Fallout New Vegas

Fallout New Vegas

Back on Fallout New Vegas, it's something rather pleasant I must say. I can even say that between two expectations of games "current gen", it is a pleasure that I do not refuse. So I jumped at the chance to remake the extensions of this title, which also have quite variable reputations. As I am one to return to the games years after making them, I was able to enjoy these contents with a certain look, and if the feeling that dominates is the disappointment, it remains that among these four contents Something to say. And we will start with the worst of them: Honest Hearts.

I think, moreover, that this content is rather indefensible. Let's say things like they are: if it had not existed, Fallout New Vegas would probably have done better. This centering on a context reference to Fallout 2 and one of the most enigmatic characters of Fallout New Vegas: the burned man, we could have expected an ambitious content of high quality narrative. Spoil: it is not so.

Honest Hearts is an ugly bitch, a new open world large enough but repetitive to burst, that can not be exotic while its paradisal valley context lends itself to it; the fault of a realization ill, buggy and without any aesthetic research once out of the refreshing idea. If the technical realization was the only problem, we would not make a case of such a severe trial, but the DLC accumulates errors of game design quite scandalous when comes out of a complete game which avoided at best these pitfalls

Invisible walls, vertical design of the open world with all that it can bring as possible inconvenience (it's fun to go around a cliff to retrace one's steps) impromptu appearance of enemies behind us, dungeons without any research or substance, and places without personality. A sum of errors that sabotage the emphasis of this content: exploration, and this failure carries with it the only remarkable potential quality of this extension. And when your main argument to sell you turns out to be a flaw, we can only worry about the rest.

Of course, the story is a disaster to the characters shipped, with Fedex quests as the heart of adventure, and moral dilemma balanced in the end story to say that there are multiple conclusions. Worse than anything: the end is so much shipped that we do not understand when it arrives, and we find ourselves teleported to the exit of the extension with as a reward a locker containing all the armor / weapons of the important characters. The message is clear to me "Forget everything you just saw and BARREZ-VOUS! " Message received: you will have a good time.

Because in addition to these sins, Honest Hearts has only secondary missions Fedex missions of the most infective kind, dialogues shipped and poorly written, digging the original incoherence of the character of the burned man as it appears in this content. And the religious parable goes up in smoke with a development shipped, antagonists that we learn not once to know, which makes it improbable the understanding of the issues. In short, Honest Hearts is shit. Fortunately two-three items are worth it, but throw the rest to oblivion, and prefer him ...

Old World Blues. This is not an extension that I deeply loved. Because it starts with a truly great idea: to make us explore the Great Nothing, a place that has seen far-fetched experiments and debilitating. If the content consists of another open space, the latter is built so as not to be too constraining to explore, despite some poorly constructed dungeons. We move on to really interesting places, new enemies stupid wish, weapons all more inventive, and a central hub filled to the brim of NPCs who could have become cults if they had more time to be developed.

Only the introduction to this content is a long, very long, much too long dialogue with the five "brains" of the think tank. If the dialogues with these are deeply delicious, one comes knocked out of this quasi-hour of dialogue. After the latter, it's difficult to delve into content that ignores the social to focus on exploration and action. Fortunately, if the main story is also shipped (with a final that is worth seeing elsewhere), the side and revelations on the backdrop with the Courrier Six and Elijah father are very much worth that the we undergo the introductory dialogue.

It comes out of this satisfied DLC in terms of content, but I must admit that this cumbersome rail bullshit without any measure seemed a little too diehard. I advise this add-on, but I do not appreciate it enough to say that I did not feel big spikes of weariness, and pushed a few sighs seeing an umpteenth dungeon poorly built to empty.

Which then leads us to unbalanced content, but which I found deeply more interesting. Lonesome Road, or the true conclusion of Fallout New Vegas. A courageous corridor of three to four hours of games, this content (last released in date elsewhere) offers players to meet Ulysses, who has two to three lessons to give you, as well as learn about what the we are and what it is. An initiatory journey that leads to accepting the world of Fallout as it is, and as it will be, brings some questions about the identity and membership of a faction, as well as globally a questioning about the meaning that the struggle can take in a world that is already doomed.

Lonesome Road is interesting because it's all about an apocalyptic context and a condensed narration with three characters (Ulysses, a robot, and your character); there is a fresh dynamic that emerges from this content which, unfortunately, chained grotesque peaks of difficulty and sequences of intense strangling, barely raised by levels overall well-designed, while hiding some pleasant secrets, and especially places original and striking to discover. In terms of rendering a post-apocalyptic world, Lonesome Road poses itself as an expert in the subject, and shows that Oblesidian, if they had had the time, money, and envy, could have offered some aesthetically striking thing.

Two-three bonuses at the end of the adventure allow this content to shine through its narrative generosity, as well as by some truly memorable moments. Recommendation on my part, because we should not leave Fallout New Vegas without this bittersweet bitterness that this content can offer. And it must be said that Ulysses is a Kreia younger and helpless, and it's still cool.

Latest content, and curiously the first out, which I consider a masterpiece a little rusty on the angles, and certainly too extreme to be "nice" to cross. Dead Money is here as a pretty good lesson in writing. If Obsidian has much disappointed about the content they have produced for their game, it must be said that Dead Money is the exception that confirms the rule. If the main character is less involved in this piece of adventure than in Lonesome Road, the extension offers five stars. We start slowly with the discreet Vera who is a character that we learn to discover through descriptions and other messages, and who has two-three interesting things in his profile. We continue with Dean Domino who proves to be as much an infamous son of a bitch as he can be a really touching and profound character; a moderate blow for the latter, because after all I do not like the thieves and ... the son of a bitch.

At the radius of the puffery, one reaches quite high summits with the charismatic and Machiavellian Elijah, who is thus the main antagonist of this DLC, and which is of a hostility to any test. If you have to deal with a forced collaboration with the latter, you have to admit that the more the story goes, and the more you learn to know, respect, and hate this fellow who is twenty strokes ahead of you, desiring more that everything in the world turn the chest of the Sierra Madre. This bastard high level deserves that we interest him and attention, because when the "beep" begins, we know who is at the controls.

Now we come to the two most incredible characters (three?) Of this content. Let's start with my favorite love for the character of Christine; touching, brave, and yet not so clean when you search the character a bit. The mere fact that she is disabled completely changes the relationship we have with her; it naturally builds a special relationship with us in order to achieve a communication that - if you have the right skills - gives you a symbiotic relationship with it. A report that also suffers from the relatively short duration of the adventure (six hours if one exploits all that is possible), but which concludes on a revelation connecting it to another character of the basic story. The simple fact that this link is made changes your emotional relationship to it. It seems that it is Avellone behind Dead Money, and to say that it is very large Avellone.

Now, my biggest emotional charge for this expansion is going to Dog's awesome character. "DOG! Go back to the cage! ", And I will not reveal much about it because, brothel ... if we invest even a little in the construction of this character, we quickly fall in love, and the separation final becomes very hard ... Really very painful.

Moreover, it is generally to that that I recognize a good game well written: when I separate, it makes me feel bad, it makes me the daft as ever. KOTOR II was the most violent and painful separation from my playing experience, and Dead Money reminded me of this separation anxiety. When I knew that I was seeing for the last time the model not very neat and a little angular Christine, I knew that I said goodbye, and that the character had exhausted all that was expected she told me. I was collapsed internally, so I saved and resumed the game to finish the next day without too much back to her.

Dead Money is a complex alchemy of elements and characters that make you feel a pretty impressive number of emotions in just six hours of time. Already, the danger that hangs over the Sierra Madre and its surroundings is not only aesthetic; from a purely mechanical point of view, the Sierra Madre fucks you in a shit from where you have to shoot from start to finish. It is a content that does not offer a breath of fresh air in his anguish, so that we come to understand that only we are dead, which naturally directs us to others. And as these others are well built, have a rich and interesting story, and are emotionally at least as involved as the player, alchemy works from thunder. If we can blame Dead Money for its challenge sometimes pushed to paroxysm, We can not blame him for doing it for free.

All this anguish that turns into hatred against the one who makes you suffer, which is also transformed into affection for those who undergo it with you, is typically the kind of thing that can only work with a firm idea of experience that we want to build. When Obsidian does not let the players get away otherwise than by the desperate fight, it gives Dead Money. A semi-linear experience that gives nothing and takes you all. We come out of content with a potentially huge reward from a material point of view, but the only regret I had when I came out of the Sierra Madre was not being able to take my companions with me. misfortune, because it was with them that I felt the best in Fallout New Vegas ... Because I know that it was thanks to them that I got away with it, and that I built a short but intense relationship with these, and all in six hours.

In short, make Old World Blues for content, Lonesome Road for the true conclusion of Fallout New Vegas, and Dead Money for the rail of intense emotions and challenge.

And as I really like to remember that Avellone is a god, even if he is the biggest fanboy in the galaxy: the only DLC he did not work on in Fallout New Vegas is Honest Hearts. QED. End of the debate. The only guy who has always made me dream and never disappointed, it's him.