Reviews - Altairp

I have played the New California mod with a few recommended add-ons to modernize New Vegas; there was only one playthrough - Enclave > Escaped from Raiders > NCR > Mob > Enclave (with a little jump into the Super Mutant ending to see what'd happen). There are many other paths to choose from, but, I'm pretty sure I got the gist of the mod.

It's not great.

STORY:

New California's initial plot intrigued me: the protagonist, orphan of an unknown tribe adopted into Vault 18, ends up squished into a coup that destroys the Vault and forces him out into the Wasteland. Alas, this train crashes right after this Prologue.

While the multiple branching paths are interesting, the story pretty much becomes a set of 'Go from A to B, kill a LOT of enemies, go from B to A then repeat until the end' missions that, eventually, climax in numerous, and almost fan-fiction tier, plot twists that come all of a sudden to close a story that was going nowhere. I also found out that there isn't much acknowledgment if you stray from the plot (a big plot point was that the Raider's base was well-defended, but, I assaulted their HQ early on without issues. Noone really acknowledged me mopping the floor with their faces).

The barely implied, but intriguing, need to search for the protagonist's tribe after escaping V18 is blown apart when...

!SPOILERS! - We discover that our character is the creation of a Super Mutant, who cloned Fallout 1's Vault Dweller's DNA (?) and injected his creation with a Pre-War parasite, to eventually create a fertile mutant that could continue the Unity's plan. We also discover that the Enclave officer and his sister, backers of the Vault coup, are actually mutant clones of a rather edgy character that appears once in the story (?). - !SPOILERS!

ENVIROMENT:

The map is not too big, but it's pretty empty. There's no room for meaningful exploration and - while I think this was addressed by the developers - it turns travel into a bore, especially when you have to travel all around the map to continue the story.

The main locations that I explored - Vault 13, Union City, Athens-Tec Mine, Fort Daggerfall (?), and the tribal village - are beautiful to look at; there clearly was a lot of care in creating these locations (you can see them in the screenshots, too!), they're all unique and clearly stand out.

There isn't much else to them other than the external eye-candy, however. Interiors are almost always empty. These places are also devoid of meaningful characters, other than the occasional trader who offers loot, the local guards and - of course - the main story characters. A strange Shi banker in UC who offered some lore of his organization, and a banking service, was a rare exception to the rule.

CHARACTERS:

Characters... well, don't really exist outside of the main story. They're only there to give the protagonist their next main mission or offer some exposition about the mod's lore. A few manage to stand out because of their top-notch voice actors (I really liked Briggs, his sister, Rossman and the Super Mutant Gatekeeper), but there really isn't much characterization.

I wasn't able to experience all of the companions. I only had Kira with me. She wished to find her lost tribe, but - alas - that went nowhere. Her triggers to discuss this subplot (that was, of course, tied to the main story) were oddly placed and just... weird, there also was no meaningful dialogue beyond "We must find my tribe. You promised!".

Fallout 3's companions probably have more backstory than she does.

GAMEPLAY:

The mod offers an interesting system of branching paths from the beginning. You can join up with a faction but also secretly help someone else to overthrow this faction, WHILE being a member of the Enclave (for example). Aside from that, the game turns into a 'go here, kill this horde of enemies, come back' pretty quickly. There are a few SPECIAL/Skill checks sprinkled here and there, but they're somewhat rare and mostly used in dialogue.

All in all, I think that this mod was a disappointment. I liked the beginning, and I loved some of the locations, but everything else just falls apart. Given all the hordes of NPCs I had to fight, this could've worked as a DOOM mod. Maybe.