AMCAlmaron

Well, I finally got around to giving this a try...in case you've not heard of it until now, it's a huge fan mod prequel to Fallout: New Vegas (and also Fallout 3, to a degree) set in an entirely new location known as "The Pass" that's been created by the modders, and which appears to be located northeast of Los Angeles on the route to Las Vegas. Anyway, in the story you are an orphan of the Wasteland who was rescued and brought to Vault 18 (which has survived as a hidden underground settlement as a result of the second Overseer disabling the planned Vault-Tec experiment) as a child by a "Vault Ranger". After a lengthy prologue sequence inside the Vault - which determines whether you're a 'Warrior' or a 'Scientist', gives you an idea of the setting, lets you meet potential companions and also adds a large number of starting perks that boost your stats significantly - the Enclave attacks, and a series of branching paths begin where you either join the Enclave, defy the Enclave and flee to NCR territory, or defy the Enclave but get captured by the rival Survivalist Raider faction, which opposes NCR expansion (and I think you have the opportunity to depose the guy in charge and bring another person to power). After all this, the game starts to open up and you're free to explore the Wasteland...

So, my overall thoughts about the game? Mixed...there's some really great stuff in there, but there's also a fair bit of disappointing things as well. The voice-acting is very good, the radio stations in the game are good fun - well, I only really listened to the NCR Radio station, not so much the Survivalist Metal station, but still! - and Union City is quite awesome when you arrive there for the first time - the Shi Bank is also a cool concept; store your caps and get interest! The level design in places along with the new models were impressive, with one standout area being a Fort that was designed to evoke Mariposa from Fallout 1! The design is also a bit of a mishmash of games; the eastern and southern parts of the map felt more like Fallout 3 maps in terms of environment and abundance of ruined buildings, while the western and northern parts felt more like New Vegas, with Union City itself reminiscent of Fallout 2 building designs, which was a nice touch. I also loved a sequence where I had to flee Vault 18 as it exploded and seek shelter inside a ruined building nearby, as once my group was inside, the whole place shook and dark smoke went flying past the windows before it all subsided...good stuff!

Now for the bad stuff. One major problem is the world's a bit bare at the moment...oh, there are places to explore, but there aren't many special quests or stories linked to most of the locations that make you want to explore them. Technically, the game is still in Beta at the moment, so with a bit of luck they'll fix this in future, but it still negatively affected things for me; by the end I was just avoiding buildings because I was already stupidly rich and powerful (hilariously, one of my companions proved to be a kleptomaniac and at one point was carrying about a hundred guns that I was able to upgrade and sell) and there just wasn't anything else I needed. There was also a disappointing part about halfway through the game where I decided to explore the western part of the map because it was devoid of markers save for one at the far end, and in the end it was mostly empty. At the start there had been some ruined buildings and raider settlements in the way, but again, not much to explore in them (which was disappointing because there were some Cazadores nearby and I assumed there'd be some story to follow involving their arrival), but then it just became desert, with a GIANT TARANTULA, Deathclaws, an overpowered Raider salvage point and an irradiated aiport control tower in the way. I eventually made it through all that and found the location was a small but deserted community, with no indication of why they'd left - or why I'd been given the marker in the first place. I then decided to scout the rest of the area, as there were some remnants of highway and power lines in the distance, but it turned out to just be an irradiated area presumably set to discourage exploration there...again, hopefully they'll fix this with time, but right now it's a letdown. I also need to note that Union City could have also used some better signposting; by the time I got there I was addicted to alcohol and suffering from radiation sickness, but none of the merchants I could find were selling the curative items I needed, and the medical tent located by the gigantic medical sign didn't have a doctor nearby. I eventually found them in a mostly featureless stone hut nearby with a single medical symbol on the wall that I'd missed the first time because it had been obscured by a metal staircase and a bunch of old cars...so that was annoying. 

I also have some issues with the final part of the game itself, but I'll save that for the next section, where I can talk about spoilery things. To close this part off, companions; normally I don't bother with them, but here I ended up with FOUR for most of the game; three fellow survivors of Vault 18 and one adorable Robodog who I repaired during the Prologue. Originally I'd planned to part ways with them once I found a safe place to serve as base camp - this happens to be an issue I have with the base game as well; how long it takes to get a safe spot to store your junk! - but the location I was given didn't seem a nice place to leave them, so I kept them with me...and it certainly became clear after a while that the game was designed with companions in mind; there are several large combat sequences where you fight huge numbers of enemies - something that makes the game lag a fair bit - and this would have been nightmarishly hard if not impossible if I hadn't had my companions with me.

Oh, actually, I've just remembered another interesting addition to the game which was a positive for me; new apparel! Shields have been worked into the game, and as a result I spent the whole game wearing a Vault-Tec Riot Shield, and I also encountered enemies wearing shields made from road signs, hubcaps, sewer covers, etc...and some enemies even wore chain mail and acted like Vikings, which was a fun touch (and I know a bunch of my friends will LOVE it if they ever get to play this). There were also backpacks, which allowed your character to carry even more items, which was a fun little mechanic. This kinda comes back to what I was saying about the mod being a mixture of good and bad; some great ideas have gone into this, but I think it needs a bit more work to become truly amazing.

Right, onto the spoilery bit...the part where I talk about the story itself. I suppose this first part I can mention without spoiler tags; at times I felt like the story lacked a cohesive structure? One big mission started with me meeting up with a character I'd spoken to in the Prologue via a terminal, and after a brief chat she said she'd follow behind our group and meet up later, but in my game she proceeded to vanish from the story completely until the endgame. On top of this, on the mission that ensued after meeting with her, something relatively big was revealed, and I went back to meet with my superior and it...just wasn't addressed at all; instead it focused on a different plot involving the Survivalists (who I didn't really know much about by this point, which was a bit annoying) which...well, that still made sense, but it felt like something was being missed. Also, there was a sort of power struggle going on between an NCR General and a Senator, and even after refusing to participate in the Senator's plan and threatening him, he still showed up at the end to go "Ah, time to proceed with my plan!" and it was like "Uhh..."
The companions themselves apparently had missions, but only one of them ever really spoke to me, and even then just to sometimes comment on the situation, so they were kinda bland. Another companion had a small freakout towards the end of the game, but it wasn't really resolved...

Aight, SPOILER TIME...
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...I don't think the ending for the game made sense. To briefly summarise the story, after leaving Vault 18 and joining the faction of your choice (which you need to complete some missions for), you're sent to explore the pre-war Fort Daggerpoint, which you find is occupied by a group of Super Mutants. They reveal you're a clone of the original Vault Dweller from Fallout 1 and they cloned you themselves using some unique technology from Fort Daggerpoint, and they plan to dunk you in an FEV vat and turn you into a new breed of Super Mutant that can actually reproduce. Unless you accept their offer (earning a non-standard game over in the process), you escape and lead your chosen faction against them, before launching the nuclear missiles in the base against a chosen target - the NCR, the Enclave's FEV bases, etc. The ending video then plays; if you aided the Enclave, they retreat to Raven Rock, where the events of Fallout 3 ensue, while if you aid the Survivalists, they're forced to flee anyway and join the developing Caesar's Legion, and finally aiding the NCR leads to The Pass being drawn into their sphere of influence. Regardless of which option you picked, at the end, your character and their followers ends up living in the fledgeling town of Hopeville, only for it to be destroyed because you were unknowingly carrying a launch code from Fort Daggerpoint. You survive this as a result of the technology used to clone you in the first place giving you odd healing abilities (it's poking fun at how you can eat food to restore health during a fight) and become a courier for the Mojave Express, thus revealing you were the protagonist of New Vegas all along...

...see, it's an interesting idea, but I can't help but feel it misses the point of the New Vegas DLC "Lonesome Road" completely, despite being a nod to it. In that, Hopeville and neighbouring Ashton made up "The Divide", a devastated hell-hole which the mysterious Ulysses invites you to in order to make a point about how your actions, no matter how well-meaning, may have unintended consequences, as he claims that you are responsible for the creation of the Divide. As you journey through the Divide, he eventually reveals that at some point in your past you accepted a job to deliver a package to Hopeville, and unknown to you, it was a piece of Pre-War technology that armed the missiles beneath the surface. However, the game implies that this is the first time the Courier's seen the Divide in this state, since they, and by extension, the player, have to ask Ulysses questions about this place and what happened here...and I feel it kind of undermines the point of the DLC if the Courier has already been to the Divide and experienced the horror of it all, as opposed to him returning to a location he passed through years ago for the first time in ages and seeing how much it's changed...

It was also kind of depressing that the game implied all my companions died in Hopeville as well...
Although I have heard that apparently they can then show up in the main game somewhere? Guess I'll have to try it out and see...