Best and worst New Vegas DLC?

[Safav Hamon]

/-/-/-/

 

[Drax]

1 Dead Money
2 OWB
3 HH
4 LROMGWHYOHWHY

Lonesome Road is probably the only MCA work I dislike.
It could be an interesting plot-line on a different kind of game but in a game like New Vegas it feels forced.
On the other hand Old World Blues brings a smile to my face every time I remember it.
DM takes the prize tho.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Dead Money is probably the best overall but I'm a contrarian asshole so I'm going with Honest Hearts because it was pretty, well written, short enough it didn't overstay its welcome and wasn't Lonesome Road

OWB's humor was initially grating and puerile but eventually wore me down, however there is way too much bulletsponge fuckery in OWB and the Sink is probably too good

 

[Trashos]

DM>OWB >>HH >>LR

 

[2house2fly]

Best is Dead Money.
Second is a tie between Lonesome Road and Old World Blues. Both have their flaws (OWB has too much bullet-sponge combat and repetitive quests, Lonesome Road is too linear and the Ulysses conversation-dumps can be grating) but the good bits shine brightly enough that they're easy to forgive.
Honest Hearts just tips in the other direction- it's just flawed enough to overshadow Joshua Graham, who's an amazing character. I remember seeing someone somewhere online say that Daniel is a nuanced and compelling enough character that he could be the star of many game stories, and it's a testament to how cool Joshua Graham is that Daniel looks like a boring idiot next to him. The survivalist diaries are great as well, of course. It's just not really compelling as a play area

 

[Safav Hamon]

Lonesome Road felt lazy and rushed. No exploration, no NPCs, reskinned enemies and loot, lack of interesting new perks and traits, ect.

 

[Beastro]

My last playthrough where I finally did the DLCs had my laptop die at Lonesome Road, but I wasn't enjoying it.

I liked the tongue in cheek story story of Old World Blues and the humour, but the gameplay was annoying.

Honest Hearts felt like an old DLC back when they originally were just short, small additions. I liked it despite that, mainly the world building with some attempt at making a decent post-apoc society that was somewhat grounded. Mae me wish Joshua was in the main game so we could have had more of him though.

Dead Money was the one I liked the most with the combination of story and gameplay. By the time I got to it I was decked out and used to it, so I appreciated the survival aspect of it even if it wasn't as hard as it should have been. Story was good too, especially the main theme. I didn't like the plot hinging macguffin though with the threat being around an invincible world conquering army of holograms.

 

[Okagron]

Dead Money was definitely the best with Lonesome Road being the weakest to me. It just tacked on unnecessary backstory to your character, specially when the intro of the game leaves so much to the imagination. I liked Ulysses though.

 

[Yosharian]

Dead Money is probably the best overall but I'm a contrarian asshole so I'm going with Honest Hearts because it was pretty, well written, short enough it didn't overstay its welcome and wasn't Lonesome Road

OWB's humor was initially grating and puerile but eventually wore me down, however there is way too much bulletsponge fuckery in OWB and the Sink is probably too good

You think Honest Hearts is the best? Seriously? It was so boring...

 

[karoliner]

I don't think any of the DLC was very good but OWB in particular was terrible with the bullet sponge enemies and the "humor". Lonesome road's writing is pure "Ow The Edge" but at least the fights were interesting.

 

[Butter]

Honest Hearts feels like it was heavily downscoped. In keeping with the overall approach of the base game, you should have been able to side with the White Legs. There probably should have been 1 or 2 more setpieces in the middle of the questline, for the sake of pacing. Even though OWB is about the same size as HH, and has comparable fetch quests, it feels a lot bigger because you're encouraged to do things like the America High missions and stealth training.

 

[2house2fly]

Dead Money is honestly Dark Souls design nearly a year before Dark Souls was out. Though to be fair it may be Demon's Souls design. The way every little thing in the environment fits together with the lore and mechanics and characters, so almost every piece of unique loot you find or graffiti tableau could end up being a revelation, is unparalleled in New Vegas, if not in games in general. The bit where Dean reveals that he put Christine in the clinic is still one of my favourite video game plot twists. It's as close as any game in bethesda's horrific engine comes to having you learn and conquer the environment, get wise to its tricks, and come out on top. The reason your disparate team works together (all Avellone joints have them, see the Exile's weird force-vampire powers binding his followers to him in KOTOR2) is wonderfully simple- bomb collars- and a central plot element. I hated the gameplay my first time through but weirdly enjoyed it every subsequent time. I guess knowing from experience that this place was mine for the taking made the crucial difference

 

[Yosharian]

Dead Money is honestly Dark Souls design nearly a year before Dark Souls was out. Though to be fair it may be Demon's Souls design. The way every little thing in the environment fits together with the lore and mechanics and characters, so almost every piece of unique loot you find or graffiti tableau could end up being a revelation, is unparalleled in New Vegas, if not in games in general. The bit where Dean reveals that he put Christine in the clinic is still one of my favourite video game plot twists. It's as close as any game in bethesda's horrific engine comes to having you learn and conquer the environment, get wise to its tricks, and come out on top. The reason your disparate team works together (all Avellone joints have them, see the Exile's weird force-vampire powers binding his followers to him in KOTOR2) is wonderfully simple- bomb collars- and a central plot element. I hated the gameplay my first time through but weirdly enjoyed it every subsequent time. I guess knowing from experience that this place was mine for the taking made the crucial difference

So you're saying it's the Dark Souls of New Vegas DLCs?

 

[deuxhero]

No option for Courier's Stash?

OWB>DM>HH>GRA>LR>CS

Dead Money's biggest weakness is a total lack of replay value, followed by massive build usefulness disparity (Melee is already really good in base NV, but it's way better within dead money due to ammo/gun limits).

 

[2house2fly]

So you're saying it's the Dark Souls of New Vegas DLCs?

It's cliche to say, I know, but get this: it literally is.

 

[Orobis]

First time i played honest hearts i shot follows-chalk cause i thought he was just another crazy injun trying to kill me and i spent 2 hours wondering around the area trying to figure out wtf i'm suppose to do. Only to find out after a quick google search that talking to chalk starts the dlc proper. herp derp.

He looked like the injuns that ambushed the fucking caravan and was beaming toward me with a weapon in his hand, like i was suppose to know on the off chance that he was going to be friendly and strike up a conversation. After getting ambushed like that and watching everyone get slaughtered i was kind of in a 'you a red-man you a dead-man' mood.

 

[Micormic]

Which was the one where you go to the shitty town with all the fog?



That one sucked.

 

[Yosharian]

So you're saying it's the Dark Souls of New Vegas DLCs?

It's cliche to say, I know, but get this: it literally is.

Literally?

 

[Dr Skeleton]

DM was the best. Gameplay, atmosphere, writing. The best part of NV in general.
HH has a bad reputation but it also has Joshua Graham and the diaries. Gameplay-wise it's not the best (at about the average base NV), killing animals and tribals with guns gets old fast and there isn't much to discover aside from the diaries. I like the tribal setting too, there's a lot of work put into it.
LR has a great atmosphere and ruined city environments but it's mostly just a straight corridor with the same copy pasted enemies over and over again (they're better than in OWB at least and thanks to linear level design you don't fight them 10 times). Ulysses is sort of disappointing as a character too, after he's hyped up so much in the base game and every other DLC. Disappointing, but I liked parts of it and it's short enough to not get too boring with the gameplay.
OWB was way too wacky from the start, tone and writing all over the place and completely off the rails with constantly respawning bullet-sponge enemies. It's the only one I've completed once and never touched again, I think I even skipped some side quests just to get it over with. Had some interesting parts but they're buried very deep and I wanted more the Glow and much less Fallout 2 wacky shit.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Three of the four DLCs made the same mistake of disconnecting the player from the main New Vegas game world, so that once the DLC is started the player cannot return until the main quest of the DLC is completed. Old World Blues at least allowed the player to then travel freely between the DLC world and the main game world, but for Dead Money and Honest Hearts those DLC worlds become off-limits once you return.

Lonesome Road, despite allowing the player to travel freely between its DLC world and the main New Vegas game world, is easily the worst of the four DLCs. It has terrible, linear level design, a nonsensical backstory (the courier delivered something to the area that somehow triggered nuclear explosions, which are never mentioned in the main game), and had just one NPC (Ulysses) who babbled incoherently (this must be Avellone's worst character writing ever) via radio transmission before an anticlimactic confrontation (Ulysses' plan for nuclear devastation can be averted with two or three sentences from the Courier).

Dead Money was an attempt to turn an Open World FPS/RPG hybrid into a survival horror game, with predictable results.

Honest Hearts at least had an open environment, but there wasn't enough content, and both the NPCs (other than the Burned Man) and the main quest were boring (not a surprise, coming from Josh Sawyer).

Old World Blues is easily the best of the four DLCs, as it gives the player a sizeable exterior area to muck about in, with a number of interesting interior locations, including optional areas. The tongue-in-cheek tone is a much better fit for Fallout: New Vegas than the tone of other three DLCs.

 

[Cerulean]

First time i played honest hearts i shot follows-chalk cause i thought he was just another crazy injun trying to kill me and i spent 2 hours wondering around the area trying to figure out wtf i'm suppose to do. Only to find out after a quick google search that talking to chalk starts the dlc proper. herp derp.

He looked like the injuns that ambushed the fucking caravan and was beaming toward me with a weapon in his hand, like i was suppose to know on the off chance that he was going to be friendly and strike up a conversation. After getting ambushed like that and watching everyone get slaughtered i was kind of in a 'you a red-man you a dead-man' mood.

You ever remember an exact quote years after the fact, and you're not quite sure why? This is eight to ten years ago, but I remember when one of the Obsidian developers posted on Something Awful, concerning Follows Chalk: "To this date I don't know what happened. In our files we had him marked as invincible."

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Best: Gun Runners' Arsenal

 

[deuxhero]

GRA is definitely good for what it is. Lots of fun weapons that fill missing niches. Even the challenges are interesting ideas. I'm surprised someone on the team actually knew gun laws well enough to use the phrase "Curio and Relic". Shame that Bethesda's engine forced the need to have GRA variant weapons instead of modding the existing ones.

 

[Orobis]

You ever remember an exact quote years after the fact, and you're not quite sure why?

Can't say that i have. I always kind of liked HH even though it was empty as fuck content wise, would've been cool if you could take joshua graham as a follower with you to vegas.


Honest hearts is definitely the most disappointing of the dlc's, at least for me, mostly cause i was actually really looking forward to meeting the infamous 'burning man'. Though the couple of conversations you have with him are somewhat interesting, the whole dlc just felt too short and empty.

Dead money is boring after u do it a couple of times but it's always worth it to do early in a playthrough for the gold. Writing wise it's the best dlc.

Lonesome road i rank only a tad above HH and only because there was more shit to do content wise but that's not saying much, it was still p. meh overall. A bit linear but i don't mind a bit of linearity here and there. Also, cba to listen to anything Ulysses says in those recordings cause i just didn't find the character very interesting and like some else said in the thread he rambles on too fucking much.

OWB is the best content wise and writing is alright. The jokes are ok but get's old after a 2nd or 3rd playthrough. The bullet sponge robot scorpions were fucking annoying though. Being able to go back and fourth from vegas to big mountain (and LR) was a nice feature, would be nice if you could do that with HH but you're not exactly missing much if you already found the survivalist rifle and the desert ranger armor.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

You think Honest Hearts is the best? Seriously? It was so boring...

I don't think it was objectively the best, but I personally liked it and I knew it was going to get short shrift, fairly or not. Had I my druthers there would have been more of almost everything added to HH, but I have long ago figured out that my concerns and wants apparently mean very little to developers.

Honest Hearts feels like it was heavily downscoped. In keeping with the overall approach of the base game, you should have been able to side with the White Legs. There probably should have been 1 or 2 more setpieces in the middle of the questline, for the sake of pacing. Even though OWB is about the same size as HH, and has comparable fetch quests, it feels a lot bigger because you're encouraged to do things like the America High missions and stealth training.

The only things that made me want to go through with all the stealth training and such were Borous' narrations and sheer completionism.