Fallout New Vegas: It was that shimmering light

I gave the compound a second look, there was something I hadn’t noticed before. Somehow, among the dead mutants, debris and junk, a large concrete building had escaped my attention. I licked my lips. Could this be it?

It had taken me the better part of a day to climb the mountain, it seemed that at every step ED-E’s combat indicator would sound and another of those purple mutants would appear out of thin air, wielding a car-bumper to boot. It wasn’t long before I discovered their secret though, they had invisibility bracelets.

The device was marvellous, turning it on deteriorated its batteries within a few minutes, but the user is immediately covered with a chameleon-like cloak, effectively making anyone wearing it invisible to the human eye. (I learned the NCR black-cloaks had infrared vision in their goggles much later, the hard way.)

There must’ve been somebody providing all this technology to the mutants, I collected almost a dozen small, black assault rifles and a futuristic-looking flamethrower from the trip. The mutants didn’t need them anymore. Besides, they had a horrible sense of fashion.

 

Fallout: New Vegas, so little about Vegas actually mattered in the game, yet the whole time the player would be led there slowly by the main campaign. On arrival, I’m greeted by the sight of a few casinos, drunkards, strippers and security bots, nothing groundbreaking here.

Like they say, it’s the journey that counts. Still, it took me two trips through the Mojave to realize that. New Vegas has several times more side quests than its predecessor Fallout 3, but its main quest line is just as short.

But here's the main thing that sets Fallout: New Vegas apart from other RPGs, the game rewards players for exploring every inch of the desert. Its reputation system is divided by a series of factions, each representing a group living in the game world. The player’s actions dictate which groups would offer the next batch of quest options, and the completion of most quests affects the player’s standing of at least one faction.

It’s an RPG through and through. The fifth game in its series, Fallout: New Vegas is the successor to Black Isle’s Fallout, and takes elements from the original games many long-time Fallout fans would deem nod-worthy. The player can collect loads of modifiable weapons, have access to two new workbenches to craft materials, and tons of new "perks" - player bonuses accessed every two levels.

Having said that, it has been said a few of Fallout’s old team were working on the game with developer Obsidian, using an upgraded version of Bethesda’s Fallout 3 engine.