At first, Fallout 3 add-ons were released and announced at a terrifying rate. This involuntarily forced us to think about their quality - we, of course, are grateful to Bethesda for all the donated pieces of "that same fallout", but our heart longed for something more. Mini-add-ons only teased our sophisticated walks through the familiar and explored to the last super mutant and wasteland settlement and, as a rule, were swallowed in half an evening. Fallout: New Vegas promises to be the "big" thing we've dreamed of since Operation Anchorage came out.
Firstly, under it are the developers who are better than others who know how to create RPGs using ready-made tools, in a ready-made universe, but with slightly changed rules. For example, just remember Neverwinter Nights 2 and Knights of the Old Republic 2 to grasp the meaning of our reasoning.
And, secondly, the team is almost entirely made up of former Interplay employees.- the legitimate and only progenitors of the first two "fallouts". One can only imagine what were the facial expressions of the "obsidians" when they were offered to work on, relatively speaking, a big addition to Fallout 3 - the third part of the post-apocalyptic role-playing, created without their direct participation. It's like raising your own child after returning from a long trip around the world.
Fallout fans considered it their duty to scold the third part not only because it looks like Oblivion - it's all in the first person and not at all in isometric - but also for the rebuilt combat system. VATS remained, but received the status of an optional add-on - with a special desire and a sufficient amount of ammunition, the friv old game could be played like a clumsy shooter. And here, from the real ideologues of the series in the person of Desura, I would like to see the restoration of historical justice and the organization of the transfer of balance towards step-by-step prudence and slowness. The developers decided to make a rather controversial decision.
And it consists in the imposition of a "shooter-like" style. A multi-stage system of weapon upgrades, invisible enemies (remember the monsters from Far Cry ), which can only be tracked in real time - these are two determining factors that commit themselves to seducing and persuading us to complete New Vegas without our beloved VATS.
Cannon upgrades will have a direct impact on the increase in the entertainment value. After all, it is one thing to fight off a group of raiders-vultures with the help of a dilapidated machine gun with a standard magazine, it is quite another thing to charge them on the forehead with an enlarged buckshot or an under-barrel grenade with a chemically active filler, and then also admire the work done.
Invisible monsters are a somewhat foreign phenomenon for the Fallout world . The wasteland is inhabited by pieces of flesh, suffering from the harmful and mutagenic effects of nuclear bombing. Two-headed brahmins, roaring brainless hulks, land-like octopuses - we agree to anything, but translucent walking meat is already from AvP , Far Cry or STALKER , at worst. It remains only to take everything for granted and hope that the fragile atmosphere of Fallout will not be destroyed by this.
She may suffer, rather, from another. Almost from the very beginning, the main character will have a universal and murderous laser control function with the same characteristics in his inventory. The weapon of mass destruction is controlled remotely. You set the coordinates and press the button "Pli!" in his Pip-Boy, and the laser itself does the rest. This powerful argument, which helps to resolve almost any dispute that may arise, will surely be recharged for a while. But there is concern that the orbital supergun will detrimentally affect the balance and atmosphere of the lone hero's adventure.
Only here the hero is unlikely to be in New Vegas alone with the dangers. This is eloquently evidenced by the presence of the Companion Wheel - a menu for managing partners, executed in the form of a circle. Thanks to him, communication with the walking ballast henchman will become much easier. If anyone has played strategy on consoles, you probably remember how they usually present the menu for selecting buildings for building or recruiting new units: a circle with babbling cells is called up, control and navigation through which is carried out just like in Crysis (when suit modes are selected) or like Mass Effectwhen choosing replicas in a dialogue. Among the requests in the Companion Wheel you can find not only the familiar “Cover my ass” and “Share the cartridges”, but also the completely arrogant “Get my things, bastard!” or the pacifist-friendly "Relax, boy, he's mine!"
It is one thing to distribute simple phrases to your partners, and quite another to lead random characters with their help during dialogues. If you remember, earlier the probability of success of a pronounced conviction sentence was displayed as a percentage - so you could immediately assess your chances of winning. But Obsidiandecided to abandon any prompts in the form of numbers for the sake of greater realism - now the outcome of the dialogue is obvious already at the stage of formulating the question. If you have sufficiently pumped the necessary parameters, then the phrase to the interlocutor will be delivered in such a way that it will be very, very difficult to lose faith in the seriousness of our hero's intentions. Agree, there is a difference between the plea of a squishy like "Please help me!" and a formidable warning "You will come with me, or I will pull your brown eye over a chocolate one!"
If a random wasteland dweller does not want to cooperate even after a realistic communication, and it will be somehow wrong to let him go, then an equally believable melee animation will come into force - another important improvement in New Vegas... Now opponents will react more naturally to our tapping on the body with a baton - they will begin to grab a sore spot, shrink in indescribable poses and in every possible way assert with their whole appearance that they are very, very painful.
The plot of Fallout: New Vegas is like a free retelling of the original story from Fallout 3reflected in an insidious distorting mirror. Our ward is not a helpless chick from a shelter-incubator, but a trader beaten by life's troubles in post-apocalyptic America, whose face will also be beaten by the beginning of the Friv game. Instead of a compassionate father, a good-natured doctor acts, who, apparently, under the pressure of conscience and the oath of Hippocrates pronounced, will put the newly-called adventurer on his feet. He will help with the distribution of the primary parameters, will present the irreplaceable Pip-Boy stolen from the shelter at number 21, and will release the newly born hero free. And there the tasks at first are clear and predictable: to find out who exactly set us up and over whom to carry out the obligatory ritual of brutal vendetta.
"Will" is now the lands of New Vegas - an area of the wasteland, which was not affected by the nuclear holocaust as much as Washington. No high-rise buildings and pedestals of prominent politicians without a head destroyed to the ground - this time we will walk in a more or less preserved city, outside of which growing trees and green grass are not wildness, but due attributes.
Fallout is back in the hands of its true creators. Apparently, Desura is not going to go against Bethesda and make New Vegas the way fans of the first two parts would like to see it. The bias towards the shooter can still be traced and even intensified. But such important components for a real role-playing Friv game, such as dialogue, plot and the world around them, will be significantly improved. Even more third "fallout", even more mutants - sometimes a little is enough for happiness.