There are differences, but structurally they and how they are designed in their quests, these are the closest cousins in the franchise.
Like, people shit on 3 for being on rails with simple moral choices but honestly, that's what the old games were too. You go to town, there is good guy and bad guy and you choose (Khans/Shady Sands, Gizmo/Killian, Harold/Decker etc.) and the Main Story™ is largely a simple affair with little player agency outside of some non-standard game overs.
I feel like New Vegas colours people's views of the first two games. You can argue that the first two felt more realistic I guess, but never that they were any sort of vast political thinker's game.
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I say this as someone who has played all of them.
1,2,3, and 76 are in one zone.
NV and 4 are in the other.
There are differences, but structurally they and how they are designed in their quests, these are the closest cousins in the franchise.
Like, people shit on 3 for being on rails with simple moral choices but honestly, that's what the old games were too. You go to town, there is good guy and bad guy and you choose (Khans/Shady Sands, Gizmo/Killian, Harold/Decker etc.) and the Main Story™ is largely a simple affair with little player agency outside of some non-standard game overs.
I feel like New Vegas colours people's views of the first two games. You can argue that the first two felt more realistic I guess, but never that they were any sort of vast political thinker's game.