Sticking to the norm, with this DLC you cannot bring any companions with you, but you are able to bring some of your equipment. They are looking to reopen a trade route with Utah and are offering the opportunity to join the expedition to those wandering the wastelands. This New Vegas DLC opens with the standard Pip-Boy radio signal, this time from the Happy Trails Caravan Company. Depending on how far you have progressed in New Vegas, this name will either leave you intrigued, afraid or simply confused. Here you encounter the warring tribes the Dead Horses, the White Legs and the Sorrows a smattering of new characters and gear as well as finally coming face to face with the Caesar’s former top soldier, the mysterious Burned Man. Honest Hearts takes another right turn from the New Vegas story line as you exit the Mojave on an outing to the preserved wilderness of Utah’s Zion National Park. And so a middle of the road 50% is all I can give. Lessons were learnt from Fallout 3, and like all New Vegas add-ons, the level cap is raised by 5 which adds some millage, but the cost of the New Vegas DLC feels a bit like blackmail to improve your characters stats. It is not often you have empathy for a video game character, let alone a non-playable one.ĭead money did show some real potential, and the story alone was enough for me to continue to the finish, but replacing openness in favour of linearity removed any chance of repeat play. Although I would have liked to have kept one or all the companions, seeing their conclusions was reward enough.
The companion side missions are far removed from the normal Fallout fare, and the characters’ story resolutions are worthwhile. On the positive side, the best part of Dead Money is also the most important there really is quite a captivating narrative which keeps you trawling through the claustrophobic level design. The loot you find will probably be no better than that which you already have on your return, and you are teased with a huge amount of possible caps from gold bars as reward for finishing, but you neither have the strength to carry them all nor any realistic option to sell them. Around ten new perks are available, seven of which can be taken to the Mojave.
Only a dozen new quests were added and were split between being long and tedious, or trap-filled and frustrating – much of the playtime will be filled with saving and reloading after trial and error. The story takes a decidedly darker route than the main game, with a hazy visual filter and the menacing Ghost enemies, but loses some of the intensity with the strict linear and structured missions. New Vegas DLC chapter Dead Money is set in the forgotten casino of Sierra Madre, and sees you and three new companions searching for the legendary treasure within. This is harder than it should be for a game so critically acclaimed! And so on to the retrospectives and reviews. I’ve set out here to have a look back at the four expansions made available for New Vegas DLC and try to find some good in all of them. Only for my dreams to be crushed a couple of hours later. I could continue onwards in my joyous grind. Maybe this time the immersion of the main game would be replicated. Although all New Vegas DLCs take the player to radical new locations, it seems every time a title and release date was made official, my hopes would peak. A poor return on the time waiting between releases and points spent on content.
True story: Fallout 3 red-ringed two of my Xboxes, the lovable scamp! The DLCs on the other hand, have followed the pattern of having one decent and three mediocre offerings per game. Both are hardly distinguishable from each other and share some of the same glitches, shoddy textures and catastrophic system crashes. I would put both Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 in my top ten games of the last 5 years. I’m a massive fan of both current-gen Fallout offerings. But console gamers, this is your final call until the next Fallout game, whenever that may be.
PC gamers can continue the wander through the retro-futuristic wastelands with a number of great fan-base mods. Continual support for New Vegas with 4 servings of DLC available on all formats. Although New Vegas DLC has normally been delayed and sometimes unfavourably reviewed, Obsidian kept their promise. With it the last chapter in the Fallout New Vegas tale. The release of the final New Vegas DLC chapter Lonesome Road brings an end to the Courier’s journey through the post apocalyptic Las Vegas wastes.