My friend is looking for a new PC game that incorporates some of the qualities of Fallout: New Vegas - a open realistic world experience that includes stealth & allows you to join sides in a war & influence the outcome. She really loved the ability to join the legion, sabotage the monorail, assassinate President Kimball, & affect the outcome of the war/world. So what games can you suggest similar to this- with stealth, sniping, and especially a realistic open world?
Just to get the obvious out of the way, I’ll say Skyrim and Fallout 3.
From what she’s heard of the Skyrim stealth engine, it’s not really dependent on lighting or skill level (?). She’s looking more for the same type of post-apocalyptic, dystopian genre that incorporates those features.
there isn’t anything recent that would fit the bill.
the fallout series is the only game in town currently.
Borderlands kind of fits the bill for a dystopian setting (not post-apocalyptic, though) in a big explorable world with lots of quests to go do. It doesn’t really have stealth, though, and it’s meant to be a co-op game that you can play with up to 3 friends. You can play it single-player as well, though I haven’t tried that. I’ve only played Borderlands 2 and not the first one, but I really like it. And Fallout: New Vegas is my all-time favorite game, for what that’s worth.
She really should probably check out Skyrim, too.
There’s rumours that a Fallout 4 might be in the works. Fingers crossed.
Most open world games don’t incorporate a stealth system because those are difficult to make well even in linear corridors where you can carefully craft the enemy placement and level geometry.
Other than the Fallout series, the only open world games with stealth worth a damn that I’ve played are the Elder Scrolls series (Skyrim et al) and Batman: Arkham City.
The Deus Ex games are pretty open and good for stealthing (other than a few non-stealthable boss fights here and there), but they’re set in a dystopian future rather than a post-apocalyptic one.
If she’s willing to try non-open world stealth games set in a bleak future/alternate timeline, Dishonored has been getting some buzz. Mark of the Ninja as well, though that’s a 2D game and not really anything like New Vegas at all.
Another series possibly worth checking out are the Thief games of years past. Rather than taking place in post-apocalyptic future they’re set in steampunk medieval world, and while they’re not open world games as such the levels tend to be large and free to explore.
Then there’s the STALKER series, set in the general Chernobyl area. I have no idea how the stealth in that game works, but it has a similar “survive in the waste lands” premise as the Fallout series.
That’s a handful of suggestions I have that pop into mind, some closer to Fallout than others. The problem here is, as others have pointed out, that Fallout and New Vegas are more or less unique experiences and finding games that are just like them is impossible.
Yeah, *Skyrim *is probably the closest thing to *New Vegas *out there gameplay-wise, although in terms of storylines and characterization of individuals (or interactions with them) its scope is quite a bit more limited. Still great, though.
And the *STALKER *series would be closest in terms of “feel” of the game, themes, choices, aesthetics, realism etc… ; but nowhere near NV in terms of plots or characters.
OTOH, if your friend can bear to have great characterization, player agency & impact ; but not stealth nor sniping nor realism (sort of - it’s a fantasy world with magic and monsters, so there’s that ; but it’s still gritty and plausible. And wading into combat without thinking or preparation will quickly get you killed, which is usually what people mean by “this game is realistic”), then I’d strongly suggest The Witcher 2.
Oh, and AFAIK the stealth in*Skyrim *works more or less exactly the way it does in the modern Fallouts, which is to be expected considering both games use the same engine, their core mechanics were drawn up by the same people, and both rely on very similar formulas to determine whether or not a given dude sees you or not when you’re crouching.
Lighting, noise, movement, skill level of your character, equipment worn and whether the enemy has already caught you before are all factors in Skyrim.
Far Cry 3 rewards stealth, and is open-world, and takes place in a largely lawless environment. It does not have (or at least I have not experienced) red team/blue team choices.
I was just about to post Far Cry 3 and then got to your response. It does have stealth and sniping, skill trees, limited crafting (expanded ammo pouches, etc), a general “open world” nature and your actions liberate the islands from the pirates/mercenaries. You don’t get to pick a side though, you’re automatically allied with the island natives. And the “open world” is limited in that once you’ve conquered all the bases on the islands for the good guys, there’s not much left to do besides drive around and shoot at the wildlife. Still could prove an enjoyable experience though.
Isn’t that mainly true of the Fallouts, post-exploration and post-quests, as well? Adding random evil humans to the category of things you go around shooting, of course.
I thought generic (non-quest) locations in Fallout eventually respawned although I’m basing that off of the Bethesda Elder Scrolls titles where this happened. How exciting this is is up to you – since most locations were just buildings/tunnels full of bad guys with no ‘climax’ to them, they’re all little more than opportunities to practice your headshots.
In Far Cry 3, the island map is colored red. As you liberate outposts, the map turns green and bad guys are replaced by good guys. Green areas will never revert so once you’ve cleared a location, it’s essentially “done” for the game aside from hunting wildlife. You can continue to explore the island after the main plot but there’s not much to do if you’ve turned the island green except find ‘secrets’ (stone idols scattered around, loot boxes, WWII letters).
That’s a somewhat minor criticism though and I think the overall game may fit what the OP wants as long as she’s more interested in the mechanics than the retro-future kitsch. I may play FC3 again and see how far I can go without clearing any bases aside from the initial one you’re forced to do and then just mess around with the bad guys.
It’s worth noting that stealth in FC3 isn’t really “skill” based (there’s no Stealth: Level 5) but the game rewards stealth kills/captures with extra experience and there’s a skill tree devoted to things like stealth takedowns from below or jumping from an upper ledge and silently knifing someone under you.
If my memory serves (and it might not), in Fallout, once you’ve cleared an area, it stays cleared. If you’re off-roading it in the wilderness, you’ll keep getting spawns of radscorpions and the like, of course. But if there’s a building with a bunch of baddies in it, and you wipe them out, they typically don’t re-spawn if you come back to the location later in the game.
I kind of prefer the Fallout style where locations are sometimes quest-related and sometimes not, and don’t really have a big “Boss” at the end but do often have interesting story material in them, to the Skyrim “clear the dungeon, fight the big boss, get a prize” model. I mean, I like Skyrim. I just like Fallout more. 
I thought I remembered some ‘firebases’ in Fallout III re-populating after a bit?
Unsure, I haven’t played FO3 yet. I should have specified that I was talking about New Vegas.
I’ll take your word on it that you’re right. Once I finished the main plot in Fallout 3, I quickly lost interest in aimless wandering and moved on to other games.
My issue with Skyrim was that most of the caves, tombs, etc didn’t have a boss or prize unless they were quest related. Usually it was more like “Kill the Viking zombies until they’re all gone, loot the barrel of potatoes, guess it’s time to move on.”
Ohhh, that rhymed!
Marked open areas in both games repopulate, not sure about interiors.
Yes, but not along the same timeframe.
Clear a given Fallout “dungeon” or location, move to a city, do a quest or two, then move back in an you’ll likely still find the corpses of your previous mass murder. It takes a while for the respawn to kick in.
In Far Cry 3, if you don’t finish the unspoken “kill every last person in the camp” event, move away for 5 minutes to hunt one of the devil’s own casoars, then move back in, everyone will have respawned. But if you do clear a base, then that whole geographic region is not only immediately made safe (apart from the wildlife. Fucking casoars, I tell ya ! :mad::)), it’s safe forever.
It’s more than a rumor. They are definitely working on it atm, and it will probably be released late in 2013 or early 2014. Should see a lot more about it in the coming months. IIRC, the current rumor (and this IS a rumor) is that it will be set in Boston.
To the OP, I’d also recommend Fallout 3 if your friend hasn’t played it but likes New Vegas. You can get the whole thing, plus DLCs fairly cheaply now, and there is just tons and tons of mods and added on content for the game which really makes it over the top IMHO. Skyrim is also pretty cool, though it’s a totally different feel, of course. But the stealth stuff and factions are definitely there, and if you use a bow from stealth it’s a lot like using a gun from stealth in FO: 3/NV.