i'm rewatching hbomberguy's New Vegas video and im trying to figure out what im missing that everybody seems to love about that game. like, if i had played it before i knew how beloved it was, i'd call it maybe a 6/10? it's okay, not bad, nothing to write home about.
i think it's two things: the pacing, and the setting. i've tried to at least finish the main story 3 separate times, and i always bounce off in the first 5-10 hours because it just feels like nothing is happening. everywhere looks the same, the progression mechanics feels kinda meaningless, i don't care about any places or characters, i don't feel pulled anywhere... it just kinda has the texture of bland mush.
not that there aren't interesting moments in there too, just that they're so few and far between, and so relatively unimportant and disconnected from each other, by hours of nothing but slow walking and wonky stealthing and clunky shooting, that i just don't care enough to slog through more empty wasteland to get to an npc who might have a few interesting conversation choices (half of which i can't take because i didn't put points in the right skills).
im not saying that it necessarily would be a better game if it was an emotional rollercoaster with flashing lights and explosions everywhere, but i guess for me i need some kind of immediate reason to be invested in a setting besides "there are some vaguely interesting tableaus you can see if you talk to these fucked up little dudes just right". i like desolation as a theme, but there's still gotta be a hook, you know?
maybe i just haven't gotten to the good part before? maybe i need to play the other ones for context? maybe it's just way better than FO3 specifically? idkkk
