Fallout 3 must be good. Look how well it sold. Look how many Game of the Year stickers it has on it. Look at the feeding frenzy of rampant hatred that begins if you dare to so much as casually suggest it isn’t the Supreme Being of first person RPGs.

So Fallout: New Vegas, which is by all accounts more of the same, has to be pretty decent too, right? Given my apathy towards everyone’s favourite post-apocalyptic hybrid, I confess myself as surprised as you to be answering that yes, it does look pretty damn good. Here’s why.

Download Fallout: New Vegas - Teaser Trailer

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For one thing, they’ve cut out a lot of the waiting around. Fallout is not an action game, and you have to expect some exposition, but if you found yourself impatiently mashing the “next” button during Fallout 3’s interminable childhood sequence, you’ll be gratified by New Vegas’s approach. Apparently being dug up and patched back together after near fatal head trauma is a faster way to deliver a new character to actual gameplay than being born, growing up, having birthday parties and going to school. Who knew?

So the time between selecting “start game” and arriving at that trademark “the world is my oyster” moment is much less trying, but better than that, it’s a much more attractive sort of mollusc. I was blown away by the ruined desert landscape of Capital Wasteland – for the first ten minutes, after which I got a hankering for something different to look at. Having escaped the devastation of a ground-zero hit, New Vegas delivers a much more varied and interesting environment.

The few interiors I saw, inside a mountain communications base and a military facility, deviated markedly from the endless corridor feel of subways and blasted urban ruins. Outside, the horizon is dotted with intact landmarks, thriving vegetation, and dramatic rock formations. The two towns we visited, both open to the wider environment rather than locked into their own cells, were like real world small towns in close proximity – sharing certain design similarities, but each with a distinct look of their own.


Melee weapons now feature special abilities, like "Fore!"
Adding to this sense of uniqueness is the new reputation feature. Rather than the overarching karma system of previous titles, your standing in New Vegas extends only as far as word-of-mouth can take it – good news for those with sloppy save habits, who don’t want one accidental kill to close off certain quest paths. Rescue a town you like from bandit attack, and they’ll hail you as a hero – oblivious to the slaughter you left on the other side of the state. This allows you to make genuine moral decisions on a situation-by-situation basis, rather than having to accept a black and white code of ethics laid down by the game to keep later options open. And puts annoying NPCs at serious risk.

Acquiring equipment seems a lot more interesting than just cherry picking based on statistics. Obsidian are promising a low-level weapon in each skill category, meaning you have a reason to develop the more powerful weapon skills early on, without gimping your combat abilities – or hauling around rare drops you’re too lowly to use for another six hours. Some new weapon types like the grenade machine gun show a bit of the dark humour the series is famous for, and the addition of equipment upgrades means you can customise your gear so it’s a cut above the stuff carried by generic enemies. Finally, a new range of unique weapons featuring special abilities mean it’s now worthwhile to go out of your way to hunt down these little beauties.


Check the mirror for more customisation images!
The distinctive appearance and perks that come along with unique weapons are just two manifestations of a new gloss of personality lovingly applied to the series in New Vegas. All three of the quest lines I witnessed were stories I would have liked to know more about, with multiple possible solutions, rather than fetch quests with a “kill or no kill” option tacked on at the end. The denizens of New Vegas are well-developed characters with distinct personalities. Some of the dialogue, weapon names and situations even coaxed the occasional chuckle from me. Don’t tell anyone; it’ll ruin my street cred.

I won’t lie; Fallout 3 was a solid game, but it didn’t capture my imagination the way other Bethesda RPGs had, and after one play through, I was over it. In contrast, New Vegas looks set to reawaken my flagging interest in this franchise; it replicates the successful core experience of the last title, but wraps it up with a unique design aesthetic, a cheeky sense of humour, and enough new bells and whistles to make it worth the effort for fans and detractors alike.

Keep an eye out over the next few days as we bring you more exclusive content from the Bethesdays event, including previews of Brink, Rage, and Hunted: The Demon's Forge!