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The other driving point of the DLC is story, both the more important story of Ulysses and the Courier's past, and the secondary story of ED-E's past. Ulysses communicates with you throughout the DLC through ED-E, and you can find holotapes filled with his thoughts. Sadly, this is not one of the DLC's strongest points. Ulysses speaks in an elliptical, esoteric manner on his thoughts and philosophies that all too soon turn into garbled ramblings of a madman. It is hard to take an interest in, and I wouldn't blame many players for mentally checking out.
The underlying intent of the DLC is interesting. Ulysses is very similar to a player character, in that he seems to have actual agency to change the world rather than wait passively for the player to come along and save him. The fact that he's a courier but with a very different path highlights how he is kind of a mirror reflection of the Courier himself, learning different lessons from similar travels. This is all very well-done. Additionally, the motivation of the PC and player are the same in this DLC, it is curiosity that drives you on, you have no real reason to explore except to find Ulysses and get your answers, though more immediate motivations are added. It is reminiscent of Dead Money in how it was curiosity that brought you there in the first place.
Where it falls apart is Ulysses' philosophy and the actual choice of the player. One of the important points of the DLC seems to be to highlight how even small choices can have major consequences. But the big events aren't by the player's choice, either happening before the events of New Vegas or in segments where you're given no choice if you want to proceed. It makes a mockery of player agency in a way that would fit BioShock but seems really out of place in a Fallout game. The choice that led to this path, while not made by the player, was indeed a very minor one, so minor in fact that the player doesn't even remember it, which is bound to make amnesia theories resurface.
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Ulysses used to be a member of the Twisted Hairs, a tribe (originally from Van Buren) that was betrayed and destroyed by the Legion in this story. He carries both the symbol of his tribe (the dreadlocks) and of the old world nation (the US flag), and believes powerfully in symbols and nations. But after the destruction of the Divide, he does not believe any remaining nation has the potential to carry the future, all will inevitably collapse. He idealizes the "nation" that existed in the Divide before the disaster, but it is never explained in the DLC how this community was particularly perfect, nor do you get to know much about the community. Ulysses scoffs at the NCR, calling it corrupt and divided about its direction. This is something Obsidian has struggled with throughout New Vegas' stories: we can clearly see with our own eyes that NCR is by far the best option for mankind, and doubtlessly superior to the Legion, which never show any redeeming features. Yet instead of showing us that NCR has serious flaws, they just keep telling us it does, as if that's going to convince anyone. Ulysses wishes to end the current dominant factions and build a new nation, with some vague allusions to idealizing the old world, or rather its symbols.
Everything about Ulysses remains vague. His obsession with the Courier and the old Divide is never explained in anything but the vaguest terms, by having the Divide as the focus of his obsession over symbols and the Courier as the catalyst in its destruction. His plans for the future or personal goals are never explained at all. A lot of this makes sense because Ulysses is a world-weary individual who is disillusioned with the meaningless nature of the symbols he is obsessed with. His esoteric and philosophical nature reminds me of a lot of Avellone's earlier works, including Planescape: Torment, but where they fluidly worked with the setting there, they just clash with Fallout's pragmatic and realistic setting here. Ulysses' desperate and beaten-down nature comes across well, but he is ill-focused and his dislike of the Courier is not based on anything the player did, which combines to make him a very poor antagonist. The closing dialog with him does have shades of greatness, with many paths and options based on how well you listened to ED-E, to Ulysses' holotapes, or how well you can convince him based on your own speech skills. It's a classic of having to have paid attention and comprehend what he was telling you, to then pick the right options, because many options Ulysses will simply dismiss as “you understood nothing I said” before forcing you to fight him.
ED-E's story is delivered by it playing logs of its past before it was sent from the east coast towards Navarro in the west. ED-E still can't talk in more than “hopeful beeping” or “sad beeping”, but it's surprisingly effective in a loyal dog kind of way, and enjoyable to talk with it about its creator/father and the hardship of its travels. ED-E acts as a bit of a MacGuffin for the DLC's plot and its not entirely clear why it was added here specifically, but it's nice to round up its story in a more meaningful way than the main game did. I was personally much more interested in ED-E's part of the story than Ulysses'.
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Unlike other DLCs, there are some consequences in the main game to the choices you make. You can wreck or increase your reputation with the factions in the Mojave, and depending on the choices you make unlock up to two additional areas in the main map, which are very small but provide a little extra, including unique weapons and armor. These high-level areas (including one in the DLC itself) provide tons and tons of ammo to players, if any of them need it - I find it hard to imagine they do.
Getting past its linear, combat-focused design – which I'm not a huge fan of – the biggest failings of this DLC lie in its vagueness and lack of picking up loose ends in a satisfactory way. The player is given too little reason to care about the pre-disaster Divide. Many little things could've been handled better, like the explanation of ED-E's presence or why pre-war commissary machines give out bottle caps – or credit chips indistinguishable from bottle caps. The loose end of the tunnelers is never picked up. There was a lot of build-up for this plot, with the “legendary battle of the two couriers”, but the pay-off, especially storywise, is slight, and how exactly this battle became a legend is not adequately explained (there are no sane witnesses around).
Before this DLC's release, Chris Avellone explained in a developer blog that the narrative of Fallout games comes largely from the players. And he's right, that has always been one of the series' main strengths. How ironic is it, then, that Lonesome Road is the very antithesis of this ideal, with an antagonist who hates you because of events that happened outside of the player's control, and a linear, railroaded path that will play out pretty much the same for everyone, differences in dialog depending on your faction allegiance aside.
Content-wise Lonesome Road is satisfactory, and it's almost worth it just for the pretty amazing atmosphere and look of the Divide. But this linear combat-focused gameplay path will not appeal to everyone, and anyone expecting a satisfactory conclusion to the story arc of Ulysses and the Courier might be in for a let-down. If you reflect on it for a while, there is some appreciation to be found in the clever way Ulysses' arc ties in with lessons the Courier learned over previous DLC, and like Elijah in Dead Money he's an image of the cost of obsessing and failing to let go, but this does not make the main narrative structure any more satisfying in an immediate sense. It's not a bad DLC overall, but it suffers from coming right behind the excellent Old World Blues.
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The other driving point of the DLC is story, both the more important story of Ulysses and the Courier's past, and the secondary story of ED-E's past. Ulysses communicates with you throughout the DLC through ED-E, and you can find holotapes filled with his thoughts. Sadly, this is not one of the DLC's strongest points. Ulysses speaks in an elliptical, esoteric manner on his thoughts and philosophies that all too soon turn into garbled ramblings of a madman. It is hard to take an interest in, and I wouldn't blame many players for mentally checking out.
The underlying intent of the DLC is interesting. Ulysses is very similar to a player character, in that he seems to have actual agency to change the world rather than wait passively for the player to come along and save him. The fact that he's a courier but with a very different path highlights how he is kind of a mirror reflection of the Courier himself, learning different lessons from similar travels. This is all very well-done. Additionally, the motivation of the PC and player are the same in this DLC, it is curiosity that drives you on, you have no real reason to explore except to find Ulysses and get your answers, though more immediate motivations are added. It is reminiscent of Dead Money in how it was curiosity that brought you there in the first place.
Where it falls apart is Ulysses' philosophy and the actual choice of the player. One of the important points of the DLC seems to be to highlight how even small choices can have major consequences. But the big events aren't by the player's choice, either happening before the events of New Vegas or in segments where you're given no choice if you want to proceed. It makes a mockery of player agency in a way that would fit BioShock but seems really out of place in a Fallout game. The choice that led to this path, while not made by the player, was indeed a very minor one, so minor in fact that the player doesn't even remember it, which is bound to make amnesia theories resurface.
<center>
Ulysses used to be a member of the Twisted Hairs, a tribe (originally from Van Buren) that was betrayed and destroyed by the Legion in this story. He carries both the symbol of his tribe (the dreadlocks) and of the old world nation (the US flag), and believes powerfully in symbols and nations. But after the destruction of the Divide, he does not believe any remaining nation has the potential to carry the future, all will inevitably collapse. He idealizes the "nation" that existed in the Divide before the disaster, but it is never explained in the DLC how this community was particularly perfect, nor do you get to know much about the community. Ulysses scoffs at the NCR, calling it corrupt and divided about its direction. This is something Obsidian has struggled with throughout New Vegas' stories: we can clearly see with our own eyes that NCR is by far the best option for mankind, and doubtlessly superior to the Legion, which never show any redeeming features. Yet instead of showing us that NCR has serious flaws, they just keep telling us it does, as if that's going to convince anyone. Ulysses wishes to end the current dominant factions and build a new nation, with some vague allusions to idealizing the old world, or rather its symbols.
Everything about Ulysses remains vague. His obsession with the Courier and the old Divide is never explained in anything but the vaguest terms, by having the Divide as the focus of his obsession over symbols and the Courier as the catalyst in its destruction. His plans for the future or personal goals are never explained at all. A lot of this makes sense because Ulysses is a world-weary individual who is disillusioned with the meaningless nature of the symbols he is obsessed with. His esoteric and philosophical nature reminds me of a lot of Avellone's earlier works, including Planescape: Torment, but where they fluidly worked with the setting there, they just clash with Fallout's pragmatic and realistic setting here. Ulysses' desperate and beaten-down nature comes across well, but he is ill-focused and his dislike of the Courier is not based on anything the player did, which combines to make him a very poor antagonist. The closing dialog with him does have shades of greatness, with many paths and options based on how well you listened to ED-E, to Ulysses' holotapes, or how well you can convince him based on your own speech skills. It's a classic of having to have paid attention and comprehend what he was telling you, to then pick the right options, because many options Ulysses will simply dismiss as “you understood nothing I said” before forcing you to fight him.
ED-E's story is delivered by it playing logs of its past before it was sent from the east coast towards Navarro in the west. ED-E still can't talk in more than “hopeful beeping” or “sad beeping”, but it's surprisingly effective in a loyal dog kind of way, and enjoyable to talk with it about its creator/father and the hardship of its travels. ED-E acts as a bit of a MacGuffin for the DLC's plot and its not entirely clear why it was added here specifically, but it's nice to round up its story in a more meaningful way than the main game did. I was personally much more interested in ED-E's part of the story than Ulysses'.
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Unlike other DLCs, there are some consequences in the main game to the choices you make. You can wreck or increase your reputation with the factions in the Mojave, and depending on the choices you make unlock up to two additional areas in the main map, which are very small but provide a little extra, including unique weapons and armor. These high-level areas (including one in the DLC itself) provide tons and tons of ammo to players, if any of them need it - I find it hard to imagine they do.
Getting past its linear, combat-focused design – which I'm not a huge fan of – the biggest failings of this DLC lie in its vagueness and lack of picking up loose ends in a satisfactory way. The player is given too little reason to care about the pre-disaster Divide. Many little things could've been handled better, like the explanation of ED-E's presence or why pre-war commissary machines give out bottle caps – or credit chips indistinguishable from bottle caps. The loose end of the tunnelers is never picked up. There was a lot of build-up for this plot, with the “legendary battle of the two couriers”, but the pay-off, especially storywise, is slight, and how exactly this battle became a legend is not adequately explained (there are no sane witnesses around).
Before this DLC's release, Chris Avellone explained in a developer blog that the narrative of Fallout games comes largely from the players. And he's right, that has always been one of the series' main strengths. How ironic is it, then, that Lonesome Road is the very antithesis of this ideal, with an antagonist who hates you because of events that happened outside of the player's control, and a linear, railroaded path that will play out pretty much the same for everyone, differences in dialog depending on your faction allegiance aside.
Content-wise Lonesome Road is satisfactory, and it's almost worth it just for the pretty amazing atmosphere and look of the Divide. But this linear combat-focused gameplay path will not appeal to everyone, and anyone expecting a satisfactory conclusion to the story arc of Ulysses and the Courier might be in for a let-down. If you reflect on it for a while, there is some appreciation to be found in the clever way Ulysses' arc ties in with lessons the Courier learned over previous DLC, and like Elijah in Dead Money he's an image of the cost of obsessing and failing to let go, but this does not make the main narrative structure any more satisfying in an immediate sense. It's not a bad DLC overall, but it suffers from coming right behind the excellent Old World Blues.
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