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Let's Play New Vegas - Old World Blues

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
2,912
Location
Ardamai
:singletearofhopeforlorn:
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
Awesome ending. Indeed, there are too many goddamn Skryimjob topics, while awesome games like Dark Souls barely have one or two :decline:
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
Tim, don't judge us all by the errors of the corrupted. We'll nuke them, too. There will be no Skyrim, no "action" RPGs, no "J" RPGs.
Only choices and consequences :salute:
 

Rabidredneck

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
303
Dead Money is hardest when playing it for the first couple times, especially in various areas inside the Casino. Once you've worked out ways to deal with speakers and holograms, it remains somewhat challenging, but much more tolerable.

Once I found a way to
grab all the gold and leave Elijah stranded in the vault without using glitches
it's become my traditional way to end things in this DLC.
 

anus_pounder

Arcane
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
5,972
Location
Yiffing in Hell
Rabidredneck said:
Dead Money is hardest when playing it for the first couple times, especially in various areas inside the Casino. Once you've worked out ways to deal with speakers and holograms, it remains somewhat challenging, but much more tolerable.

Once I found a way to
grab all the gold and leave Elijah stranded in the vault without using glitches
it's become my traditional way to end things in this DLC.

Don't forget about the Casino. Its pretty easy to win the full 10,000 Pre War Money jackpot. With a decent Barter score, thats 100,000 in chips.
 

grotsnik

Arcane
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
1,671
At last, our hero stands before the great golden gates of the Sierra Madre.

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Well...here goes.

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All of my...all of my companions. Lying unconscious on the casino lobby floor. How did they get here? I...ugh.

The Courier, too, collapses.

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And when he wakes...they're gone.

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Yeah, MCA realises that this isn't Planescape, right? No matter how absurd the wacky 50s cod-science gets in this franchise, I'm pretty sure people aren't meant to be able to just magically appear and disappear all the time via some dubious and completely unexplained power.

Elijah's voice crackles through the speakers as we begin to explore.

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Good...thought that might be the end of you. Unfortunately, your 'friends' also found their way here. Knocked unconscious...just like you.

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Wondering what happened? You were hit by casino security. Detects anything foreign - radioactive, it subdues the 'visitor', moves them if needed.

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Oh, well, the casino security is made up of murderous holograms, so of course that makes perfect sense that they would be able to - hang on, what?

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Hnh...getting interference from old recordings...the guests who were trapped here...eh, shut that noise off.

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My signal should work through the speakers, now that you're inside. Heh heh! Welcome to the Sierra Madre, in all its glory.

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Not for the first time, the Courier begins to suspect that Elijah might be two sheep short of a bestiality festival.

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Now, with the casino sleeping, it's got places closed off - won't let you go yet. We'll get there, trust me, just need to wake it up.

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I worked hard to get here, it'll give me what I need before I leave. And it'll always welcome me back.

The beardie-weirdie lapses briefly into villainous gloating before regaining self-control.

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Now...look for a way to wake this ghost up, remind it it's got guests.

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Avoiding the holograms that stalk the corridors, we break into a back room and get the Sierra Madre running.

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The lights come on, the security holograms vanish - and the casino's open for business.

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Woohoo! We can gamble!

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Probably best if you...don't. You've only got 3 Luck.

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Maybe something can help you now - security's shut down. After you're done looking around, head back to the lobby and we'll deal with your...friends.

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Wondering what happened to your team? Looks like they got moved to other floors. Interesting, that's why...hmmm, yes.

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Had hoped with the power restored, the systems would fully awaken - especially the sound archives.

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But no...your teammates' collars on each floors are interfering with the system. You'll need to recalibrate...or destroy each collar. To do that, you need to get close, re-set the signal...or blow their heads off. I'll leave the choice up to you - my preference? End them now. They're of no use.

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So find them, deal with them, as long as you're fast and can get off the floor after killing them. The floors...whatever they lined this place with, interferes with the collar frequency...so if you kill them, you should have time to run.

And thus we learn the very important bit of contrived handwaving that defines this final chapter - if one of our teammates dies, or (heaven forbid) Elijah dies, we'll need to get out of their specific level before the collars explode.

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Hang on, hang on - if the floors are all insulated with a material that blocks the radio signals, how can these same radio signals all be disrupting the casino sound system? That doesn't really make any-

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...ah, fuck it. Let's go find Dean.

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If that ghoul's still alive...correct that. Or break him.

We make our way down into the auditorium of the Tampico Theatre.

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As we approach the sheet music at the conductor's stand, a key falls out of it - and a distant figure appears in the rafters above.

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In a bit of a predicament here...had to duck backstage, take a powder - the audience is a little...murderous tonight.

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How did you get up there?

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No idea...woke up here, thought I was dreaming for a second...right back on stage, the mic...

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Thought I was back at the Fronds...well, except no audience, used to pack theatres back then...so stepped up onstage, check things out...then suddenly Holograms started walking out of the wings, and they raised their hands to their heads all creepy-like, not a good sign.

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I didn't see any security coming in - only the speakers.

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Trust me - as soon as you can, run to the door to the left - use the key you got out of the music rag there, and camp out.

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The 'your left/my left' choice is a bit of a groaner, but it's quite a decent Intelligence check, at least for the first time around. The less intelligent player will head in the wrong direction and run into difficulties, and there isn't any real way a smart player could ignore his dumb character's stats and know to make the right decision anyway.

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(Intelligence) Wait - your left or my left?

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What? Oh, my left - your right. So yeah, run to the door on your right. Heh, almost got you killed there. Us killed there.

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(Repair) Dean, the theatre speakers are wired to a central sound system, right?

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...I mean, presumably this is irrelevant information since we've already been told that our collars interfere with the sound systems in here, but-

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You're right - the theatre piped music and sound backstage, which means those little squealers are in the corridors back there, too.

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(Science) Getting backstage is a temporary measure if I can't find the security terminal.

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Yeah, yeah...right. So...let's see...security's here because the show hasn't started. Guests aren't allowed in, so...

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...guess we need to start the show. Okay...so when they were setting this place up...we had rehearsals...and...heh...Sinclair even set up hologram recordings of the audience so we could watch and critique our performances before a fake audience.

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Thing is, when the recording queued up, a nice, calm, appreciative audience appeared in the Theatre - no security with their head-blasting zap-rays. So find the music, get it to the projector room upstairs, then play it...? Might reset security, worth a shot.

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Dodging our way past the holograms, speakers and billows of the Cloud, we find the recording.

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As a ghostly, human Dean begins to sing, the auditorium fills with spectral figures.

The implementation of holograms in Dead Money - particularly Vera, who we'll encounter in a bit - makes me think (brace for overreaching) that someone in the staff was inspired by The Invention of Morel, in which a wealthy man takes the beautiful woman he's infatuated with and their friends to a deserted island villa and films them, before turning the finished product into a holographic reality that loops over the 'real' reality, repeating the same day over and over. The real humans wither and die, but the holographic versions remain, living out the day's experiences again and again, unable to escape. Yeah, like I say - overreaching.

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Now that the coast is clear, Dean unlocks the backstage door to let us in.

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Don't even know how I ended up here...guess the casino still recognises guests after all this time, huh? How's that for history.

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Are you all right?

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Yeah, now. Talk about a captive audience. Or a captive entertainer...eh, whatever.

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Look, I'm more about the short goodbyes than the long thankful speeches....but I appreciate you bailing me out of a tight spot there, partner.

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I know you didn't do it out of the goodness of your heart. So let me give you something a little more practical - a way we both come out ahead.

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See, I know how to get into the casino vault. There's a private elevator, Sinclair's elevator. It's in the Executive Suites, in Vera's room. Not a coincidence.

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Vera. She was...my other partner, before the Bomb. Took some legwork. Some convincing, to make it happen.

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Sinclair was already puppy-eyed, so all I had to do was the introductions. She smiled, fluttered her eyes, showed a little leg....and he built this whole place for her. Made her the key to his vault, like a joke, cause of her name. Her fake Hollywood name.

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Except Sinclair didn't know I'd been there first. I could twist her whatever direction I wanted. All she had to do was get inside the Sierra Madre for the Gala, then use her voice to open the door. After that...smooth sailing.

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Would have been the biggest heist in history. Sinclair holding the bag. Ruined. The Bomb. Vera got sealed in here. Now we finish the job - rob the Sierra Madre, rip out its heart. Last chapter of Frederick Sinclair, close the book.

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What was your problem with Sinclair?

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Problem? All high-and-mighty. Lording it over everyone. Acting so self-righteous, like nothing could touch him. He was the one with the problem. Never got mad at anything. Nothing seemed to shake him. Even after...his life kept getting dragged through the dirt. Always kept looking for the bright, shining future in everything...so I decided to take everything from him.

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Had to take him down a few pegs, bring him down to my level...'begin again'? Some things you don't get up from...I was going to prove it.

It doesn't quite have the impact it should, because we only really see Dean's true colours and the depth of his villainy in one big burst of exposition, but his backstory is a good reminder of how badly the genre lacks characters who are more Iago and less Sarevok - not superhuman monsters with a Big Evil Plan or henchmen working for said monsters, but ordinary people who just happen to be breathtakingly malicious and manipulative.

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Then you showed up. And...that woman, covered in scars. The one who makes all the hand signs, a little tight around the corners of her mouth. I put her in the Clinic, tuned her like an instrument. If she heals up, it's not going to be her voice speaking any more.

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That is, if the Sierra Madre didn't get her. If it did...well, there's enough of Vera around for me to spend a few years piecing a book together. So here's the short of it - piece together Little Miss Vera Keyes' song in the right order? Sierra Madre opens its legs, we're in business.

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Go knock yourself out. I'm just going to catch my breath a bit. That performance...well, it was more pressure than I was expecting.

As you've probably guessed, if we'd pissed off Dean earlier in the DLC, he'd have sicced the holograms on us and we'd have to shoot him.

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Back in the Lobby, some of the Ghost People appear to have broken through the doors. Gunning them down, we make our way to the kitchen, where God/Dog awaits.

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We can try and turn the gas valves off, but unless we're very sneaky, Dog will hear us and blow up the kitchen. So, instead, we try and talk him down.

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...hrrrnh...will kill us both unless you do something. Never felt him so strong before, he won't listen to my voice. He's...he's...

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...hungry. Come here, or Dog will chase you, break you until you no run any more.

Hey, it's The Bit Where You Have To Reconcile The Two Warring Personalities Or Allow One Of Them To Take Over, Destroying The Other!

Actually, there's quite a few more possible options than with Jeanette and Theresa. As far as I can tell, you can fight Dog, trick him into yanking on his own neck-chain and choking himself, suppressing Dog, suppressing God, or merging the two.

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(Speech) Dog, stay! If you don't, Master will be mad!

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Hnnh? Master? Don't want Master to be mad...what does Master want Dog to...

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...hrnnn...listen to you...can't hold him back much longer...tell him...to pull on his chain, as hard as...

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...Dog can. What Master wants, Dog can do. Please don't be mad with Dog...

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(Speech) Dog, the Master sent me. He commands you to listen to my voice now.

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Master? Dog...Dog is listening.

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Dog can see the voice. Looks just like Dog...

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...and Dog looks just like me. You've hurt yourself. Inside. Do you see, now...

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...in the water. Dog understands now. Dog knows what happened.

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Then...step into the water. Step into yourself.

DISCLAIMER: This may not be a genuine method of psychotherapy. Please do not attempt to use it to deal with deranged friends, family members or Codex alts.

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If Dog...if Dog goes into the water...then Dog can't help if Master gets mad. You were nice to Dog, Dog wants to help.

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He's right. If you merge us, then...I...we...whatever we become, we can't help you when you reach whatever's at the Sierra Madre's end.

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And Dog...Dog doesn't want to unremember you, may forget you.

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We will forget all that has happened here. You'll be alone - at the Old Man's mercy. Like Dog. Like me.

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Not having your help doesn't matter if this heals you.

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Dog understands...Dog has done...bad things, knows why voice was...

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...furious with him. Thank you, Courier. Even if it's only for minutes before the Sierra Madre kills us all, then...

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...Dog hopes you find a way to save self, like you help Dog, and...

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...when you meet him, find a way to save yourself, as you tried to save us. Otherwise, I'll be upset with you.

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We came this far. I'll manage. Go on, let go.

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...all the time, and you were there, and so close...

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Are you all right?

The Super Mutant blinks. It appears confused.

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Who...who are you? What is this place?

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I don't know you, yet I feel like I do...and a feeling of gratitude. I...forgive me, I'm...wounded. This chain...this bear trap on my arm.

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...how did I even get this far with these wounds? The pain is excruciating, I...need to rest for a moment.

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Go on and rest. I have to take care of something.

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Last stop - the Executive Suites.

As we enter the corridor, a strange voice rings out over the speakers. A familiar voice. Vera's.

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All doors are locked down, security's activated...and emitter signals are lighting up all across the floor - I'll do what I can from here.

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The corridors are filled with Cloud and dotted with speakers - and in the rooms we pass through, the ghostly hologram of Vera wails and moans, repeating the same words, over and over.

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Christine is waiting for us in Vera's bedroom.

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I've been hunting the one who hijacked your Pip-Boy, Elijah...for some time.

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He cannot leave the Sierra Madre alive. What he's done...what he's done here is nothing compared to what he's done in the past.

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The only way to bring him out is if you get to the vault...he won't allow you to go down there alone. That's when we kill him.

There's a dialogue option for 'There's a chance he'll see reason' here - if we take it, Christine will attack us and we won't be able to use her (Vera's) voice to get into the vault. Not sure why any player would take it, as Elijah's pretty much given up all pretence of the 'I'll let you go' thing, but at least it's there.

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How long have you been hunting him?

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Too long. Thought I might have a chance to settle it before this happened, but then the chance slipped away. He saw me, before the scars, in a place far from here. It's where he found some of the technology he uses now.

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It's a place called the Big Empty. The name's deceptive - if you know where to look.

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Updated my journal.

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Almost got trapped there. There was someone else, though, that came along. Knew about Elijah.

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Who was he?

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No idea. A Courier. Wore an Old World flag on his back. He was the one who pulled me out of there, told me where Elijah had gone. Helped me heal up, listened to my story. He...sympathised.

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He said he understood what it meant to track someone who had such an...impact on his past life.

Jeez, lay on the foreshadowing thicker, why don't you?

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He said people were like couriers, sometimes never understanding the messages they brought. That was who he was hunting for...some courier.

Okay, I take it back. For God's sake, be more subtle. There may as well be a dialogue option at this point that simply says, 'Hey - I'm some courier! Maybe he's referring to me!'

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Stay here. I'll deal with Elijah.

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Good luck. He's...not an easy opponent. If I can, I'll help. Might be able to figure something out using the Sierra Madre's computer systems.

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And there's Vera Keyes. A past-rotten skeleton, surrounded by Med-X to numb her pain. If we want to, we can take her dress, but it converts itself into standard male clothing if we do. The possibility of proper transvestite roleplaying is once again ignored by those monstrously intolerant game developers.

NEXT TIME: We confront Elijah...and the Courier is forced to consider exactly how many bars of solid gold will change the nature of a man.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Just get out naked and bring the gold bars out.
 

anus_pounder

Arcane
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
5,972
Location
Yiffing in Hell
Vera/Christine voiced by Laura Bailey. :love:

Err, anyway. Like RK47 said, get nakid and grab as many gold bars as you can. Don't forget the insanely obvious bad ending opportunity. :salute: :salute:
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
If you want to grab the good stuff, grab the holo rifle as well, it's one of the best if not the best energy weapons in the game.
 

Rabidredneck

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
303
This video will show how to get all the gold without using glitches...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTMbSQws ... re=related

I'll also use a sneak magazine in addition to the stealthboy just because I usually end up with a couple and it couldn't hurt. Also you have to start crouching when you reach the door on the right, just as the video shows. If you start crouching earlier you won't make it before the force fields go up.
 

grotsnik

Arcane
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
1,671
1-4.jpg


Confusingly, after that determined speech about dealing with Elijah, the game insists we backtrack down to the lobby to piece together the fragments of Vera's voice and figure out the password to the Vault.

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The hologram of Vera on the stairs comes to life, blasting the Ghost People away - protecting the entrance to her casino. And we learn the password. Obviously, really - the simple, optimal philosophy for a dead man reborn, for a civilisation attempting resurrection.

'Begin again - but know when to let go.'

Back to Christine, who's still having difficulty coming to terms with her throaty new voice.

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This place...I'm not sure. It doesn't feel like a casino, not entirely.

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I know. The sealed doors, the security...it's almost a fortress. Think that's why we're being ordered to come here and crack it open?

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Guess it's the object of someone's affection...or obsession.

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Love makes some people do strange things. Won't argue that. It can drive you crazy sometimes if you...can't connect.

Here follows some surprisingly insipid commentary on the line between love and obsession. Let's skip that shit.

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When you go down there, that may be it for us - we won't be needed any more. The one who made these collars, he'll follow you down there. And he won't let you leave. He's not one for sharing, never was.

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That's what I'm counting on.

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'Begin again, but know when to let go'. Let's see what happens.

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And the Vault doors slide open.

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There's our target. The vault itself. Who's betting getting there won't be easy?

Aside from holograms, there aren't any enemies on this level. But there are forcefields, speakers, most of which can't be turned off - so it becomes a case of dashing quickly back and forth, trying to find the one safe area. If you stumble off the walkways, you'll quickly find yourself in the toxic Cloud-filled lower zones, fumbling to find a way out before your health runs out. Character stats matter less here than agility, co-ordination, good timing and quick thinking.

Shit.

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Well, I guess we have to-

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Actually, there's only one part of this level which really annoys the piss out of me - a walkway with only one tiny 'safe' area, and some distance away, both a destructible speaker and a terminal which turns off a non-destructible speaker. You can just about get one before your collar blows.

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So, after a pathetically high number of failed attempts, we (Agility 9, mind you) holster our gun, run up the walkway, shoot the destructible speaker, dash back the way we came before the collar goes off, dive off the walkway all the way down into the Cloud below, taking damage, then work our way back up again to deal with the terminal, just in time.

And then you see some little ten-year-old git on Youtube doing it all in one fluid, easy attempt. Goddamn vidya games.

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Holograms patrol this irritatingly small area; if they see us, they'll take us down in a couple of hits. We have to get to the terminal on the far right-hand-side of the room to turn off the forcefield and proceed further into the level. We can do this with a combination of sneaking, using terminals to change their patrol routes, and just legging it past them and hoping our health bar holds out. And if we fall, of course, it's curtains.

We can also, according to the wiki, turn off the holograms via the following simple method.

There are 3 hologram emitters in this room, although they require a Repair skill of 100 to disable, you can shoot them. The first is on top of the enclosed structure to the left (when entering the room). You can push a barrel onto the catwalk to the left, jumping on it and jumping in the air while on the barrel will allow you to shoot the emitter on the roof of the first structure (oddly enough, after you move said barrel, it will disappear and become visible again after you touch it and will repeat in this way), alternatively this can be achieved by exiting the room towards the gap in the walkway you came from, hopping onto the rail and attempting a jump shot into the emitter, this will make the holograms hostile so run. The second is on top of the metal beam almost directly on top of the door with the force field. You will need to run along a beam and jump up onto the roof of the structure in the southeast corner of the map to reach these. The third is on the ceiling (not the roof like the 1st, but inside) of the control structure in the northeast corner of the map. You can also use 2 or 3 carefully tossed hand grenades to blow up the emitters without having to get close to the holograms or the speakers (you can get up to 9 frag grenades from the grenade bouquets that Dean set up around him from where you met him, so long as you can pass the Explosives check (30) to disarm them). After dispatching the three hologram emitters, you can turn off the security system at the last terminal.

Yeah. Let's not do that.

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And so the Courier finally finds himself standing in front of the Sierra Madre vault.

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*creams self, lets out high-pitched girlish ululation of delight*

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So...much...gold!

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And I can take all of it, I can get out of here with all of it, with a bit of clever sneaking and good timing, and I'll trap Elijah inside the vault! Oh, fuck me, just think what I could do with all of this gold...

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I could...I could develop my own computer game! My very own CRPG! Fuck, I could hire the very best talents there are to work on it! I could save the genre!

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...I mean, we'd want to turn a profit on it. All the better to gain enough standing in the industry, enough of a long-term foundation that we could make truly great RPGs in the future. Nobody would thank us if we made a challenging turn-based game that bombed, bankrupting us. It might even do harm to the notion of RPGs!

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So we'd make it friendlier. Not dumbed-down, never that, something that would satisfy the old-school crowd and appeal to more modern gamers. Exciting combat! No...no, that's not the word I'm looking for...er...visceral. Yes. Visceral combat.

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Which couldn't be turn-based, obviously, turn-based just doesn't have that heart-stopping quality to it, but we'd have a pause button which basically equates to the same thing. Probably. And we wouldn't be able to have too many stats. Stats are frightening. Nerdy. No-one cool likes maths. So instead of a boring old 'Strength' stat, you'd probably have a Power Meter, which rises with every achievement...and we'd want some cool-looking cinematics for the trailers, of course...

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Yes! YES! It's all coming together now! Romances for the Bioware crowd! Furry and scaly romances for the Bethesda modding scene! Linear levels! Majestic action! Cutscene after cutscene after cutscene! It'll make even more money than Sinclair could ever have dreamed of! The shareholders will cum buckets! And, sure, those hardcore old-school gamers at the Codex will whine - they always whine, you can't please them! - because they don't understand that times have changed and while we'd love to make Arcanum 2, we're a business and we need to think of our profits, the massive, massive, juicy profits that our next game will surely make! AHAHAHAHAHA-

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...*cough*...*wheeze*...

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...what...what happened to me? A madness overtook me, but it's passed. What was I thinking? Do I want to end up like all the RPG developers out there, scrabbling like lemmings to make the next big blockbuster game, to rake in millions and lose my soul in the process?

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Joshua Graham was right when he said that a great fall is made up of countless tiny steps. And the love of money...the love of money is, as the old books once said, the root of all evil.

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I cannot take the gold of the Sierra Madre for myself. I don't know if I have it in me to fight my own greed, my own weakness, day after day. And I do not wish to test it.

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I...need a moment. Let's take a look at Sinclair's terminal.

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Vera told Sinclair that she was Dean's stooge in an attempt to rob him blind? But Sinclair already knew?

Damn. Dayum.

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DAYUM.

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At this point, we get an option to access Sinclair's personal accounts. If we do, the Vault door will slam shut and we'll fade out to a slideshow detailing our agonising starvation, trapped inside, in a fate intended for Dean Domino.

The Courier, lured by the promise of the Sierra Madre, could not escape. Once inside the vault, the casino did not let go. When the Courier finally passed away, the casino created a new Hologram to walk with the other ghosts that filled its casino. It was a pre-programmed homage intended for another. It assumed a new meaning in the likeness of the Courier. A means of allowing even the dead to begin again.

I'm pretty sure this is MCA's way of thumbing his nose at players who skip through important information without bothering to read any of it, and it appears to have worked - I've found at least one Youtube video entitled 'Help!! Trapped in vault and cannot complete Dead Money!'

Instead, we shut the terminal down; as we do so, the wall opens up, revealing Elijah.

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Don't move, don't go into the vault. And don't touch anything else...there may be more traps down there...another security system.

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Still hiding behind images and screens, I see.

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Hiding? Hardly. Trapped. You think you were the first one to open the casino door? No, I did it...with other hands, other bodies. After that, the casino wouldn't let go.

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Once I was locked in, no way out...until your Pip-Boy signal came to life in the Villa. Then...then things, uh, changed. And here you are.

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What do you want from the Sierra Madre?

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What do I want. Weapons. Security. A citadel of my own.

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The Madre's all these things. It's a fortress and a weapon. A chance to 'begin again'. Once I unlock its archives, I can carve the Mojave into any shape I choose.

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The Cloud is unique in my travels. Right now it protects this casino, preserves it. It can be used to preserve other Old World relics...and cleanse them, at the same time.

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And as much as I've researched hologram technology, the Big Empty facility was quite clear - only the Sierra Madre got holograms working...properly.

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Dump one of those emitters in the middle of a battle, there's no defence. It's like holding light in your hands. Can't fight it...only watch it burn. Just one is a portable army. Arm it - anyone standing against you, dies.

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And the machines that fill its streets, its corridors. They provide almost anything. Perhaps in the Pre-War era they were commonplace, easy to dismiss. Now, they are far more valuable. You know it. They helped keep you alive.

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Sources of food, supplies, medical assistance, ammo...make more collars, even print currency. Make a nation. The Cloud allows me to wipe the slate clean. Collars assure cooperation. Holograms - defence. The Vending Machines provide...everything else.

Should we have a 'vilified' reputation with the NCR, we'll be able to pin Elijah down to the specific source of his discontent - the Brotherhood of Steel's defeat at Helios One. He'll acknowledge that part of his desire is to 'wipe the slate clean' of the NCR's ever-growing, ever-expanding nation, and we'd be able to join him in his grand endeavour, leading to another premature game ending.

In the years that followed, the legend of the Sierra Madre faded, and there were no... new visitors to the city. Years later, when a mysterious blood red cloud began to roll across the Mojave, then West toward the Republic, no one knew where it had come from. Only that it brought death in its wake. Attempts to find the source of the toxic cloud failed. The Mojave was cut off. Through the Cloud, lights were seen from HELIOS One. There were stories of ghosts immune to gunfire, who struck down anyone they saw with rays of light. The last chapter of the Mojave came when a modified REPCONN rocket struck Hoover Dam, releasing a blood-red cloud, killing all stationed there. All attempts to penetrate the Cloud and re-take the Dam failed, and both the NCR and Legion finally turned away from it, citing the place as cursed. In the years that followed, communities across the West began to die as traces of the Cloud began to drift over lands held by the NCR. Only two remained alive in the depths of the Cloud, at the Sierra Madre, waiting for their new world to begin again.

It was such a good antagonist's motivation, MCA decided to use it twice in the course of the DLC.

Anyway, we don't have a 'vilified' rep, so we decide to taunt the man holding our life in his hands instead.

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You're nothing more than a killer that aspires to mass murder.

...not the catchiest putdown, Courier.

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You think I'm a murderer. If I was, I'd have set off your collar long ago. The collar ensures compliance...encourages cooperation. Think about it. Would you truly have gotten into the casino without those collars? No, human nature is against us, always.

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Every time, even with collars clutched at their necks, they would betray each other, kill each other, to get inside the Sierra Madre. It was...insanity. They could have had it all, it was so close. And they kept...turning on each other, again and again.

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Cracking the Sierra Madre was difficult...but cracking greed, that was more difficult. So the dead man's switches went in.

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Now that I'm here, are you coming down?

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No. I am not going to take the chance, while I'm so close...not this close, no. Not again. I can wait...afford to be careful. You...you're locked down there. This is the only entrance, and I have free rein of the Sierra Madre. I have time...more time than you.

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Besides, there might be more traps. I'll send more scouts in...yes, more. You're...resourceful, don't want to leave anything more to chance.

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Unless you come down here, I'll destroy the Vault, everything in it.

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No...I don't think so. It'd most likely trigger other security measures...if you hurt the Vault at all.

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Besides, you wouldn't have followed the signal if you didn't want this place's secrets for your own. You're curious...past the threats.

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(Repair) Forget the Vault. The elevator's only a single control box.

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The elevator. Then you'd be trapped down here, with no hope of escape.

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Throwing a wrench into the works is what I do best.

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Even...even if you damaged the mechanism...there's a chance of repairing it. It might take years...but it's possible.

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Persist in threatening me...or the Sierra Madre's secrets, you're of no use to me. I'll set off your collar now.

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(Science) There's noticeable lag of several seconds for the collar to go off - and a warning.

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Huh...clever. Whoever designed the Sierra Madre, their obsession with messing with frequencies and signals...

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I'm coming down - I'll meet you face to face at the Vault entrance. If you resist, I'll use the collar, even if it puts the Vault at risk.

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Not much time. Elijah wants to see the power of this casino's technology...and I'm going to give it to him.

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Using a copy of Programmer's Digest, the Courier hacks into the vault's turrets.

After a few seconds, we hear Elijah, outside the vault. Alarms begin to sound.

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Alarms...what...you. Think you can run, think you can trick me?

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Is...is this thing on? You hear me down there? Trying to help you out here...disable the speakers, play a little music...

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Dean! You loveable old evil life-ruining scoundrel, you!

Elijah is momentarily distracted. And the Courier turns on the turrets.

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We dash out of the vault just in time to see Elijah collapse in, for some reason, a bright blue explosion.

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Please...please...you can...can take the gold...you can leave here...I'll let you go...

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Oh, the gold? Actually, Elijah, I've thought long and hard and...I don't want the gold. I'd only end up making the action blockbuster Planescape: Torment 2: Back In Action or some shit like that. It wouldn't end well.

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What...what are you talking about...I don't...

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I'm saying I want you to have the gold, Elijah. All of it.

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Please...you don't have to...

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Take your gold, you greedy old son-of-a-bitch. Take all of it, no need to say thank you. Because this is for every developer's decision based on market research. This is for every unasked-for innovation. This is for every piece of marketing bullshit that claims human beings are all too stupid to understand basic maths and that removing core elements isn't dumbing down. This is for every excuse, every lie, every justification for making bad games, bad RPGs, and getting rich off the profits from them.

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I...please, wait...

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And this...this is for me. One big fall.

The Courier kicks Elijah, laden down with the heavy gold bars, off the edge of the walkway; he falls, with one final, agonising shriek, into the seething Cloud, and is lost forever.

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Courier? It's Christine here. What happened to Elijah?

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I let him go.

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...what? You let him go? You bastard, what gives you the right to-

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(Sigh) No, I mean I stuffed his pockets full of gold and threw him off the walkway.

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Wow, that's so cool! And thematically fitting! And you've still got time to get off the level before your bomb collar goes off, don't you?

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Bomb collar? What are you talking about, bomb collar? Elijah's...oh, yeah.

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...shiiiiiii-

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....iiiiiiiiiii-

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Just seconds before the collar goes off, we leap into the lift.

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...it.

Emerging into the coarse, foul air of the Villa, the Courier tears away his collar. His companions are nowhere to be seen; he can only assume they, too, all escaped unharmed.

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Taking one last glance at the casino - fortress, trap, prison and refuge - he pushes the gates aside and stumbles out into the night. Free, once again.

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The survivors of the Sierra Madre thought about gathering at the Fountain and waiting for the Courier. In the end, the collars' silence made them uneasy, and the fear of turning on each other made them hesitate, and leave the goodbyes - unspoken. The radio message at the fountain was enough for them, and there was no need to add another farewell on top of all they had suffered.

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Dog forgot himself, as did the voice that raged within him. After their passing, a new voice spoke within the mutant's shell. It was difficult for the voice to remember the two it once was... there was the beast, Dog consumed by hunger... ...and the other in reverse... the one consumed by control. Both were driven by need for the other. The Courier brought them together, somehow, joined the two into one. All that happened at the Sierra Madre, was a faint memory to the new personality... like a flickering light in the clouds of the mind. The new voice did not think of the Courier again until the battle at the Divide reached his ears. The battle between the two couriers, beneath the torn skies and the Old World flag... each bearing a message for the other. And the mutant prayed the Courier that had saved him... had been saved in return.

If Dog/God died, we'd get a nice little moral to their story - 'hunger and control are twin greeds'. If God took over, he'd head into the Wasteland to tell his story. If Dog took over, he'd roam the wilds, eating Brahmin and humans, an unstoppable beast.

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Dean Domino, entertainer, singer... thief... explored the Sierra Madre not long after he was rescued by the Courier. Once he left the theater, the Sierra Madre recognized him as a guest, and many doors opened to him. He had to admit, it had been built to last. During his search, he came across the final records of Vera and Sinclair, and realized what happened the night the bombs fell. He felt strangely sad for a moment, and he had no idea why. Shrugging it off, his mind turned instead to where the Courier had come from. Vegas still survived, out there in the Mojave. Its sights, sounds... and casinos, ripe for the taking. So giving the Sierra Madre one last nod and a wink, he set off beyond the Cloud to begin again.

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Christine, her mission complete, found new purpose as the Sierra Madre's warden. She watched over it silently - by choice. Over time, the Ghost People came to see her as one of the Holograms. They would watch, silently, as she walked among them. At times, Christine thought of the Courier, who had kept Elijah's hand from her throat. The Courier reminded her of the other courier she had met in the Big Empty, and wondered if the two had found each other at last. She did not think of them again until she heard the legends of the Divide. The Divide, where the two messengers, the two couriers, fought beneath an ancient flag, at the edge of the world.

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You've heard about the Sierra Madre. We all have, the legend, the curses. Some foolishness about it lying in the middle of a City of Dead. A city of ghosts. Buried beneath a blood-red cloud... a bright, shining monument luring treasure hunters to their doom. An illusion that you can begin again, change your fortunes. Finding it, though, that's not the hard part.

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It's letting go.

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It's letting go.

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It's letting go.

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...well, here we are. At the end of a heist, we're no richer other than for a security guard's suit and a few dozen stimpaks.

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Still, Courier...I'm proud of you. You faced up to your greed - the greed of every RPG character, the drive for loot, still more loot, no matter that it would break the game's economy and you'd never be able to spend it all anyway - and you weren't found wanting. You did the right thing. Maybe all the game developers out there will follow your example and not worry so much about maximum profits.

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Ha...yeah, er, yeah, fat chance of that.

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Funny thing, though. You planted 34 gold bars on Elijah, right? Because I thought there were 37 gold bars in the vault.

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Hm? Oh, no. Definitely not. 34. Counted 'em myself.

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...no, look, I'm on the wiki right now and it definitely says 37-

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SO ANYWAY, I was thinking we head to the Big Empty next. Elijah and Christine gave us some interesting leads. Might be some Old World tech up there - and maybe some clues about this other Courier. Come on - no time to lose.

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...why are you walking so slowly? Are you clunking?

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...no.

THE END.

And so ends Dead Money. The best of the DLC? Yeah, I'd say so, though quite a number of reviewers seemed to get alienated by the implementation of the various survival mechanics.

Next stop - multi-headed dicks and Roboscorpions...in Old World Blues.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
I didn't enjoy the narration as much as you did cause I was too busy trying to survive in-game. But meh, when you're reading LP you can take allllll the sweet time, and for that, it made the DLC more enjoyable to go through.

Funny, it was more fun reading it than playing it.
Strange, but true.
 

Comte

Guest
I gotta agree with you Grotsnik I think Dead Money is the best of the 4 DLC's. I did enjoy the survival aspect of the whole thing and I enjoyed the atmosphere of the cheaply made faux Spanish/Mexican villa resort filled with its ghost people.
 

Kz3r0

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
27,013
Great job. :clap:

All these let it go references made me think that maybe MCA is trying to say something to hardcore RPG fans, but maybe is just my imagination.
:mca:
 

grotsnik

Arcane
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
1,671
anus_pounder said:
:salute: :salute: :salute: The best ending out of all the DLCs. I've not tried Lonely road though...

Lonesome Road is...well, it's interesting, though it's probably my least favourite of the DLCs. As I've been hinting at, it's got a lot of MCA's favourite themes and elements: forcing the RPG player to confront the absurdities of the behaviour they exhibit in-game, forcing the player character to confront their own past, an 'antagonist' who speaks in riddles and espouses the author's point of view, the butterfly effect, and the culmination of the big 'wipe the slate clean' Fallout theme he clearly wants to express, both in story terms, and in gameplay terms, with a landscape that's genuinely bleak and apocalyptic.

But the problem is that most of these ideas don't end up working, are too forced, aren't expressed with complete clarity in-game, or end up harming the tone of the adventure (imo). There'll be plenty to talk about, at least, but I'm not sure it can be called 'good' by any objective measure.

Anyway, thanks, y'all.
 

Peter

Arcane
Joined
Jun 11, 2009
Messages
1,544
:salute:

Dead Money seems very interesting indeed.

I can't stress enough how majestic this LP is :thumbsup:
 

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