Fallout New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas is an action role-playing game that can be played from either a first-person or a third-person perspective. It is set in the Mojave Desert, 204 years after a nuclear war that decimated much of the United States. The player controls a courier who survived an attempted killing by an unknown assailant. The goal of the game is to complete a series of quests to find the assailant; the game eventually culminates in a war between governing factions that are vying for control of the Mojave Desert.  In addition to the main quests, the player can participate in optional, unrelated side quests.

New Vegas features a freely explorable open world map. The player can explore locations ranging from small settlements and abandoned buildings to large locations like the Hoover Dam and the city of New Vegas, which was built from the remnants of Las Vegas. The player is equipped with the Pip-Boy 3000, a wearable computer that serves as a menu and allows them to access items they have acquired, view detailed character statistics and active quests, and look at the map. The player can use the Pip-Boy 3000 map to fast travel to previously discovered locations, as a radio, and listen to songs from the 1940s to the early 1960s on makeshift radio broadcasts.

The player can engage in combat with non-player characters (NPCs). The weapons in the game include standard guns, energy-based guns, melee weapons, and explosives.  Guns can be equipped with additional modifications such as a scope. While in combat, the player can use a gameplay mechanic known as VATS, which pauses the game and allows the player to target specific body parts of an enemy. VATS is dictated by a statistic known as Action Points. Attacks made using VATS cost Action Points; when the player runs out of Action Points, they must wait a short period before they can use VATS again.

Some NPCs can be recruited as companions, and will accompany the player and assist them in combat. At the start of the game, the player can customize the courier’s appearance by choosing their gender, age, and race. They can then allocate points into seven primary attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. These attributes are known as SPECIAL stats. There are 13 secondary attributes whose point totals are affected by SPECIAL stats: barter, energy weapons, explosives, guns, lockpick, medicine, melee weapons, repair, science, sneak, speech, survival, and unarmed.

If the player has a high intelligence stat, for example, they will be more proficient in the medicine, repair, and science skills at the beginning of the game. The player can add more points into skill stats whenever they earn enough experience points to level up. Experience points can be earned through several methods, such as killing an enemy or completing a quest. When the player reaches an even-numbered level, they can select a permanent, beneficial upgrade known as a perk. For example, the perk Rapid Reload increases the reload speed for guns by 25 percent.

Fallout: New Vegas takes place in 2281, 204 years after a devastating nuclear war between the United States and China, known as the Great War. Three major entities seek control of the Mojave Desert, which is known in-game as the Mojave Wasteland: The New California Republic (NCR) is a democratic republic that attempts to maintain law; Caesar’s Legion is a violent, tribal army of slavers that is inspired by the Roman legion; and Mr. House is a mysterious businessman from New Vegas who controls an army of robots called Securitrons, acting as the city’s dictator.

As part of an eastward expansion from California, the NCR took control of the Hoover Dam, which provides electricity to the surrounding area. Both Caesar’s Legion and Mr. House want to control the Hoover Dam for themselves and advance their own plans for the region. Minor factions include the Boomers, a heavily armed xenophobic tribe at Nellis Air Force Base; the Powder Gangers, escaped convicts from an NCR correctional facility; the Great Khans, a tribe of drug dealers; and the Brotherhood of Steel, a militant organization that aims to secure and hold old-world technology.