Fallout 3 began with your character being born. Fallout: New Vegas begins with your character being shot in the head.

Two years after Bethesda's reboot of the post-apocalyptic RPG series, we return once again to the wasteland, only this time the setting has been moved from DC to Nevada. With no number in the title and a new developer at the reins—Obsidian Entertainment, already known for working on sequels like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2—it's easy to look at New Vegas as a simple spin-off, but that would be dismissing it unfairly: this is a game with as much depth and flexibility as its predecessor. Unfortunately, like some of Obsidian's previous games, New Vegas is hampered by technical issues that taint an otherwise excellent experience.

You're somebody until nobody loves you

The game is set three years after Fallout 3, but aside from the setting, there's little narrative connection between the two games. You play as a courier on a mission to deliver a package to the New Vegas strip. Nothing big, just a simple poker chip. But somebody wants it, and wants it bad. They want it bad enough that in the opening sequence of the game, they shoot your character in the head and leave you to die. Obviously, that doesn't happen, and you're saved by a helpful yet suspect robot. What follows is a chase not unlike the one from Fallout 3. Only, instead of searching for your father, you're searching for the man who tried to kill you.

Fallout: New Vegas xbox*, ps3, pc Release Date: now

now MSRP: $59.99 Official site * = platform reviewed

These opening events lend themselves perfectly to the character creation aspect of the game. Receiving a bullet to the head tends to affect one's memory, and so you'll go through a series of psychological tests to help you remember just what type of person you really are. Ink blots, word association tests, that sort of thing. The results will form the basis of your character's personality and skills, which greatly affects the way you go about playing the game. It's not quite as creative as the birth sequence from Fallout 3, but it's still a clever way of integrating the creation process into the actual game.

But don't go thinking that you can rush off and hit the slots right away. The journey from the small town of Goodsprings to the bright lights of New Vegas is a long one. Even if you rush right through the story, chances are you won't see any casinos until at least a dozen or so hours into the game. Before that, you'll spend your time wandering the Mojave Wasteland, which is quite a bit like the Capital Wasteland, but with a faint Western vibe. People talk in slang and robots wear cowboy hats. You'll actually see tumbleweeds blowing in the wind. You'll encounter numerous small towns and long, nearly deserted roads, dotted with people either just trying to make a living or trying to kill you.

The crumbling buildings and dusty roads will feel very familiar to those who played the first game, and for much of the time the change of setting doesn't provide much of a change of scenery: a wasteland is a wasteland, whether it's in the Northeast or the Southwest. It's disappointing at first, since the draw of Vegas is a large part of the appeal of the game. But the long wait really helps build up the suspense for when you finally get to the strip. It's startling how much Vegas contrasts with the rest of the world and, in fact, anything you've seen in a Fallout game before. It's almost as if a piece of Las Vegas as we know it now was simply dropped into the wasteland. It looks alien and out of place. Yet, once you begin to explore it, you'll wonder why you ever doubted it to begin with. A walled off casino in the desert eventually makes sense. Soldiers stumble around drunkenly while prostitutes will openly proposition in the middle of the street. This is a place of escape. A place that's desperately needed.

It's bigger than you

New Vegas is much more than a revenge story, however. The game puts a large focus on the various groups that populate the wasteland—some new, some familiar. The New California Republic is continuing to expand its reach to the east, and has its eyes set on Nevada. Not only is it home to the wealth of New Vegas, but also the Hoover Dam, which provides nearly all of the electricity and much of the water for the region, both very valuable resources in a post-apocalyptic world. But the NCR isn't the only one with an eye on the dam. The Legion, a group of religious fanatics who like to dress up like Roman soldiers and capture slaves, also want the territory. And both sides are willing to fight to get what they want.

There's a war brewing, and you're caught in the middle.

In addition to these two sides, there's also the mysterious Mr. House, who is the informal leader of all of New Vegas. But no one has ever seen him, and he claims to have been alive since before the great war in 2077, two centuries ago. For various reasons, all three sides will take an interest in you. The hows and whys aren't always clear, but as you approach the end of the game you'll end up having to make a choice. You'll have to pick a side.

There are additional groups and factions as well. Everything from a flock of religious ghouls and a gang of Elvis impersonators to drug addicted pyschopaths and escaped convicts with a predilection for dynamite. And this is where the new reputation system comes into play. Your actions have always had consequences in Fallout, but now different groups will view you in different ways. For instance, at one point you'll have to liberate a small town that's been taken over by criminals who recently escaped from a nearby prison. If you liberate the townsfolk, they'll love you, but the convict gang will become a life long enemy, attacking you on sight throughout the rest of the game.

You can keep track of your reputation in two different ways. The world map will display how each town feels about you, so you can check whether or not you're loved or loathed before stopping by. And there's also a section of the menu that will display how the various factions view you. No matter what route you take, you're bound to piss off somebody, so being able to easily access that information is very helpful.