The world of Fallout is
a harsh one, one that finds humanity struggling to survive 200 plus
years after a devastating nuclear war between the United States and
China. The United States of the Fallout
universe is one that never outgrew the cold war era, one in which the
look and the feel of the 1950’s blend with bleeding edge technology and
a love for nuclear power, where big band and swing still rule the
airwaves and where mom still makes fresh apple pie and looks like June
Cleaver.



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In the previous versions of the series players were either vault
dwellers, or descendants of one, and in a desperate search for an item
known as a G.E.C.K, or Garden of Eden Creation Kit. This time around we
assume the role of a courier who is beset by a near fatal ambush that
leaves him (or her)  shot in the head and dying in a shallow
grave. Rescued by a suspiciously helpful robot, the courier is patched
up and sent out into the Nevada desert to track down his assailant and
uncover the mystery of the item he was entrusted to deliver, a platinum
poker chip.



Fallout: New Vegas,
like its direct predecessor, uses a consolidated interface device,
known as the PIP Boy 3000 to handle all non combat aspects of the game.
Players can check their inventory, quests, weapons, view the local and
world maps, and travel to various discovered locations from within this
virtual swiss army knife – it also serves as a flashlight (you could
even cut a tin can with it).



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Movement is handled via the W A S D configuration, while combat is
handled by left clicking the mouse. Keyboard shortcuts are also preset
for jumping, crouching, toggling between walking and running, auto
running and interacting with various objects in the game world. style="font-style: italic;">New Vegas is a
console port just like Fallout
3, and as such hasn’t changed much in its interface. One
new addition is an enhanced interaction layout for NPC party members in
the form of a wheel with graphical representations of various commands
that streamlines the previous process which forced you into a dialogue
box each time you wanted to interact with your companions.



Character complexity and customization has been a hallmark of the style="font-style: italic;">Fallout universe,
and is one that is rooted in the G.U.R.P.S.
roleplaying system (Steven Jackson Games was an early contributor to style="font-style: italic;">Fallout before
legal issues got in the way). In addition to the seven core attibutes
of Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence and Luck,
players are able to select two perks and tag three of their skills to
round out their characters. I recommend tagging Lockpicking, Science
and Speech for those new to the series. Players start at level one and
gain experience for everything from combat to successful dialogue,
eventually earning enough to gain a new level. Each level will award
the player with skill points to allocate in a host of skills and every
other level will grant a new perk that give advantages and add greater
flavor to a character that continues to evolve throughout the game.



In addition to gaining levels, you also gain karma and reputation as
you travel the wastes. A new feature in style="font-style: italic;">New Vegas is a more
robust reputation system where players will earn faction specific
reputations based on their deeds and interactions, many of the factions
are independent but some are interwoven and getting on ones good side
could be done at the expense of being vilified by another. The way you
chose to deal with the world will still result in an overall level of
heroism or villainy, but how the various subgroups react to you is
based less on that and more on their personal feelings – a huge upgrade
in immersion factor from
Fallout 3 in my opinion.



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Another new feature that was added is hardcore mode. Hardcore mode can
only be selected at the beginning of the game and is available in all
difficulty modes. It adds several new wrinkles that give you a much
more immersive feeling of being alone in a harsh environment where
every day is a struggle to survive. Hardcore mode adds a hydration
meter, a sleep meter and adds weight to ammo. Weight is a huge concern
in the wasteland and ammo was one of the few valuable commodities you
could gather with reckless abandon. While sleep isn’t that difficult to
manage, the availability of fresh water is scarce and you often have to
juggle your radiation level and hydration levels as the majority of
your drinking water is irradiated.



One thing that has also carried over from style="font-style: italic;">Fallout 3 are the
bugs and crashes that plagued it. While they are few and far between
they can be annoying and usually happen when you have forgotten to save
recently. You are allotted 1000 save games, use them liberally and use
them often. New Vegas had
its first patch within a week of release and the team is vigilant about
fixing bugs and improving gameplay quality.



 Like all of the
Fallout titles
before it, New Vegas
is a world that begs to be explored. Players are free to customize
their experience and interact with the world at their own pace. While
the main quest line looms over the story, there are so many side quests
and subplots that it may take a player weeks to reach the end.
Politics, morality and survival blend together to make one of the most
compelling role playing experiences available today.