Review FNV Old World Blues gets reviewed

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Fallout: New Vegas; Obsidian Entertainment

<p><a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-20-fallout-new-vegas-old-world-blues-review" target="_blank">Eurogamer reviews</a> Fallout: New Vegas Old World Blues, rating it 9/10.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fallout used to be funny. Like, properly laugh-out-loud funny. There are certainly moments of levity in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but the endearingly surreal streak of humour that once made the series stand out has been notably absent since Bethesda took it over. So here's the good news: Old World Blues brings funny back.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>It all adds up to the strongest expansion in the relaunched series, across both Fallout 3 and New Vegas. The story alone takes a good six or seven hours to play through, and even then there's still enough juice in the tank to warrant a few more just poking around and finding new things. Best of all, it fleshes out the past and teases about the future, setting the stage for Lonesome Road and the end of the Courier's journey.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a Jools newsitem, so we'll let him have the final word:</p>
<p><em><br /></em></p>
<p><em><span class="postbody">I just finished playing the previous two and I must say the story- and statcheck- driven Dead Money was better than FNV itself, whereas Honest Hearts was shorter and "weaker" but visually excellent, giving the player a break in the midst of the sepia-hued bleakness of the Mohave. <br /> <br />And now this OWB gets released, and apparently it's filled with background info about the Mohave and its inhabitants and stories about what happened and why some big name did this or that. <br /> <br />Shall we trust the puny Eurogamer site, and spend some 7&pound; on this DLC, considering that there also is another one on the way, supposedly the definitive one? Is this DLC really inclining? It'd be enticing to find out firsthand.</span></em></p>

 

[Mister Arkham]

Finished it last night and it's pretty good. The exploration is better than the first two DLC packs, and there's a wide variety of places to go/loot to get/things to kill. The plot is pretty shallow throughout, and so "for the lulz" that when it tries to layer on some complexity at the end it gets a little muddled. There aren't many people to talk to, but there is a lot of dialogue (my first hour and a half with the game was spent chatting with the various members of the members of the Think Tank) and a lot of skill checks. It is funny, I guess; or at least more funny than not. It's a very specific kind of humor though, riffing on old B-grade sci-fi movies, and it can be incredibly juvenile. (it reminds me of nothing more than Larry Blamire's The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and it's sequel) It's a lot more wacky than I like my Fallout, but I've never been one of those people who thought that Fallout was--or was supposed to be--all that funny. There were jokes and gags in the first two, but I don't understand why that makes the games comedies.

On the whole, I'd say it's probably better than Honest Hearts (it does exploration better, there are more ways around combat, and you can work toward a wider array of resolutions in the main plot, though it doesn't look as good), but probably not as good as Dead Money. (it lacks the tone and focus and general tautness that made Dead Money so compelling) I'd recommend it if you like or can take its brand of humor for five to ten hours.

 

[Mister Arkham]

It sets up Lonesome Road via hidden audiologs, though not much more than Dead Money did. No idea what all that "fleshes out the past" is about.

Comprehensive exploration gives you some insight into what exactly happened to the Sierra Madre and how Father Elijah and Christine made their way there. There's also the bits about the Cazadors and Nightstalkers being originally manufactured there, though they didn't go anywhere interesting with that in my opinion. I think that's really it. Nothing earth shattering, but it does build a little bit on how the Mojave came to the state that it's in. I don't really know why the reviewer is making a big deal about it.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

OWB is probably worth the 10 bucks, but those 10 bucks may not be worth the time wasted playing it.

This was the New Vegas equivalent of FO3's Broken Steel: bigger guns and more baddies to shoot at in a high-tech environment that throws away all pretense of a post-apoc survivalist setting and gameplay out the window with some Matt Groening humor sprinkled in: the kids will love it(just read the reviews), and so will new reno fans.

The dialog is well-written as per Obsidian standard, humorous and some of the characters get a couple of downright funny lines, but aside from talking to kitchen appliances about their dysfunctions you'll only get quest/plot relevant dialog during the first and last hour of the dlc(and talking is all you'll be doing during those hours), the story is laughable(intentionally?) and the meat of the dlc is mediocre dungeoneering made worse by an abhorrent amount of barrels/containers(which wouldn't be so bad if they could be ignored without fear of missing out on unique equipment or plot items).

I felt Honest Hearts did the whole exploration/hitch hiking thing much better as well as the loot thing, the new items you got from HH such as the .45 guns, the 12.7 rifle, the factionless ranger combat armor all filled item niches left empty by the main game. The new items offered in OWB manage to look even goofier than the standard energy equipment while serving no real purpose.

The end of Dead Money was also a much better set-piece for the upcoming confrontation in Lonesome Road than OWB is, in fact DM should be played after OWB.

So far I liked HH more than OWB which is about on par with DM, but I'd rather have more of the New Vegas stuff than any dlc released so far.

 

[Drakron]

... but probably not as good as Dead Money.

I have to say they apparently learned from Dead Money, to start the Stealth Suit Mk.II cannot be as easy repaired as the Sierra Madre Police Armor and the same goes with the weapons because there is no Vendor Machines to exploit.

Dead Money attempted to force the player to make due with what was available but due to how easy was to get Chips and how the Vendors were made so the player could never get stuck, we would learn very fast to adapt and then exploit it ... I cannot say I got out of the Sierra Madre with more that I had because, well, we are stripped from gear so that always happens but I come out with a fortune in Pre-War money.

I found OWB tougher because you cannot just leave, for example you can only repair the Stealth Suit Mk.II in 2 ways ... either you use the Sink and pay for its repairs or you use one of the few placed Combat Armors to repair it (unlike in the main game were I just look for a vendor with the cheapest Medium Armor and the wonders of Jury Rigging Perk).

I had a huge reserve of Stimpacks since I rarely used and at least 1/3 of them are gone and that is playing very smart (lets say, StealthBoy + Robotics Expert is easy mode ... as long you have StealthBoys for it), the god damn Stealth Armor was CLEARLY not thought for Hardcore Mode as it keeps wasting my Stimpacks (and even got me addicted to Med-X).

I understand in ways Dead Money story is more powerful because its more personal were OWB is just wacky but that is it, their core idea (surviving by scavenging) was flush down the drain by they having to put a failsafe (the Vending Machines) , I am not saying OWB does not have a few (the AutoDoc is a "fix everything" for free) but still there a lot less that in Dead Money.

 

[DragoFireheart]

I understand in ways Dead Money story is more powerful because its more personal were OWB is just wacky but that is it, their core idea (surviving by scavenging) was flush down the drain by they having to put a failsafe (the Vending Machines) , I am not saying OWB does not have a few (the AutoDoc is a "fix everything" for free) but still there a lot less that in Dead Money.

Dead money was pretty easy in that regard: Vending Machines and the galore of chips made surviving very easy.

 

[Sceptic]

Fallout used to be funny. Like, properly laugh-out-loud funny.

What is it with these people who started playing the series with FO3 and think that it was always meant to be full of stupidity and lulz and-

There are certainly moments of levity in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but the endearingly surreal streak of humour that once made the series stand out has been notably absent since Bethesda took it over.

FO1's most memorable feature is now the laugh-out-loud humor

 

[Gragt]

I'm pretty sure that the majority of people who talk of the serie only discovered it with Fallout 3, itself described as a brilliant re-imagining of the franchise, doing new stuff while at the same time staying rigorously faithful to the original episodes. So yeah. Purge them.

 

[DalekFlay]

What is it with these people who started playing the series with FO3 and think that it was always meant to be full of stupidity and lulz and-

Fallout 2 was pretty hilarious. In fact as I am sure you know there is a raging debate that starts in some circles still to this day about whether Fallout 2 was too funny or too self-referential. I am certain the Eurogamer author was referencing that exact thing. In turn Fallout 3 was rather humorless, and even New Vegas was pretty down-to-earth the vast majority of the time. From what I understand Old World Blues is the first piece of Fallout content since Fallout 2 to really capture that insanity again.

 

[Donaroriak]

What is it with these people who started playing the series with FO3 and think that it was always meant to be full of stupidity and lulz and-

Fallout 2 was pretty hilarious. In fact as I am sure you know there is a raging debate that starts in some circles still to this day about whether Fallout 2 was too funny or too self-referential. I am certain the Eurogamer author was referencing that exact thing. In turn Fallout 3 was rather humorless, and even New Vegas was pretty down-to-earth the vast majority of the time. From what I understand Old World Blues is the first piece of Fallout content since Fallout 2 to really capture that insanity again.

Yeah, the way they changed the Wild Wasteland perk from F3 to FNV proves that there is definitely some self-consciousness about putting too over-the-top, Fallout2-ish weirdness in the main game.

I am happy that Old World Blues can afford to do away with those fears being a self-contained package, although I would have enjoyed some more weirdness "nuggets" scattered around the Mojave.