Fallout: New Vegas And The Power Of A Fresh Start
A white suit, the faint stench of a cigar, and two mustachioed henchmen, Fallout: New Vegas has a punchy opening right through to the gunshot. Bang. You’re dead. Or, at least, you should be. But you’re not. You’re awake, sitting on the side of a bed in a rundown 1800s-styled town with a doctor nursing you back to health. He says his howdy’s and his y’alls before scurrying you out the door with little more than the clothes on your back and a Pip-Boy on your wrist.
It’s an exhilarating prospect. The sandy wasteland stretches as far as the eye can see while countless intriguing locals dot the landscape. It’s a goldmine of opportunity and you no longer have the past shackled to your heel, weighing you down. You start the game by dying. Everything after is of your own making.
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You don’t need a near-death experience to kickstart your life onto a new, exciting path, but sometimes, the same scenery and monotonous routine of daily life can be tiring. A change of pace, on the other hand, can be rejuvenating.
Fallout: New Vegas embraces the power of a fresh start and the agency it brings. That bullet to the head represents the death of the courier and the birth of you, the player. The courier was delivering something - you don’t know what. The courier had an employer - you don’t know who. The courier had a life - you don’t know anything about it. It’s unimportant.
The other Fallouts give you a reason to leave the nest, but New Vegas isn’t so strict. The opening may seem like it pushes you to walk a path of vengeance, but walking that path is not a necessity. There’s no urgency in tracking down the man who attempted to kill you because if it doesn’t matter
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