Keep in mind this review tackles on the problem the normal version has (= not using mods UNLESS they are absolutely necessary since this game CANNOT work without mods to fix it). Although this review is negative, there are some enjoyable moments in the game.
To play this game, you will need to install mods to play it, without them, the game is LITERALLY unplayable since the game will crash when you do anything (the game still crashes with mods required to fix it. by the way). Which obviously is pretty annoying since you have to go through third parties to simply play the game you bought.
It's simply slow. Again, without mods, traveling the wasteland will take you so much time, and don't even think about wearing medium/heavy armor or it'll be basically impossible to go anywhere without fast traveling to it, talking about this system, if you're overencumbered, you CANNOT use it in this state (without a perk), which would be fine unless your carry weight wasn't so small (min of 150 and max of 250 without perks) and most of the stuff you're gonna carry around like weapons and such are at least 10lbs, and good armor is like 50lbs alone, even worse, in hardcore mode, ammunition has a weight. And kicking the donkey while it's down, you cannot fast travel while enemies are nearby/in an interior, even if you're not in combat, which is understandable but annoying. Also, discovering all of the locations is a pain in the bum, extra CBT added!
The trial and error. Without a guide, you'll probably mess up on your first try. Go somewhere you weren't supposed to in early game and get killed, kill an NPC and either you'll be harassed by a quarter of the wasteland, get locked out of a faction or simply make getting the chip harder (Benny). AT LEAST the game tries to guide you to where you must go, by speaking to various NPCs they'll tell you what you could do next and where to go. Without using the internet you'll probably never know how you were supposed to get the best weapons and armor in the game. Another subject is perks/SPECIAL, without knowing what you want to pick you'll be pretty lost since you can't change what you've already chosen after leaving Goodsprings, and if you don't pick the Educated perk you'll lose on some valuable skill points.
Quests are boring. After playing for the 2nd time you'll already be annoyed at how slow the game can progress, and quests most often don't feel rewarding since you'll just get a handful of bottle caps or some reputation, thankfully, you don't have to complete all of them or I would've already shot myself in the head, just like Benny did to the Courier. For some of them, you also need to wait for an annoying high pitched NPC boomer to tell you about his little story (BONUS! If interrupted, he'll slowly walk over to where he started yapping and he'll redo all of the session! BUY THIS GAME IF YOU'RE A MASOCHIST!!!), or for an NPC to sloooooowly walk to a spot. You'll also have to come back to location to inform the NPC you've done his task even though they could've just given you a talkie walkie ffs...
The DLCs. They're actually pretty enjoyable for the most part! The Courier's stash is a nice little bonus for early game, gun runner's arsenal is essential to get access to high quality weapons and Honest hearts is a short but sweet story add-on although you'll have to play it twice to get the achievements but I'll go over that later. Lonesome road is boring at most if you want to find all the nukes and ED-E upgrades, and if you don't take him with you to the end, you'll have to either nuke the NCR or Caesar's Legion which will be a pain in the butt since if you wanted to go with one of them, well, frick you since you'll get death squads sent to you! ATLEAST you can get back to the Mojave before finishing it unlike... Old worlds blues! It was pretty annoying but you get some nice bonuses at the end so it makes up for it although you really don't need them since by the time you'll complete it you're probably gonna be OP anyways. Now onto the main course! Crap fresh from a butt, accompanied by a glass of pee, on the house, so you'll have to finish it, I present... DEAD MONEY! Might be the worst DLC ever conceived! You get captured by the big Jeffrey and he brings you onto his island- I mean heist plan of the Sierra Madre, there you'll be unable to fast travel to any location so you'll have to walk across the map all the time, AWESOME! the companions are short lived since you'll get rid of them as soon as you get the 3 together and they're not really memorable, also one's a lesbian sooo, I'll let you make up your mind on that one. Then you'll face off cloakers from the hit game Payday 2 that you'll have to kill twice or else they'll come back up and touch you from behind! Also the map is a pain to navigate with poison gas everywhere and not any really indication of where to find keys to go to places etc etc... Once Jeffrey sends you down to the vault be really careful or you might end up soft locking yourself! YES INDEED! if you go guns a blazing inside the vault without reading anything, Todd Howard himself will lock you into the vault since he was in the files and you'll be stuck there, unable to go back and the Courier will die, you don't even get to go back to the Mojave and you don't even get any achievement for it! Say bye bye to your save file since it's gone now! This DLC is like if the two worst people had a kid and it was actually Satan himself coming to haunt you for all of your unconfessed sins, AWESOME FOR CBT LOVERS! Did I mention you can't skip the DLCs introduction so you'll have to sit through it every time you start a new game?
Quickfire round! Some annoying achievements to get like the ones from Zion or the Sierra Madre where you'll have to play the game twice since you can't get them independently, buggy AI pathfinding can lock you out of achievements (getting kicked out of all the Strip's casinos) some NPC dialogues can get glitched, as a result you'll be locked out of companions and you can't get the achievement from that, every faction path except Caesar's is almost a copy and paste ending on the Hoover Dam, you can screw up your file with the Sierra Madre vault, the Sierra Madre map is horrendous and did I mention the Dead Money DLC doesn't bring up anything good? Also a low save file count so if you didn't save before going into the vault well you can probably guess what I'm gonna say...
Although I wouldn't recommend, this game it still has positive sides like a nice exterior community with a comprehensive wiki and mods to make the game actually playable, without any mods albeit you should just save your money even if it was on sale or even if it was given out for free.
