead Horses and the Sorrows attack the White Legs head on. With Joshua's help, (and yours I guess) the tribes overrun the White Leg encampment. What happens in the camp is the most important event in Joshua's arc. Yes, he has a character arc too in addition to being awesome at everything else.

 

In the camp, the White Leg's chief, Salt-Upon-Wounds, is trapped. Joshua calls him an "animal" and that the only use for animal's in God's temple is sacrifice. The player can make a choice: either he lets Joshua kill the chief in cold blood, fight the chief or be merciful and let the chief go. If the player tells Joshua to let the him go, Joshua admits something he's been hiding the whole game.

 

"I want to have my revenge. Against him. Against Caesar. I want to call it my own, to make my anger God's anger. To justify the things I've done."

 

To say that Joshua is an angry man is an understatement. He's angry at Caesar but most of all, himself. He blames himself for the massacre at New Canaan. He thinks if he hadn't gone with Caesar or if he had chosen differently, they wouldn't have died. See, despite all the bad things he's done as the Malpais Legate, the people of New Canaan still found it in themselves to forgive him and take him back in. They payed the ultimate price for it. So it's understandable why he's frothing mad but the worst part of it is how he justifies his actions with religion and it all comes to a head in the climax of his story.

 

Salt-Upon-Wounds is thoroughly defeated, completely surrounded and utterly helpless. He drops on his knees and begs the player to call off Joshua while Joshua's positions himself to whack the chief like some gangland mob hit. At that point, just how far off the deep end Joshua was became apparent. It wasn't a war anymore, it wasn't even a matter of self-defense or self preservation. Salt-Upon-Wounds was finished but Joshua's bloodthirst hadn't abated. He realizes this and admits that he's been using religion as a crutch, pretending what he was doing was the Lord's work and that it was a righteous war. Well, it stopped being righteous at that moment and it took the player to make him realize that. He must forgive as he was forgiven.

 

Honest Hearts produce honest actions. Was Joshua honest? No, he wasn't. Unlike Randall, Joshua had no good intentions for his religious creed. He went about everything like it was a religious duty. But when you think about it, a lot of the things he did were pretty disturbing. He took the Dead Horses to the park to wage his personal war of vengeance under the claim that he had to protect Zion. He wanted to drag the Sorrows, a peaceful people, into it. He arms the natives and so forth. When the Dead Horses idolize him and his warlike ways, he acts disturbed, like he realizes what he's doing is wrong but he doesn't stop anyway. He's a Christian and probably knows what he's doing is terrible but he continues lying to himself. His dishonesty produced impure actions and thus, was far from the command of a loving God.

 

So that's Joshua's character for you. Originally, I thought Joshua was just there to show the dark side of religion but when you think about it, religion didn't make him do the things he did. He was a liar, we covered that. It was a case of man corrupting religion and using it and twisting it to assuage his guilt. So I guess Honest Hearts really does have an upbeat message hidden beneath the violence and chaos.

 

"Sometimes I tell myself these wildfires never stop burning, but I’m the one who starts them. Not God. Not them. I can always see it in my mind. The warmth, the heat. It will always be a part of me. But not today."

Well, that's about it. At it's core, Honest Hearts is really about religion as a positive force, tempering man's tendency for violence. You're free to agree or disagree but it's a surprisingly upbeat message in a crapsack such as the Fallout Universe.

Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts Analysis (Pt.1)

Honest Hearts was the second DLC to Fallout:New Vegas. It takes the Courier to Zion National Park where he is ambushed by violent tribals and gets embroiled in a greater conflict. But first, some history...

Joshua Graham was a Mormon missionary who accompanied an expedition into the Grand Canyon put together by the Followers of the Apocalypse to study the dialects of the tribals there. Graham served as the translator as he was familiar with the tribes languages. However, Joshua Graham, Edward Sallow, Bill Calhoun and the rest of their expedition were captured by the Blackfoot Tribe. Whether this was caused by a miscommunication between Joshua and the tribals or that it was an ambush from the start is not clear.

As it turns out, the Blackfoots were at war with several other tribes and losing. Edward decided he could use the situation to his advantage instead of dying along with them. Against the advice of Calhoun and the doctrines of the Followers, Edward abused the knowledge he gained studying with them to teach the Blackfoots in the ways of war. He taught them how to use guns, explosives and apply combat tactics. He impressed them enough such that he was made their leader. Edward took the title of "Caesar" and began dividing and conquering the other tribes brutally and without mercy. Bill was allowed to leave but Joshua remained, serving as Caesar's translator.

Soon, Joshua not only translated orders for Caesar but became the military commander of Caesar's "legion", forged from the conquered tribes. Joshua became known as the "Malpais Legate" and committed numerous atrocities. His brutality became legendary among the Legion warriors as well as the NCR, who Caesar was chomping at the bit to start a fight with. Joshua was also notorious for being hard to kill and survived at least five assassination attempts from NCR snipers.

Despite his brutality, Joshua was no strategist. He lost the First Battle of Hoover Dam and Caesar had to make an example. Failure would not be tolerated even in the higher ranks. Joshua was covered in pitch, set alight and thrown into the Grand Canyon. That was the end of the Malpais Legate...or was it?

The Courier's story begins when he/she signs up to join an trade expedition by the Happy Trails Caravan Company. The caravan hoped to establish a trade route to New Canaan through Zion National Park. However, the expedition was a disaster. A group of tribals known as the White Legs ambushed the caravan and slaughtered everyone except the Courier, who had a knack for avoiding certain death.

To go on about the story in Honest Hearts would take quite a lot of time so I'm just going to assume you, the reader, have played through it and are familiar with the events in it. After all, if you aren't, you wouldn't be reading this would you? Let's go on to the themes of Honest Hearts and why this game has a lot nore to offer than would first appear.

The Nature of Man

If we're going to anlyze a story, where do we start? Simple. Let's start with ourselves, or rather, with how the subject matter treats the human being. How are human beings portrayed in HH?

HH presents us with a scenario where there are tribals fighting for a land called Zion. Not too subtle, eh? The religious symbolism isn't tossed about recklessly. Joshua, at one point, calls Zion a "natural temple" and "monument to His glory."

 Zion National Park, despite being a park of the Old World, is presented as a nature that is pristine and almost primordial even. Compared to the barren Mojave desert and the desolate hellhole that was FO3's Capitol Wasteland, Zion provides a rare opportunity for the player to see an unspoiled wilderness in the Fallout universe that was spared from the ravages of the Great War. Keep this "uncorrupted nature" idea in mind.

It's not just the nature that's reduced to a pure state, so too are the people who call (or would like to call) Zion home. Here we have people living in the most basic form of human organization which is the tribe. The tribals live off the land and are generally ignorant of technology and even suspicious of anything related to the Old World. To put it simply, we are given a situation where everything is a "clean slate", man and nature in it's simplest form.

What is the nature of man? Let's answer the question by looking at some of the happy locals.

 The White Legs

These guys are the very first tribe the player meets. They also murder everyone in the caravan but the player barely manages to escape. Not a warm welcome to Zion. The White Legs are a savage tribe who attack anyone not of their own. They are always hostile to the player and all the other tribes.

But why? Joshua offers an explanation. Apparently, the White Legs do not have the means to sustain themselves and don't know basic stuff like agriculture. Instead, they found it easy to just take from others and so built their society off raiding and pillaging. Immediately, Thomas Hobbes classical philosophy comes to mind. The natural state of man is a state of war simply because he has license to take from others whatever the hell he wants. The game goes no further to establish the need for a government as Hobbes did but still, the idea is here. Man is warlike in nature simply because he is driven by his needs.

The White Legs have a bigger role in the story however. For reasons not explicitly mentioned but easily inferred, they want to join up with Caesar's legion. If war is your way of life, why not join up with the biggest, baddest warband in town? The fact that the White Legs scalp their victims implies a culture that is centered on and celebrates war.

In exchange for their membership, they were given the task of destroying New Canaan and everyone in it. Why? Because Caesar didn't like Joshua Graham and decided to order a literal genocide against Joshua's "tribe". Caesar is that goddamned petty. The White Legs eagerly obliged and killed almost everyone in New Canaan, even the children and elderly. They even salted the earth afterwards.

It's depressing but yeah, the White Legs show that man's nature is one of conflict and bloodshed.

The Sorrows

Way waaaaay over on the other side of the spectrum are the Sorrows, a tribe of peaceful people living by a cave system called The Narrows. They are led by Daniel, a surviving Mormon missionary from New Canaan.

Daniel describes the Sorrows as peaceful and, more importantly, innocent. It's true. By complete contrast to the White Legs, the Sorrows seem like a bunch of hippies. The Sorrows are kind and hospitable and are a very emotional people. Daniel even mentions how the Sorrows feel and weep for the dead even if they are their enemies, the White Legs.

Here's the interesting bit. The Sorrows are not a kind and gentle people because they were born that way. The Sorrows worship this being called, The Father in the Caves. The Father taught them to be kind to one another and left Zion to them as a gift to make up for all the sorrows man has visited on man. I'll explain what this "Father" is much later but the point here is that the Sorrows appear to live a peaceful modest and self-sustaining existence because of the teachings and influence of the Father.

So what does this imply? It means that man can be taught to avoid a warlike existence and that man can live a good life free from war but needs some kind of rules or code. This, my friends is what you call morality. The Sorrows needed to be told that hurting one another is to be avoided. So you have a people here who were given a set of morals by a seemingly supernatural being telling them to love one another. Sound familiar? The Sorrows are doing quite well for themselves too if it weren't for the White Legs.

 The Dead Horses

The Dead Horses tribe are led by none other than Joshua Graham. They originally lived in Dead Horse Point but were convinced by Joshua to move to Zion after teaching them how to use guns and how to fight. Remember this ugly fact.

The Dead Horses occupy the middle ground. On the one hand, they're not as violent as the White Legs but they're no strangers to war either. However there are strong hints in the game that they're slipping into dangerous territory with their idolizing of Joshua and his ways as well as their decorating of their tribal clubs with the .45 shell casings of Joshua's trademark weapon. They're not warlike but they're getting there.

I guess this creates more of an interesting conflict between Daniel and Joshua. On the one hand, Daniel wants to preserve the Sorrows' innocence while on the other, Joshua is nudging the Dead Horses down the bloody path. Joshua would never admit it though (Remember this) and seems to act repulsed when told Follows-Chalk regards him highly.

Conclusion

Honest Hearts seems to imply that man, by nature, lives a warlike existence (White Legs). But man can be influenced to be above this sort of thing (Sorrows) or the other way around (Dead Horses). Notice that it's a man corrupting the Dead Horses while the Sorrows are influenced by a seemingly otherworldly being.

I will explain the Father in the Caves next time as well as the strong religious symbolism in the game.

Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Analysis (Pt 3)

Dean Domino

Yes, it's the same Dean Domino who indirectly caused this whole mess. First, some explanation. In the Fallout universe, the people who were irradiated from the bombs turn into what are called "Ghouls". Ghouls are considered mutants though it's probably impolite to call them that. The radiation causes them to appear like zombies though they're not actually dead. On the contrary, they have increased longevity and can live for hundreds of years.

Apparently, Dean Domino is still hanging around the Sierra Madre scheming for a way to get into it. So counting the years since the war, he's been waiting for roughly two centuries. Wow. If DM's message about greed imprisoning us in a hell of our own making didn't seem clear enough, Dean's story is as subtle as the grill of an oncoming semi. In fact, the bomb collar isn't even necessary. He's already a prisoner in more ways than one.

While it's obvious Dean is a greedy asshole, he's guilty of a much greater sin which is pride.  Pride has been called the "mother of all sins", the sin from which all others arise. In Dean's case, it's true. The reason why he sought to con Frederick out of his fortune was not because of envy. The envy was borne of Dean's inflated ego. Dean could not handle the idea of someone better than him, wealthier than him or even happier than him. This is evident in the way he interacts with the Courier. He thinks he's such hot shit, goes on misquoting Shakespeare and talks in a condescending manner.

In the game, Dean cannot handle it when the Courier doesn't act like a lackey. He doesn't like playing second fiddle. If in at any point the Courier back-talks Dean, points out the flaws of his plans, force him to do things or bruise his ego in any way, he perceives this as a personal insult and betrays the Courier in the end. In fact, it is so easy to get the "Betrayal" ending that I think that Dean dying to the Courier in the casino is the canonical ending. Dean finally underestimates the wrong badass and gets himself killed. Fitting.

Even in Dean's "happy" ending where he discovers the truth about Fredrick and Vera, he only feels sad for like, a second, then shrugs it off. He starts off to Vegas seeing it as a ripe fruit for the taking. I think that this ending is actually still a bad ending for Dean. He didn't learn anything and didn't grow as a character. Hell, even Dog/God had an arc. Dean remains a selfish dick and will more likely get himself into trouble than find true happiness.

"Used to open in Paris. Paris. Now this."

 Christine Royce

Christine was a the assassin sent after Elijah. Like him, she too was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel Mojave Chapter. As a character, Christine looks like a mess. She was lobotomized by the Think Tank in the Big MT (long story but she was tracking Elijah there) and now her vocal chords have been cut and replaced when Dean locked her in an auto-doc. Dean did this because the vault only opens to Vera Keyes' voice. 

She is mute in the game and her interactions with the player are all based on her facial expressions and crude sign language. How well the Courier understands her depends on his perception and intelligence traits as well as certain skills such as medicine. I was very impressed with this creativity. Even if she couldn't speak, the interactions with her are way more memorable than anything in Skyrim. However, I should rant about that game some other day.

At first, it was difficult to tie Christine to the theme of DM. She didn't seem like a bad person and was in fact, the only "good" character in the DLC. However, a friend of mine reminded me that Christine went after Elijah for personal reasons too. I know Christine mentioned that Elijah separated her from her lover but I guess I was too stupid to notice how deep it was. In Old World Blues, a later DLC, Ulysses mentions that Christine and Elijah are more similar than Christine would like to admit.

"Christine: ...don't want to argue philosophy with you. Brotherhood are preservationists. Tech in the wrong hands, it's dangerous. Mojave's proof.

Ulysses: No denying that. Proof's here in this crater, all around us. Your tribe, the Brotherhood - haven't met many of you. Wanted to. Thought you might be the last chance for the Mojave... the West. The East. But you're all the same mind, obsessed.

Christine: Elijah is obsessed. He's mad. It's why they ordered his execution.
 
Ulysses: Two are more alike than you know, too wrapped in the wrong bits of history to see ahead. Not judging. I know how it is. People are like couriers, you and him. Sometimes don't even know the message they bring. You all had a new flag. Thought maybe new ideas along with it. What you believe isn't any better than the Bear or Bull. No future in either.

Christine: So says the man with the Old World flag on his back. America, the Commonwealth... burned away.

Ulysses: America sleeps. And until it's dead, I carry it. Just like I carried you. More than hope. Belief. There's voices here in the Big Empty, I want to talk to them. Not like your Elijah did. Got questions. Want to hear history give its answer"

When Ulysses mentioned them being "wrapped up in the wrong bits of history", he could either be alluding to the Brotherhood's general philosophy or their common troubled history. I'm going with the latter. Christine went after Elijah for personal revenge. I guess that fits.

In the good ending, Christine becomes the warden of the Sierra Madre and looks after it. This is in contrast to Elijah's goals of using the technology for evil. It is ironic how Elijah, an Elder, could so willingly disregard the Brotherhood's core principles. Christine instead, keeps true to the Brotherhood's doctrine of preserving technology and keeping it out of the wrong hands. Her vocal chords heal and uses her new voice as Vera Keyes to replace the "siren song" broadcast into a farewell message for the courier.

Summary

Dead Money tells a story on how greed and obsession can make us all prisoners. It's a simple tale really but it's one told very well. "Letting go?" "Begin again?" Words to live by. I like games that have a moral point to them. Dead Money, out of all the DLCs, is the best in my opinion. The tight gameplay is enhanced by the well written story.

"Wait a moment. Before you go, I... we... hope you've enjoyed your stay. Farewells can be a time of sadness -- letting go, difficult. As a guest of the Sierra Madre, you know that truth more than anyone. Frederick Sinclair believed that one's life could be made anew every day, that fortunes were more than the wealth in your hands. Love, life, family, those to care for and those who will care for you: to those who know these joys, the Sierra Madre holds little they don't already have. Out in the world, beyond these walls, that is your chance to begin again. I hope that you will return in happier times. Until then, the Sierra Madre, and I, will hold you in our hearts" 

Let go and begin again.

Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Analysis (Pt 2)

Major Themes

Two phrases keep repeating themselves through Dead Money: "letting go" and "begin again". Now what do these phrases mean? It's important to remember these because providing context for them helps us understand the theme of the story. Greed is an important element also and ties-in with the whole problem of "letting go". Keep thinking of the two phrases. Their meaning will come later and the lessons will explain themselves.

One way to tell if a story is good is if the characters all tie-in to the theme and story in a way. This is what makes characters "strong", stand out more and the story is better understood through them as well. To use a different game as an example, this is the reason why characters in Mass Effect are so beloved by their fanbase. Players wouldn't give two shits about something like the Krogan genophage unless a character like Wrex or Mordin would give us a better understanding of how it affects people (or aliens?) and make us care. The same can be said in Dead Money. In DM, the characters are not just important to help the player progress but also to service the plot.

So let's use the characters. I think that's a good method. Let's start with the very first person you meet.

 Elijah

Elijah is the disgraced former Elder of the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel and is the main villain of DM. He was such a genius that even as a Scribe, he rose to the rank of Elder despite Elders normally being from the Paladins.  His leadership was unorthodox to say the least. The Brotherhood's doctrine is to hoard advanced technology in order to keep it out of the hands of your typical clueless waster. But Elijah wanted to provide tech to the people of the wasteland to get more recruits, a plan he passed on to Veronica, one of the Courier's companions. He was forward-thinking and well aware of the Brotherhood's stagnation.

But then he found the HELIOS solar power plant and wanted to claim it for the Brotherhood. This bought them in conflict with the NCR who also wanted it for themselves. Despite being outnumbered, Elijah continued to insist on holding the plant despite the advice of the Brotherhood Paladins. It was a disaster and the Brotherhood eventually lost HELIOS and many men with it. Elijah simply disappeared afterwards and set out to find "one of the greatest treasures of the Old World". 

He found the Sierra Madre and became absolutely obsessed with it. He captured people and put bomb collars on them, enslaving them to help him crack it open. His crimes did not go unnoticed. The Brotherhood decided that Elijah was just too dangerous and sent an assassin after him. 

Elijah's flaw is his ambition. All he cares about are his goals and damn anyone who gets in his way. He originally intended to use technology to establish the Brotherhood's dominance. But now, he sees the technology in the Sierra Madre as a way to establish his vision of a new order. Before he does however, his plan involves killing everyone in the Mojave with the poison cloud in the Sierra Madre to start over, to begin again or "Wipe the slate clean." as he calls it. To put it simply, Elijah is an obsessed, delusional, genocidal madman whose grand vision of a better future for mankind is betrayed by his cruel treatment of people as disposable tools.

Elijah is as much a prisoner of the Sierra Madre as the people he's enslaved. Greed is not limited to money. Greed is an obsessive, inordinate desire to acquire something (anything) and keep it to yourself. He's completely oblivious too. He expresses confusion as to why his prisoners succumb to greed and kill each other to get more loot. He probably thinks he's above them all because his cause is noble. Obviously not. Greed is greed. It's also interesting to note that he encourages the player to "kill the others" after the break-in for seemingly no reason. And he still thinks he's not like the common greedy killer? 

Like many others, he was lured to the Sierra Madre to reverse his fortunes and "begin again". Unfortunately, he cannot let go of his ambition and it leads to his comeuppance when he makes the mistake of crossing the wrong badass, the Courier. His figurative trap becomes literal when the Courier outsmarts him and traps him inside the vault he so desperately wanted to get into - a poetic death. The Sierra Madre claims another fool who wanted to gain what it promised.

 "But getting there - that's not the hard part. It's letting go."

Dog/God

Dog/God is a super mutant who once served in The Master's army in the original Fallout. He appears to be a nightkin and as is common among nightkin, has a split-personality disorder. He has two personalities. The Courier can switch between which personality would be dominant by playing an audio tape of either Elijah's voice (Dog becomes dominant) or his own voice (God becomes dominant).

Dog is what his name implies. Dog is a dumb beast who can barely communicate with the Courier. Dog is consumed with a powerful hunger and I don't mean a metaphorical kind of hunger. I mean dog will literally eat anything from ghost people to his own bomb collar (which he did). Dog also desires a master-figure, someone who will tell him what to do. He found this master in Elijah, who quickly saw potential in having this strong brute as a tool. Dog obeyed, happily too, and went about capturing "assistants" for Elijah, one of which was the Courier.

God, or "The Voice", as Dog calls him, is the exact opposite. God is articulate, cunning (as his attempts to subvert Elijah seem to indicate) and strong-willed. He hates being under the thumb of Elijah and does not take kindly to the Courier who he perceives as just another greedy scavenger. He argues a lot, doesn't like being told what to do and is very hard to order around in the game. Earning God's trust takes a lot of effort and it's tempting to just use Dog and be done with it. 

God hates Dog (it seems, at first) and Dog feels the same to God. God tortures Dog by being a voice in his head, perpetually trying to wrest him away from Elijah control at every waking moment. Dog physically abuses himself in horrible ways in an effort to block the voice of God.

Dog and God have very interesting character dynamics. One desires to be controlled while the other desires to be in control. One is consumed by the baser instinct of hunger while the other is obsessed with something far more complex. Maybe there's an intended reference to the Freudian model of the psyche. Dog is the id while God is the superego. All dog wants is the simple gratification of sating his hunger and having everything thought out for him by a master. God wants to control Dog to achieve freedom from being helpless.

In the bad ending, Dog cannot take his inner conflict anymore and kills himself in an effort to destroy God. However, in the good ending, the Courier manages to combine the two personalities and Dog/God is made whole again. God even admits that he doesn't really hate Dog and only wants what's best for him. When they are combined, they become a rounded out individual that balances the needs of both. Dog/God's ego emerges as well as his sense of self-identity. In other words he becomes the master of himself.

How does this character relate to the theme of DM? While Dog's hunger can be considered as greed, Dog/God is more of a comment on the nature of  the individual and less about the Sierra Madre treasure (which doesn't matter to neither Dog nor God). Both personalities are extremes from each other and are both harmful. Dog cannot control his hunger and thus, himself by extension. Because he cannot control himself, he cannot accept God, who is actually himself trying to force control. God is driving Dog crazy in the process despite his best intentions and it all eventually leads to attempted suicide.

The message here is temperance, which is the opposite of Dog's gluttony and also kind-of the opposite of Greed. Dog is found in all of us perhaps. Everyone has a "Dog" inside of him or an "id" if you prefer. Our baser instincts lead us to harm ourselves and do stupid things. Dog's hunger, Elijah's obsession, people's greed, lust etc. are all the same. 

The message, I guess, is to let go of our greed and master ourselves. It was Dog's gluttony that trapped him, albeit indirectly, as a slave to Elijah.

"Dog forgot himself, as did the voice that raged within him. After their passing, a new voice spoke within the mutant's shell. It was difficult for the voice to remember the two it once was... there was the beast, Dog consumed by hunger... ...and the other in reverse... the one consumed by control. Both were driven by need for the other. The Courier brought them together, somehow, joined the two into one."

Continued in Part 3

Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Analysis (Pt 1)

Fallout: New Vegas is an RPG that I like very much. It has great storytelling, dialogue and characters. It is one of the best games I have ever played.

What I like about it the most are the DLC expansion packs that were released later on. While it's easy for companies to just rush out a piece of crap DLC for quick bucks or worse yet, purposefully withhold content at day one to charge extra down the road, the expansions of FO:NV are quality stuff and are well thought out stories in themselves. I'd like to explore these games a bit and give comments about its story and themes. Let's start with the very first DLC, Dead Money. 

But first, some History. Once upon a time there was a rich businessman named Frederick Sinclair who was friends with a singer named Dean Domino. Dean was envious of Frederick's fortune so he hatched a scheme to con him out of it. Dean introduced his fellow singer and accomplice, Vera Keyes, to Frederick and he fell in love with her almost instantly. He fell so in love with her, he worked to build the Sierra Madre Casino, a casino where anyone could reverse his fortunes and begin again. This was his ultimate tribute to her. It also served as a bomb shelter to protect them from the threat of a possible nuclear war with China.

The Sierra Madre was equipped with advanced technologies to survive an apocalypse. It had matter replicator devices, hazardous environment suits and tools made with futuristic alloys that never dull or wear out. It also had a security system that used holograms that could move and interact with physical objects to a limited extent. It was designed to be self-sufficient.

Eventually, Frederick found out about Vera's duplicity. Heartbroken, his love turned to hatred and he set about making the Sierra Madre into a deathtrap, planning to lock Vera and Dean into the treasure vaults below. Vera, overcome with guilt, had a change of heart and confessed to him about the plot to swindle him out of his fortune. Frederick relented and tried to undo the traps he set and to return the Casino back into its original purpose.

Sadly, it was too late. On the night of the grand opening, the same night the bombs fell, the security holograms activated and slaughtered the guests. The Casino shut itself tight; nothing could get in or out. Frederick died to poisonous gas in the Casino ventilation system while he was trying to undo the electrical system for the trap. Before he died, he activated the emergency broadcast system hoping that it would lead the authorities to rescue Vera. Unfortunately, the broadcast system played the Sierra Madre welcome message instead; an invitation for visitors to come and seek their fortunes and a trap luring people to their doom for years to come. Vera remained locked in her hotel suite by security not knowing what happened to Frederick. She overdosed on drugs and killed herself. Dean remained locked outside the Casino and became a ghost that forever coveted the treasures within.

The Sierra Madre remains sealed, shielded from the world by a mysterious cloud of poisonous gas and guarded by macabre "ghost people." The Courier (you) is captured and enslaved by a man named Elijah who is obsessed with the secrets of the Sierra Madre.

 "Has your life taken a turn? Do troubles beset you? Has fortune left you behind? If so, the Sierra Madre Casino, in all its glory, is inviting you to begin again. Come to a place where wealth, excitement and intrigue await around every corner. Stroll along the winding streets of our beautiful resort, make new friends, or rekindle old flames. Let your eyes take in the luxurious expanse of the open desert under clear star-lit skies. Gaze straight on into the sunset from our villa rooftops. Countless diversions await: Gamble in our casino, take in the theater, or stay in one of our exclusive executive suites that will shelter you and cater to your every whim. So if life's worries have weighed you down, if you need an escape from your troubles, or if you just need an opportunity to begin again, join us, let go, and leave the world behind at the Sierra Madre grand opening this October... We'll be waiting." 

 

Continued in Part 2

Fallout: New Vegas Part 2

The story is definitely Fallout but the gameplay is inherited from Fallout 3, meaning its using the same game engine. When I talk about gameplay, I can't help but compare it to FO3 but I'll try not to compare these two too much.

There's a "hardcore mode" available in the beginning that adds a hunger, thirst and rest meter that you must satisfy by eating, drinking and sleeping. It's not as hard as it sounds, its easy enough to satisfy so really, its more of an annoyance so far. Also, companions can die permanently in this mode so pay attention and save often.

If you've played FO3, you'd immediately realize that the combat has changed for the better. There's iron sights now and the weapons can be fired accurately in first person view now. It is so much better than the weapons in FO3 which were so horribly inaccurate, you could aim at the broadside of a barn and hit a nun. Playing the game as a standard shooter is now possible. V.A.T.S. or Vault Assisted Targeting System still exists but its just that; an ASSIST system. You don't have to rely on it 24/7. Its handy for crippling the legs of monsters because some of them are really good at hitting you and you can't fake them out like you used to in FO3. Blowing up their kneecaps works wonders. Its a system to make precise shooting of limbs easier. V.A.T.S. no longer makes you immune to damage so it becomes a tactical choice. Do you make targeted shots like shooting a guy's arm to make him drop his gun while his pal wails on you with his very large knife or do you go old fashioned and just go shooter on them? Glad to see this change.

Another important detail is damage threshold. Basically, a guy with armor gets a high DT value and certain weapons can't pierce it and do full damage. It adds a welcome challenge to the game and armor really matters now. It helps a lot. There's a crafting system for ammo, meds, chems and food but it leaves a lot to be desired. I'll explain why later.

The quests are refreshingly different and sometimes more complex than FO3. For one, speech skill checks and stat checks are no longer luck based. Its either you meet the requirement or you don't so dialogue options won't be the same for every character. But dialogue isn't the only way to solve a quest although it allows you to do pull off some pretty manipulative and funny shit. You can use sneaking, pickpocketing and lock picking skills to bypass obstacles. If your character is smart he can hack computers to get info some NPCs wouldn't otherwise give. Basically, if you've invested in certain skills, no matter how strange, its bound to give you a boon in certain quests. There's this one quest where you need to kidnap someone and a high guns skill allows you to pistol whip him silently but if you chose speech instead, you can simply talk him into walking into a trap. Basically, if your character is built to fight, by God, that's what he's gonna do. No talking out of that. There's main quests and there are smaller ones that intertwine with each other. Some are contradictory in fact and can't be done along with another so choose your sides. At least we've gone beyond the point of fetch quests that involve going to A and B while going through long metro tunnels. If you played FO3 and know what I'm saying, pat yourself in the back or better yet, hang yourself. Questing is better.

As for graphics, well, we've seen it all before. It's adequate though it feels old but only because I've played FO3 too much and see it as recycled material. The music features classic songs and the choices of songs are top shelf. They get repetitive though. Even a handful of good songs can get repetitive but hey, turn the radio off and enjoy the original music from FO they put in the game. I must mention the voice acting. I was so fucking relieved to hear more than 3 voice actors in this game. The voice acting is better and more varied. The voice acting features the talents of Danny Trejo. Let that sink in for a minute.

You might think that I love this game to death and think that its the Fallout game FO3 should have been. While the latter is true, I grieves me to say I must know expose the bad bits of FO:NV. Nothing is perfect and with the good comes the bad.

Did I mention the engine is buggy as hell? The game is plagued with so many problems. Even quests can get bugged and some things become impossible to do. That's the biggest gripe I have about this game. The patch relieves some of it but it shouldn't be so terrible in the first place.

Another problem is also caused by using the same engine. The interface is badly designed. To equip or use an item, you have to go to your PIP-BOY menu using the tab button. The game pauses. You must navigate about 2 or 3 windows to see your weapons list and pick out what you want to kill with. God, help you if you want to use food or medicine. See, food, medicine and chems are all categorized under "Aid" section. If you have a lot of assorted food and medicine like a survival skill oriented character would, it tends to get cluttered. Its only sorted alphabetically but gee, I would have appreciated a "medicine" tab or a "chems" tab or even a "craftables" tab. You can use hotkeys though but still, Id appreciate a system to more easily access my shit. A bag system maybe? Something that allows you to grab right away and doesn't involve goddamn PIP-BOY scrolling. Crafting is difficult due to this unless you keep note of ingredients but who does that? Crafting should have its own recipe notebook or a better system overall.

By the way, the hunger, thirst and sleep meters are misleading. For example, the more thirsty you are, the higher the number in the meter. Let's say, the value is 75 H2o. A bottle of water has - 50 H20. It seems bad but it reduces your thirst meter so negative is actually good for you? Seems a bit misleading but its a minor point.

I can't complain about the story just yet but it just left the dirty diaper called FO3's plot in the dust.

SUMMARY

FA:NV when compared to FO3 is a vast improvement. Its much better executed and is just the smarter game. Even on its own, its a pretty. It has the spirit of Fallout in it too but its a spirit trapped in an old, bloated rotting carcass. Its a good game trapped in a bad game engine. It's like a genius brain trapped in a body with radiation poisoning and pubic lice. This game is worth getting only if you can update it. If you've played FO3 before, this game will make you love again. If you haven't played FO3, skip it and play this.

I hope it won't crash so much now that I've written good things about it.

Fallout: New Vegas Part 1

When I first heard of Fallout: New Vegas, I wondered to myself how they could possibly ruin Fallout even more. I wrote about Fallout 3 and how stupid it was and how the game had more bugs than a two peso prostitute. Yet, there was cautious optimism. There was word that it would be developed by Obsidian Entertainment and would actually have people from Black Isle Studios, those people who had experience with the previous Fallout games, to work on it. But then again, it used the same engine as Fallout 3 so FO:NV being a buggy mess was a foregone conclusion. In fact, I would have played this game sooner but the games shop I regularly go to pulled this product out because it was so buggy that they received too many complaints. Its the first time they ever did that and it was discouraging. Fortunately, I have acquired a "copy" but don't ask about its authenticity. I haven't finished it yet but I'll weigh in on how it is so far.

STORY

The opening cinematic shows you over a shallow grave about to be shot in the head by some asshole in a checkered suit. You take a bullet to the brain but somehow manage to survive. You are rescued by a robot and bought to a doctor in a small town called Goodsprings in the middle of the Mojave desert. After the doctor patches you up and you build your character, you step out back into the world ready for adventure. You are The Courier. Your job was to deliver a mysterious item but you got ambushed obviously. The main quest involves you going after the people who tried to kill you and unravelling the mystery behind the delivery you were supposed to make. Eventually you make it to New Vegas which is run by the enigmatic Mr.House who nobody has even seen. New Vegas seems to be exactly what you'd expect, a haven of vice and sin. Awesome. There's a lot of optional quests and exploration to be done.

Since the story is set in the West Coast, the same place as the first two Fallout games, there's a lot of references to the events of those games. The references aren't superficial. It really takes place in the continuity of those previous games. Shady Sands, Tandi, The New California Republic, and New Reno are all mentioned. FO:NV takes place in the same setting. Its nice that the source material gets attention with nods here and there. New Vegas is a thriving city and the towns outside it are actually important given the need for caravans and supplies. In other words, the locations MAKE SENSE unlike a town built around an atom bomb for example or a town of nothing but children like we had in FO3.

There are two main factions: The New California Republic and The Legion. The NCR originated from Shady Sands of the first game and is what you might consider the closest to an actual US government. The NCR has a rugged, wild west ranger thing about it but its hinted that the NCR are too big and bureaucratic. They aren't the good guys per se its just that the other factions aren't really into human rights and freedom and shit. The other faction is Caesar's Legion. Its led by a guy calling himself Caesar and is based on the Roman Empire. The Legion is no joke. They're numerous, fanatical and an actual threat to the NCR. Their also into slavery and subjugation of women. They are a ruthless and martial society. You might think that its ridiculous how there's a faction based on Ancient Rome but hey, its not too far a stretch. They're not shy about using guns. You gotta have some suspension of disbelief.

I'll continue about the gameplay and other elements tomorrow.