Is Dead Money Unfair?

Is Dead Money Unfair?

  • Yes

  • No

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I suppose it depends on what you mean by "unfair". If you mean that it's inherently broken or too hard, then no, definitely not. My first playthrough was exhilarating for the same reason most people said here; it was a welcome increase in difficulty after my character became God incarnate.

It's not like it's set up in any way that could be considered misleading; all the mechanics are laid out for you and even the speakers, which most people seem to identify as their major gripe with the add-on, weren't all that hard for me. I've never played New Vegas on any setting other than on hardcore mode, so I also enjoyed the constantly draining health, but it wasn't even that debilitating; with an endurance score of 4 I only lost something like a third of my health while outside.

I enjoyed the Ghost People and how you had to make sure they were dead; it adds to the atmosphere of desperate survival and the fact that I was killing them with spears, for the most part, reinforced that even more. What I enjoyed less were the holograms, and that was mostly because I'd somehow convinced myself that the holorifle was meant to be able to damage them and my game was bugged.

Honestly, my second playthrough with a combat-oriented character made Dead Money almost trivially easy, even on the hardest setting. Once I found the .308 ammo holotape for the vending machines, I was swimming in ammo. Having to keep survival in the back of my mind even when I was basically the king of the Sierra Madre still made it fun, however, it made it feel earned.



However, if you meant for any build that isn't combat or stealth oriented, then yeah, the DLC is kind of unfair. That said, companions in the game are ridiculously strong, especially at Charisma 10, and the ones in Dead Money are specialized in dealing with the Sierra Madre, so you shouldn't really be having any trouble even then; just run like hell during sequences like the Gala and when finding Christine in the suites and you'll be golden.

On a side note, the Sierra Madre was where I first found out how easy it is to win at Black Jack in this game; the maximum payout in something in the region of 10,000 caps and I basically consider it an exploit.

Ragemage said:
I will admit I wish you could talk to Veronica about Christine though. Those poor girls have no idea if the other's even alive or not!
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In fairness, you don't actually get any confirmation that they were lovers.
 
Ragemage said:
She is though. Well, kinda. At the end of the DLC you can bring her to Father Elijah's bunker and give her what were essentially his final thoughts, which will give her a special unarmed perk if you let her listen to the holotape. Or you can keep it for yourself and get a special perk all to yourself instead. It's not much but it's there. I will admit I wish you could talk to Veronica about Christine though. Those poor girls have no idea if the other's even alive or not!

And on the other hand, I think they may have left Veronica's involvement in this DLC small on purpose. If Veronica got more involved, this would give her a lot more screentime, so to speak, than the other companions. None of the others have anything that relates them back to the DLC. The only other companion that's very much affected by DLC is ED-E. He gets a loooot of stuff from Lonesome Road.
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Veronica is directly involved with Dead Money though, you can't say that about the other companions. Even if they had Elijah keep her isolated and her and Christine had a moment at the end I would have been satisfied with that, I even brought her my second time through thinking I may have missed out, but no. The whole thing felt very unresolved for me just getting a note, and it turned me off of what was otherwise a great DLC.
 
Eh, I thought the radios were fine. Not saying they were fair, it's just..... well, might have been because of my playstyle and because I tend to pay as much attention as I could to the surrounding without rushing first. Coupled with me relying on stealth (that was broken because of Gamebryo) I really enjoyed the DLC.
 
No, dead money was designed to be difficult for any character build. Like a good survival horror game it's not designed in your favor but it certainly isn't unfair. The difficulty and inhospitabilty of that location all ties into the story of that DOC and it's themes. It was necessary to tell that story well.
 
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It's a huge credit to Dead Money, that all of the new characters are so well written. I loved learning to speak with Christine, and then talking her down near the end. Dog/God was interesting as a concept a character. Finding the pathos and humor in Dean. And Father Elijah, such a great antagonist. The more I think about it, the more Dead Money rises to a three-way tie between Old World Blues and Lonesome Road. Great balance of challenge, story, choices, and reward.

The upgrade ED-E gets from Lonesome Road's nuts. He becomes pretty much a floating Swiss Army Knife.
 
Writing a mute character is a challenge, but a hugely satisfying one. Done it myself (twice, once with two characters who couldn't speak the same language, once with a clown who never speaks and only communicates in sign language). Finding ways to get meaning across without speech in a written work is fun/frustrating in near-equal measure lol
 
Not the clown you were looking for but eye-catching non the less.

wZiR9.jpg
 
I...I... I can't process this, I feel like I've just stared into the abyss, man the human race really deserves to end.
 
The damn speakers. Can´t get rid of them like the radios and to make matters worse you have to deal with the holograms at the same time.
 
Blame Bethesda. Know the main reason Dead Money (and the rest) were the way they were? Budget constraints. They had to do a hell of a lot with a hell of a little money, hence why they found interesting ways to reuse existing assets, and created something as amazing as Dead Money, which features a mere 4 NPCs, one of whom you only interact with via a hologram or speakers until right at the end.

There's a lot to be said for having a limited budget or technical constraints, it forces people to be incredibly clever and innovative. Take the original Star Wars movie. Constant problems, loads of technical limitations, no major studio backing. That led to a better movie. Now look at the prequels, or even Bethesda's games, where money basically isn't an issue and a small group of people have total control with no real oversight: shallow, boring, plain, lacking any sort of coherency, and wholly focused on VISUALS and RULE OF COOL and SPECTACLE.

If you think I just compared Emil to Lucas... you're right, I did. I consider Lucas to be one of the worst writers in human history, and Emil is right up there alongside him.
 
Izak said:
I'm trying as hard as I can to imagine this, do you mind linking me to it?
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Context helps lol. He's a character in my favourite show. There are brands that create various outfits and each has their own style and a top designer. Marcel is top designer for a brand that specialises in modern interpretations of clown and circus-themed outfits and the like. He never speaks because it's part of his character. Anyway, easiest to just copy-paste the scene itself:

“I work hard, Aoi, you know that,” Ichigo said, as though this would somehow explain her dangling from the Statue of Liberty’s face with a squeegee. They watched the world go by for a minute, then Ichigo exclaimed, “Oh, it’s Marcel-san!”

Aoi jumped. “Ichigo!?”

“Mm? Oh, sorry, Aoi, I just saw Marcel-san. Come on, let’s go say hi!”

“Marcel-san…? Wait,” Aoi scanned the vicinity, “you mean Magical Toy’s top designer?”

“Yep!”

They made their way across to the other side of this enormous paved area, seeing Marcel carrying balloons and surrounded by children. They watched for a while as he made a variety of balloon animals to amuse the kids before finally wandering off in his comical clown gait.

Upon seeing him move, Ichigo walked forward to accost him. “Hi, Marcel-san!”

The clown turned and beamed. Bringing a hand up, fingers spread wide, he clenched into a fist, opening the hand again and producing four red balls between the fingers.

“Oh! That’s the magic trick Kaede-chan performs!” Aoi said.

Marcel nodded, smiled. Then a frown, looking oddly comical contrasted with his perpetually smiling makeup. He extended his index finger and gently stroked down from his left eye, indicating a tear.

“Haven’t you see her recently?” Ichigo asked.

Marcel shook his head.

“I guess it’s pretty difficult when she lives in Japan most of the time now,” Aoi said.

The clown shrugged, put his arms out to the sides, palms up, then imitated a counterbalance, one arm going up, the other down, and vice versa.

“Life has its ups and downs, everyone is doing their best, and you’re happy for Kaede-chan?” Ichigo said.

Marcel grinned.

“How did you even understand that, Ichigo?” Aoi asked, laughing.

“I’ve met Marcel-san a few times now. I guess you just get used to communicating silently.”

“I’m impressed he can even understand us,” Aoi said. “You speak Japanese, Marcel-san?”

He shook his head, put a finger up to his lips, and smiled.

“Oh, sorry, you don’t speak, right!” Aoi adjusted the question a little. “Do you understand Japanese?”

Marcel took the finger away, smiled even wider, then clenched a hand and used the index finger of his other hand to trace around the entire circumference. He ran on the spot for a few seconds, his enormous shoes flip-flopping comically.

“I have no idea what that means…” Aoi said, suppressing a laugh.

“Um, I think he means he’s travelled a lot? All around the world?” Ichigo hazarded.

Marcel nodded. He pointed at his own head, back to the clenched fist, back to his head, then prodded the top a few times as if to indicate something going in.

“You enjoy learning?” Aoi said.

A nod. Marcel pointed back to the fist.

“You want to give what you learned back to the world?” Ichigo said.

Another nod. He unclenched the fist, then used the index finger to draw an enormous circle in the air before him.

“Oh! What goes around, comes around?” Ichigo said in extremely broken English.

Marcel jumped up and down a few times, touched the index finger of his left hand to the tip of his nose, and pointed at Ichigo with his right index finger.

“I feel worn out,” Aoi said.

“Yeah, it gives you a mental workout! It’s fun, though,” Ichigo said.

Marcel grinned. He brought his left arm up and tapped the wrist with his right index finger. Then he ran on the spot again.

“You have an appointment and need to get going?” Ichigo suggested.

The clown gave a single nod, smiled, and produced several tube balloons, which he twisted into the shape of a poodle, handing it to Ichigo. He waved at them and walked away.
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Actually I love Dead Money for its challenge. Lonesome Road feels like Mothership Zeta with those tunnelers. There are a lot good puzzles in Dead Money. However, Dead Money is more like a single linear quest than an area to explore, so OWB is still my favorite.
 
It was too easy and frankly a weak attempt at survival horror. The story, characters and dialogue were brilliant, and stood out well. I had fun, but it could have been so much more. Blame the game engine.
 
Dr Fallout said:
It was too easy and frankly a weak attempt at survival horror. The story, characters and dialogue were brilliant, and stood out well. I had fun, but it could have been so much more. Blame the game engine.
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Blame the engine, budget contstraints, time constraints, bottom line, blame Bethesda.
 
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