Day 5 is a pretty post-apocalyptic session. I’m introduced to a major enemy group in a quite nice scene that really grounds the dark future of the game. There’s quite a bit of fighting and I’m back in the rhythm of the strategy of the game. The narrative is pretty good overall — there’s a lot of nice subplots although the melodrama gets kind of thick and predictable in a couple places. Overall though, the game is reaching a steady level of Fallout quality and the core plot is just starting to take some interesting twists. Spoilers within.

Day 4 is a complex mix of the good and bad of the game. The good: all of the wonderful exploration and hidden narrative that’s just in the wilderness of the game and the way that emergent features of NPC and location can make good scenes. On the other hand, the level design seems to be skewed to the difficult in places and it makes the game frustrating, especially when you can see an easy tell step to walk to. Overall it’s a good session that ends on a sour note of bad balancing. Spoilers within.

Day 3 is basically me dealing with a lot of content in a single city. I do some fighting, talk to some locals in need of help, and then do some more fighting. The fighting is pretty good; I like the V.A.T.S. systems of non real-time shooting and while I get devastated in the first couple fights, I remember that you can be strategic with combat in Fallout. The talking is mixed. The narrative is not that entertaining, but I’m given a genuine choice about what to do about Primm that I think will have an effect on my game in the long run. It’s that kind of narrative interaction that makes the new Fallout games great. Spoilers within.

Day 2 of Fallout is getting back into the rhythm, but I am starting to see some of the bugs and flaws people were talking about. The session is a set of conversations that lead to a fight, and both are pretty good examples of what Fallout does well. However, the game doesn’t seem to save after major points, so I end up having to replay a long major scene when I’m killed by apparently thin air before I get to a save point, and there is an absolutely atrocious mini-game. The narrative takes a slightly interesting turn at the end, but nothing earthshaking yet. Spoilers within.

Fallout New Vegas is so far exactly what you can expect from a modern Fallout game. There’s a lot (in my opinion too much) of character creation interface and overly precise determination. And then it’s tutorial for the most part as I remind myself how to fight and such. But overall, the atmosphere is basically right and some of the characters are pretty good, so it’s an interesting start. I’m still excited. Spoilers within.