Rank the DLC's

What is the best DLC?

  • Total voters
    271
1) Lonesome Road - I'll be honest and admit that I didn't actually enjoy New Vegas all that much on my first playthrough. I certainly liked it but felt that the post-apocalyptic vibe from the series was missing. I loved the return of multifaceted writing and interesting characters but the atmosphere just wasn't there for me. That all changed once I played Lonesome Road, not only is Lonesome Road the most visually impressive bit of Fallout ever created but it all comes to a head in an outstanding finale that is like the game pointing a gun at your face and telling you to choose a side or die. It was the first time I felt compelled to actually get involved with the factions and from then on out I loved New Vegas. It complements New Vegas beautifully with the return of post-apocalyptia, it has one of my favorite moments of the entire series and the added gear is my favorite in all of New Vegas.

2) Old World Blues - Hilarious, open and massive. Definitely the most "fun" DLC of the bunch. Writing is rock solid and once again complements New Vegas quite well by going absolutely nuts with the comedy.

3) Dead Money - The best actual "story" of the DLC's, Dead Money has great characters and a wonderfully intriguing story with a fantastic atmosphere and setting. The problem for me is the gameplay. The collar? *Middle Finger* Right here buddy.

4) Honest Hearts - Maybe a controversial opinion but I don't actually like this DLC, I find the setting a curious one because I thought we already had enough of the non-irradiated wasteland that New Vegas provided. The whole "tribe warfare" thing was nowhere near as interesting as Caesar's Legion Vs. NCR, and I didn't enjoy much of the new gear added. The only thing this DLC has going for it is Joshua Graham, who is reasonably interesting but still can't live up to the narrative expectations the game gives him, and the story of The Survivalist, which I found to be a brilliant piece of environmental storytelling. Oh and Jed Masterson's "Oh Mr. Masterson, I left my one-of-a-kind plasma rifle back at camp, can we go back and get it?" comment. That's just hilarious.
 
1. Old World Blues is the concentrated of what I love about Fallout. It's silly, tragic, funny, sad, and deep. 10/10, best DLC I've ever played.
2. Honest Hearts mostly because of the quality of the Survivalist's Story and the complexity of the moral dilemma at its core.
3. Dead Money is a master class at evoking an atmosphere, makes the Fallout world seem bigger instead of smaller, but loses out to OWB and HH because they were still figuring out some of this stuff.
4. Lonesome Road is one I like, I just don't like it as much as the other ones. It's an appropriate capstone though, and nicely ties everything together though.
 
-Honest Hearts: Gorgeous scenery, loved Joshua Graham, and it came at a time when I was getting torn to shreds by Legion assassins, and needed a bit of a break from the Mojave. And the Survivalist logs? Perfect!

-Old World Blues: The writing of your initial scene with the Think Tank is wonderful, and I just quite like the world design. Nothing about it feels "samey", all of the different labs and locations have something different to offer. I think the quests are even "fetchier" than HH, which loses some points.

-Dead Money: Really tight, well-constructed story, and strongly-developed themes, but I didn't like the gameplay side so much. Ghost People were a little annoying, Holograms were incredibly annoying, and magic vending machines are OP and lore-breaking, in my opinion, which drops my rating down.

-The Pitt: Wow, congratulations Bethesda, you actually wrote a nuanced and interesting story. This was far, far better than the actual core game. No excuse not to do the same thing for all of Fallout 4! The gameplay was a little bland and slightly linear, but the quality of the story saves the DLC.

-Point Lookout: The Honest Hearts of FO3. Really cool, well-realised worldspace, with a shallow story. Unfortunately, nothing of the quality of the Survivalist logs to drag it up the list, but all-in all, a solid effort.

-Lonesome Road: Was a fun shooter, but I wasn't a fan of the linearity, or of Ulysses' faux-philosophical wankery. It all seemed a bit, I don't know, pretentious. I have no suggestions on how to "fix" it though. I certainly couldn't do a better job with Ulysses, and giving more freedom to explore would take away from the "inevitable march towards the grand finale" aspect of the DLC.

-Broken Steel: Gets points for undoing the awful "But thou must" ending of FO3, and like Lonesome Road, is a fairly entertaining shooter. It lacks any sort of depth whatsoever though, even compared to the rest of FO3, and Feral Ghoul Reavers are outrageously broken. Nothing, and I mean nothing, should be able to survive my entire ammo supply being unloaded into its face.

-Mothership Zeta: Diverting couple of hours stripped of context. In the Fallout universe, crap. Expunged from headcanon.

-Operation Anchorage: Pre-war flashbacks are something that could be interesting to play, but this is a completely ham-fisted attempt. It goes just as horribly with the lore as Mothership Zeta, and doesn't even have the redeeming feature of being particularly fun to play. Would have been a solid first person shooter in 1999, as a supposed RPG in 2008, sorry, but nope.

(All of that said, there wasn't a single DLC I would have demanded my money back for, they were all at worst a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours of my time)
 
Old World Blues was as true a Fallout game as I've seen (sans NV itself). Lots of hidden nooks and crannies to explore, but it's all optional. It's balls-to-the-wall silly but in the way Fallout 2 was when describing certain things - irreverent and with a side-eye at all times. It's childish but has a depth to it which most other DLCs lack. It's like (and please excuse this awful comparison) pre-Way Deadpool. Jokes to hide the pain. You start to see little glimpses of humanity in these disembodies monsters, and see their horrors and regrets. Mix that with sentences like 'tag teamed by giant fuckbots' and you've got yourself a solid DLC.

I enjoyed Honest Hearts despite how dull Graham is (unless you test his will). It's was nice and open, and the tribal war was interesting enough to keep it going. Some gripes like with the drug bear, but you can't have everything. Dead Money was solid but Fallout NV is just not made for survival horror and the sneaking system really betrays this. Lonesome Road has two great points - the marked men, the armour, and ED-E, who is by FAR my favourite companion. But the ending sucks. I play as a moral beacon in the wasteland and I nuked the fuck outta both settlements to save ED-E. Nuclear devastation carries nothing if you're just vaguely told it happens off-screen, and it wouldn't make a difference to his plans - two nukes? What's that gounna do? Bomb the whole Mojave if you wanna do that. Make it a post-battle at the dam DLC and then leave the wasteland as just 'nothing'. A few buildings and nothing else. That would work well. But the developers rushed and didn't put the time in to make a finished game, so *shrug*
 
@Moosick

Funnily enough, the reason you think the ending of Lonesome Road sucks is the same reason I love it. It's a gut wrenching decision, that shows you can't have everything.

The one I liked less was Honest Hearts, because it felt rushed without really any Legion option to it, seeing as the whole story is so connected to them. The whole Chaos in Zion thing just felt half-assed.
 
That's the thing tho both the Legion and the NCR are unlikeable, politically useless willyfaces (one more that the other, obviously, but the NCR would just eventually push the same politics that led to the war in the first place) and ED-E in LR is wonderful and pure and joyful free from sin and basically weaponised cuteness. And like I said, it has no effect. It's kinda like the Modern Warfare thing where you literally get hit by it and have to crawl around on your last breaths. It carries a little more weight if you can actually see some effect as a result of your actions, imo. And they tell you it'll open areas and exclusive loot. It's like they want you to bomb the shit outta them.

and also after you take out his eyebots he's kinda like 'yeah well they're still gounna go off'. He practically blows a raspberry at you with teenage philosophy.
 
Khannis said:
The one I liked less was Honest Hearts, because it felt rushed without really any Legion option to it, seeing as the whole story is so connected to them. The whole Chaos in Zion thing just felt half-assed.
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I figured "Chaos in Zion" was just a solution to New Vegas's general policy against essential NPCs (only Victor and Yes Man are essential). So if you decide to not cooperate with the plot by killing somebody unprompted who is supposed to be an ally, you don't get to play through the plot. It's a little more ham-handed a solution than the linked bomb collars or the pacification field in the dome, but it's fairly true to life since it's plausibly what might happen in a tabletop game if the PCs decided to murder an important NPC for no real reason. Doesn't really make sense for there to be any technological solution like that in Zion, anyway.

(Full disclosure, I've accidentally killed Follows Chalk with a long range shot from stealth right at the beginning a bunch of times, but that's just a "reload" thing.)
 
I think any sniper build has accidentally popped Follows-Chalk at some point. You're under heavy fire from all directions, White-Legs keep popping up left and right, you're probably drawing a bead on on the one sitting on that vantage point when he sticks his baseball cap above the parapet. Of course he's getting a .308 round between the eyes!
 
Lonesome Road by a landslide.

It was an endgame scenario for 30+ characters, booted out your companions, was really rich with lore if you collected all the tapes and read everything, unforgiving, thick ambiance, fucked up ending. I know Dead Money was supposed to be the "survival horror" simulator but I thought Lonesome road did the desolate apocalypse a whole lot better. Loved Ulysses too, really wish you could have recruited him like planned without needing mods.
 
After giving the DLCs another go, I feel less appalled by them, much less so in fact, and things I hated I have decided to just tolerate (the overly emotional ED-E, the "trogs" (sigh), the "ghouls" (sigh))

My main problem was that I had such... very different expectations. Honest Hearts, I imagined an open civilized society, kindov like Goodsprings + surroundings, where I would help out and whatever, but I got very very narrow canyons, tunnels more like it.
The Divide, I imagined as the first taste of a truly long walk in a Fallout universe, a long, desolate roaaaaand I got constant battle with Deathclaws and ghoul-people goddamn it!

This time I expected all of it, so, FINE, whatever, I'm still not clear on The Answers to My Questions, though...
So, okay, I was The Courier, and got shot in the head - my Quest for Answers brings me to House, and it turns out I was merely a gambling chip - which is ironically appropriate. I was one of several couriers, messengers, to bring him the chip, but his gamble failed, having a traitor among his own midst, again, appropriately ironical. And my lesson learned, as an amnesiac, is that through my blind quest for answers/revenge, I have turned the tide for one of the warring factions of the Mojave. I was a nobody, assasinated as a nobody, re-emerged more a nobody than ever before, but ended up The somebody. Nice touch, nice full circle

BUT THEN
IT TURNS OUT
I was someone - before! I was - the courier - who brought the nuke, to the Divide. And blew it up. SO THERE!

So there, what!?
Why!?
Now I'm suddenly confused again!

"You just answered your own question, with that question"

oh shut the fuck up rastahair cuberpunk mimicking morpheus wannabe! Now I DO want answers! So why the hell are YOU nuking everyone just cus I did it? What if I jumped off a cliff!? Oh, you're just cooky, then what if that's the answer for me then!? I was just cooky!? Is that it!?

"You ask the question, but know the answer, and think the - " I hate this kind of babble, that's not even the point, the point is - why couldn't I just be allowed to be some nobody courier who was used as a gambling chip, in a power-struggle, the anomaly that ended up overpowering them all - why did I have to have been some "The answer to the question that is the question to the answer"-neo-morpheus kind of thing!? Anyway... I like the level cap boost.
 
zegh8578 said:
After giving the DLCs another go, I feel less appalled by them, much less so in fact, and things I hated I have decided to just tolerate (the overly emotional ED-E
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zegh8578 said:
Honest Hearts, I imagined an open civilized society, kindov like Goodsprings + surroundings, where I would help out and whatever, but I got very very narrow canyons, tunnels more like it.
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FWIW, that DLC is fairly true to life. Zion is a real place (it's a national park in Utah) and its topography is fairly accurately modeled by the game.

Like here's what the Narrows, where the Sorrow lived in the game, actually look like:
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It's a pretty visually breathtaking place, and that's why they set the DLC there, not because it makes for really great shooting galleries.
 

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Ah, that is pretty cool, that leaves the green filter as my last annoyance with it. Animal Friend was also handy in HH and OWB
 
1.Lonesome road
2.Honest hearts
3.Old world blues
4.Courier's stash.
haven't played the others so i wont judge them
 
Lonesome Road - Epic, explaining why the great Ulysses is there. Lots of explanations and lots of thoughts about the original Courier Six.

Dead Money - Original characters as Dog, Dean and Christine. I liked them so much but i hated Fucking Elijah, sorry, Father Elijah.

Old World Blues - Boring enemies, boring quests, nice atmosphere.

Honest Hearts - All is boring on this DLC except Joshua Graham.
 
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