I've not completed the main game yet, but after 90 hours of gameplay and 3 out of 4 dlcs, I've reached a fairly precise idea about this game, with its plus and minuses.

About the main game.

As many have already noticed, the game is initially flat, and the locations are quite boring. There's not much variety, even if I've found some interesting places such as Hoover dam (NCR Base). The overall atmosphere of the game is pretty weak, with very little variety and poor design. I'm quite dependent on atmosphere and graphic compartment, and NV from this point of view is a pure failure. Fallout 3 with the same engine has far more charme than NV.

The idea about gaining or losing reputation with groups and factions is really good, but it is not immediate and intuitive and it is very easy to mess with the various groups. What initially struck me down was the fact that after killing some ambushers (that had attacked me without reason) near Goodsprings, I still remember well I had lost reputation with that place inhabitants, risking to screw up already one of the first quests. Quite annoying! After getting used on how it works, it becomes easier to do "the right thing" for "the right group", but still, it remains quite easy doing the wrong choice during a quest that screws up the mission tranforming the pc in the enemy of the group he was trying to join (Brotherhood of steel, crappy people!).

The weaponry is extremely various and rewarding, I really loved trying such variety of firearms and energy weapons, even if I was almost always low on ammunition; this brings a good idea of "survival game" in which New vegas is really good, even if sometimes it is frutrating; the armor compartment is quite poor instead, I've survived beyond lvl 30 always using medium-light armor, and just actually I've managed to obtain some decent gear (the riot gear in lonesome road). Most gear is quite crappy, and I haven't seen the classic power armor, except the type used by the Brotherhood of Steel, that now are my enemies.

Old world blues. Well, I've found it quite boring, with low survivability. It has been quite hard for me to go through the story, that didn't capture my interest, and the overall gear obtained at the end of it is not worth the boredom I felt.

Dead money. The idea behind this DLC is quite good, and there is much charm and atmosphere in the maps I have explored, but to be honest it is the most irritating game I've ever played, with a lot of runs to reach the next safe place before having my head exploding and the crappiest gear and weapons I've ever used. The level and traps desinger must be a little sadistic!The enemies are well designed, but not very various. I'm not going, anyway, to spoil what kind of monsters are present.

Now I'm playing lonesome road and it is actually the best part of the game I've played. It has, till now, very atmospheric environment (even if very linear) and very good gear and weapons as a reward and as tools to play through it. Finally I got my cool Riot gear, even more beautiful than the NCR ranger one. This dlc reminds me somehow one of the Borderland 1 dlcs: the Secret armory of general Knox, and for me it is a very positive thing. I'm actually enjoying a lot this trip along the road!

Ok. This short list of impressions is my overall idea about NV. It is far better than I previously thought, but still it has many weak points.

Just a couple of comments that occurred to me, after reading your post.

Regarding armor, many people including me have come to the conclusion that FNV is biased in favor of light armor, if you take the right perks.(Light Step and Light Touch for example). There is one other way you can get heavy power armor, besides from the BoS, but it's a little convoluted to get.

Regarding the DLCs, my favorite sniper rifle is found in OWB. My favorite energy weapon is found in DM. IMO the point of DM was to start you out with almost nothing, in a deadly environment, but with the biggest single reward in all of FNV if you can figure how to get it out.

Interesting, but I'm not going back to Dead money. Never! XD

I have really enough of it, and I don't relly care if I miss one cool weapon.

Fallout New Vegas is better to be played multiple times so you know the factions going into it, so you can roleplay accordingly instead of going in blind. That being said, 90 hours isn't really enough to experience the whole game.

You make a decent point about the blandness of the map but it is a desert, and the civilizations were the main attraction while in Fallout 3 there was a lot of unique areas to explore. Bethesda does exploration - Obsidian obviously went a different route which did get a little boring after playing many characters in the game as I got a little bored of Freeside, The Strip and the typical spots that I know off of my back. If I went to Fallout 3 now it still would be all fresh, apart from Megaton and that big store. So I understand how coming from F3 to NV you would be quite disappointed.

I agree with you regarding the weapons, you get very rich quickly and even without the gun runners arsenal DLC there's still a lot of weaponry to purchase. Barter in NV was poorly designed and even before stealing all of those gold bars from the Sierra Madre I had a lot of money.

OWB makes connections to the old DLCs and it's got a few boring quests like the 'stealth suit tests' (which I usually skip or skip the upgrades). The main story was a bit boring, I agree, but it's mainly the side-stories that captured my interest. Obtaining the sink as a base was an awesome find, you get a lot of powerful weaponry as well. You should come out of a DLC with some piece of mind or knowledge, something intangible that made it a cooler experience like I did. A super special item isn't always that necessary.

Dead Money was the best DLC in my opinion, a seasoned fallout player would find it quite easy on normal/hard difficulty in hardcoe mode for example but if you're a new player I can imagine you getting frustrated with the radios and lack of health in lower difficulties even. It requires a re-run to fully appreciate the DLC, it's not for everyone really, people want to get back to the wasteland asap and ignore the other optional areas to visit. The story behind it was good, and the ending was fantastic. Having to let go, the concepts behind it. Although I never did 'let go' and leave (stole all 30 odd gold bars xD). Yet, I quite enjoyed the idea of letting go and I ought to have gone that route as it was a great ending.

Lonesome road is alright but I personally didn't like how linear it was, it felt like I was playing a single player campaign of some first person shooter. However, the loot is rewarding and the story is decent enough to keep me awake.

Lonesome road is extremely linear, but the atmosphere is really, really cool. My favourite dlc and by far my favourite part of the game.

I repeat, I'm not returning in Sierra Madre anytime soon or late (or in between!). It has been extremely irritating, frustrating sometimes. I often rushed through the places with just 15-20 life points, limping, avoiding desperately enemies (sometimes just to run and die into a f[...]n' beartrap! WTF!!!!And that f[...]n' collar! Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!). Even the coolest ultrawesome badass powerarmor gear wouldn't make me redo that dlc.

PS: I don't pretend to know everything about the game, but certainly a good 60-70%.

Dead Money is like dark souls. Be patient, think, and if you die, you know how not to proceed.

Dead Money is my favorite of the NV DLCS, even if it was made ridiculously easy by the [censored] vending machines. The villa, the Cloud, the ghosts, of various types (and i don't mean just the enemies named such). It's just awesome. I look forward to playing it on every playtrough
And the gold? A distraction. There is much more valuable stuff in there

And Lone Road is awesome journey too, i always save it as the last thing i do before the final quest of the game.

You seem to measure the quality of the game using visuals and loot quality. That's fine but NV might not be the best of games for you then. To me, a lot of it's charme comes from the storytelling. Have you triggered and done any of the companion quests yet? Exploring the map is an option but not as broad as in FO3 or TES games. NV is more about exploring the storylines. You have several options on how to tackle and finish the main quest, the factions offer a lot of variety too - if you're not too trigger-happy and piss them off early, that is.

I think Honest Hearts has the best scenery by far. The story line is a bit weak, however.

Visuals are in my opinion important from the "atmosphere" point of view: is that intense and intriguing? In New vegas it is not. At all.

Loot quality is important from the gameplay point of view. If loot is helpful then it is good even if the quality is low. In FO:NV there's a huge variety of weapons that, without being much powerful allow different and fun approaches to combat

At the moment I've helped Mr. House and the NCR, now I'm at the Omertas quest. For both the factions. I've met Caesar and the Legion, Yes man, but none of them gives me a valid alternative to the fist 2 factions. In this game the are not real good or bad people/factions, just a wide variety of shittyness. Pardon the term, but it is the best to render the situation.

I've done some side quests for the supermutants, for NCR, Mr. House, the kings, the crimson caravan, the boomers, Primm and others I don't remember. Maybe I'm very unlucky, I haven't found any interesting story or quest yet. I'm quite sensible towards a good story, it is 50% of a game. All the quests I've done this far, side or main ones, are extremely boring. New vegas (the place) is for me a huge letdown.

Well, then it's just not your cup of tea, I guess.

this is something that has always intrigued me. I played Fallout 1 through NV (Tatics I jumped) and the only one where I was limited in the use of my favorite weapons was FO3 (and I′m talking here about common weapons and not missel launcher or something like that).

I remember like it was yesterday I happy to have found the lincon′s repeater and not having to use it as ammunition for this weapon is scarce. Same thing with the sniper rifle. It seems that the game has only three ammunition, 10 mm, shells and 5.56 mm, these in large quantities.

That said, I see MANY people making suggestions to that in FO4, the ammunition is even scarcer. As if Fallout were some sort of Last of Us. Now, how something like this can work? Anyone ever played this game on Very Hard? That's the difficulty I like to play, but the enemies literally become bullet sponges, it's ridiculous.

Okay, but why am I talking about this? Turn Fallout on a Last of Us has already made. Dead Money.

and this is the most hated DLC in Fallout NV. The people never complains about the story, characters or environment. They complains about the difficulty and lack of resources. DM is the Fallout that they ask for. And it was poorly received, including the "specialized" reviews.

In DM you have to sneak. You have to craft. You have to scavanger. You have to explore. You have to gambling. You have to make every bullet count. And YES, you have to run.

The perks are absolutely important in this DLC, more than in any other part of the game. In any fallout, actually. For example: Sillent running leaves you anonymous. Light steps protects you from traps. Mad bomber is an excellent source of grenades. Them's Good Eatin 'replaces the stimpaks. Rad child ... well, this perk almost kill the entire fun of this DLC.

I absolutely love DM. And yes, I hated in the first time.

I sort of like the desert, even if the colors are a bit dull, and I think exploring the game world is fun. My main issue with the game world is that in many places the pieces aren't properly put together, leaving a small gap between e.g. one half of a cliff and the other half.

Absolutely interesting! But, have you realized that, based on what you have just said, the player should be put in the condition to set his char up for the task, otherwise it is a real painful mess? Not everybody sets his char with these perks you mentioned before starting a dlc that doesn't show any requirements except the entry level! XD There are so many interesting perks available in this game; taking me as an example, when at lvl 26 I entered the abandoned BoS bunker, I wasn't ready at all for this! I wasn't (and I'm still not) specialized in melee and unarmed, that in Dead money are quite useful, but they sometimes don't match the player's aptitude or gameplay interest!

In this DLC I should have set up a sort of Ninja specialized in throwing spears, melee weapons, light steps, silent running and other skills or perks you mentioned! At the beginning of this adventure I was a jerk with no armor at all, an holographic thing-gun with few ammo and a knife, fully specialized in firearms and energy weapons! XD

What a mess, dude, what a fking mess! XD

The real beauty of New Vegas doesnt come out until multiple play throughs, i find. In fallout 3, all the quests have 2, maybe 3 ways of doing them and usually only results in minor differences in reward and karma. All of the quests in fallout 3 are isolated events that have no real bearing on other quests or the world.

In New Vegas, every quest has 4+ different ways of doing them which can drastically change the result, your reputation with other factions and even block you out of other quests. Many quests require you kill other quest givers for other factions, in fallout 3 they would never dare do this for a quest and potentially "lock you out of those quests". In the end, it makes your actions have more consequence, if you side with NCR, you will be hunted by the legion and wont be able to do their quests.

On top of that, the main quest in fallout new vegas has 4 distinct main paths, with various branches in those paths. You can side with any faction and play the story out completely differently each time. In fallout 3, the story plays out the same, every, single, time.

I also like the gray morality of the quests in new vegas, they arent just "super good option or super evil option" and make sense for the most part. Settlements are also more thought out, actually have reasons as to why they are there, have resources they collect and trade, while in fallout 3 you got settlements like megaton where they build it around a giant bomb for no apparent reason except cool factor i guess.

Also there is way more quests in Fallout new vegas, something like 2.5 to 1 ratio over fallout 3.

I found in my first play through of new vegas i didnt like it as much as 3 cus it didnt look as cool on the outside. But once i did multiple play throughs, i realized how superior the game is on almost every front over fallout 3, the RPG mechanics and how SPECIAL and skills have more meaning and do more than they did in fallout 3, the player has an actual impact on the world, and the quests seem much more thought out.

Anyway, that's my personal opinion.

PS: I also really love Dead Money and have played it about 9 different times now, with completely different character builds.

I liked Dead Money even though I found it exceedingly frustrating.

Ow! I stepped on a bear trap!

Ow! I stepped on another bear trap!

Beep.......beep...beep..beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep..uh oh..splat!

The only thing more frustrating was Courier's Mile in Lonesome Road. Basically anything you do there is likely to get you killed, including doing nothing.

OP-I hate to admit it but I didn't like fonv at all when I first played it. I loved fo3 and was expecting the same game but a different setting. I was very focused on the exploration and atmosphere that I thought the quests were dull. Put it down for some months and got a gaming PC and got fo3 and modded it all to hell and was in heaven. After some time, I decided to get fonv for PC and went in thinking it was the worse fallout game ever. I went in knowing it didn't have that 50s scifi b movie post apocalyptic feeling to it and decided to play.
For some reason I was floored, and realized this wasn't a game that focused on exploration of a barren landscape but instead focused on exploring different story options and the outcomes of the different choices. I started getting creative and was amazed by the different options I had. I personally think the weapons and armor is better than in fo3 while I agree the atmosphere and landscape isn't as good as fo3.
I got a new perspective on both games that I love. Fallout 3 lets me go anywhere and explore, whereas fonv gives me many options and let me take the story wherever I want to go. One I'm roleplaying in my head and having a blast whereas one has me roleplaying in the game and the game recognizing my roleplaying and rewards and punishes me for my roleplaying.

It is a painful mess. And I enjoy this. It was not the difficulty that made me hate DM the first time, but how I easily lost myself on the map. Damn, to this day I always lose myself in a especififica part, which is after activating the gala event. Sometimes I find my way back in 5 minutes. Sometimes in 50 minutes.

Unfortunately I think that will be the last time we will see something as hardcoe in a Fallout.

I had the same experience with DM, first time I hated it, but subsequent visits I have enjoyed tremendously. It almost feels like home now.

Anyway one thing to note about DM is that it gives you one or more good new weapons, no matter what your combat specialty.

Well that's true for unarmed, melee, guns or energy characters. A pure explosives character will have a harder time, but they would likely have Light Step which would make some parts easier.

Also DM isn't really level dependent like some of the other DLCs are. I have done it at level one, and it wasn't much harder than at level 30. Failing a few Speech checks was the biggest difference.

Reason being that most of the dangers are equally deadly to any level of character. And the Ghost People can often be avoided if necessary.

A pure explosive build can make a lot of MFC grenade and even some tin grenades with mad bomber. I speak from own experience.

usually a single grenade is enough to dismember these losers. however 2 is necessary for trappers.

And you can always count with Dog and Dean.

Cass certainly looks good in Vera's dress from DM.

Going round in circles when lost is a real drag, even in Vanilla NV, but Dead Money I'm looking forward to, it really sounds "my type of Game".

Yes I did start of in this Nv on very-Hard.. then hard when it became just-a-pain.. but I'm doing ok now.
Dead Money, I will give it a go, but I do not have or use companions, nor do I use VATS either. It will be an interesting game.

Fallout 4, reading the interviews, I think you are right.....

Even easier with high melee weapons skill, using their own throwing spears against them

And if you have Repair skill, go back to the Police Station and convert all your ammo to Hollow Points; nothing in DM has any damage threshold.