You wake up in a doctors office with no memory of how you got there, the last thing you remember was getting a job to deliver a simple package to someone. After further investigation you discover you were waylaying on route, shot in the head and buried alive. Luckily this incident was spotted, and your body was dug up and taken to the nearest doctor. Now you must find out why you were shot, who shot you, and claim VENGEANCE!

No, this is not the plot of some Cheap Western (Or the Japanese original) but the rough starting plot of the new Role-Playing game in the Fallout series by Obsidian Entertainment. Yes “Fallout: New Vegas”.

The game is set about four years after the events of “Fallout 3″, and is located in the post-apocalyptic Las Vegas, Nevada and the Mojave Desert known as the “Mojave Wasteland“. Yes, its a post-apocalyptic world with mutated creatures attacking travelers, legions of slavers, cannibals, criminals killing their way across the land, and Las Vegas is still doing trade as the gambling capital of the world. This is the world you are playing in.

The game play is similar to Fallout 3, well it is running the same game engine. Once again you can have companions, only this time they are more useful, and you can have one humanoid and one none humanoid companion. The greatest difference in my opinion is the addition of crafting. In the old game you had to scavenge for ammunition for your weapons or keep purchasing new ones, in this one you can use workbenches, or reloading stations to make your own ammunition using empty cases, powder and lead. Or you can make tools, equipment, repair items using the scrap you salvage as you travel. You can even use campfires to cook up things, I think this makes it a lot more realistic since most post-apocalyptic travelers would pick up a few real world survival skills.

Like any good RPG, you get to select your skill sets & bonuses as you advance in levels, pick what Armour & weapons you use (I am currently running around in a kilt with a machete thanks to pre-order DLC). You can even customise your ammunition (Armour Piercing, Overcharged Cells, Shrapnel in you dynamite) & add accessories to your firearms (Scopes, Silencers, Etc). You also get to pick which quests you will take, and if you will be nice or evil, which faction to side with, and how you will interact with the inhabitants. You can complete the game by just following you own quest for Vengeance, only you will miss out on so much more fun by doing that.

I would say this game is well worth getting (Hey, I lost the last weekend to this game), and any any fans of the series, or the RPG genre, or anything post-apocalyptic need this game in their collection.