By Andrew Reiner
Game Informer Magazine
You’ve been shot and left for dead on the outskirts of New Vegas, Nevada. Drifting between blurred reality and a soothing blackness, your mind wanders from thoughts of the afterlife to questioning why you’ve been shot. You’ve wronged nobody. You kept yourself out of trouble and found a way to survive in this harsh world as a courier. You were carrying a parcel at the time of the shooting. Was the assailant intercepting the package?
This is how “Fallout: New Vegas” begins. After being dug out of a shallow grave by a robot, you awaken in the house of a friendly doctor named Mitchell. He tended to your wounds. He nursed you back to health. And he won’t let you leave until he conducts a psych profile on you.
Your character’s stance in the world is largely shaped by the answers you provide much like the school tests in “Fallout 3.” I chose an evil path for my courier, saying mothers make great human shields and commenting that the inkblot looks like a mushroom cloud (I actually saw a bearded man). Mitchell hands over a device called the Vit-o-Matic to determine your skills, and in turn, influences. The choices include cult leader, peevish librarian, and old hermit. And yes, you can now alter your age to reflect that of an elderly hermit.