Fallout: New Vegas casts you as a courier struggling to make it in the post apocalyptic wasteland of New Vegas, Nevada. While on a routine delivery, a mysterious assailant shoots and leaves you for dead. Rescued by an odd robot named Victor and brought to the town of Good Springs, you come to in the house of a man named Doc Mitchell, who nurses you back to health. This brief exchange serves as the foundation for the entire game, as the choices you make shape your character and determine whether he or she will fight for good or evil. Thus begins a promising adventure full of memorable personalities, locations, weapons and monsters. How it plays out, of course, is up to you.
This time, Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment's goal is to thrust you into the wasteland with a five-minute character creation process, instead of bogging you down with a much longer intro (ala Fallout 3). That said, you're free to take plenty of time customizing your character. You begin with a machine called the Vigor Tester, a device that offers several different personality types. These include movie star, diplomat and Casanova, to name a few. From there, you view a handful of inkblots, selecting the response that first comes to mind. When the word "mother" comes up, for instance, you can say something nice, or remark that they make great human shields.
After finishing the test, the game presents you with the results and allows you to change the settings. If everything looks good, Mitchell presents you with Fallout's handy device, the Pip-Boy, and sends you into the wasteland.
Stepping outside for the first time is something of a revelation, especially if you played Fallout 3. New Vegas looks marginally improved, with more realistic characters and detailed environments, although the scenery is much different. Instead of wandering through the ruins of Washington D.C., you explore a massive desert full of man-eating and huge geckos, mutants and mean people; you'll also encounter dust storms and tumbleweeds. You'll snipe enemies from the mouth of a wooden Tyrannosaurus Rex and poke around a dilapidated roller coaster. Then there's the New Vegas strip, where a whole mess of new wonders and dangers await.
For now, though, your journey begins in Good Springs, but before you enter this ambitious world, you need to make a decision. You can either elect to play the game on a standard difficulty, or opt to enjoy the new Hardcore Mode. Choosing the latter, as expected, makes things more difficult. Instead of being able to stock up on bullets, ammo has weight, so you can only hold so much. In addition, you won't heal over time, and will need to see a doctor to treat your wounds or carry supplies to dress them yourself.
After making that choice, you explore a saloon in search of Sunny Smiles, who'll teach you how to shoot; you can skip this tutorial. Then you receive the first mission: prevent geckos from destroying the water supply. Now as we mentioned, these are some large geckos and they come in different types as you progress through the game. For now, though, they're just your standard issue and relatively weak lizards, and a few shots from the 22-caliber varmint rifle (accurate, but not powerful) should take them out, especially since you can aim down the sight, a new feature in the game.
During your stay in Good Springs, you'll run into Victor (he talks like a cowboy- "howdy partner"), pass a schoolhouse (it's a mini dungeon filled with enemies and loot) and see one of Fallout's new animals, Big Horners; these mutated big horn sheep come in domesticated and wild varieties.
There's more to this place than scenery, of course. The biggest mission involves getting rid of a gang (or burning the place down, if you choose). To do this, you'll need to convince the townsfolk to help. This involves convincing Easy Pete (an old prospector) to dig up some dynamite and Chet (a store owner) to offer discounts on leather armor and extra ammunition. This is also where you learn about one of the game's best features, weapon mods. Now you can customize each new toy you come across, adding larger clips, scopes, extended magazines and other cool parts; you'll need money to purchase them.
There's more to Fallout: New Vegas than guns like the single shotgun and .357 magnum, thankfully. Now there are a variety of melee weapons, such as the nine iron. Even better, they work with V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) from Fallout 3, the hybrid real time/turn-based combat system that lets you target specific areas of the body and deal a ton of damage. Armed with the golf club, it's possible to knock someone's head off.
Successfully kill those rascally gang members, and the people of Good Springs will worship the proverbial ground you walk on. In fact, all of your actions (good or bad) tie in to the game's Reputation System. Folks will know about things you've done and treat you accordingly. They'll either reward you with free stuff and discounts, or send hit squads to take you down. Fortunately, you can track your rep using the Pip-Boy to see how popular you are.
If you choose to leave Good Springs, you may want to stop in Primm, a real town on the border of California and Nevada. Naturally, this version of Primm doesn't look so hot. Its rollercoaster is a twisted mess, and it was taken over by raiders and a group known as the powder gang. Snoop around, and you may locate a Caravan Shotgun, a fast firing and reloading weapon, or a pump action grenade launcher that'll prove useful in combat.
Your journey will eventually take you to Novac, another town with a huge point of interest. In this case, it's Dinky the Dinosaur, the aforementioned T-Rex, complete with the Dino Bite gift shop and a sniper's nest inside of its mouth. This is where the developers introduce you to companions, characters who have their own storylines and will follow and fight for you; the first is Craig Boone, ex member of the New California Republic, or NCR. Not only is it good to have a buddy come along, but you can manage him or her using the Companion Wheel, examining their health, A.I. state and weapons used; you can give them weapons.
Over time, you learn that a crazy super mutant named Tabitha (essentially a dude in drag), AKA the commander of Black Mountain, holds a guy named Raul captive. So, you set off to kill everything in your path to save him; you'll run into the Nightkin, tough mutants with the power to cloak. That said, you should have acquired both the Anti-Material Rifle (a 50-caliber monster) and one of New Vegas' best weapons, the Grenade Machine Gun. This bad boy lives up to its name, as it spits grenades like an automatic rifle discharges bullets, one after the other. The mission concludes with you saving Raul and slaughtering Tabitha and her brood. And in case you ever wondered what a mutant would look like in a blonde wig and lipstick, it isn't pretty.
After giving those mutants the business, you may wind up at Helios One, a pre-war solar energy plant that contains a super laser called the Archimedes II that can fry hundreds of bad guys at once; yes, you can use it. This is more than just an opportunity to flip the switch, though. There's a conflict between NCR and a group known as Caesar's Legion (they have nothing to do with the actual Vegas casino), and how you interact with them affects your rep.
All of this makes Fallout: New Vegas quite impressive, and we've barely scratched the surface of what the game will offer. There's gambling both on and off the strip, but Bethesda won't discuss the games involved, nor will it show us the strip. The game's music also remains a mystery, though the publisher will include stuff from the 50s and 60s. Just know this: Fallout: New Vegas looks much better than its predecessor.
