I was under the impression that this was self-evident, but it's become apparent that it bears reinstating.
>Variety and "Build" Potential. For a game that touts itself as a roleplaying experience, the capacity by which you are allowed to build a unique character is stifled to the greatest extent. There are two(2) ways to navigate through Fallout 1's end-game. You can... 1) Sneak/speech check your way past every encounter. 2) Wear power armor and wield a plasma rifle / gatling laser / powerfist / etc. Fallout 2 doesn't fare much better. Such objective and linear player scaling in terms of weapons AND armor negates any ability for the player to experiment with niche builds or playstyles and relegates the game to a typical action format as opposed to the RPG it markets itself as. This is severely detrimental in regards to stifling replayability and player agency. In contrast, there is an unfathomable amount of different builds that one can create in New Vegas as every combination of weapons/armor has the potential to be made into a viable end-game setup.
>Balancing This ties in with the previous point. Half of the skills and stats in the classic games are comparatively useless (outdoorsman, trap) while others are borderline essential (big guns, energy weapons, etc). If you give your character any less than 4 or 5 agility, your entire playthrough will be gimped to the fullest extent and it will be a slog of savescumming to pass even mundane encounters. Why even make it an option if the developers obviously did not intend for you to do so? Contrast this again with New Vegas, where EVERY SINGLE PERK, skill and stat have a specific purpose and a practical effect on making each character unique and functionally differently, not just buffing percentages.
>Roleplay Potential New Vegas begins with a clean slate. All you know about your identity is that you at one point in time took up a job as a courier within the Mojave. Prior to that, it's entirely up to your imagination and willingness to roleplay to decide who you were before that. Compare this to the classic games where you are funneled into being a Vault Dweller and then an Arroyo Tribal. This is no more excusable than Bethesda forcing you to roleplay as an ex-military father-of-one in Fallout 4. This greatly limits the ability to build unique characters even more so than the restrictive "stat" system. New Vegas once again succeeds in this regard.
Not sure why this is going to be taken as an insult to some people. One should not be ashamed that New Vegas is superior to the classic games, one should instead rejoice in the fact that the development team had taken notice of the falterings of the series' predecessors and improved upon them in the newer title. Fallout 1 and 2 are cool, but New Vegas is fortunately a better game.
It's so obvious too. People like to say 'oh the old games are proper RPGs and the nugames are more action' but it's just wrong. You do way more roleplaying in New Vegas than you ever did in the first 2 Fallout games
Jackson Sanchez
>A baby is drowning in the lake:
-Fallout 1 Ask for more information Agree to help Decide not to help Accidentally say something that pisses the NPC off, failing the quest Reveal too much information about yourself, causing the Super Mutants to track your vault more easily
>Fallout 2 Ask for more information Agree to help Decide not to help Accidentally say something that pisses the NPC off, failing the quest Pop culture reference about the baby
>Fallout 3 Yes, I will save the baby Depends on the caps I will not save the baby [Intelligence] The baby is drowning
>Fallout New Vegas I will save the baby I will not save the baby [Barter 30] Double the caps and I'll save the baby [Medicine 30] Thanks to my medical knowledge, I will easily be able to save the baby [Survival 15/30] Uh... yeah, I totally know how to swim
