Fallout: New Vegas DLC Round-up Review

[WorstUsernameEver]

To help readers make an informed purchase, RPGamer's Sam Marchello, Glenn Wilson and Michael Cunningham have put together a round-up for Fallout: New Vegas' DLC, offering two different takes for each one of them. SCIENCE!-tastic Old World Blues comes on top:<blockquote> Featuring an eccentric entourage of broken immortal scientists, the zany humor and unrelenting madness of Old World Blues have more in common with other games in Obsidian Entertainment's legacy than anything that fits in the Fallout world. The DLC opens with a lengthy, brain-bending discussion that casually leaps between warped perceptions and demented impossibilities. This introduction to the unfacts of Old World Blues is tough to follow, distracting slightly from the comedy when you're trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Unfortunately, the first scene and individual follow-up conversations with each scientist make up nearly all of the dialogue in the DLC, and considering how much weirdness is packed into the setting, the lack of balance between doses of story and combat is disappointing. The next ten to fifteen hours is spent exploring the crater that was the Big MT. Quests send you to a plethora of diverse locations in the small region, and although some drop you into more creative, funny situations or introduce you to new mentally-addled NPCs, many of the quests are either bland item fetches or solved purely in conversation. The Big MT is packed with immediately respawning foes, so even a small amount of backtracking adds significant combat time to the DLC. The story unshockingly concludes with the player getting to judge the scientists who trapped and experimented on him, although it's a shame that the ending sequence is short on the group dialogue that made the DLC unique at the start. Worth playing for the creative script and setting rather than the plot choices and constant combat, Old World Blues is an excellent one act play. By the end, it grants so many experience points and a permanent hub that's so awesome, it makes the main story of New Vegas easy and works best as an end of game or second playthrough DLC. - Glenn Wilson

Glenn's Verdict: Buy for Obsidian's creative writing at its best.

Of all the Fallout: New Vegas DLC, nothing even comes close to the wackiness that is Old World Blues. Featuring an eccentric cast of characters, players are forced into making a unique choice that is unlike anything they've ever experienced before: they have to make up their minds, about their brains. The poor Courier has been completely lobotomized by a group of scientists and is forced to become a guinea pig in a science experiment gone awry. Like what Glenn commented upon earlier, Old World Blues' strength comes from its writing. It's hilarious, odd, and it's hard to know how to react to some of the situations that occur within the story, particularly the killer toaster with a deep desire to destroy the world. Clever and smart, the writing shines and makes it rewarding to traverse through the Big MT. The overall pacing of the DLC is somewhat out of sync, as there's a plethora of quests to take on, but traversing through the Big MT becomes problematic when hordes of lobotomized "friends" come out to play. The balance between story and combat is lacking, and backtracking and respawned enemies do add to the playtime. The amount of story feels so little compared to the amount of combat that occurs in this DLC, but with the number of areas and ample content to explore, there's lots to do, and the story alone makes this easily worth a recommendation. - Sam Marchello

Sam's Verdict: Quirky and hilarious, Old World Blues has bar none the best writing of the four DLC packs.</blockquote>

 

[brfritos]

It's funny that Dead Money is bashed back and forth because actually requires the player to pay attention, think before doing something and weigh his decisions, unlike the other DLCs, where the quests are simply fetched and you go blowing things in front of you.
Is my favorite DLC by far and way ahead of the rest, OWB comes in second only if playable with the wonderfull Puce Moose pack for this particular DLC. Really, why it's fun to have respawn rates setted at 100%, making enemies killed 5 seconds before respawn just in front of you or after a fast travel?
The story is very funny and I liked a lot, but the way combat happens really hurts the DLC as a whole.

HH and LR are weak, they've could be much better in the story and progression, but RPGamer must be joking when saying LR has scarce resources!
I didn't needed to exit the Divide ONCE for gattering something, even when starting at level 15, and the DLC solve your ammo issues for the whole game at once.
And LR was a huge letdown, more than HH and the Burned Man story, HH at least is sympathetic.

I don't know if the fact the LR was interrupted two times during development and then rushed had a huge interference, but LR seems incomplete, specially the story (LR has three different dates in the scripts, unlike all other DLCs).

If you ask me, I choose only DM for the story and playability.
If you want some other for the loot, LR is the strong of all in this department wich makes me feel really odd, recommending a DLC only for loot.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Did the delay of Lonesome Road also cause any changes in its design, the original concept being different from the eventual release?

 

[brfritos]

Did the delay of Lonesome Road also cause any changes in its design, the original concept being different from the eventual release?

Now that you've asked, the original concept is what we've seen.

SCN NVDLC04MQ04SCRIPT

; Script to control final perk award.
; TLS 04/04/2011

This script controls the final perk after you launched or aborted the missiles and headed to the Mojave.
Take a look at the date.

 

[Lexx]

Well, there are other things that could have delayed the release. Graphics not beeing finished, the navmesh, sound / voices, dialogues, etc.

 

[Walpknut]

I don't get why challenge seems to be a bad thing with reviewers. I have only played the first two DLC so I can only talk for those two, but yes, Honest Hearts is the weakest of the two by a big margin, I still like it, it has a lot of things going for it but I wouldn't recommend it. feels kind of rushed.

 

[ZeusComplex]

I never found Dead Money to be challenging, as so much as an attempt to be challenging. It wasn't exactly easy, but all the challenges set up really stood out and seemed to serve as padding and filler rather than a natural series of problems for the player to observe and overcome.

[spoiler:bf1996b175] I only found the encounter with Dean Domino and the vault itself to be pointlessly hard though. Trial and error is not a good game design option, in my opinion, and these two areas, in particular, had more than that I would of cared to have had. [/spoiler:bf1996b175]

Still, Dead Money has by far the best plot of the entire DLC series and even New Vegas itself. It's been awhile since a story has generated a heavy emotional response from me, in the nature that Dead Money did. This DLC oozes tragedy and loss. These ingredients mixed in with the horror elements, made the perfect haunting storyline.

And even more to it's credit, it felt more like Fallout than anything else Post-Fallout 2 has.

 

[brfritos]

I don't get why challenge seems to be a bad thing with reviewers. I have only played the first two DLC so I can only talk for those two, but yes, Honest Hearts is the weakest of the two by a big margin, I still like it, it has a lot of things going for it but I wouldn't recommend it. feels kind of rushed.

Challenge is a bad thing because they paid money, dammit, and they expect to be fellated by Todd Howard himself for it.

But gamers these days are a bunch of crying babies, complaining about the slightest challenge a game has.
And I'm not talking about casual gamers.
Take World of Goo for example, the game is a casual game and extremelly challenge at certain points, but overall is a light game for when you want just to have fun.

I see people crying about the challenge way too often.
If people don't wanna challenge and want only to look what's happening on the screen go see a movie, not play a game.

On top of that, the nature of difficulty really makes a difference too. In an RPG, it's common to go up against challenging situations, but with some sort of prior knowledge, planning, a special item, etc., tip the scales in your favour - it rewards persistence, exploration and tactics. However, if you boil that same fight down to getting a string of perfect 20s from the random number generator, or don't provide alternate means of getting around the problem, then the game ceases to be fun, and instead becomes all about trial and error instead. Dead Money fell into this trap from time to time, I think, as it wasn't all that challenging in terms of the enemies it threw at you, but instead just told the player "run around until you either find the radio to shoot or your head explodes" without any clear ways to bypass or make that mechanic easier/more manageable, and I can see why that wouldn't be fun for a lot of players.

Also, consider the bomb collar mechanic: all it really is is a way to get the player to follow a certain path at a certain time, and to add a level of tension to moving around the environment. In effect, it really isn't much different than making the player traverse other environmental hazards, like deadly radiation or lava pits. The problem, I think, is more one of presentation: Fallout is known for freedom, and being forced to wear a bomb collar by an antagonist isn't just demeaning, it also takes away that freedom players really enjoy. It helps create mistrust and hatred, all good things for the player to feel for the villain, but rather than giving the player a story-related reason, instead that reason is an awkward and contrarian gameplay mechanic. In that situation it's much easier to direct those negative feelings at the game itself.

You know, I think this is the great quality of Dead Money, it subverts the way Fallout is played in a very enjoyable way. Personally speaking, I start the DLC at most at level 12, wich means I have to carefully plan my character, otherwise I'm screwed.
Sure, this leave me some very constrain choices regarding some things, like combat and how I can hack/lockpick obstacles, usually I can only use one of the skills proficiently (hacking or lockpick).
But it was my choice, I decided to go before the recommended level, so I have to own the consequences.
But no, is a game, so it doesn't need consequences for our actions.

And is a friggin' RPG!

The other thing players are also too much used to be guided throughout a game, if a game doesn't guide them, they start to cry out.
Dead Money again don't guide you the usual way. Sure, sometimes it doesn't leave much choice, you only have one path to follow, but this aren't always the true.
Don't wanna have problem with the speakers and radios? Use Christine as a companion for most of the DLC. Don't wanna have problems with the Cloud? Use Domino. Want to kill Ghost People very easy, go with God/Dog.

But no, they wanna everything, all the time, without drawbacks and without consequences.
And you don't see this behaviour only with Fallout, it's with every game.

No wonder the type of gameplay Call of Duty has maded appeal to a lot of gamers: the challenge is diluded, you are guided all the time and don't have any choice to worry about.
Heck, STALKER is considered a "nerd" game because of so many things it has (and yes, it has some problems, like the interface and inventory management, but overall is a very good game).

 

[Surf Solar]

Long story short= "RPGs" these days are just not meant to be played by people who love RPGs.

 

[Courier]

"RPG" these days means any game that features stats or customization.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

"RPG" these days means any game that features stats or customization.

I honestly hate how stat building is confused with RPG these days.

Stat building can be applied in a variety of games, while RPG is more than just stat building, choice and consequences; not being able to join all factions for example.