Fallout Fallout: Sonora - new Fallout mod from the Fallout: Nevada team

[Ol' Willy]

I want to know something. To the people who played this mod, is this mod lore friendly to New Vegas? Or is it mostly ignored just like how Resurrection and Nevada ignored NV?

Sonora happens a decade or two after Fallout 1, NV takes time much later and thus bears no relevance.

 

[Fenix]

So, I started play it again in final version - 1.08 and... sometimes it freeze my notebook so hard I need hard reset...
WTF, 1.06 didn't have that.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Link to concept art book
Now it should work, wait for load up and press DL button in upper right corner of the document.

 

[Wunderbar]

Apparently there was an huge subplot about an invasion of Mexian army. Did I somehow miss it, or was it patched-in later?



a review/letplay, pretty entertaining but full of spoilers.

 

[Commissar Draco]

No way to join glorious Mexican army and lead reconquista of clay taken by Gringos 200 years before? Also the choice of end factions is much limited clear decline over Nevada and Czech Fallout where they have more original factions.

The sprites look so sexy though its shame that normies do prefer 3-D barbie dolls with clipping texture over such art.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Very informative video, but I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed with the content.
The campaign does not sound that interesting at all, and most of the factions are indeed disappointing.

 

[Wunderbar]

After playing it I too thought the game felt a bit bland, but I changed my mind after a while.

The creators wanted to make it a spiritual and a thematic sequel to the original Fallout, hence there are only standard post-apocalyptic factions such as cannibals, slavers, scavengers, etc. The post-apocalyptic genre has been on decline since Fo2, so it actually feels like a breath of fresh air to have a completely serious and semi-grounded game without zany shit like italian mobsters and such.

Also, "the campaign doesn't sound interesting" is a strange complaint - it's a very condensed video that basically skips 90% of side content, doesn't cover alternative main story routes.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Also, "the campaign doesn't sound interesting" is a strange complaint - it's a very condensed video that basically skips 90% of side content, doesn't cover alternative main story routes.

I still got the basic gist of it.
I do like some of the elements which I can not mention because of spoilers. But I just find it very underwhelming as the... hmm, "the backbone" on which the rest is build.
It feels more like something that would play in the background such as the political issues between NCR, New Reno, Vault City, Redding, while we slowly learn of something a bit more significant.


Also, I am not asking for 50s style gangsters and such things, but the designers could still have been a bit more 'colorful'.

 

[Wunderbar]

Also, I am not asking for 50s style gangsters and such things, but the designers could still have been a bit more 'colorful'.

i thought there were plenty of notable locations - like Casa Nueva (where Followers of Apocalypse were doing their agricultural researches), or the buried apartment building in San Brahmin, or aircraft boneyard in Tucson.

But I just find it very underwhelming as the... hmm, "the backbone" on which the rest is build.
It feels more like something that would play in the background such as the political issues between NCR, New Reno, Vault City, Redding, while we slowly learn of something a bit more significant.

Sonora is more focused on its main story, that's true.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

i thought there were plenty of notable locations - like Casa Nueva (where Followers of Apocalypse were doing their agricultural researches), or the buried apartment building in San Brahmin, or aircraft boneyard in Tucson.

I do like those places, and some you have not mentioned yet.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Just because Sonora doesn't have giant walking robots and androids it doesn't make it boring. If anything, Wunderbar is 100% correct - it is grounded post-apo in the best traditions of the genre.
Similarly, the main premise is somewhat close to that of New Vegas: there's is no clear bad or good guys and each side has its arguments.

 

[Alphons]

it is grounded post-apo in the best traditions of the genre.

I didn't care about Nevada's over-the-top main story, so this sounds like a big improvement.


Anyway- how does Sonora's arsenal compare with Nevada's?

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Just because Sonora doesn't have giant walking robots and androids it doesn't make it boring.

At what part did I mention that there had to be giant walking robots and androids to make it better?

Similarly, the main premise is somewhat close to that of New Vegas: there's is no clear bad or good guys and each side has its arguments.

That is debatable.
One side is quite conservatives to the point that it is idiotic or almost cult-ish regarding their beliefs/ideology. So much so that to protect it that they would target other communities and groups.
One side apparently seeks to work towards the betterment of society but has no clear goals. It is also clear that they are not up to the task.
And the final side clearly sees anyone outside themselves as tools to be used and disposed off once they have served their purpose or are in the way.

 

[Wunderbar]

Anyway- how does Sonora's arsenal compare with Nevada's?

you mean firearms, or weaponry in general?
There's a bunch of new stuff - snubnosed magnum 357 revolver, greasegun chambered for 22lr, flaregun that scares animals away (just like in Lonesome road), M203 grenade launcher fitted with a pistol grip, light machinegun of fictional design, new smg of fictional design, M16, lever-action rifle from FO Nevada, railgun, and probably more.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

I want to play this. Finish the translation, dammit.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Anyway- how does Sonora's arsenal compare with Nevada's?

The biggest change is that Small Guns is now pistols and SMGs while Big Guns rifles and shotguns

 

[Mud']

The biggest change is that Small Guns is now pistols and SMGs while Big Guns rifles and shotguns

So they took a page out of ATOM stats book?

 

[Ol' Willy]

Also the choice of end factions is much limited clear decline over Nevada and Czech Fallout where they have more original factions.

Sonora and New Vegas are only two Fallout games where you can choose your faction in the main quest; New Vegas is on top with four choices, but Sonora has two.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Anyway- how does Sonora's arsenal compare with Nevada's?

The biggest change is that Small Guns is now pistols and SMGs while Big Guns rifles and shotguns

Wait, what? That's one hell of a weird change.
Personally I thought a big issue with Fallout of Nevada was the fact they stuck with the clearly unbalanced SPECIAL of FO2, when current modding capabilities would easily allow them to change and rebalance it, thanks to SFALL.

But making Small guns be pistols and SMGs while Big Guns are now rifles and shotguns is rather strange and atypical.

Did they change anything else? And where the real big guns are placed now?

This comes around fine.

Sonora has more "realistic" (in classic post-apo sense of the word) roster of enemies - no supermuties, guys in PA, deathclaws and heavy robots; most enemies are rather soft. Thus, low-level guns stay valid till the end and really big guns are rare (yes, they still covered by big guns skill). The game is perfectly finishable with small guns since some pistols are really powerful.

If anything, this helps to bring more weapon variance since let's admit that, there are little reasons to use pistols in vanilla Fallouts where you can almost always be better off with a rifle. Here, you can have a proper pistol build; heh, this is what I did at my first playthrough, actually.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well that's good to hear. So how is the game compared to Nevada honestly?

Is there an in depth Codex review for this coming anytime soon?

 

[Ol' Willy]

I find it funny you say that there's little reason for a pistol build in the Classic Fallouts, because I pretty much finished Fallout of Nevada as a Finesse Pistoleer.

Well, Nevada is mostly soft as well so these builds are valid too. Kinda harder in F2 with all the endgame enemies with so much AC that they ignore any non-crit damage

 

[Wunderbar]

So how is the game compared to Nevada honestly?

like Fo1 and Fo2, basically.

Nevada has more content, and the quest design is more varied. But at the same time story-wise it's a jumbled mess.
Sonora is smaller, focused and cohesive. It also has almost zero zany lolrandom stuff.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Well You could decide the fate of New Reno, Redding and Gecko ensuring either NCR growth or Vault City raising as its contender, of course FNV went the former route which is bit meh. What made F02 fun was that you could ignore all those politicking and take care of your people only so it was third choice Free California (Or Oregon).

 

[Alphons]

Nevada has more content, and the quest design is more varied. But at the same time story-wise it's a jumbled mess.
Sonora is smaller, focused and cohesive. It also has almost zero zany lolrandom stuff.

What made Nevada really shine was how it used FO's entire skill system- Barter checks to get access to better stock, entire surgery quest locked behind Doctor skill, several Repair tasks in every town, heist quest locked behind Steal check, Gambling quest solutions, etc.

How does it look in Sonora?

 

[Wunderbar]

Nevada has more content, and the quest design is more varied. But at the same time story-wise it's a jumbled mess.
Sonora is smaller, focused and cohesive. It also has almost zero zany lolrandom stuff.

What made Nevada really shine was how it used FO's entire skill system- Barter checks to get access to better stock, entire surgery quest locked behind Doctor skill, several Repair tasks in every town, heist quest locked behind Steal check, Gambling quest solutions, etc.

How does it look in Sonora?

it's slightly less ambitious and a bit formulaic.

Repair is very useful since there are plenty of places where you must repair something in order to progress, but the game gives you "spare parts" which can be used on a broken thing to lower the skillcheck difficulty. Repair can be also used to craft ammo, although i didn't find it all that useful. You can get a lot of mileage out of Doctor skill, but it's done in a rather uninventive way - each town has a token wounded guy (a villager who got shot by raiders, an injured slave, some poisoned guy, etc etc) - basically just some extra XP. Science, in addition to hacking electronic doors, can be used to get extra XP too - you can use it on environmental props (like computers or other prewar tech) to get some bits of lore. Pickpocket is useful cuz the ammo is very-very scarce and you can get some extra bullets by stealing from guards, but i didn't found any quest-related opportunities to use it. Barter - idk, i didn't level it, but Pope Amole did a video where he mentioned Barter opening you some extra possibilities.

Regarding the combat skills - all of the main quests are designed in a way so you can avoid the unneccessary bloodshed. I didn't try to be pacifist but something tells me that Sonora can be reliably beaten without killing anyone.