No Mutants Allowed's Brother None reviewed Obsidian's final DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, noting its excellent atmosphere is offset by some serious flaws in narrative and a focus on combat in linear levels.<blockquote>The DLC is also very focused. What I mean by that is that it has no side-quests, just its main quests done in a pre-set order. It has no non-hostile NPCs other than ED-E and Ulysses. It doesn't have a lot of explorable optional areas. So it figures this DLC is pretty short compared to the others, I clocked in at about 5 hours, but it is also much denser than the two preceding DLC, you go from fight to fight and dialog to dialog, with no walking back and forth or searching around in between, as opposed to the main game and the preceding two DLCs.
The DLC's strongest point is atmosphere. Unlike the other DLCs, you're given no background through slideshows or expository opening dialogs, you just wander in and have to discover more yourself. The Divide is by far the most thoroughly destroyed area seen in any Fallout. After the post-post-apocalyptic feel of much of New Vegas, it does a great job of giving us a place more freshly off an apocalyptic event, deadly to travel in, wandering through buildings askew (warning: may cause nausea) and crumbling around you. A “Damnation Alley”-esque atmosphere, as creative director Chris Avellone put it, that book's story happening decades after the apocalypse, rather than centuries. There is a constant feeling of danger, and it is underscored very well by having ED-E around responding to imminent threats with whimpering sounds. There's a lot of little moments, such as the first time you meet the tunnelers, you see a deathclaw in the distance attacking one and promptly getting torn to bits. Moments like those really set up the atmosphere.
(...)
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.</blockquote>
The DLC's strongest point is atmosphere. Unlike the other DLCs, you're given no background through slideshows or expository opening dialogs, you just wander in and have to discover more yourself. The Divide is by far the most thoroughly destroyed area seen in any Fallout. After the post-post-apocalyptic feel of much of New Vegas, it does a great job of giving us a place more freshly off an apocalyptic event, deadly to travel in, wandering through buildings askew (warning: may cause nausea) and crumbling around you. A “Damnation Alley”-esque atmosphere, as creative director Chris Avellone put it, that book's story happening decades after the apocalypse, rather than centuries. There is a constant feeling of danger, and it is underscored very well by having ED-E around responding to imminent threats with whimpering sounds. There's a lot of little moments, such as the first time you meet the tunnelers, you see a deathclaw in the distance attacking one and promptly getting torn to bits. Moments like those really set up the atmosphere.
(...)
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.</blockquote>
I have reached the 13-mark just before I ended it.. Maybe you missed out some content or simply rushed through it? :/
