Fallout New Vegas DLCs

[Dr. Pasquale]

I always thought Dead Money was the one people were most divided about.

Its the only one of the DLCs that I don't look forward to replaying whenever I boot NV up again, which is a shame because if its gameplay was fun it would probably be the best one out of the 4. Everything about the Sierra Madre is so fucking cool, great companions, it ties in so many cool ways to all the other DLCs and Father Elijah is set up really fucking well.

Honest Hearts and OWB are great all the way through, not much to say about them that wasnt said already. Lonesome Road is 50/50 for me. I really like the atmosphere and the lore, but for the amount of buildup he is given, Ulysses is not that cool of a character.

That DLC really needed more NPCs to take some of the dialogue off Ulysses' back, he just talks too damn much. Every 20 minutes you get an overdone monologue out of his mouth and it never stops up until it ends. All that mystery created around him is gone and in its place you get some dude that spent the last few years huffing his farts so much he became crazy.

 

[winterfag]

Dead Money had a great premise and some good writing but I remember thinking the graphics engine was not up to snuff for bringing that type of environment to life, which is how I felt for a few different places in NV, but it really stood out here

When I played through Dead Money it felt like it really should've been an Unreal Engine 3 game, which is something I'd normally NEVER want. Maybe it's the similar color palette to Dead Space 1 that gives me those vibes. There are the ghosts and how you kill them, come to think about it....

 

[Dom Cruise]

When I played through Dead Money it felt like it really should've been an Unreal Engine 3 game, which is something I'd normally NEVER want. Maybe it's the similar color palette to Dead Space 1 that gives me those vibes. There are the ghosts and how you kill them, come to think about it....

Unreal Engine 3 is apt, because what it made me think of was Bioshock.

 

[winterfag]

Unreal Engine 3 is apt, because what it made me think of was Bioshock.

As a fun fact Bioshock 1 was actually made in Unreal Engine 2.5, which is fucking crazy to me! But the point still stands

But yeah Dead Money's conception was really ill advised for the type of game vanilla is and the aforementioned engine limitations. Christine's animations are WAY too ambitious for gamebryo at the time and budget they have. Hell, they'd be ambitious even for Fallout 4's capabilities. It's a really cool thing that fleshes her out but shit you can't tell me it isn't jank

Then there's the infamous radios. It's frustrating as a notification on the corner that's cluttered with other things like cripple messages, which happens a LOT with the ghosts. But in another engine they could've implemented other UI notifications to help make boundaries clearer

I love Dead Money, but I totally understand it's divisive status. It totally abandons the vanilla game's focus on making all builds viable, and is of course so linear and combat focused in comparison. But it's surely ambitious and has a lot of soul despite its limitations rushed development, just like New Vegas as a whole

 

[Slap47]

I recently replayed New Vegas and actually quite enjoyed Dead Money. Planning to avoid traps and rationing resources to survive was actually quite fun. I remember hating that aspect of the DLC when I was younger, but right now it actually put the DLC near the top of the pile for me. I still haven't really watched any heist movies so I probably can't appreciate Dead Money as much as I should but the writing here is very clever... and bullshit in the case of Dean Domino.

I have a hard time seeing how Honest Hearts is not the best written of Fallout New Vegas's DLCs. It meaningfully talks about hard topics like religion, redemption, myths, pacifism, relationship to land, the noble savage and the savage savage. I can see a lot of people panning DLC's story because everybody chooses the same ending but I don't see that as a problem. The thought process it forces you to go through is still meaningful and well crafted. Graham, Clarke and the rest are written very realistically and I probably won't ever forget about them.

Old World Blues is very good. Perhaps the "dude science epic" culture has ruined the story for me but it's hard not to appreciate what the DLC is. The YIK developer bragged about writing a story about characters you hate but this DLC does just that. They're well written but god damn are they assholes. I can't say I'm a fan of this DLCs gameplay because it's just so repetitive if you're a completionist. Dead Money is a completely new experience and Honest Hearts is the classic Fallout. This is just weird.

Lonesome Road is is great just for the challenge. Fallout games are easy and they never give you a chance to burn all the stuff you hoarded. This is the one time where you're probably going to be challenged and forced to use almost everything. Fallout New Vegas has the best mechanics of the series so actually getting to use those mechanics and challenging environment is pretty great. The story is pretty exceptional and a pretty great way to cap off the story of the Courier and even the Fallout series itself. I don't really see how people miss the message of this DLC. Seems kind of obvious.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

Dead Money's terrific writing and atmosphere more than make up for any shortcomings for me. The collars were annoying but I don't remember them being ruinously so.

As for Honest Hearts, yeah, Joshua Graham is amazingly written and voiced but the expansion is so incredibly content thin and anemic; it only has like... what, 3 - 5 hours worth of content? I remember the first time I played it, after the opening you finally meet the Burned Man and he sends you on a quest to get supplies. I thought, "Okay, this is clearly just to get me acclimated to Zion so I know where everything is for upcoming quests." Then you return the supplies and Graham's like "Okay, time to leave Zion." Like I said in my initial post, the Burned Man and Zion feel wasted.

 

[Crevasse-hole]

One subtle detail about the dlcs I rarely see get mentioned is each dlc was more open than the last. Dead Money strips you of everything and cant be returned to once you leave. Honest Hearts now lets you bring stuff but to a certain number and once you complete the main quest, the NPCs are all gone. OWB let you bring as much as you want and once finished would let you come and go as you please. LR capped it all off by letting you come and go whenever you liked. In the cases of Dead Money and LR, this freedom or lack thereof played into their major themes somewhat. Just something neat I thought I'd put out there.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

i think fallout vegas is the first game that made me care and cry over an NPC you dont even get to meet.

you can rest in peace Clark. i wont let these savage fucks take the valley from your children.

his gun is also the best in the game.

 

[Snekposter]

Honest Hearts' big weakness is that it's fairly straightforward. It enjoys some excellent voice acting (Joshua Graham was intimidating as fuck, at least to me).

To me the best part is when you convince Graham to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds after already wiping out the rest of the White Legs. You can taste the sorrow as he realizes the sort of man he's become, and how he was ultimately no different as the Burned Man than he was as the Malpais Legate.

i think fallout vegas is the first game that made me care and cry over an NPC you dont even get to meet.

View attachment 2607333

you can rest in peace Clark. i wont let these savage fucks take the valley from your children.

his gun is also the best in the game.

Rest in Peace, Randall Clark. Your duty is done. And yes, best gun. I just installed an animation mod that switches the Service Rifle to a three-shot burst fire when you drop in the upgraded springs, so I can't wait to try and keep it fed next playthrough. And yes, I have WMX so I can mod it with the springs. Not enough 12.7mm in the world...

 

[Slap47]

you can rest in peace Clark. i wont let these savage fucks take the valley from your children.

Quite a few people miss the Clark story but even with that like 90% of people seem to decide to fight. It would probably be 100% if everybody read the story.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

Quite a few people miss the Clark story but even with that like 90% of people seem to decide to fight. It would probably be 100% if everybody read the story.

even if i was a legion loyalist, i would fight. the white legs are nothing more than animals.

 

[Vault Boy]

I think it doesn't help the evacuate ending that Daniel winds up becoming miserable anyway.

When the main proponent for a choice ends up regretting it, why would you bother to pursue that ending?

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

I liked all the DLC's, not much of Dead Money of being too railroaded.
Lonesome Road have the Elite Gear Armor, a must in all my playthroughts.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

I see what they were trying to do with Dead Money and, to be fair, most of the time it isn't that obnoxious to play through. They kind of ruin it by saving all the bullshit for the vault at the end. During the kitchen section, play Elijah's voice as soon as you enter; Dog will initiate conversation as soon as he sees you and you won't have to do the bullshit sneaking section.

There isn't really much to Honest Hearts. As said earlier, the Burned Man and Randall Clark are amazing, Follows-Chalk is likeable I guess. At least the area is pretty, unlike the Sierra Madre.

Old World Blues is fine if you like the reddit-esque humor. I find it grates after a while. My biggest gripe with the DLC is that, if you want to fully complete the DLC, you have to go through the high-school section three times, complete with the damage-sponge enemies the DLC is known for. All while listening to the "Dr. Borous never got over his high school years" bit that wasn't that funny the first time. I do like the loot/facilities that come with it, though. It's on record somewhere that Obsidian based The Sink off the most popular mods, and it shows.

The first time I played NV, I did Lonesome Road first, because I didn't know the DLCs were supposed to be played in release order. I have always assumed that encountering Ulysses without the intended buildup colored my opinion of him. Reading other people's opinions in this thread I realize he's probably just a shit character. I think the main purpose of this DLC was to fuck over people who don't have PER>=6, AGL>=6 and therefore can't take the Light Step perk.

 

[Crabouse-united]

Reading other people's opinions in this thread I realize he's probably just a shit character. I think the main purpose of this DLC was to fuck over people who don't have PER>=6, AGL>=6 and therefore can't take the Light Step perk.

To be honest, Dead money felt more like that to me, if I wasn't playing with a guide on my phone alongside the game I would've gotten fucked multiple times whenever the speakers showed up since the game loves to be an ass and put a trap in between the line of sight of the radios so you HAVE to rush in and shoot them but since you're running like mad you're probably not going to be a super ninja and notice the 50 bear traps on the ground, and even if you did you can't just shoot them from a distance like landmines, doesn't help when Dog/God just decides to leeroy jenkins into a frag grenade tripwire and now half of my body gets crippled and I have to crawl back into one of the vending machines to get doctor's bags, your health constantly draining whenver you're outside also doesn't help but luckly I picked Them's Good Eatin perk so blood sausages and red pastes can hold the fort quite well.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Old World Blues is fine if you like the reddit-esque humor.

I feel like this is a bit unfair as that type of humor wasn't really "Reddit esque" in 2011, Reddit has since borrowed heavily from that style of humor, but the humor in Old World Blues is similar to humor that can be found in the first two Fallout games, which pre-dated Reddit, it's humor that can be found in other things beyond Fallout either also pre-dating Reddit entirely or the modern popularity of Reddit, heck one of the oldest examples I can think of is the movie Buckaroo Banzai from 1984.

As someone that used to like that style of humor I can't blame you for associating it with Reddit though since that's certainly what it makes one think of today, it sucks that Reddit has corrupted that style of humor.

 

[BrokenWokenBespoken]

I think it doesn't help the evacuate ending that Daniel winds up becoming miserable anyway.

When the main proponent for a choice ends up regretting it, why would you bother to pursue that ending?

I think Daniel's situation is that he was meant to show what he lost, either he feels regret in seeing the sorrows lose their home but still able to continue their way of life with the help of the Dead Horse tribe or become the inevitable foes due to being taught how to commit genocide.

Just as Graham either indulges in fanaticism or found relief from his burdens of zealous rage. He either leaps back into the fire, allows the fire to burn as a reminder of his actions or finally leaves it behind.

A pity we can't report Graham's demise to Caesar for his reaction

 

[Slap47]

The first time I played NV, I did Lonesome Road first, because I didn't know the DLCs were supposed to be played in release order. I have always assumed that encountering Ulysses without the intended buildup colored my opinion of him. Reading other people's opinions in this thread I realize he's probably just a shit character. I think the main purpose of this DLC was to fuck over people who don't have PER>=6, AGL>=6 and therefore can't take the Light Step perk.

The way he's set up makes me think that the NCR ending was supposed to be canon.

Ulysses is obsessed with the past to the point of being unable to move forward and the courier is free from having a past and so can move forward. Ulysses chose his faction because of force, and is now obsessed with the NCR/Legion being imitations of greater glories. The NCR courier chooses their faction and ideally wants to the NCR to be something new and not just a repeat of the USA and Roman Republic.

The character is pretty autistic, but Ulysses is a good foil for a certain type of courier. I've played through as Legion and Independent/house and its just doesn't work as well.

 

[CyrusHowler]

Honest Hearts is the best part of the game.

Old World Blues gives you a cool player home and is amusing with its humor and being able to return there is nice.

Lonesome Road is a bit of a slog but you can leave once you’ve started it and you can return if you need to. It also gives nice dialogue options for Lanius at the end.

Dead Money is crap-tastic and the only fun to be had is by sneaking out with the gold.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Honest Hearts is the best part of the game.

Old World Blues gives you a cool player home and is amusing with its humor and being able to return there is nice.

Lonesome Road is a bit of a slog but you can leave once you’ve started it and you can return if you need to. It also gives nice dialogue options for Lanius at the end.

Dead Money is crap-tastic and the only fun to be had is by sneaking out with the gold.

Of course you gonna talk here, necro'ing all the way 'cus all your bans in the main threads.
What a fag.