Skyrim One Year On: Why Fallout New Vegas Is Better
- Written by Joe
- 16 comments
Bethesda Softworks control two of the most revered series' in modern gaming. Creators of the Elder Scrolls games and acquirers of the Fallout franchise - Bethesda own the Sandbox RPG genre.
Before we go on - New Vegas IS better than Fallout 3...(appropriate pause for the hissing and booing of avid Fallout fanatics in utter disagreement)... Fallout 3 is a masterpiece - back in 2008 it delivered a rich, innovative and engrossing experience and brought something we had never seen before to the current generation of gaming. Two years later, Fallout: New Vegas took all of what its predecessor had achieved and made it better. So if Fallout 3 is a masterpiece then New Vegas is, well, whatever one better than a masterpiece is. Skyrim - the first worthwhile Elder Scrolls of the current generation- became a similar success; a hero’s tale framed within a beautiful fantasy realm complete with dragons, giants, mammoths and not just advanced AI, but a fully functioning civilization. If you had a social life, it was put firmly on hold after embarking on the Dragonborn's journey.
Ok, so now it has been just over a year since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim graced our screens. And now that the dust has settled, the hysteria has calmed and the enchantment spell has worn off, it's time to lay the facts bare- Fallout: New Vegas is better than Skyrim (man, this article has the potential to piss a lot of people off!).
Let's talk why:
Setting, Believability and Intrigue of Gameplay: The Mojave desert, New Vegas and the end of the world scenario VRS the realm of Skyrim and a mythical doomsday.
I can hear the complaints already. Ok, ok, Skyrim is beautifully rendered. There are dragonflies and butterflies and rolling hills, and blah, and blah, and blah. I’m all for expansive maps and massive playgrounds which push hardware to its limits, but a fair whack of Skyrim is just plain boring. If I’ve trotted past a keep, cavern, burrow or cave once, I’ve trotted past one a million times. Anyone who claims they didn’t ‘fast travel’ from at least halfway through the main story is a liar. Size matters, but quality beats quantity every time. And where is the challenge? Skyrim’s random encounters pose almost no threat from the get-go. Bandits are felled with a single strike and trolls are picked off from long range with ease. Even the almighty dragon showdowns are either repetitive button mashing affairs or simply a case of outrunning said beast, making haste in the opposite direction. Sure, it is all more than aesthetically pleasing; but it’s just too easy.
New Vegas is quite the opposite. Thrown in at the deep end, battles regularly demand well executed strategy, timing and finesse. Be it battling a nest of Radscorpions, an army of fire ants, or a swarm of vehement Cazodors, you never feel safe. Utilizing Fallout’s VATs combat system efficiently only serves to force a tactical approach. And that’s without mentioning the most deadly of all videogame enemies - Deathclaws. As for New Vegas itself, its sparseness only adds to its grandeur. The sun-scorched plains and abandoned towns have you searching that little bit further for friendly life. Never has a game presented so many ‘I wonder what that is over there in the distance’ moments of exploration. Traveling is a joy - not a chore.
The basis of Skyrim’s story - for all purposely fantastical - just isn’t all that interesting. A bunch of dragons died years ago...now they’re back and plan to take over the world [insert overly-complicated reason why]... oh, by the way - you’re the ‘chosen one’, the only one who can stop them [insert almost non-existent reason why]... get to work.
Compare this with Fallout’s very real threat of nuclear war and the devastating effect it would have on the planet. As a mere courier, you are instantly aware of just how expendable you are in New Vegas. The Mojave Wasteland is almost the perfect setting, as it drives home a desperate scenario of desolation. The reinvented New Vegas; overrun with gangs and thugs battling for both power and survival is almost certainly how our fickle human race would act if placed in similar circumstances. Battling your way to the top in order to save New Vegas from itself and being forced to decide who you can trust; kill or let live, all makes for gripping storytelling.
Granted, 30 feet tall, mythical dragons destroying the planet isn’t exactly a comforting thought; but the idea of a post-apocalyptic world, the dangers it would present mankind, and the ensuing struggle for power between rogue factions is genuinely terrifying.
Gangs/Institutions: The NCR, Caesar’s Legion, House VRS The Imperial Legion, The Stormcloaks, The Blades
New Vegas commands some serious factions. The New California Republic (NCR) - a paragon of the old world, where democracy and government reined supreme, Caesar’s Legion - a neo-fascist, anti-democratic army of hyper-reactionists, and Robert House and Yes Man - paradigms of technological evolution and the threat they pose to society, to name but a few. Each, along with a series of recognised ‘families’ and gangs, go up against each other amid the New Vegas power struggle. You must discern and decide who is fighting for a cause, or for themselves; who is worth fighting alongside, and who is likely to betray you. You can feel part of a family, like when eventually welcomed by the Boomers, or realise you are being used as a tool, as with Caesar’s Legion.
Similarly, Skyrim has the Imperial Legion - a loyalist faction representing conservatism, up against The Stormcloaks - the would-be socialists of the realm. To be quite honest, the all-conquering, anti-religious attitudes of the Imperials whilst castigating ancient god, Talos, pale in insignificance when compared with the inherently bigoted and out-rightly racist behaviour of Stormcloak leader Ulfric Stormcloak. Freedom fighter? Che Guevara would turn in his grave. You never truly feel aligned with anyone - even the characters you’re forced to get along with.
New Vegas’s faction reputation system allows you to manipulate each gang and play one off another, creating depth and several possible play-throughs and endings. Conversely, Skyrim’s less significant factions’ missions are too linear to ever create enough interest (The Blades quests - yawn).
Joe
Joe is from Scotland and has been playing games for as long as he can remember. In the absence of siblings, this child of the 80s sought companionship in the shape of an Atari 1040ST. Having owned virtually all consoles and handhelds throughout the generations since then, he is dedicated to playing recent and not-so-recent games alike; all the while offering up his inherently cynical point of view.
Website: https://twitter.com/deaco2000Comments (16)
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Guest (Ed RM)
PermalinkYep. Skyrim is repetive, dull, bland and lackluster in imagination. The "writing" is so incredibly silly it is laugheable. Zero replay value, because, really, almost every quest has the same outcome and you are left with very few choices.
On the other hand, New Vegas is a true RPG with big and bold capital letters. Plenty of choices, incredibly crafted dialogue and companions and a setting that, if not as big or with as much dungeons as Skyrim or (FO3's metro lines), is far less repetititive and a lot more unique.
Obsidian makes true (even if flawed) RPG gems. Bethesda makes repetitive looking sand-boxes filled with forgettable characters, at best.
@ James: FO3 DLCS may have "quantity" if you count killing things. New Vegas DLCs have a clearly defined PLOT, with good dialogue and interesting characters.
@Cass: My issue with the "factions" in Skyrim isn't that they are not "perfect", but with how heavy handed it was demonstrated, and how, for me, none of those two seemed likeable or reasonable at all. Heck, even Caeser, if you talk to him in New Vegas, gives a better reasoning for the Legion (which is a horrible faction but at least I kind of "get" what the leader was thinking, even if I completely disagree).
@Jules: Actually, we are NOT given "plenty of reasons" in Skyrim for Alduin not returning. Even his page on the UESP wiki (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Alduin) says he might return, which also was the "hint", let's say, I got from the game after finishing main quest. So please, don't call someone a liar if you are the one that seems to be misinformed.
Also, you say the writer of the text show an "evident utter disrespect of the fantasy genre". It was not my impression. My impression is that he is just tired of all the *clichês* of the fantasy genre. Of all the standard tropes. Of the same old "plot" repeated again and again - the ultimate evil comes to destroy everything, but the mighty hero stops him (which is the ***exactly*** same premise for Oblivion, mind you).
To me New Vegas was waaay more sophisticated and well crafted with the "choose your side" style. It doens't point a single resolution for the main conflict, no. It shows you 4 factions with differnt goals to choose your path.
But what can we expect from Bethesda since their (IMO) creative downfall? Their last great and original in house game was Morrowind, to me.
After that... even Fallot 3 ripped Fallot 2 story - Enclave wants to kill all the irradiated people.
Way to go Bethesda, way to go... ;P -
Guest (Rhah)
PermalinkYou can take your entire joke of an article and flip it and it would still be just as biased as it is now.
For example: "The basis of Fallout’s story - for all purposely fantastical - just isn’t all that interesting. A bunch of people died years ago...now people are planning to take over what's left of the world [insert overly-complicated reason why]... oh, by the way - you’re the ‘mailman’, the only one who can stop them [insert almost non-existent reason why]... get to work."
FFS, you could almost apply that formula to ANY RPG and still have it make sense. Find me an RPG where you're NOT supposed to save the world/realm/galaxy...
It's a good thing that your 'journalism' is based on proven facts rather than personal opinions... oh wait.
Stick to just playing the games dude; You obviously can't create unbiased reviews. -
It puzzles me how many of these comments attack the author for being biased, this is an editorial. It says so even in the address. So critiques like "You obviously can't create unbiased reviews" clearly miss the point of an editorial.
In any case, I don't agree with all of the points presented in this article, but it did make me consider the games in a different light. I still think Skyrim is amazing, and would be hard-pressed to agree that New Vegas is better, but I also agree with the advantages the author presents for New Vegas. I always found the faction choices in Skyrim to be depressingly weak, and being forced to pick one to see a good chunk of the storyline always irked me. New Vegas just provides more options, and a better developed storyline for their factions. The point regarding companions wasn't even up for debate in my mind either. The companions in Skyrim are just awful and I always found they made everything more like an escort quest than actually providing any help. I don't know that these issues are enough to make New Vegas a better game, but they were certainly changes it would have been nice to see to make Skyrim an even better game. -
Guest (thomas)
PermalinkI completly agree with all of your statements except for guns. I don't really expect guns to be in elder scrolls but I do agree that it not being in there makes ranged combat boring quick. Imo skyrim got boring very very quick. I played it for a month and just didn't like the story, lack of skills compared to earlier ES games, constant fetch quests, horrible companions, every npc having the same voice, the very boring way of leveling skills (repeatedly do the same thing over and over then you level up, that is just boring) unlikeable factions, unclimatic ending, and how horrible the AI for dragons were. It was soo fun battling my first dragon then it became extremely annoying as they would constantly fly away and just run away from me in the middle of battle and not come back. There was a lot of things they took out in skyrim that were in past games just like something little like being able to wear clothes under your armor and that's just the beggining of it. The only thing I liked more about skyrim from past ES games were the graphics and presentaion but id rather have better gameplay options, quests and etc than just graphics. In the end it took me 6 months to come back to skyrim and finally have the urge to beat it and in those 6 months I was replaying New Vegas making new character doing different endings and what not. Skyrim lacked different ending and an interesting environment. It looked pretty but after going through 10 caves I became bored and almost every effin quest has at least 1 objective to fetch something from a cave which made me dislike it even more. After saying all that I think skyrim was overhyped but still a good game. I would give it a 7.5 and give New Vegas a 9.5. And just so everyone knows bethesda didn't develop New Vegas obsidian did and bethesda published it and in all honesty I think obsidian created a way way better sanbox rpg than bethesda did for skyrim or even fallout 3 which was effing awsome and would give a 9.0 but all in all Fallout New Vegas is the superior game compared to skyrim and bethesda needs to step their developing up and stop trying to charge outragoues amount of money for dlc. Each New Vegas dlc cost 10 bucks and added a whole new area and storyling along with weapons armor etc while Skyrims dlcs are 20 bucks (except for hearthfire which is the worst dlc I've ever purchased as there are mods better than it) for dawnguard which doesn't add a new land to explore for 20 effing bucks! Now I did enjoy dragonborn but it shoulndt of been 20 bucks! They're just overpricing the dlc because skyrim has been over hyped by so many that they know people will buy it regarldless if its really worth that value and in my mind that's just downright criminal! Obsidian needs to make another RPG and not bethesda because their games they develop are going downhill
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Guest (Otaku)
PermalinkYou just sound like some FPS fanboy to me, sorry buts its true, its like me saying Me head shooting every one in Fallout NV is boring... really dude? Then use smart tactics like using a bow to take down a troll? then what about using a Sniper Rifle taking down a deathclaw? killing Bandits in 1 hit with swords? while in Fallout NV you can use a grenade launcher to take out more Raiders with a good place shot, Followers have no back story in Skyrim? odd am pritty sure most of The Companions followers have some backstory to them, o lets not forget some of the Collage of winterhold, some of the thief's guild members have some, and lets not forget the Dark Brotherhood, then only ones are Hired followers, and ones you get when you are a thaine of the town/city so this so called "article" is a biased piece of crap
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