Fallout 3 and New Vegas are similar. You go through a short introduction and then step out into the blindingly bright outdoors of the Wasteland. You look around in all directions and see a seemingly endless horizon in every direction.

In Fallout 3, you're able to pick a direction and just go (or just go to Megaton) and there wouldn't be much trouble. You might happen across roaming gangs of raiders or packs of wild dogs, but nothing really threatening enough to stop you from forging your own path and choosing your own direction.

New Vegas certainly provides the illusion of freedom pretty well. You're close to smack dab in the middle of the Mohave when you start out and you can see the endless expanses in each directions. The townsfolk may point you down south towards Primm to follow the man who shot you in the head... but that's the main questline...! Screw that! I'm gonna go north!
Ohnoz! Deathclaws! I'm dead.

Okay, so North is a no-go. Maybe I'll go... WEST! Aieeee --- weird flying mutant monsters that take out 2/3 of my health in a single hit! Dead.

Okay... Can't go north and can't go west. I'll go... EAST! zomg, a giant wall of Giant Radscorpions!

Well, maybe heading down south to Primm isn't really such a bad idea after all. Oh, look... a bloatfly. And there's a coyote. Both are killed with single shots. Obviously this is the way I am meant to go. I am being herded by these overpowered mobs down to Primm like sheep.

After doing your business at Primm, you're kind of in the same situation as you were in Goodspring. The townsfolk tell you to follow the suit-man east towards Novac.
But why would you want to do that when there are locations to the south and west? Oh, wait... overpowered enemies again. o_x


I might not have noticed it on my own. I was obliviously being herded from one quest-hub to the next quest-hub. It became much more obvious when I was talking to my friend about the game and realized that he had done... just about everything I had done. Almost exactly. We went the same places, met the same people, did the same quests, and found relatively the same items.

There should be more opportunity for a unique experience.


Oh, and the Mohave Desert looks smaller than the Capitol Wasteland.

I hope Obsidian does good in the way of DLCs and expansions. :3

I noticed this too, New Vegas definitely has a linear feel to it. Especially with all of the [censored] invisible walls everywhere when you try to take shortcuts.

I could care less about getting wtfpwned by higher level crap I'm not ready for, my main gripe is when I revisit the low level areas as a high level, I wtfpwn them with no effort, and wtfpwning NPCs =/= fun. As for NV seeming linear, I TOTALLY agree, but for a slightly different reason than what you stated. I'll give you a hint as to what causes linear bull crap though, it rhymes with invisible balls. I think Fallout NV in comparison to FO3 is what Morrowind is compared to Oblivion, arguably frustrating at the lower levels and less user friendly, but with awesome faction based gameplay and overall more freedom/wtfpwning during end game which will keep you coming back for more.


Whether or not that is a good thing is up to you obviously, stimpacks that heal over time were more than enough of a reason to love NV more than FO3 for me.

It's supposed to be like the wild west where areas around large settlements are safer and more tamed but remote areas are more wild and have more dangerous creatures.

Your exploration is limited to the safer areas before you gain enough experience to survive in the wild. Basically, you're encouraged to stay on the roads at lower levels.

I think it is a bit more linear at the start but pretty much once you hit New Vegas you can go wherever you want. That said I haven't played Fallout 3 so I can't exactly compare the two.

I say NV is more like a tree than the groove that 3 is. I think they make it so the players gaining more information along the way, instead of *spoiler* being attack by the new robots and rangers when you get yo Vegas

its cause New Vegas does not have auto adjusting enemies. I dont mind, its fine. By the time you get to vegas, you can pretty much go wherever you want and have a fighting chance. It means you'll spend more time in each location and see what it has to offer before you move on. so really its just the first 1/5 of the game that is fairly linear, then it opens right up.

Later on it opens up from what I heard in the Talkabout from G4

Yeah, I don't mind being herded by powerful enemies. It’s nice to be scared and challenged for a bit… I’m questing out of NoVac right now. I do pretty well against humans, but I still can’t kill Deathclaws and can barely cope with giant radscorpions!!!

In Fallout 3, once you got the goodies from Operation Anchorage (which could be done right out of the vault), Godhood was assured and the rest of the game was a foregone conclusion!

non leveling enemies - the only proper way to nuge player to the plot way and to give a feeling of accomplishment

I felt a little bit rail-roaded for the first 8-10 hours of game, but after I got to the strip and got some decent equipment I felt like I could go more places. Now I have some decent armor and am thinking about ditching the quests to go exploring on my own.

I'd rather be scared of one place for a while and then come back to it with huge guns blazing that be able to go everywhere from the start.

By Bethesda standards it is definitely too linear but by Obsidian standards it is exactly the opposite. As far as I am concerned the game feels a bit too linear for my liking.

I kinda like it and kinda dislike it.
It's good because it just isn't meant for you to go to certain locations at a low lever.
But it's also a little bad because while you aren't "forced" to go south it's in your best interest.
But overall it's my first playthrough and I haven't even met CL yet so I'll wait until my 3rd playthrough to complain about this.
But it is a hell of a lot better than Oblivions enemies leveling up with you or Fallout 3's leveled enemies system.
(meaning, at low level you won't meet an Overlord, you just won't. While at high levels all you meet are high leveled enemies with the occasional molerat and bloatfly.)

Um, because one shotting everything in the starting area once you level past them is fun...........?

No, taking a leisurely stroll through Deathclaw valley is your reward for actually developing a formidable character.


PS

It’s like in FO2… I hated Metzger and desperately wanted to kill him and free his slaves, but I couldn’t because he was just too tough.

My reward for leveling was to return to the Den and splatter his brains all over the wall.

This. I like the fact that you can't go wherever you want in the wasteland at a low level but when you come back more powerful it's a good feeling.

I have mixed feelings on this one. I loved playing FO3 however I felt like. I didn't even scratch the MQ until later in the game. As a matter of fact, I missed the road sign for Megaton, and stumbled around the wastes for a long time before visiting the "Beginner" area (oh, WSG flashback).

In NV, I'm definitely feeling funneled. After stumbling across a couple obvious signs of places too high level for me, I ventured along the main route, just as the MQ wanted me to. I did get that sense of vulnerability being only level 3, with a relatively paltry amount of ammo, and sporting a Varmint rifle, and that's the way it should be. Of course, I got to the first intended location and made short work of the enemies using stealth and a nightscope, but it was a good adventure.

I haven't gotten too far into the game, but it definitely feels more linear than FO3, but I'm hoping things will open up more as I level up. The original Fallouts were like this too. Follow the yellow brick road until you've powered up enough...then do your exploring and side quests. I think I'm always going to prefer FO3 over NV just for that freedom of exploring, but I like what NV is showing so far.

Linear I don't think so I can go anywhere in the wasteland heck I could skip parts of the main quest if I wanted too although that would be stupid as I'd lose out on the exp.

I did plenty of side exploring. It was tough, sure, but It's possible.
I'm pretty much at a point now where I'm free to roam as well.

Thanks for using that spoiler tag...

do this (without spaces in the brackets) next time please!
[ spoiler ] text that's spoily [ /spoiler ]

See how it works in my quote above?

I haven't played yet but this does concern me. I love to explore and in games of this size if I am prevented from doing so when I first go to an area, I rarely go back and just end up missing it. It's why I enjoy a bit more leveled scaling that others seem to hate. But, I'll give it a run through and maybe I will not get so involved in the story that I skip returning for the fight after my character is able to survive those areas.

^ This

I was going at a nice, slow even pace. Then I hit the strip last night and just got overwhelmed with possibilities...

The first part is a bit linear to start but at least its not like that Metro 2033 rubbish I wasted my money on earlier in the year

It's not as bad as they are making it sound.

I've found two walls... one prevents you from going into a quarry the hard way, and another prevents me from climbing a peak and skipping, oh, half the towns you should visit on the way to the strip.

I think ANY invisible walls are too much. It's not that I have a problem with walls, just the invisible ones. Those places with a rock ridge that you can't get over are fine with me. Most of the walls ARE actually like this, coinciding with some obstacles, but I HAVE seen some that are on relatively open ground. I can't remember the exact place, but there was one that I spent about 15 minutes trying to find a way around, because I couldn't just look for a gap in the rocks, or a path up the cliff -- there WERE no rocks or cliff.

It doesn't detract from my enjoyment TOO much, but it is easily my biggest problem with the game.