Fallout New Vegas

Fallout New Vegas takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where over 200 years ago there was a great nuclear war. The game takes place 4 years after the events of Fallout 3, this time the player taking the role of a courier. At the beginning of the game, you are shot and left for dead out in the wasteland not to far from New Vegas (what once used to be Las Vegas). The game largely revolves around exploring the wasteland surrounding New Vegas and eventually New Vegas itself, completing different quests for various people in order to earn experience points in which to level up your character and make him more powerful. The story also revolves around trying to figure out why someone tried to kill you.

There is a lot to do in and around New Vegas, so much so that I saw one message board where one person claimed to have played the game for 85 hours and still has not even entered the town of New Vegas. Another player claimed to have played for 40 hours before entering New Vegas. I am going to be honest, if I were to play 85 hours of this game before I wrote a review, you probably would not see this review until sometime next year. But I have played a little over 20 hours of the game and while I also have still not entered the town of New Vegas, I have found quite a bit of content that I believe parents would want to know about.

What Parents Need to Know

Violence

Fallout New Vegas can be played from a first or third person point of view. The player can use different types of weapons such as guns, rocket launchers, grenades, dynamite and baseball bats. Blood does splatter when people are shot and body parts such as legs, arms, and heads can be shot off.

Dead bodies seem to stay where they are even after a long period of time. There was one town where I killed some enemies, left the town, came back several hours later and the bodies were still lying right where I left them.

There is an option that players can use called VATS which pause the screen, allows the player to target a certain number of shots on the enemy and is then played out in slow-motion.

In one area that I entered, there were some spikes in the ground with human heads run through at the top of the spikes.

As the player gains experience, the player will go up in levels. At certain levels the player can pick a perk to add certain attributes or characteristics to his character. One perk that can be attained is called the Bloody Mess perk which as the name implies allows kills to create more of a bloody mess.

Language

Fallout New Vegas contains at least 8 different swear words, many of which are used numerous times, especially the words f**k, hell, and a**.

Certain parts of the game also contain suggestive dialog.

Sexual Content

I encountered a billboard along one street for a club called Gomorrah. It showed the side view of a woman from the waist down on her knees with her butt in the air wearing a very skimpy bottom. She was also wearing a weapon holster and the tag line said “Holster your weapon…at Gomorrah.”

One of the missions involves recruiting people to work as prostitutes at one of the bars. One prostitute that you recruit is a robot referred to as a sexbot. Your character can also proposition certain prostitutes; the screen will go black and some suggestive dialog is heard.

In one mission, you are tasked to kill a man who is referenced to have raped a soldier.

Spiritual Content

One character I encountered was a ghoul (think mutated human) who was a spiritual leader claiming to lead other ghouls to a ghoul promiseland. There is a quest in which the player can help the ghoul to achieve this task by launching the group of ghouls off in space rockets.

Misc.

Players can have their character use different types of drugs which can lead to a screen blurring effect.

Your character can play casino games such as Blackjack, Roulette, and Slots.

One of the things I enjoy about a game like Fallout New Vegas is that throughout the game your character is presented with different choices that allow your character to either be a hero or a villain. Now it is true that this allows the player the option to commit evil deeds, but it also gives more meaning when the player chooses the righteous path as well as allowing the player to see the consequences of his actions if he makes a wrong decision.

Reviewer’s Thoughts

There is a lot to do and like in New Vegas. While I am not yet enjoying the game as much as I enjoyed Fallout 3, I still love exploring the wasteland and seeing what I can discover. There is enough mature content in the game, however, that I have to recommend to parents to respect the M rating and leave this game for mature gamers only.