Fallout New Vegas - 'Serious' Game Review

The reasoning behind choosing 'Fallout: New Vegas' is the great divide the game showcases almost immediately upon playing the game. The idea behind gang rivalry within a territorial war is something that is stated almost immediately. The player is thrown into this madness without warning and is expected to make decisions within an instance of meeting people.

The way the game persuades the player is by using their own levels of emotion to be shown, either by helping a lonesome town or by helping a gang overthrow that town. It is also possible to just walk away from the situation but as a beginning quest you almost feel you have to complete the first quest you get, not only that it helps with the story line later in the game. It is very much a linear game using engagement to change the state to a non-linear game if chosen too. The way the game relays information itself through interactive HUD and UI is another way that the game slightly breaks immersion but there isn't much to be done about this. The best way to overcome this is choosing the options that you think would suit your character. If this means killing hundreds of people then so be it, you are allowing the emotional and psychological feedback to come your way through choice,

The game is amazing for the reason that it allows you to have these different levels of emotional connection, using the idea of karma and a feedback of this sublimely throughout the game. There is a pop of of the karma system but at the times of it appearing you are too enticed in the game play to care for what it says. This gives off a procedural rhetoric through game play in itself as it's something that can be deemed unnecessary. Noticing this, the rules of the game and the manipulation used to force you into choosing something you wouldn't necessarily choose. This is something unrelenting in games which drives the player to either stop playing due to boredom shown through a linear structure but also can entice the player to choose the worst options to make the game play more excitable.

Either way Fallout New Vegas itself allows for all these game rules to be changed whether the player chooses to. It's a manipulative game forcing the player to follow a linear path but also allowing them to be non-linear and discover new locations.