Fallout: New Vegas Wiki

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas is a first-person action role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks, released on Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 19, 2010. The player is the Courier, a delivery driver for the Mojave Express who is shot in the head over a platinum chip and wakes up in the town of Goodsprings with a vendetta and a war waiting. The Mojave is split between the New California Republic, Caesar's Legion and the reclusive Mr. House, and the main quest is decided by which of them, or which independent path, the Courier chooses to put on the Hoover Dam. Character building runs on the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes, thirteen skills and a perk every other level, with traits chosen at creation and an optional Hardcore mode that adds hunger, thirst, sleep and weighted ammo. Combat mixes real-time shooting with V.A.T.S. pause targeting, weapon condition and repair, and a crafting layer of reloading benches, campfires and workbenches, while faction reputation and karma decide how the Mojave's settlements treat the Courier.

• S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and Skills: seven attributes set at creation feed thirteen skills, and every skill point is spent directly rather than through a class, so a Courier can be a silver-tongued pacifist, a sniper or a chainsaw brawler by level ten.
• Perks and Traits: a perk is chosen every other level from level two, gated by attribute and skill thresholds, while two traits are picked at character creation and each carries a real drawback alongside its bonus.
• V.A.T.S.: pausing combat to queue shots on individual body parts with a hit chance and an action-point cost is still the series' signature, and it is the only reliable way to target limbs for crippling.
• Weapon Condition and Repair: every gun and blade wears down with use, jams or loses damage at low condition, and is restored by repair kits, vendor repairs or merging two copies of the same weapon.
• Hardcore Mode: an optional ruleset that adds hunger, thirst, sleep, ammunition weight and slow companion healing, turning the Mojave into a supply-run game without changing the story.
• Faction Reputation and Karma: each major faction tracks a separate reputation that opens or closes quests and vendor access, while karma tracks personal morality, and the two can point in different directions.
• Crafting and Reloading: campfires, reloading benches and workbenches convert scavenged junk into food, drugs, ammunition types and weapon mods, and hand-loaded ammo is strictly better than factory rounds.
• Companions: human and robotic companions follow the Courier, each with a personal quest and a perk, controlled through a companion wheel for tactics, inventory and waiting.
• Caravan and Casino Gambling: card games and the Strip's casinos are a full secondary economy, with a ban threshold at each casino that closes the tables once the Courier wins too much.