Don't worry the game opens up greatly once you hit NV. So greatly it can be overwhelming. In a good way.

Strictly speaking, of course, you can go anywhere from the start but you have better have tagged Stealth and put your first couple of levels into it because all your going to be doing is hiding. It is possible though. And, frankly, I LOVE that most things don't level with you for so many reasons. It's better for immersion. You don't get the idiocy of highway men in Glass armor like you did in Oblivion. You also get the immersion of real areas that are wilderness. Places where no piddly NPCs stroll through because they'd get waylaid too. You get the satisfaction of so many many "I'll be back" moments later in the game where you got schooled by an area but now you're coming back and you're going to waltz through that gang camp like the Terminator in a police station laying down some serious havoc.

I think, for me, that's what it comes down too: satisfaction. Auto leveling takes that away for me. I feel that FO:NV better rewards my leveling and in that way I actually feel more powerful and more accomplished when I can come back to a place I was unable to handle early in the game.

But for anyone who feels the beginning is too linear I'd say give it time. You could also rush right through the main quest and get to NV pretty quickly I'd say but I've been doing every sidequest I can get my hands on and exploring the south as much as possible. I've got probably 25+ hours in and hit level 10 and New Vegas just last night.

yeah, after you get to new vegas the game opens up immensely.

There is a bottle neck though at the beginning. Not really worried about it. IN FO3 I always did the same opening anway (Go to megaton)

This is a question everybody seems to ask about every game...

Let's be honest here... yea it's "more linear" than FO3... the real question is, do you really want a game wide open where you can do a ton of boring ass [censored]?



Every raves about how open some games are, and rant how some games aren't open enough... well you know what... i wanted to kill myself after a few hours of oblivion because let's face it... it got boring as [censored] running around the world doing really stupid quests.


instead of wasting our time doing completely pointless [censored]... let's read about something that was going on in the world while you were [censored] around in stupid games:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Williams

It's pretty funny listening to so many "Veteran" Fallout players complain about how linear the game is from the start. Because of what? The enemies? Sure, when I started I went down to Primm and followed the main quest. I had no problem with this. But my girlfriend, who doesn't even play all that many games, managed to get past all the "OMG SUPER POWERFUL ENEMIES" that so many of you are whining about as was at Freeside within 10-15 minutes of leaving Goodsprings. On hardcoe mind you, and her first playthrough.

For christ sake, show some moxie and stop complaining.

Hold on.

F:NV has a much more open main story than FO3.

FO3's main story is played almost the exact same way every time (at least you go to the exact same locations). IN NV you go to different locations and talk to different people and chose to support one. There's lik 5 different endings.

It's just that you're a bit restricted until you get to new vegas. that only takes less than an hour if you don't get side tracked.

People complain that there weren't leveled enemies in Oblivion or Fallout 3, now we have people complaining that there are. What ever. Leveld enemies is the better way to go. Makes leveling matter more than just making skill checks.

I just wish they did a better job expressin this. In the beginning town of Good Springs there is a safe in the school house. In the town is an experienced scavenger by the name of Easy Pete. He couldn't crack that safe or blow it open with explosives, but with only 25 lock pick you can get into it?!? Right... It should have been around a 75 or 100 check for you to come back to and it should have nicer loot. As though the same were dragged back to the school house from somewhere else, possibly by Easy Pete himself in his younger days.

It's either this or leveled enemies.

By the way, I made a new character recently and I did make my way to new Vegas, mostly avoiding the monsters. You can find B whether or not you did everything the "normal" way. If you want to fight your way to New Vegas thats also possible. Just steal one of the brotherhood of steel's weapons (they lie around in their bunker) and invest your attribute points in gun skills. You can now take on most of the monsters I would think. Maybe you can get a gauss rifle there too. Those things WTFpwn everything small and allow you to damage the bigger mobs sufficiently to be able to kill them.

Primm, the next town you go to on the main quest (10 minutes from starting if you so choose) has such a safe (with something awesome in it) that you could never open at early levels. As does another area a five minute walk from Primm on the way to the next main quest stop so I'd say they covered that. I think with Goodsprings they just wanted to give players access to what you would need to start any type of character. Something I don't really mind.

Oh, man, thanks, I forgot about that one. I know the first thing that I'm doing when I get back into the game...

Each to their own. But I worry about folks that want to kill themselves because of a game. :unsure: That is just over the top. If you didn't like it, don't play it. I liked it very much. Boring for whom? You? I don't find such things boring at all. We all like doing different things because we are different. I hate balancing my checkbook but my sister delights in finding every last penny. I write them off. I enjoy a bit of leveling so I can go do those exciting things you find boring.


It's perfectly ok for people to complain about what they don't like as long as one individual doesn't find a need to express the same complaint in every thread whether it's on topic or not. Again, we will never all be happy with the same things in our games. That is why I stay on a PC so I can find mods to customize the game to my own personal liking.


Yep, and I like a bit of leveling.

No, there is a third way. The game could simply indicate somehow what "level" any given area is, so the player can intelligently DECIDE where to go at any given time.

Of course trial-and-error is infinitely fascinating - to anyone with the IQ of a lab rat. Banging your head against a virtual wall (or worse yet an invisible virtual wall) isn't "gameplay" at all; it's just the designer punishing you for going somewhere HE decided you shouldn't go because it doesn't fit the storyline inside his head. The RPG trope of NPC's telling you what areas are "dangerous" is pretty much meaningless. About half the time, that indicates precisely the place where your character is supposed to be going.

And auto-levelling is like the "steering wheel" on a child's car seat. It's ridiculously easy to give the appearance of ultimate freedom when it doesn't MATTER where you go or when you go there.

But if the player has an indication of how difficult each area is, then he can make strategic decisions: Go to a place that fits your current skill level; sneak around someplace tougher if there's a reward you want; or maybe even kick back sometimes and go someplace a little easier, just to relax a bit.

dude.. i got sidetracked by some dude who lost his "girlfriend" among a bunch of lizards on my way to primm... walked up in the hills and got jumped by 25 lizards LOL i felt vulnerable as hell after that

I don't think it's really linear, but invisible walls do piss me off. Would like a modder to strip them out completely. But even though the map is actually quite a bit smaller than FO3's because of the parts to the North, east, and west that are not even accessible, I prefer NV anyday. The story and the depth to the game is too good, and the quests add plenty to do. Once modders fill in those blank areas, then this game will be better than it already was.

I like enemies are not scaled, but I am inclined to agree, you are kinda herded by DCs and other enemies, much better if they were in specific locations, to trapping you, because I always find op enemies when I go too far of the track, but its doable, im exploring quite a bit, completed good spring, now at helios, granted I had to listen to the npcs and follow the road around it took longer but no DCs.

That is an MMO-inspired immersion breaker. No thanks!

I was violated by a pack of deathclaws, and I liked it!

Nope in 3 you were forced along 1 path with a choice between good and evil, while in NV you have several choices.

There is nothing in any roleplaying game more "immersion-killing" than learning by dying.

And that idea wasn't "inspired" by MMO's; it all started back in the early days of arcade games.

YES it is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE immersion breaker, and those things are only put into games designed for stupid people. If you want to know whether there are monsters you can't beat, explore an area and check out the monsters from a safe distance.

I already explained how you can go to New Vegas first thing in the game, and how you can take on strong enemies early in the game but you completely ignored it.

How is looking at numbers on a map more "fascinating" than just looking and seeing for yourself? That's an awful idea and it ruins the openness of the world and kills exploration. I don't want the map to tell me what's in a given place, I want to see it for myself.

Fallout New Vegas is just NOT linear, far from it. Just because there's an easy route and some more difficult ones, doesn't mean it's linear. Aside from the fact that there are so many other quests that you can do whenever you like, and all the different sides you can take.

Not really since FO3 was the same way since you couldn't travel to certain areas when you were low level. Still remember coming upon my first DeathClaw in FO3 and was like "HOLY *string of bad words* WHAT HAPPENED?". Fallout New Vegas is very open with all things considered and yes there is a linear path from Goodsprings up through to New Vegas, but it is completely optional to take it. It is also completely optional as to whether or not you want to hit up those areas. Found my adventures so far to be quite enjoyable and have only completed 15 to 20% of the game I would imagine maybe 35% at the most.

New Vegas definitely has a linear feel to it.

hmmm actually it does seem kind-of linear to me too. Well, no more than FO3 was. I'm currently doing Come Fly With Me, and so far it's been one town telling you to go to another town which tells you to go to another town... exactly like FO3 was. I don't see how it's any different in that respect. Not disappointed though.

I wonder what happen in FO3 if right off the vault you head straight to Old Olney.
Will there be deathclaws and if so, are they weak enough to be shot down by a 10mm pistol ?

I like how they balanced the game in NV. Just like in real life, if you decide to ignore elders advice and go bear hunting at 5 years old with a bb gun... bad things are set to happen.

you can take shortcuts whenever you like. it's NOT linear.